Letters from Barbara Nagy
Subscribe to Barbara Nagy's letters
For older letters, contact Mission Connections
The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 156
Barbara Nagy
Mission worker in Malawi since 2004
Serving at Nkhoma Hospital at the invitation of the
Church of Central Africa Presbyterian/Nkhoma Synod
Give to Barbara's MinistryVideo: Call to Mission in MalawiDownload Barbara's prayer card
Contact: Barbara Nagy (barbara.nagy@pcusa.org)
Barbara will next be in the US in the summer of 2016. Email her to extend an invitation to visit your congregation or organization.
About Barbara Nagy's ministry
The main focus of Dr. Barbara Nagy’s work is helping Nkhoma Synod’s Health Department utilize village health workers to expand its outreach. The goal is to provide access to vaccinations, prenatal care, HIV testing, and preventive health education to everyone within the synod’s service area. Barbara also directs children’s health services at Nkhoma Hospital and works with health centers and community health teams, developing procedures aimed at maximizing their effectiveness. Her role involves teaching Malawian and expatriate medical and nursing students, physicians, and other cadres of medical professionals. Nkhoma Synod is part of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian, which has three synods in Malawi and one synod in both Zimbabwe and Zambia. It is the largest Protestant denomination in Malawi.
Country context
Located in southeast Africa, Malawi is land-locked and one of the most densely populated nations in sub-Saharan Africa. English and Chichewa are its official languages. Christianity is the dominant religion (55 percent are Protestant and 20 percent are Catholic), but 20 percent are Muslim and 3 percent practice indigenous religions. A mostly agricultural country, Malawi’s main industries include tobacco, tea and sugar. Poverty is pervasive, and some 73 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Most Malawians are subsistence farmers, but consistent droughts and floods hamper their ability to produce adequate food supplies. In addition difficulty with agricultural production, Malawi is challenged by poor access to education, endemic malaria, malnutrition, extremely high maternal mortality, and the spread of HIV/AIDS.
About Barbara Nagy
Dr. Barbara Nagy has an impressive list of credentials that equip her well for the guiding priority of her life: fulfilling God’s call to mission service.
She’s been practicing medicine for more than 30 years in settings ranging from Native American reservations in the western United States and rural hospitals in southern Appalachia to mission hospitals in sub Saharan Africa. She is board certified in two specialties, internal medicine and pediatrics. Recently, she added a master’s degree in public health to her list of qualifications to enable her to help the church effectively address many of the preventable causes of sickness and child mortality.
“After becoming a Christian as a young teenager, I began to feel God calling me to international mission service,” she says. “I prayed about this for several years, during which I was blessed to meet missionaries from throughout the world that encouraged and mentored me, confirming that calling. I was thrilled to be accepted for service as a missionary physician years later and to feel God’s hand on my life throughout long years of training.”
Barbara has served at Nkhoma Hospital in Malawi since 2004. For most of her time there, she has supervised a busy children’s ward and taught all levels of health care practitioners. She continues her affiliation with the hospital and teaching duties, but in 2014 she began a focus on public health. She is helping to further extend preventive medicine and basic health education to the communities the hospital serves.
Barbara and her Malawian colleagues hope their outreach will help people avoid preventable illnesses that require hospitalization and that too often lead to premature death. Barbara pursued graduate training in public health at Emory University in Atlanta to prepare for this role.
As she and her team engage in public health services, their credibility is enhanced by Nkhoma Hospital’s outstanding reputation. It stands firm as a witness to the goodness of the gospel, a place where people receive a kind welcome and experience Christ’s love. It’s an institution whose mission is evident through words, deeds, and prayers. “As I see the health work of the hospital reaching out further into the community and changing peoples’ lives both physically and spiritually, it is thrilling to see the joy people have as they see the possibility of growth and success for their families and communities,” Barbara says.
In her work, Barbara says she is inspired by Micah 6:8, which says, “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
“I love this scripture because it is evidence of a practical faith,” she says. “These attitudes on my part will open people’s hearts and minds to the good news of Jesus’ love for them.”
Barbara received her medical degree from Emory University and a bachelor’s degree from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She also has a degree in tropical medicine from the Prince Leopold School of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.
Prior to going to Malawi, Barbara worked in family practice in Glen Alpine, North Carolina, and at Cannon Memorial Hospital in Banner Elk, North Carolina, from 1995 to 2003. She served in Tuba City, Arizona, and Rosebud, South Dakota, from 1986 to 1989 as a physician with the Indian Health Service. Her first mission appointment was in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Zaire) from 1989 to 1983. Barbara is a member of First Presbyterian Church, Morganton, North Carolina, and has three daughters, Melia, Anna, and Happiness.
Birthdays:
Barbara - June 21
Melia - May 3
Anna - July 28
Happiness - March 10
