Baptist Nursing Fellowship seeks to empower, educate & encourage healthcare professionals

Serving Christ by serving others

That lifelong commitment to serving Christ by serving others is evident in the lives of nurses who have been involved in BNF over the years. From BNF founding president Dr. Ellen Tabor and charter member Melba Wilkerson to current president Debby Akerman and president-elect Deborah Bolian, leaders and participants have maintained a clear focus on making a missions impact for the gospel.

Dr. Tabor, who passed away in 2019 at age 90, was actively involved in BNF throughout its history. In an interview during BNF’s 35^th anniversary in 2018, she said her initial dream for BNF, “which we have kept the whole time, was that we would invite nurses who have a calling from God to use their nursing skills to advance His work whether in America or on the mission field.”

For Melba Wilkerson, the opportunities to participate in mission trips and serve alongside fellow Christian nurses are key benefits of her BNF involvement over the years.

“When you go on a mission trip, you can’t ever be the same again because you see different cultures and meet different people,” she noted. “I’ve got friends from everywhere and I consider that a blessing that BNF has given me.”

Wilkerson recently was honored as one of the inaugural Nightingale members of BNF, a designation honoring BNF members who are age 80 or older and have been involved in the organization at least 15 years.

Affirming that “I think God has something great in our future,” Wilkerson said, “I just pray that as we do move forward that we’ll allow God to direct us and show us what we need to do to continue to have this mission. I think that nurses do need to understand that it’s a calling.”

Missions at the heart of BNF

For BNF President Debby Akerman, missions is at the heart of the organization. As she and other BNF leaders met and strategized together, she said they agreed that “BNF would become the missions organization for nurses and allied medical caregivers.” Her goal, she added, is that “when people think BNF, they think missions.”

Akerman noted that BNF membership ranges from current and retired nurses and medical missionaries to allied medical professionals, student members and honorary members.

Looking to the future, she said one of her goals “is to see every Baptist college and university contacted and say, ‘If you want student nurses to be involved in missions, we’ve got an answer for you.’”

In addition to recruiting Christian nurses, she said physical therapists, pharmacists, emergency medical technicians and other healthcare workers are welcome to join BNF and share their expertise with the group.

“In all the medical teams I’ve ever been on, there’s always been someone who said, ‘I just don’t know what I’ll be able to do,’” she said, “and there’s something that comes along that only they can do.

“We’re going to be truly a missional nursing organization,” Akerman emphasized. “We need to make sure that our membership is discipled in missions as well. It will not be just, ‘Here’s a missions opportunity. Let’s go do it.’ It will be, ‘Let’s understand this and come alongside our missionaries so that we meet their needs and the needs of the people.’”

Seeking to maintain BNF’s ministry focus even amid social distancing, recent events have included an online continuing education event about telemedicine and the group’s first online virtual prayer meeting.

While the pandemic has impacted travel and missions opportunities, Akerman said she is encouraging members to “identify the places you will go so that when this is done, you’re ready. You have put the teams together in your heart and in your mind and they’re ready to go.”