A New Healthcare Initiative

Cedarville Grad Brings Compassion to Healthcare in Eswatini

Cedarville, Ohio, Nov. 05, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- When Rachel Parks arrives at a family's home in Eswatini, children who rarely receive visitors greet her with smiles. For many families who are raising children with disabilities, those visits bring more than medical care — they bring friendship, encouragement and hope.

In a culture where disabilities are often viewed as a manifestation of God's judgment, children with disabilities are frequently isolated from their communities. In April 2025, Parksm originally from Mount Vernon, Ohio, founded the Palm Grove Health and Wellness Initiative to share the love of Christ through home visits to children with disabilities and their families. As a graduate of Cedarville's Master of Science in Nursing program, Parks said her education prepared her to care for patients holistically by equipping her to meet their physical, emotional and spiritual needs.

“Disabilities are seen with such a stigma, so living with one can be isolating and lonely,” said Parks. “We want these kids to realize that they are not alone and that there are others who understand what they are facing and want to support them.”

Through the Palm Grove Health and Wellness Initiative, Parks and her team provide medical care, occupational therapy, counseling and prayer for more than 60 children. They also connect parents to support groups, fostering community with others raising children with disabilities.

The Palm Grove Health and Wellness Initiative also invests in economic development. Because children with disabilities do not attend school in Eswatini, at least one parent is required to remain home as a caregiver. By teaching parents skills they can use to work from home, Parks and her team help families become self-sufficient.

Parks’ journey toward medical missions began years earlier after she witnessed the challenges facing lower-income families in Cleveland, Ohio, while serving on a missions trip. Along with volunteers from her church, she helped with HeavenTrain Ministries' after-school program by putting on puppet shows, leading games and crafts and preparing what would be the only meal some of the kids would eat that day.

The experience left Parks heartbroken while inspiring a new dream of opening a mobile clinic for families experiencing poverty.

That dream led Parks to study nursing at Mount Vernon Nazarene University, where she participated in a two-week missions trip serving in Eswatini with the Luke Commission. Although she had never traveled internationally, Parks said that God used the trip to affirm her call to nursing and missions and plant a desire to return to Africa.

“Even amidst the discomfort and uncertainty that came with being overseas for the first time in an unfamiliar environment, I felt so much peace and saw God moving,” said Parks. “I realized that He was using the Luke Commission to do exactly what I had envisioned doing in the United States.”

After receiving her undergraduate degree, Parks worked as a pediatric nurse at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, for a year before pursuing a master's degree. Alongside her master’s program at Cedarville, she completed a certificate in global public health.

Throughout the program, Parks said her calling was reaffirmed during two short-term missions trips to Uganda. Through a school project, she also met a doctor who connected her with the Kudvumisa Foundation, a missions organization she served with from January 2024 to April 2025.

As the ministry expands, Parks said she hopes to see communities flourish through Christ-centered, holistic health for generations to come.

Cedarville University, an evangelical Christian institution in southwest Ohio, offers undergraduate and graduate residential and online programs across arts, sciences and professional fields. With 7,265 students, it is among Ohio's largest private universities and is ranked among the nation’s top five evangelical universities in the Wall Street Journal’s 2026 Best Colleges in the U.S. Cedarville is also known for its vibrant Christian community, challenging academics and high graduation and retention rates. Learn more at cedarville.edu.

Attachments

• A HEART FOR SERVICE
• THE CARING TEAM

Mark D. Weinstein
Cedarville University
937-532-6885 (m)
mweinstein@cedarville.edu