Rachel Parks, a graduate of Cedarville University, founded the Palm Grove Health and Wellness Initiative in Eswatini in April 2025 to support children with disabilities and their families.
The initiative provides home visits, delivering medical care, therapy, and economic support to more than 60 children.
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In Eswatini, children with disabilities are frequently isolated because local culture often interprets physical and developmental disabilities as a manifestation of divine judgment.
Because children with disabilities do not attend school in the country, at least one parent must remain home as a caregiver. In response, Parks and her team offer medical care, occupational therapy, counseling, prayer, and parent support groups, while teaching caregivers skills to work from home and achieve economic self-sufficiency.
Rachel Parks, a native of Mount Vernon, Ohio, began her path toward medical missions while serving on a volunteer trip in Cleveland, Ohio.
During the trip, she assisted HeavenTrain Ministries’ after-school program by leading games and crafts, putting on puppet shows and preparing meals for lower-income children. The experience inspired her dream of operating a mobile medical clinic for families experiencing poverty.
While studying nursing at Mount Vernon Nazarene University, Parks participated in a two-week mission trip to Eswatini with the Luke Commission. The trip was her first international travel experience.
“Even amid 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,” Parks said.
“I realized that He was using the Luke Commission to do exactly what I had envisioned doing in the United States.”
After earning her undergraduate degree, Parks worked as a pediatric nurse at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, for one year.
She later enrolled at Cedarville University, earning a Master of Science in Nursing alongside a certificate in global public health.
Parks said her education equipped her to care for patients holistically by meeting their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.
During her graduate studies, Parks reaffirmed her career focus during two short-term mission trips to Uganda. An academic project connected her with a physician who introduced her to the Kudvumisa Foundation, a Christian missions organization where she served from January 2024 to April 2025.
Parks launched the Palm Grove Health and Wellness Initiative to address the social isolation surrounding disability in Eswatini. “Disabilities are seen with such a stigma, so living with one can be isolating and lonely,” Parks said. “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.”
As the ministry expands, Parks said she hopes to see communities flourish through Christ-centered, holistic health for generations to come.
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