Love your neighbor as yourself

This summer, Sammie has served as an intern working with us at our Wichita office. Sammie is a junior at Friends University studying business. Before finishing her internship with us, Sammie shared some thoughts about finding the balance of constantly serving others and taking care of ourselves. 

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”

For most of my life I believed that it was my job to take care of others. I didn’t believe that I was worth being taken care of and that everyone else deserved love and care except me. I had no concept of the fact that I deserved love and care too. I was driven with thoughts that I must love and care for others, completely disregarding myself in the process. After acting on that belief for a whole summer of ministry, I was emotionally, physically, and spiritually exhausted.

Then, I was reminded of one of the greatest commandments, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” I was missing the very important second part, “as yourself.” In the process of loving my neighbors

I had forgotten to love myself. I believed in the love and care of Jesus for everyone except for myself.

My self-worth was so far gone that I believed no one would want to care for me. I believed that I was lower than everyone else around me. Through the last year, I have learned the importance or self-care and spiritual disciplines that go along with that. I still believe my life is one of service, it just looks different now, and it is healthier and sustainable

Turning chaos into calm

When I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer four months ago, I knew my life would be getting a little more hectic in the following months.   I was in the middle of PA school and was set and ready to spend one of my 5 week rotations with Hospitals of Hope in Bolivia.  I felt everything crashing down and I was so scared of how it would affect my future. In the midst of surgeries and dozens of appointments with multiple doctors (GPs, oncologist, surgeon, endocrinology, nuclear medicine and on and on), I knew that I could not let this stop me from life and the great learning opportunities I had in store in Bolivia. I told my doctors that it was more important for me to go than to stay and feel sorry for myself in preparation for my treatment in July. So with their support and tweaking of my treatment plan by my oncologist and endocrinologist, I loaded up a gallon sized bag with all my meds, kissed my husband goodbye, and flew into the unknown.

The first few weeks were a mix of exhaustion and stress as I battled to harness a reasonable medical repertoire in Spanish; spending bursts of time flying through 15-30 physicals in 2-3 hours at schools and orphanages; squeezing into short trufis (taxis), hunched over for an hour to avoid slamming my head on the roof with every little bump; stopping by the lab during lunch to get my blood drawn a few times a week as my calcium and thyroid levels were fluctuating rather abnormally. It was all a bit overwhelming. But then as my place began to solidify and I knew what my day held, it all became rather familiar and comforting. The fright of having to take a trufi into Quiacollo to grab something dissipated. The working through a physical with a 5-year-old boy in Spanish became easier and I needn’t fear that I would miss something from misunderstanding or inability to hear over the yells of his peers in the background. Life there had become regular and routine.

From the beginning I had known that this was meant to be an experience that would change me. My only hope was that I would help some people along the path of my perspective altering journey. But I knew when I arrived that if I wanted to get anything out of this experience; it was my responsibility to search it out.  I had several encounters that made me appreciate my life as it was, cancer and all, but by the end of my time in Cochabamba I realized that it was not one adorable orphan that I spent a day with, or a dying man and his family gathered in a tiny hospital room that made an impact, but all the collective encounters and experiences I had had.  The surprise on a man’s face as I walked along the street, the tallest and whitest person around for miles. The smiles and soft-spoken words of the Quechua mothers as I told them that their son merely had a viral URI and to not worry.  All the people that I only interacted with for a few minutes, but seemed so appreciative of my time and efforts.  I realized that I didn’t want to be some novelty to them; I just wanted to be there in the background, helping them get through colds, rashes, mundane everyday burdens.  I wanted to be just another staple in their life that they could come to for the simplest things.

I would have been proud to have helped someone through much bigger issues, to be a hero. But I was happy to have filled my role as a supporting player, always there in the shadows ready to lend a hand through any difficulties, big or small. Just someone to listen to their troubles and stresses, clean up their scrapes and send them back into the day with a smile. Because when it comes down to it, those are the type of people that have really changed my life for the better.

Jessica is a volunteer who served for five weeks at our hospital in Bolivia. Pleaes pray with us for Jessica during this time and for complete healing from her thyroid cancer.

Monica: Glue & Grace

I met Monica my first month in Bolivia. She was sitting on a blanket in the middle of the Plaza San Sebastian, a park where the roughest of the Cochabamba homeless population live. I brought a sandwich to offer and sat down beside her.

“What’s your name?”
“Monica.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Breanna. Do you live here?”
“Yep.”
“Do you like living here?”
“Sometimes yes, sometimes no.”
“Do you ever want to live somewhere else?”
“Yes.”
“There are homes you could live in.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because of this.”

She waved a bottle of glue that she had been holding up to her nose throughout the conversation. Everyone who lives in the plaza has the same plastic bottle, permanently pressed up to their face. Clefa.(glue) To the world, they are simply drug addicts. They sniff. They stab. They rape. Yes, they act like animals. Because society treats them like animals. Growing to know these people, I understand now that they don’t sniff to get high, they sniff to survive. The clefa numbs hunger, cold, pain. It’s an escape from the reality that is living on the streets. We continued to talk, and after a while, she took her foot out from underneath her and showed it to me. “Doctor, something’s wrong with my toe.” Her big toe was huge, black, and smelled rank.  I took her to see a real doctor and assisted in slicing open and draining her toe on a urine soaked park bench.

Since I first met Monica, I’ve seen her almost every week. Every week, we’d talk, she’d show me her festering foot, and we’d do the same procedure. Slice, drain, bandage. Every week, it was the same. Then one day Monica pulled me over to a secluded tree, and pulled off her shoe. Her toe smelled foul, and looked like it was dying. I told her she would have to go to the hospital or lose her toe. After much debating, she finally agreed.

We hopped in a Trufi to begin the hour-long trip to the hospital, passengers staring unashamedly at Monica as she curled up with her glue held up to her nose.

“Monica, can I have the glue for the afternoon? I’ll give it back when we leave the hospital.”
“No.”
“Can I have it for an hour?”
“No.”
“Can I have it for half an hour?”
“No.”
Okay.

Monica continues to sniff. Five minutes later, she pulls the bottle away from her nose and stares at it. Then, she slides open the Trufi window, and without hesitating, throws it onto the road. Immediately, she looks at me, horrified at what she had just done. I burst out laughing. ”You don’t need it. I’m proud of you.” Although I knew that as soon as we returned to the plaza, she would more than likely find a new bottle, it was a good moment.

I haven’t seen Monica since our excursion to the hospital. I don’t know if that was her last sniff of glue, or if she’s somewhere on the streets now, a new bottle in hand. I don’t know if she took her antibiotics, or traded them in for clefa. I don’t know when I will see her next, or if I ever will.

When that bottle of glue hit the pavement, I could have cried, I was so happy. It’s not physically addictive. Monica doesn’t need it. It’s a crutch. Something she knows might make it feel a little better, soften reality a little. Yes, it’s awful. But when it comes down to it, we all have our crutches. Some might not be as tangible as a bottle of glue, but it’s our human nature to turn to anything but the One who made us, to make us feel safe, secure, happy. Monica will probably struggle with glue for the rest of her life. Her battle is worn on her sleeve, visible for everyone to see. But the rest of us are all fighting something too. Some of us are just better at hiding it.

Although it makes me angry when I see toddlers living on the street because of the decisions their parents have made, I can’t judge anyone in the plaza for relying on glue to get through. That’s not my right. Yes, it’s not fair. But our God’s not fair. If God was fair, nobody would make it into his graces. As flawed humans, a holy, fair God couldn’t be with us. But God is just, and God has grace. And because of this grace, we not only receive the privilege of serving God, but also the right to call Him friend. Servant and friend. It makes no sense. But that's grace.  

Breanna is a volunteer that has been serving in Bolivia since February. She continues to have a great impact on lives and poses a humbling reminder of God's grace in all of our lives.

Young Professionals of Wichita visit Clinic In A Can

Jennifer Collins writes about her time volunteering in Wichita and learning about Clinic In A Can. Jennifer came with a group of volunteers from the organization Young Professionals of Wichita.

I visited Hospitals of Hope with a group of Young Professions of Wichita (YPW) volunteers to learn about their Clinic In A Can program, and see what we could do to help. As the first segment in YPW’s Community Relations “Volunteers in Training” program, I was excited to see our program take action. Community Relations formed “Volunteers in Training” (VIT) to increase YPW’s awareness of volunteer opportunities at local nonprofits in the community.

Hospitals of Hope is well known in the international medical community for its passion for providing basic medical care to countries in need. Their latest initiative is an innovative, self-contained medical clinic, which they’ve branded as “Clinic In A Can”. Clinic In A Can was born as a way to provide medical care in a sanitary hospital environment in the most impoverished countries around the world. The clinic has also served as a disaster response mobilized care unit. I had no idea what to expect of this product, but it only took a few minutes for me to see what all the buzz was about.

After a quick introduction of the nonprofit by Tricia Erickson, Communications and Volunteer Coordinator for Hospitals of Hope, she led us into a large warehouse, where four 40-foot shipping containers, in different stages of renovation, were housed. Looking down the line, at one end sat an old rusty shipping container, as you would imagine an old shipping container that has seen years of use in the elements. At the other end of the line sat a very modern looking renovated structure. We could not believe the transformation an old shipping container could make with just 22 days of renovations. Tricia toured us through the Clinic In A Can, showing us two exam rooms, and a laboratory that looked like the inside of my doctor’s office. We learned that two Clinic In A Cans were built in two weeks and shipped to Haiti following the earthquake in January 2010.

Following our tour, Tricia led us to the second part of the VIT experience – where we do some work! Tricia explained that the Clinic In A Can is outfitted with as many donated medical supplies as possible. And sorting, organizing and inventorying those supplies
is quite a challenge. Tricia showed us tables loaded with miscellaneous medical supplies – some labeled, and some not. We sorted, identified and logged as many supplies as we could on an inventory sheet that would later be loaded into an inventory system. In addition to organizing the medical supply inventory, Tricia explained they have many other areas of need in which YPW’s could fulfill, including the day to day operations of the business, marketing consultation and more.

Thank you to the great group from Young Professionals of Wichita who came out to learn more about our Clinic In A Can program and help us on our mission of providing accessible medical care to all!

Bolivia Update: National Water Balloon Fight

Since the New Year, Bolivia has been waiting for the four days of Carnival that fall before Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent). The beginning of this Bolivian celebration is recognized by water balloons being tossed out of cars, children running down the streets with water guns, women once vending fruits are now vending water weapons, and an annual BBQ at Hospitals of Hope in which I was beginning to partake…when all of a sudden I was head-locked by a paramedic with our ER doctor spraying water over my head, while an intern proceeded to dump a bucket of water down my front, encouraged by the head doctor who poured one down my back. Carnival is related to our (New Orleans) Mardis Gras (literally “Fat Tuesday”) in which the people party and partake in all the “bad behavior” they are suppose to give up for the next 40 days (Lent).

The meaning of Carnival and Lent hadn’t sunk in more than the discomfort of a wet t-shirt…until Shelly and I worked 24 hours in the Hospital Tuesday morning through Wednesday 8am. The first 16 hours of our shift were tranquilo, in which we began dreaming of a full night’s sleep. By 11:30pm we laid our heads down excited for the sweet dreams ahead, only to be awoken at 12:10am to a screaming little boy named Jose, being carried into the ER by his intoxicated father who had been driving. His father left to gather his “woman” and other two sons who had suffered the same accident. With three little boys in tears of pain, nothing inside of me wanted to treat and care for the father of this family.

Before we had found beds for this family, another young man came in with a stab wound in need of surgery and more blood. After a financial conversation among the friends of this youth, we had to turn him away due to our inability to begin treating without sufficient blood. Next, an unresponsive man and his intoxicated family come through our doors hoping we could help. He had a 1-inch deep and 4-inch long gash alongside his left eye, in which we were able to witness over an hour of suturing. As the last string was being tied, another man with blood gushing out of his head comes rushing in, then an hour later leaves without wanting the further/necessary treatment of surgery, or to pay…and so the night continues.

From the first 10 minutes of Lent (Wednesday 12:10am) until the last second of shift-change the next morning, I was overwhelmed with a sense of despair for the broken family relationships, beat-up bodies, and endless pain our world seemed to be suffering that night. Lent had truly begun, and the reality of a world without Jesus had now sunk in.

Bolivia Update: Life at the Plaza

For the last month and a half , the volunteers have been going to the Plaza San Sebastian, a plaza that most people avoid, because it is where the glue sniffers live. Somewhere around 30 people, ranging from early teens to early 30s, I would guess, live in this square in Cochabamba, Bolivia, continuously holding a bottle of glue to their noses, occasionally washing car windows to earn money to buy food and alcohol. The reason that the oldest people there are in their late 20s or early 30s isn't that they manage to escape the life by then; it´s that you don't have a very long lifespan in the plaza.

So, once a week, the volunteers have been going to the plaza to bring food, clean wounds, and try to build relationships with the people living there. I don't make it every week, but I did this last Friday.

There are always fresh wounds to treat when we go to San Sebastian. Most of the people who live there have obvious knife scars on their faces, mostly inflicted by each other. Many of them have horizontal scars covering their forearms, almost certainly self-inflicted. We're pretty sure that two of the girls, in their early teens, are pregnant, and there are some small children, age 2 and under, living with their parents in the square. I can only imagine the kind of brain damage glue does to a fetus.

When we went this last week, a young man limped up to us, assisted by another kid. One of the girls started explaining that he had pus in his leg, and that a doctor had taken it out previously using a syringe. When we rolled up his pants leg we saw that his left thigh was horribly swollen. We kept asking questions, and they told us that he'd been in the public hospital for a month in the infectology ward and that he´d just come back earlier that week. The street kids asked us to take out a syringe and drain the pus, like the doctors had before. I wasn't sure that was a good idea. If they hadn't fixed it after a month in the hospital, it didn't seem like something we could do much about, and I was afraid that doing anything might make it worse, introducing even more infection.

I consulted with Faith and Amanda, the volunteers with the most medical experience, and they agreed with me. Even if we didn't make the infection itself worse, he could still lose his leg or even his life simply by not getting further treatment. What he needed was to go back to the hospital. I knelt by the young man and explained to him that he needed to go to the hospital, that we couldn't fix the problem and might make it worse. ¨No, I don´t want to go to the hospital,¨ he told me, his words slurred by the glue and alcohol.

I tried again to explain, telling him, ¨If you don't go to the hospital, you might lose your leg, and you might even die.¨ He wouldn't go. As we discussed what to do next, he staggered to his feet and hobbled away. When I approached him again later, he immediately started repeating, ¨I won't go to the hospital, I won't go to the hospital.¨ There was nothing more we could do.

Since he wouldn't let us help him, we moved on to other patients. The nurses and interns who came along focused on cleaning wounds, while the rest of the volunteers and I talked with the others. One man approached us and introduced himself as Wilians. I started asking Wilians about his family. He told me that his mother had died in 2004 and that he had 7 younger brothers and sisters living in orphanages. I asked about his father, and he said that his father was a drunk. He started telling me what he believed about God, that God watches over us, and that everything happens for a reason.

I agreed with him, and then, in a moment of courage, I told him, ¨Yes, and God wants something better for you. He doesn't want you to be living in this plaza. He doesn't want you to be sniffing this glue,¨ I said, tapping the bottle he held in his hand. ¨It's damaging your body and your soul.¨ To my surprise, he threw his bottle of glue on the ground.

We kept talking, and I asked him if I could pray for him. I put my hand on his shoulder and we bowed our heads as I asked God to protect Wilians and to help him to leave his life in the plaza, to start to live the life that God had planned for him. When we finished, Wilians asked me to continue to pray for him, and to pray for his brothers and sisters. I promised I would pray for them.

¨You have the same heart as my mother,¨ he told me. ¨You will always be in my heart, like a mother.¨ I promised him I´d come back soon.

I don´t know what Wilians did when I left the plaza. He may have picked the glue bottle back up as soon as my back was turned. Even if he held out longer, I suspect that he didn't last long. But perhaps it was a start. Many of those who live in the plaza are there by choice, preferring to forget reality rather than to face it. I'm praying that Wilians will choose to face reality, in all its ugliness, and begin to make something beautiful.

On a Mission: Why go on a mission trip

It’s February. As I sit here writing this, I can see snow flurries blowing past my window making it seem like summer has quite a ways to go before it gets here. But believe it or not, summer is just four months away. For some of you summer means a break from the dreaded torture called school, for others of you it means a time for a vacation, and yet for others of it may not mean much because you can’t think of what you want to do with your summer.

Well, I have great news for all of you. How about taking a mission trip to Bolivia!
If you have ever thought about going on a mission trip, or said someday you would, or maybe you haven’t even given it much thought, this summer is a great time to do it!

Some really great reasons to go on a mission trip with Hospitals of Hope to Bolivia include

1. You gain a variety of medical experience in a hospital
2. You experience giving medical care in a foreign country
3. You have a part in giving underprivileged children free check ups
4. You get to help heal physical bodies, and also share the Gospel
5. You learn about a different culture
6. You get to put that Spanish to practice!
7. You get to share Christ’s love with the people of Bolivia
8. Your friends and family get to be blessed by partnering with you on this adventure
9. You get to have an awesome summer!
10. You get to take home a life changing experience you will never forget.

I know it may seem crazy to be thinking about summer plans already, but now is a great time to start planning. It will give you time to get your passport and visa paperwork in line, raise support, learn about Bolivia, and time for God to start preparing you to be used by Him. But, I also know that some of you still sure about the whole idea. I get that. That is why next week I am giving you plenty of reason of why not to go on a mission trip as Part 2 of our On a Mission series.

But if you are thinking this is something for you, check out more about our Bolivian missions here!

Bolivia Update: Impacting for Eternity

Our ministry in Bolivia continues to grow! Read this week’s Bolivia update about how our volunteers have made a great impact in the community.

Last week and this week, our Hospitals of Hope volunteers have been doing checkups at a Compassion International Center here in Vinto. They have over 200 kids there. So far, they've been surprisingly healthy.

We also did checkups at "kidwashing" on Saturday. (Kidwashing happens once a week. Poor families bring their kids for a bath and clean clothes in the main square in Cochabamba. Other missionaries bring hot water, clothes, and tents to wash in.) Although we regularly participate in kidwashing, this was the first time we've done checkups there. We would like to keep doing the checkups on a regular basis, because these are some of the poorest of the poor, and they all have issues. We saw kids with parasites, skin infections, and more.

In addition to doing check ups for the children, we are going to the square where the glue sniffers congregate on a weekly basis to provide wound care (as they're always inflicting new injuries on each other), bring food, and try to start building relationships with them. One of them has started to go to church with Shelly and Rachel.

God has also worked in the life of a former intern here at the hospital, who has really been searching over the last several months. He told me the other day that he thinks he's a Christian now. He says he hasn't "signed the papers" yet and been baptized, but he's just about there.

Thank you to our volunteers who are using their talents and abilities to make an impact not only for the community, but for eternity!

Bolivia Update: "Arco iris" God's promise of hope

Read this story from Leta of how she was able to comfort a young girl while Hospitals of Hope Bolivia saved the girl's mother.

As we rode back to the hospital in the ambulance, returning from doing checkups in the community where our paramedics are stationed, I got a call on my cell phone. It was Jose, the paramedic we'd left back at the post, while Pablo drove us home. "We need the ambulance now," he told me. I told Pablo to stop the ambulance, and we all, with the exception of two EMTs who were with us, piled out. The ambulance turned around, sirens blaring, and we took a taxi back to the hospital.

We had barely arrived back at the hospital when we heard the siren announcing the ambulance's return. Soon it appeared, followed by a pickup, its bed full of people. They both pulled up in front of the hospital, and the paramedics and hospital staff started unloading patients. The most severe appeared to be a woman with her arm bandaged, blood covering her clothes.

As hospital staff and volunteers attended patients in the emergency room, I waited outside. A little girl, about six years old, was sitting alone, sobbing, blood stains soaked through her sweater. She only had a few minor scrapes, but her mother was the one with the injured arm.

I sat down next to her and put my arm around her as she sobbed. She pulled up her sleeve to show me her scrapes and told me, "My daddy will fix it. He has band aids!" She told me that their car had overturned, and that her puppy was really scared. She sobbed out her fear when she told me, "My mommy's arm is hurt, and I don't know how to cook!"

We have a children's illustrated Bible story book in the hospital, and I got that out and started to read to her. Listening to the story of the creation and the fall distracted her while we waited. As we read the story of Noah's ark, she pointed to the rainbow -- an "arco iris" in Spanish -- and told me, "My name is Iris -- I'm named for the arco
iris!"

We waited for what seemed like hours, while the doctors worked on stopping her mother's bleeding and re-bandaging her arm. "Don't worry," I told her. "The doctors are doing everything they can to help your mom."

"Will they give her a new ear?" she asked. I hadn't realized it, but her mother also had a head wound.

"We'll see," I said. "They're going to do the best they can."

Finally, the emergency room doors opened, and interns began rolling her mother's gurney toward the operating room. The doctor came out and spoke to the other family members who had arrived, telling them that she needed surgery, but that she would be fine. Iris's aunt came to get her, but before they left, Iris and I prayed together for her mother and for her family.

This morning, I saw the doctor who was on call last night and asked him how the woman was. He said that the surgery had gone well. I asked him about her head injury, and he said that, while the gash was near her ear, her ear itself was fine.

As I walked outside of the hospital doors, Iris greeted me, a big smile on her face, and ran over to give me a hug.

Bolivia Update: Felicidades!

Leta writes us from Bolivia with an update about last month's volunteers, the holidays, and life in Bolivia.

I traveled back to the States for a quick visit to family and friends in November. I came back [to Bolivia] three days before a group of PA students arrived. They wanted to get out of the city and do a bit more rural work, so we took them to the town of Entre Rios, in the Chapare (the jungle region of Cochabamba, where mosquitoes swarm and coca grows). Our driver forgot to tell me before leaving that his bus was in bad repair, so our 4-5 hour trip ended up taking 12 hours, but we got there. We treated around 50 patients in one morning but had to cancel our clinic for the second day, since we knew the return trip would probably take just as long. On the way back, at least, we got to stop at Parque Machia, a refuge for monkeys that had been taken from the forest and raised as pets.

We celebrated Christmas in half-Bolivian, half-American style. We went to my church on Christmas Eve (Noche Buena), where we got roped into taking part in the youth Christmas play. I got to play the part of a girl gathering firewood. Then we stayed up till midnight, like good Bolivians, and ate Christmas Eve dinner with the firemen who live on the hospital compound. We would have shot off fireworks, if it hadn’t been pouring. Christmas morning, we opened the alpaca stockings I bought at la Cancha and filled with various Bolivian foods (passion fruits and quinoa granola bars!), plus a couple of things I brought back from the States that you can’t get here (Hershey’s kisses and apple cider mix!). We all skyped home in the afternoon and relaxed. [Pictured is Leta when she came back for a visit in November and got to meet Isabella Wawrzewski]

In between celebrations, I’ve been filling in for Rudy, the hospital administrator, as he takes his first vacation in 3 years. He can’t ever really go on vacation, so he’s come in about 50% of the days, but at least he’s not at the hospital all the time. So far, I’ve mostly dealt with financial and personnel issues. I will be VERY glad when he’s back for good and I can turn over his key. (Update: Rudy is back from his vacation and Leta is happy to be back to her regular duties)

I got to go to Rudy’s twin daughters’ 2nd birthday party on Friday night, and, on Saturday, his mother-in-law, who also goes to my church, invited me over to learn to cook a Bolivian almuerzo (lunch). We made Sopa de Mani (peanut soup), which I actually already know how to make, but her version was different enough that it was basically a different dish. She has plans to teach me to make Picante de Pollo (spicy chicken), aji de fideo (noodles with chili pepper), and a number of other things. It was fun getting to go over and hang out with their family, which has kind of adopted me in the last few months.

We had a pretty laid-back New Year’s Eve. We had dinner with the paramedics and a former intern (Juan), and then we tried to keep our eyes open till midnight, when we shot off the fireworks that we didn’t get to set off at Christmas. A couple of the volunteers went with the paramedics, in case of accidents, since there are often a lot on New Year’s. They just went out on one call, but it was a bad one. A car went over a cliff in the mountains west of the city and fell about 90 feet. Surprisingly, only one of the passengers died. Two of the others had minor cuts and bruises, and the other had to be carefully lifted out of the car and then pulled up the cliff on a stretcher. She’s in our hospital now and will probably have surgery in the morning, but she should be okay. [Pictured is Leta, far right, with some volunteers from this month]

If you all were here right now, I would air-kiss all of your cheeks and tell you “Felicidades!” in honor of the new year, but, since you’re not, I will content myself with just sending “felicidades” (happiness) in your direction. Prospero año nuevo y muchas bendiciones a todos! (Prosperous new year and many blessings to all!)

2011 Yearly Review

2011 Yearly Review Our end of the year update reflecting on all the exciting events of 2011 is now available.

Click here to read a PDF the 2011 Yearly Review.

Once again, we at Hospitals of Hope have been amazed by the way God has used your generosity to accomplish his purposes.

Thanks to you and others like you, we were able to show Christ’s love by healing bodies and souls around the world. We count on the support of people like you to make it possible for us to save lives and share the hope of Jesus.

With your help, we were able to send out thousands of dollars of life-changing medical supplies and equipment in 2011. People in eight countries around the world felt the effects of your generosity and saw their lives changed for the better.

We are grateful for your support this year and are excited for a new year of opportunities. With your help, 2012 will be a great year of sharing the hope of Jesus, and providing lifesaving medicial care to the world’s most impoverished communities.

Thank you,

Your friends at Hospitals of Hope

The Next Level Christmas

Christmas is just days away! At Hospitals of Hope we’ve gotten into the Christmas spirit thanks to Bob decorating the our tree and others bringing in holiday snacks! Christmas is such an exciting time with all the decorations, the music, the holiday traditions, time with family and so much more. But we would be doing ourselves an injustice if we did not take time to reflect on more that just the surface level excitement of Christmas.

As Christians, we take Christmas to the next level by celebrating the birth of Jesus, the Son of God. The story of Christ’s birth is a testament to God’s power, love, and grace and gives us all a reminder of the hope we have in Christ.

But is that the ultimate end of celebrating Christmas – celebrating Jesus’ birth? I think there is yet another level with Christmas. While Jesus’ birth is reason to reflect and celebrate, his life and time of ministry give us an incredible example for the holiday season.

Jesus spent much of his time on earth healing the sick and caring for the poor and loving those that weren’t loved. When a widow’s son died, he brought him back to life. When ten lepers met Jesus while he was traveling, he healed them all even though only one came back to thank him. He talked to individuals like a tax collector and a prostitute that were considered the outcast of society.

Jesus himself stated why he had come in Luke 4:18 “…he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed.”

James, the brother of Jesus later wrote “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1:27)

Christmas time is fun with all the festivities, traditions, and presents. But what better way to take Christmas to the next level than by following the example he left of caring for those who need it. It is easy to get caught up in the endless gift lists and holiday parties. But we hope that you take time not just to celebrate Jesus's birth, but to be Jesus to those around you and those in need around the world this Christmas season.

We are very grateful for many of you following the example of Christ and helping us with the mission of caring for the sick and bringing hope of Jesus to so many. Thanks to your support and encouragement, Hospitals of Hope has been able to continue in another year of ministry of bringing healing to bodies and souls around the world. Without your financial gifts, prayers, and encouragement we would not be able to have the impact that we have had. We do wish you a Merry Christmas and we hope you are surrounded by the beauty and hope of this Christmas season.

Thank you for an amazing year and we are excited for another great year of bringing Christ’s love and healing around the world.

Medical supply container and Clinic In A Can head to Africa

The first week of December proved to be a busy and exciting week for Hospitals of Hope!
This week we sent a 40 foot shipping container full of medical supplies to Burundi, Africa. We partnered with an organization, Friends of Kibimba Hospital, to send the container.

The container held a wide variety of supplies from basic medical items like needles and bandages, to equipment like an autoclave and patient monitors which were all supplies Hospitals of Hope had collected and were able to redistribute to Burundi.

This was Hospitals of Hope’s third container of medical supplies sent with Friends of Kibimba to Burundi.

Volunteers with the organization spent many hours over the hot summer organizing and packing the container. The container is set to arrive in February and a team from the organization leaves February 15 to meet it in Burundi.

Hospitals of Hope is thrilled to have had another opportunity to partner with Friends of Kibimba by sending much needed medical supplies and help bring healing to bodies and souls in that community.

Also this week, we received word that the three-unit Clinic In A Can that we built in June is on the next leg of its journey to South Sudan. When we finished building the container clinic, we sent it to Omaha, Neb. where it was on display at the Methodist Women's Hospital. The Clinic In A Can could not be sent immediately to South Sudan because of the raining season there.

Hospitals of Hope’s Clinic In A Can ministry worked with Covenant Presbyterian Church and the Healing Kadi Foundation in Omaha, Neb. to send the container clinic to Kajo Keji, South Sudan.

This portable hospital is constructed in three forty-foot shipping containers and will be set up in a “U” shape. This small hospital contains exam rooms, a laboratory, a pharmacy, and surgical and radiology suites. It also holds a generator and water system, enabling it to be self-sufficient regardless of the surrounding infrastructure.

The Healing Kadi Foundation eventually plans to construct a larger hospital, but that will take several more years. In the meantime, the Clinic In A Can will provide much-needed medical care to the more than 450,000 refugees living in Kajo Keji.

This container clinic was our tenth clinic and we have since constructed three more. You can read more about this Clinic In A Can here.

November News

What's new in November?

In case you missed any of this month's news, get caught up with the monthly update. If you would like to receive the monthly email newsletter you can sign up on our website www.hospitalsofhope.org on the tab to the right that says "E-Mail Updates"

We trust everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed time with friends and family. The month of November was yet another eventful month as we are finishing projects for the end of the year and looking forward to the new year! We had our 30 Days of Thanks during the month of November. Each day we took time to express thankfulness for different people, ministries, opportunities, and much more that has had an impact on Hospitals of Hope.

This is a word picture of some of the different things we were thankful for during the month of November.

Baby Isabella arrives!

The most exciting news of the month is the newest addition to the Hospitals of Hope family. We are pleased to announce the birth of Isabella Maria Wawrzewski on Sunday, November 20 to founder Mike and his wife Elizabeth. Isabella weighed 7 lb. 7 oz. Mike reports that mom and baby are healthy and are doing well. We congratulate Mike and Elizabeth, and we are excited for this new member to the Hospitals of Hope family!

HOH travels to Missions Health Conference

Earlier this month, Hospitals of Hope’s Daniel White traveled to Louisville, Kentucky to attend the Global Missions Health Conference. The conference, in its 15th year, is one of the largest medical mission’s conferences in the world with over 2,500 attendees.

The conference is designed to bring medical professionals, those interested in medical missions and many others together to discuss and learn about a wide range of topics including disaster relief, holistic community development, sustainability and empowering indigenous people, clinical health and disease, and much more.

Daniel represented the Hospitals of Hope and Clinic In A Can booth and had opportunities to speak with individuals and organizations about our ministries.

Leaving an eternal impact

Every so often, stories from around the world get back to us of people coming closer to Jesus. It's those stories that remind us why we are a part of Hospitals of Hope and encourage us continue sharing Christ's love. A couple of stories recently came from Bolivia where Leta is teaching English classes at the hospital. She has had several opportunities to touch lives through this ministry. She shares:

I’ve been struck over the last couple of months by how easy it is to share my faith here. Although evangelism is not my gift, just the fact that I am here causes people to ask questions.

The interns who come to do rotations at the hospital are especially curious. We’re reading excerpts from The Purpose-Driven Life in English class, and, on Friday, one of the interns asked me, “What is the purpose of your life?”

Another of the interns, who just completed his 4-month rotation here, is hungry to learn. He has been coming to church with us the last couple of weeks, and, although he is off to work at another hospital now, he has promised to come back to visit. In a note he wrote me before leaving, he said, “I have spent a wonderful 4 months here. I have learned about medicine, and about God and his love.” He doesn’t call himself a Christian yet, but we are praying that God will continue to pursue him as he leaves here.

Thank you for your continued support and encouragement. Without your help, we would not be able to have such great opportunities to share Jesus Christ around the world. Thank you.

A Thanksgiving lesson from Bolivia

Being a nonprofit ministry, Thanksgiving has an even more special meaning than it does for most. For us, Thanksgiving is not just a time of being around family, eating lots of food, or a time of rest, but it’s a humbling time of being reminded how blessed we are.

All month we have been doing 30 Days of Thanks where we reflect on what we at Hospitals of Hope are grateful for. The more we got into it, the more we were reminded that this ministry just isn’t a job, but an opportunity for us and all you who support us to touch lives.

There are two recent stories from Bolivia that beautifully display so many things that Hospitals of Hope is thankful for this Thanksgiving season. Earlier in the summer, a little girl admitted to our hospital in Bolivia after a traffic accident. She was in a car driven by one of her teachers, along with several other students. Unfortunately, the teacher lost control of the car, and it went over a cliff. Most of the students were admitted to our hospital with relatively minor injuries. Lucia, however, was injured more severely and had to stay at the hospital for over 2 weeks, receiving 2 surgeries.

Hospitals of Hope aims to provide affordable care while still being sustainable. Lucia comes from a very poor family and did not have the financial means to pay the unexpected expense. In this case, our hospital administrator went through her bill line by line and removed every fee that he could, but there were still direct costs to the hospital for her care, for things like medications, anesthesia, etc. The remaining amount was over $1000, which her family did not have. We had some volunteers who had raised money over what was needed to cover their trip donate to help pay the bill.

Another story comes not from a patient at the hospital, but from those who work at the hospital. Leta teaches English classes at the hospital. She has had several opportunities to touch lives through this ministry. She shares:

I’ve been struck over the last couple of months by how easy it is to share my faith here. Although evangelism is not my gift, just the fact that I am here causes people to ask questions.

The interns who come to do rotations at the hospital are especially curious. We’re reading excerpts from The Purpose-Driven Life in English class, and, on Friday, one of the interns asked me, “What is the purpose of your life?”

Another of the interns, who just completed his 4-month rotation here, is hungry to learn. He has been coming to church with us the last couple of weeks, and, although he is off to work at another hospital now, he has promised to come back to visit. In a note he wrote me before leaving, he said, “I have spent a wonderful 4 months here. I have learned about medicine, and about God and his love.” He doesn’t call himself a Christian yet, but we are praying that God will continue to pursue him as he leaves here.

These two stories show us why we are so grateful this Thanksgiving season. First we are thankful to God for salvation and a hope that we can share. We are grateful for our founder Mike and his passion to see life change through the power of Christ’s love. We quickly realize, however, that we can’t just do this ministry on our own. With out the support of individuals, churches, family, friends and so many more, we would not have the financial means or encouragement to continue improve healthcare around the world while sharing the Gospel. Both the story of Lucia and the medical interns is a reminder of how grateful we are that we’ve had the opportunity to saves lives and share the saving news of Jesus Christ.

Thank you to all our friends and family for your continued support and helping us in another year of ministry. This Thanksgiving, we are humble and grateful for all everything God has blessed us with.

Baby Isabella Wawrzewski arrives!

We are pleased to announce the birth of Isabella Wawrzewski on Sunday, November 20 to Hospitals of Hope founder Mike and his wife Elizabeth. Isabella weighed 7 lb. 7 oz. Mike reports that mom and baby are healthy and are doing well. We congratulate Mike and Elizabeth, and we are excited for this new addition to the Hospitals of Hope family!

ELWA Building Destroyed by Fire

Last week, our partner hospital in Liberia, ELWA (Eternal Love Winning Africa) reported that one its buildings caught fire and burned down. The building containing the radio station was destroyed by fire late last week. The cause of the fire is yet to be established. ELWA is still able to broadcast its radio station from a satellite site.

“[Praise the Lord] that we are still broadcasting the gospel which we trust will give some hope and courage to our many listeners and sympathizers during this crucial period,” said one of the ELWA administrators.

More discouraging news come from Liberia as the presidential elections took a violent turn last week. This update comes from our missionary friends in Liberia:

Today was a rough day in Liberia. Our runoff election is scheduled for tomorrow but one of the political parties is asking all of their supporters to boycott the elections. They had a protest today and began to march into town. Things became heated when the Liberian police backed by the UN tried to stop them and several people were killed. We had some of our missionaries in town and they had a bit of a harrowing time getting home. Everyone is safe and we are now restricting our movements. Please be praying for peace and righteousness to prevail.

Hospitals of Hope has had a presence in Liberia, Africa since for several years now.

In our first two years of working in Liberia, we primarily focused on JFK Medical Center in Monrovia, Liberia, the main government hospital in this country of 3.5 million people. When we began work there, JFK was in need of basic equipment, but Hospitals of Hope has donated $1.1 million of medical equipment to JFK, greatly increasing its capacity to effectively treat patients.

Since then, we have shifted our focus to ELWA (Eternal Love Winning Africa), a well-respected and established ministry, which has been at work in Liberia since the 1950s and began as a ministry of SIM (then Sudan Interior Mission).
Although ELWA offers quality care and has great plans for the future, the hospital is in dire need. With only 1 doctor for every 28,000 people in Liberia, ELWA is swamped with patients, and their limited resources are stretched thin. In summer 2010 we sent a volunteer team to work at ELWA, and, in early 2011, we partnered with the Brother's Brother Foundation to send necessary equipment to the hospital.

Join with us as we pray for both ELWA as they recover from this fire and for peace in Liberia through the remainder of the elections.

Update from 11/16/11

It was announced this week that President Sirleaf was re-elected as Liberia's president. Below is a congratulatory statement from the United States that also describes last week's election protest.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

STATEMENT BY SECRETARY CLINTON

On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I want to congratulate the Liberian people for exercising their right to vote in last week's presidential and legislative elections. These historic elections are important milestones on Liberia's path toward democratic reconciliation. The United States congratulates President Sirleaf on her re-election and we will continue to work with her and all elected officials to advance democracy, and promote peace and prosperity.

The United States commends the National Elections Commission for conducting free, fair, and transparent elections. We applaud the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union and others for sending observers to monitor the elections, as well as the UN Mission in Liberia for promoting security during the electoral process.

The violence on November 7th marred this otherwise peaceful process, so we welcome the creation of a Special Independent Commission of Inquiry to investigate the incident. We are also deeply disappointed by the Congress for Democratic Change’s decision to boycott the run-off election in an attempt to delegitimize the election. We urge all political parties to respect the election results and resolve their differences peacefully.

The United States is a long standing friend of the Liberian people and we are committed to their future. Congratulations on this momentous occasion.

The World Race: Blessings in Bolivia

This month we had a team that was participating World Race work with Hospitals of Hope in Bolivia. The World Race takes teams to 11 countries in 11 months to serve in ministries located in each country. The following post is from Amanda who was part of the team who served with us in Bolivia. Check back for more post from other World Racers describing life in Bolivia.

Never did I ever think I would live at a hospital, but Bolivia proved to be a month of firsts. My team was partnered with an American organization called Hospitals of Hope which runs a Hospital in the Bolivian countryside just outside of Cochabamba.

From the second we arrived we knew God had beyond blessed us. The house we lived in behind the hospital was enormous and beautiful, and our contact for the month, Leta, was American and spoke English! This was huge for us, after struggling with elementary amounts of Spanish and contacts that spoke no English for two months our brains were ready for a rest.

Our first night in the house Leta told us the hospital was going to be in a parade for the festival the next morning and they wanted us to be in it too - wearing scrubs. So that night we went through the hall closet filled with scrubs and each picked out the scrubs that fit us best. They didn't typically match, but that was ok. At the parade, the ambulance went first, followed by the med-students/interns and then us, a rainbow blob of white faces with no idea what to do. So we marched on, and when we finished marching we piled into the ambulance and drove back to the hospital.

The hospital itself is made up of two sections, Emergencias, and general medicine. Doctors take appointments every morning from 8 A.M. to noon in specialties such a pediatrics, internal medicine and cardiology. In the US these same doctors would typically work in their own office, in a building far away from a hospital, but in Bolivia, everything is different, and doctors only work half days.

On of my ministries for the month was working at the hospitals' coffee shop, Xelda, serving coffee to the patients as they waited in the waiting room …. Tea or drip coffee was free and occasionally patients would take advantage of it but we also made drinks such as lattes and cappuccinos, often for the doctors or interns, so many mornings I was able to have good, although choppy conversations with the interns and I found that my ministry was really on both sides of the spectrum, both patients and doctors.

My most interesting moment in the hospital however happened when I became the patient. We were conveniently at the hospital all month, so I figured it was the perfect opportunity to get more medication for my hyperthyroidism. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Leta came to the appointment with me because, well, she is fluent in Spanish and I am not. From the second we walked into the room I knew it was going to be an interesting experience, why? Because of the six med students staring at me. We sat down and Dr. Oquendo, the internal medicine doctor, asked me some questions, then he asked me to get up on the examination table. The sea of med students had to part to let me through. He asked me to lie down and I soon figured out I was the teaching subject. Three med students held my right arm, another was listening to my heart, yet another was taking my blood pressure and the last one was poking at my stomach and the whole time the doctor lectured them on the differences between hyper and hypo thyroidism. It was the most awkward five minutes of my life. Even more awkward because these were people I would see and interact with on a daily basis.

But as awkward as some of the moments were at the hospital, I really enjoyed my time there. I loved riding in the ambulance, walking the long, white, hallway between the waiting room and the ER, and how the ER doctors and nurses all jumped in anticipation every time we would open the door late at night to go in the hospital and use the internet.

Hospitals of Hope is the first ministry I've worked with on the World Race that I could really see myself going back and partnering with again, in fact I plan to, but you know how plans go... there's still 8 months left in the race, so I guess I'll see what God has in store.

From the Founder

Hospitals of Hope founder Michael Wawrzewski writes about the many changes happening at HOH. You can read about all the latest news that Michael mentions and more in our fall newsletter (PDF).

After thirteen years of ministry, many things are changing around Hospitals of Hope. Personally, we will be adding another member to the Hospitals of Hope family this November as Elizabeth and I are expecting our first child, a little girl. With all our international traveling and Elizabeth’s dental school, we did not think it wise to add to our family before, but now all seems right….ready or not here she comes.

Here in Wichita, we have also implemented many changes. The warehouse, which has always been packed with medical supplies, is now almost completely empty. Bolivia and many African countries have instituted new laws that prohibit the importation of expired medical supplies, which is what we generally receive in donation. With this in mind, over the past five months we redistributed our supplies and equipment to our partnering organizations. Now the space once used to house donated supplies is a production area for Clinic In A Cans. Over the past year, we have built nine container clinics that have been shipped to Haiti and Africa and we continue to build more. We believe this to be a very economical method to replicate our ministry providing a completely contained, cost effective medical clinic to areas of the world in great need.

Elizabeth and I just returned from Bolivia in September after being absent for seven months. I must admit that I am impressed at the growth and organization of the hospital led by Rudy Guzman, our hospital administrator. Leta Reppert is now in charge of the guesthouse and volunteers serving at the hospital and she is doing a great job integrating the volunteers at the hospital. Another great addition and change was converting one corner of the patient waiting area at the hospital into Xelda’s Café. We have created a very warm and inviting environment. As patients wait to be attended at our hospital, volunteers serve free drip coffee, tea and cookies. Patients feel more comfortable sitting at one of the small coffee tables than a hospital waiting area. These patients more readily reveal personal problems, health concerns and family matters to our staff who take the opportunity to listen and pray with them.

We are very excited about all the changes taking place and the new opportunities to minister around the world!

Thank you as always, for your support.

Michael Joseph Wawrzewski III

Bolivia Update: Growing in Opportunities

Leta updates us from Bolivia about volunteers doing the World Race and about news from the hospital.

The volunteers we have right now are with the World Race, which means that they’re traveling around to 11 different countries in 11 months, volunteering in each country. Since they’re not medical, like most of our volunteers, I’m having them help out at a variety of different organizations. Several of them are helping out at a school for deaf kids, a few of them are painting the school down the road from the hospital, several are helping at orphanages, and a couple are working at an organization that provides support for kids who work (selling things, shining shoes, etc).

With help from them, Shelly, and Rachel (two nurses who are here long-term), I’ve been teaching an English class in the hospital for staff and interns. It’s been a lot of fun. I’ve always loved teaching but hated grading, and, in this class, I get to teach but not grade anything! It’s a lot of fun seeing them being able to start fitting sentences together and starting to understand the way a new language works.

Shelly and Leta in Bolivia

After going back home for a couple of weeks, Shelly is back here, working again as a surgical nurse. She and Rachel are also training to be intensive care nurses. Since we live right behind the hospital, they will be able to go to the hospital with just a couple of minutes notice. Most of the nurses here who are able to do intensive care live 30 minutes to an hour away from the hospital, so having Shelly and Rachel able to just show up and start work will be a huge help.

We have a volunteer coming in a couple of weeks who is studying for her Masters in Public Health. I’m really excited about the work she’ll be doing here – she is going to be working on developing materials so that future volunteers can give more presentations on basic health topics. It’s always sad to me to see how many people are sick with things that could have been easily prevented, or to see kids with their teeth rotting out because they don’t know how important it is to brush their teeth.

Thanks to all of you who are praying us!