Alert: Samaritan's Purse is rushing life-saving relief, including an Emergency Field Hospital, to Myanmar after a deadly earthquake.
Franklin Graham Update | February
Franklin Graham Update | April
State-of-the-Heart
Care in Africa
Dear Friend,
I recently visited Tenwek Hospital in Kenya and met patients and staff at their brand-new cardiothoracic center built largely by Samaritan's Purse.
Tenwek does more than half of the heart surgeries in Kenya and has more than 800 patients on a waiting list. At the hospital, we met Diana, a 14-year-old girl born with a heart defect. Her condition was diagnosed after she began having convulsions and tiring easily; she even had to quit school. Without surgery, doctors said she would most likely die young.
Her father recently died, and her mother was overwhelmed, desperate to find help for her little girl. They were blessed to find that Tenwek could do the life-saving surgery. Diana's operation took over two hours, including 45 minutes as a heart-lung bypass machine kept her alive while surgeons repaired the lesion. All went smoothly—praise God!—and she should now have many good years ahead of her. She told us she is eager to return to school and hopes to become a nurse. She looks forward to being baptized around Easter this year. Please pray for her.
The motto of Tenwek is "We Treat, Jesus Heals." That's what I saw when I first visited almost 50 years ago. I have seen since then how God has grown Tenwek from an overcrowded facility with three patients in a bed to a state-of-the-art hospital, a beacon of light for the medical world in Africa. It's the largest dedicated cardiothoracic center in sub-Saharan Africa and will serve patients throughout the region, which is home to over a billion people.
It was a blessing to speak to the Tenwek staff and reflect on what God has done there. When Dr. Lowell Furman and I went in 1978, we found Dr. Ernie Steury serving as the only physician. After two decades of missionary service, Ernie was exhausted and desperate for help. Dr. Furman and his brother Dr. Richard (Dick) Furman, also a surgeon, had asked me to help them form World Medical Mission, which would send doctors on short-term assignments to overworked hospitals like Tenwek.
Dr. Steury pleaded with us to find another physician to come out and help him. Even though we didn't yet have a list of doctors, we prayed that God would send someone.
When I got back to my hotel in Nairobi a few hours later, I received a message saying that a doctor had made an unsolicited call to our North Carolina office that day, volunteering to go to Africa for a month. This was God's mighty hand at work! Several more doctors served over the next six months. Dr. Steury and his wife got the rest they needed and served two more decades on the mission field.
Since that first doctor, World Medical Mission has placed over 10,000 doctors, nurses, dentists, and other professionals at scores of mission hospitals around the world. That's the bread and butter of the ministry—bringing Christian medical providers overseas to support those already serving in missionary hospitals. They bring energy, expertise, and an enthusiasm to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Several World Medical Mission volunteers are serving at Tenwek now, including Dr. Stephen Girgis, a pediatric cardiologist from Florida who directs the cardiology department and assisted skilled African doctors with Diana's surgery.
He is thrilled with all the new equipment he can use to treat patients, but he is even more passionate about the Christ-centered focus of Tenwek's medical team. "Caring for the physical heart is only one aspect of our job. Woven throughout all the care is the love of Jesus," he said.
Thousands place their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ each year at Tenwek through the witness of trained chaplains and staff members. Please join me in praying that a century from now, Tenwek will remain a beacon for the Gospel.
World Medical Mission also sends medical teams to provide specialized care that's beyond the scope of many missionary hospitals. We just sent a team to another Kenyan hospital, Chogoria, where our volunteers treated 183 dental patients and 42 urology patients. Each patient was prayed for and received a Bible.
Please pray for our World Medical Mission volunteers around the globe as they follow in the footsteps of our Lord, "preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease" (Matthew 9:35).
ON THE GROUND: Nothing is ever truly ours—even our loved ones belong to the Lord. Hear an incredible story of a family's faith through loss. Kristy Graham speaks with Dr. Seth and Rebecca Mallay, who share their daughter’s testimony and talk about how we should hold things loosely as believers.
Rebuilding Homes for our Neighbors
Samaritan's Purse is rebuilding houses in multiple locations across the country right now. We have construction projects underway in North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Hawaii.
We need volunteers to help get families back into their homes. Our disaster relief teams are also busy this spring responding to Western wildfires and an outbreak of tornadoes. If you or your church can help, please prayerfully consider serving with us at any of these sites. Sign up at spvolunteer.org.
Thank you for your prayers and support of the work of Samaritan's Purse. May God bless you.
Sincerely,
Franklin Graham
Ways You Can Help
Pray
Lift up the medical teams and chaplains at mission hospitals around the world, including Tenwek and Chogoria in Kenya. Thank God for our World Medical Mission volunteers, and pray for their strength, boldness, and safety.
- World Medical Mission
- World Medical Mission helps Christian physicians, dentists, and other personnel volunteer at hospitals and clinics around the world. We also staff a biomedical department and warehouse that provides critically needed equipment to mission hospitals.
- SPECIALTY TEAMS
- Many mission hospitals lack the personnel and resources to perform complex surgeries that are considered routine in developed nations. Through our Specialty Teams program, Christian surgeons and nurses volunteer to serve with and train our hospital partners. Learn more at samaritanspurse.org/specialty.
- Where Most Needed
- Samaritan's Purse works in Jesus' Name to help victims of disaster, disease, famine, poverty, and war. Your gift to "Where Most Needed" equips us with the resources—including personnel, materials, supporting services, and more—to fulfill our mission of relief and evangelism.
