Ecuador (MNN) — Two organizations are working together to
not only advance the Gospel but to improve medical care in Ecuador. Samaritan's Purse is providing medical
equipment to HCJB Global Hand's hospital ministry in Quito.
HCJB's Jon Hirst says, "Franklin Graham came down
last year to Ecuador to do a Festival of Hope where he brought the community of
Christ together and then an evangelistic campaign. He also came down to visit
our hospital. And as a result of that visit, he pledged to interact with us and to
provide us with some equipment we needed."
That pledge was recently fulfilled, says Hirst.
"Samaritan's Purse sent us a sea container full of equipment valued at
over a quarter-million dollars that was just opened up a week or so ago."
According to Hirst the shipment included surgical
equipment, x-ray machines and ultra-sounds, "Even more incredible is that
they've also sent down staff who are experienced in that equipment to help us
install it and get trained on it. This
partnership is going to allow us to better serve the people of Ecuador and
share the Gospel with them."
However, this will also allow HCJB Global Hands to reach out
beyond Ecuador. Hirst says the hospital in Ecuador serves as a training
facility. "A lot of the doctors we're training are the ones that are going
with us to [unreached areas of the world]."
Hirst believes this strategy helps position HCJB Global to
impact the world in ways North American medical professionals can't. "Many
of our staff in our Ecuadorian hospital, who are Ecuadorian, can travel much easier to
other parts of the world and find it easier to connect in places where
sometimes westerns aren't as welcomed."
While this medical equipment is needed for their work in
Quito, financial assistance is also needed "so that we could fund our
emergency medical response teams, some of our new efforts in Malawi as well as
in the Congo and also now starting in Euro-Asia — in the Ukraine we're
starting medical work as well."
