The pandemic has reached into the most remote parts of the world – but SO HAVE YOU!

For months, Myanmar appeared to have escaped a major COVID-19 outbreak. Between March and August, cases were limited to 374 with only six deaths. The last fatality was recorded in April, and no local transmissions were reported between July 16 and August 16. But on August 16, everything changed. A second wave of COVID-19 cases erupted and quickly spread to Yangon, with smaller clusters now being found across the country, including the remote area of North Myanmar!

In early September, 17 preachers gathered in remote North Myanmar in the village of Putao.   Putao is tucked into the Himalayan foothills where there are no paved roads!  They met to divide up the critical medical supplies purchased with Funds sent by FAME which you made possible!  The $1500 sent by FAME was exchanged for 1,950,000 kyats!

These great men scattered around the mountain villages and they were able to provide infrared thermometers, sanitizers, masks, and medicines for 45 churches.  Forty-Five Churches with one gift!   Also, now is the rainy season, the season that the people in Myanmar most suffer from various kinds of illnesses and diseases.

These preachers become the frontline workers where there is no doctor.  Many of them have minimal training from FAME teams teaching Health Education and CHE (Community Health Evangelism); but without proper resources, training is only minimally helpful. Now, because of you, and other partners like you- even Himalayan foothill villages are more prepared for what’s ahead.

 

That’s multiplying your impact!  Thank you for your partnership in the remotest parts of the earth!

Bill Warren
Executive Director

Thank you for your continued support of the ministry of FAME through prayer. Our partners, scholarship recipients, volunteers, board members and staff are blessed by your devotion to prayer for our ministry. Your prayers are making an impact in lives all around the world!

This month we ask you to partner with us in praying for our FAME Board of Directors as they prepare for the Semi-Annual FAME Board of Directors meeting on October 17. Please pray for each of the wonderful FAME Board members that God has put in place and that they continue to be guided by the Spirit in making decisions regarding the ministry.

Please also pray for many of the FAME volunteers who come in on a weekly or monthly basis. We are so grateful for these volunteers who give of their time and talents to help further the mission of FAME in seeing people come to Christ through medical evangelism. If you would like to volunteer at FAME, either individually or as a group, please contact Barry Reed, FAME’s Director of Mission Resources at BarryR@fameworld.org.

Other items to pray for include:

• FAME Executive Director, Bill Warren, as he raises funds for the Reeves Project Fund through his participation in Indy-thon and the Run for Global Health. If you would like to learn more about this run, visit our website at www.fameworld.org/want-to-go-for-a-run
  
• Community Health Evangelism (CHE) TOT 1 Training October 5-8 being held at FAME in Indianapolis. www.fameworld.org/sustainable-projects/che.

Thank you for your partnership in medical evangelism through prayer!

Blessings in the coming month.

Click here for the October Prayer Calendar

Babeni* was suffering and weak, but no one knew why.  Day after day his family thought he was just aging and under a curse.  He and his family gave up hope and thought all was lost because even the inadequately supplied clinic they had visited didn’t have the supplies needed to diagnose what was wrong.

Then Babeni’s daughter heard the new clinic received supplies and was ready to see patients.  The shipment of supplies had been sent by FAME and made possible by you and partners like you!

Babeni was able to visit the clinic, and the newly arrived blood pressure cuff was used to identify the cause of his weakness and decline.  Hypertension, or high blood pressure.  Even here in the USA hypertension is often called a “silent disease” because you usually don’t know that you have it.  But here in America our doctors have an abundance of supplies like Blood pressure cuffs!  CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, and many other stores have BP stations where you can check your own blood pressure!

Access to healthcare and even health information is limited and even non-existent to 400 million of the people of the world.  Men and women like Babeni are at risk of dying before they have a chance to even hear the gospel.

Babeni’s story ends well – a few lifestyle changes and a diuretic was able to be prescribed and his life is extended.  Your FAME partner can now tell him and his family all about Jesus- and he has time to respond to the good news!

Thank you for your partnership!  You make it possible for FAME to send help and hope every day to global partners who are saving lives for eternity!

Thank you!

Bill Warren
Executive Director

*Babeni’s name is changed, but his story is real and repeated time and time again!

I’m running for something and I’d love to have you with me!  Here’s the story…

On Saturday, March 14th I returned from an extended trip to Asia visiting your FAME ministry partners.  While the places I visited had very low case numbers of the coronavirus, fear was growing.  By the time I arrived home, I had decided on a voluntary 14-day self-quarantine.  On Monday, March 16, the shutdown began and my 14 days at home became three months.

With my calendar clear and some extra time available, I decided to exercise.  I began walking three miles each day.  Eventually, I increased the distance and began some running.  As I write this, I have logged over 800 miles since March.

During the hours on my walks / runs, I wondered: “How can I help our FAME partners who are working in under-resourced parts of the world?”  The answer became INDY-THON.  Indy-thon is the combination of the Half Marathon at Fort Benjamin Harrison on October 3 and the Monumental Half Marathon on November 7.  My goal is to raise $1,000 per mile (that’s 26.2 miles) for the FAME Reeves Memorial Project Fund.

The Reeves fund will complete 11 Sustainable Healthcare Projects through FAME partners in India, Haiti, Mexico, Ghana, Spain, Ivory Coast and the Philippines.  It will purchase surgical equipment, a hospital generator, two ambulances and construction materials for a cardiac hospital and 6 primary care clinics.  For example, $26,200 could complete a primary care clinic in Mahabalipuram, India.

Every project of every partner will result in medical evangelism.  The gospel will be proclaimed as individuals are given otherwise unavailable healthcare in the name of Jesus!

Will you join me?  I am asking you to pledge a dollar amount for every mile I complete.  A $10.00 / mile pledge would be $262.00.  Or, you could sponsor a mile for $1,000 or a half mile for $500.  Really your gift of any amount will help.  Click HERE to join me!

Whatever you decide, thanks for joining me – and know that your gift will help meet desperate medical needs – but more importantly, meet them in Jesus’ name!  You will be changing lives now and into eternity.

Thanks & God Bless!

Bill Warren
Executive Director

The typhoon season of the Philippines has started amidst a rampaging coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The first typhoon, Vongfong, with strong winds of 155 kph (96 mph) and torrential rains pounded the country while on strict lockdown.

It placed the health system of the Philippines into a test as a perfect storm developed—a strong typhoon during a devastating pandemic. In a country of 110 million people, Vongfong displaced populations and knocked out power, thus complicating the COVID-19 initiatives and adding additional burden to the emergency situation of the country. The Philippines is hit by an average of twenty tropical typhoons every year.

It may be recalled that the country is still reeling from the effects of super typhoon Haiyan on November 8 of 2013 that killed 6200 people, displacing 4 million and affecting 14 million from its destructive force.  And the Electric Co-op of Aparri in North Luzon is still often offline because of Typhoon Ompong in 2018.

A FAME partner Hospital, Charles W. Selby Memorial Hospital in Aparri, has at risk outdoor temporary Triage areas and treatment areas because of COVID-19.  Additionally, your partner in Aparri has an outdated, under-sized, and over-used generator. Many years ago, the hospital-acquired a small generator just for Emergencies.  Usually a temporary solution, this generator has now become a near-permanent provider of electricity for critical care patients with the ongoing and common Electricity Crisis in the Philippines. When the electricity is out only portions of the hospital are able to have power.

The following Departments are in crisis during these Outages:

• Pediatric Respiratory
• Dialysis
• Heart Monitoring
• COPD and Asthma

All of these patients are all at risk many times.

With your partnership FAME can provide a New Generator which will adequately power the full hospital if needed!

This FAME Partner Hospital is 100% Filipino-led and 99% self-funding for daily operations – an example of Sustainability!  Chaplains at this hospital boldly declare the gospel to EVERY patient who enters!

Can you partner with FAME with a gift to Sustainable Projects that will bring Power to the Philippines?  Power for Healthcare and Power from the Gospel!

Dear Friends and Partners of FAME,

Do you remember the Earth, Wind & Fire song from 1978, “September”?

Ba de ya, say do you remember?
Ba de ya, dancing in September
Ba de ya, never was a cloudy day     (are you humming it now?)

Do you remember last September? Do you remember what it was like to live in a world without an unrelenting pandemic, an increase in racial tensions, masks, getting together with family and friends, going to church, going to school, going to work, receiving medical care, volunteering, attending sporting events, going on a vacation, going on a mission trip, and no “social distancing”?

Last September, as well as other Septembers, seem like dreams compared to the world we live in now. So much has changed as we look at the current world we live in. What has not changed is the love of our God and He being with us through all of this.

Recently, FAME Executive Director, Bill Warren said, “Even though several FAME  short-term medical mission trips this year have been canceled and some of our Sustainable Healthcare Projects are “on hold” because of mandated lockdowns, God is still at work!  We have heard from so many of our partners with stories of their unique opportunities to reach out and help people in their communities during a pandemic. One partner in India is waiting for the pandemic to end so they can continue work on this desperately needed primary care clinic.  Today it is just a foundation but soon it will be a place where people will find help and hope – both physically and spiritually.  In the meantime, they are feeding people who are hungry, and I recently saw pictures of the baptisms of six people.”

There are great needs among our partners, and this month we invite you to partner with us in praying for many of them and the medical projects we have committed to funding for their missions.

Other items of prayer for this month include our FAME scholarship recipients who are studying to become medical professionals, FAME’s short-term mission trips that are currently scheduled for 2021, some upcoming conferences that will now be virtual instead of in person, volunteer groups, and some church visits where Jeff Coon, FAME Director of Development will be presenting FAME and how churches can partner with us in reaching the lost through medical evangelism.

Please know that we are grateful to you and your partnership. Your prayers are making a difference in lives around the world.

Many blessings to all of you!

Click here for the September Prayer Calendar

Laboratories and lab workers are currently one of the most important medical needs of our times.

In 2017 many FAME partners helped to send funding to Narok County, Kenya in order to establish a state of the art laboratory that was ahead of the standards required in Kenya.  This lab upgrade was needed for critical testing from AIDS to every other medical unknown in the network known as CHP Kenya.  7 Clinics are served by this lab allowing medical providers to have test results in hours or just a few days, instead of weeks.

You won’t be surprised that we learned last week that the caseload at this lab has increased. Official COVID testing is being sent to a Kenya Medical research institute, but the whole region would have had no information without you and your generosity!

Additionally, you have helped provide pathologists because of FAME’s Impact Scholarship program.

In the US there are 7 pathologists for every 100,000 people; in Sub-Saharan Africa that number is less than 1 for every 500,000!

Thank you for your impact on providing Access to the Good news around the world.   One obstacle you help eliminate is by providing access to healthcare information and technology!

Thank you for your part in this battle of bringing access to the Gospel through access to healthcare.

YOU are making a difference around the globe.

 

 

You have FAME global partners who go where most won’t go!  The Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of those places.  The State Department website has the following travel warnings.

Do Not Travel To:

• The Democratic Republic of the Congo – COVID-19
• North Kivu and Ituri provinces due to terrorism
• The eastern DRC region and the three Kasai provinces (Kasai, Kasai-Oriental, Kasai-Central) due to crime, civil unrest, armed conflict and kidnapping
• Équateur province due to Ebola.

But that hasn’t stopped one of your FAME partners from acquiring medical supplies and equipment to support 7 clinics in the DR of the Congo!  In July we received word how some mobility supplies were distributed:

We praise God for what our team of 3 church leaders did last Friday by giving in the village of Ngunda Kinzamba a free gift of mobility (PET cart, personal energy transport) to a leg disabled man to show him the love of God. On Saturday they gave another PET cart to a leg disabled lady in Mukedi village.

Last week, the team picked up a truckload of additional mobility supplies to distribute. Also, of interest to you might be that Barry Reed, our Director of Mission Resources, prepared 6 surgical kits for the team.  6 of the 7 Clinics have qualified staff capable of small surgeries.  I was most surprised to learn that the supplies received included hospital-grade mattresses.  Currently, those who have these small surgeries in a few of those clinics are on the ground. These mattresses will be such an upgrade for these patients!  Their recovery time is when many respond to the gospel!

Each and every day- YOUR partnership improves the doors that open for the gospel!

Thank you for your generosity, prayers, and compassion- you are impacting the world’s most sick who would never have the chance to hear the gospel without you!

Unreported during this pandemic is the ongoing plight of the North African Refugees coming into Spain.  Spain received a lot of press early this year when the Virus numbers were spiraling out of control, but the North African Refugees are still unnoticed and under-served!

One of your FAME global partners, Dr. Erick and his wife Sira, are on the very frontlines caring for the world’s most impacted and neglected in Spain.

Before the pandemic, New Clinic plans were finalizing (The Hope Center Medical Clinic is one of FAME’s Sustainable Projects currently seeking full funding) and preparing to meet the medical needs of Refugees from North Africa!  The Church was growing and training new leaders!  Teaching Spanish to refugees and meeting the needs of these vulnerable from the crisis in North Africa.

 **Note:  In 2019 nearly 50,000 immigrants/refugees from North Africa came into Spain!

During the pandemic, Dr. Erick and the young churches there near Murcia, Spain focused on helping families by bringing food into their homes.  One woman is reported to have done all she could to find a way to eat once a day if she can.  Dr. Erick treats these refugees with the kindness and love of Christ every day.  Their situation is hopeless without the kindness of the churches connected with the future Hope Center Clinic!

Can you continue to pray for your FAME global partners like Dr. Erick and Sira’s family?  Being from Nicaragua, Dr. Erick has asked prayer for his family since his father passed away in July from COVID-19 in Nicaragua while Erick and Sira’s family was serving in Spain!  Your FAME global partners are heroes on the frontlines!

Your partnership makes a difference in the lives of your global partners and on the world’s most impacted whom they serve!