AFTER: 

An Optical Tech at a FAME partner Eye Clinic in Honduras noticed a man on a  sidewalk was rubbing his eyes repeatedly, so he approached him and invited him to the “His Eyes” Clinic.  The man said he could not afford a doctor, but he was encouraged to come anyway.  He did, and upon examination, it was found that he had a small metal fragment IN his eye!  It was removed, and the man was immediately relieved and on the way to recovery.  Oh yes, he heard the gospel and experienced the love of the staff of your FAME partner clinic in Honduras.

BEFORE: 

Many years ago, an Ophthalmoscope, the handheld device used to examine the interior of the eye, was sent to this partner from the FAME warehouse.  It wasn’t exciting and didn’t seem urgent to send the Ophthalmoscope BEFORE, but AFTER, it gave sight to a man in great need! 

We don’t hear the stories of patients who need care BEFORE they need it, we hear of them AFTER care has been given and the gospel has been shared.  

FAME is receiving a surge in medical equipment and supplies…which ALWAYS precedes a surge in needs/requests from around the world!  There are Shipping crates and container loads being staged for the next couple of months, (Poland/Ukraine, Liberia, Djibouti, Sierra Leone, DR Congo, Ethiopia) and dozens upon dozens of smaller shipments are leaving every day!  But to keep meeting these requests FAME needs to be able to quickly respond to these needs. 

FAME has set a goal to raise $100,000 this Spring to meet a growing global need.  Many of you have already responded! 

If not, can you consider helping with 1% ($1000) of this goal?  A gift of any amount will remove an obstacle for someone to be able to hear and respond to the gospel.  I can’t tell you BEFORE what your gift will do. It may be an exam table, IV pole, therapy equipment, wound care supplies, surgical lights, surgical tools, birthing room supplies, or first-aid kits.  But AFTER, rest assured that we will learn that one of the world’s most vulnerable was treated in the name of Jesus and heard the gospel, and you will hear about many of them here! 

Evacuation of Elderly, Delivery of Medicine, Food Distribution all are occurring because of you and your generosity! 

Shipments of medical equipment and supplies are in route, and assistance is being given from shipments that were made before the escalation of war because of you and your partnership. This crisis in Europe is not new!     

I have a Russian word for “Thank you” to tell you about too – but before I do, can I tell you about how many people want to thank YOU?  

This week FAME is launching support for new sustainable projects in Colombia, Myanmar, Mexico, Ghana, Kenya, Honduras, Pakistan, and South Sudan.  Each of these will touch the lives of thousands!  We’ve learned that over 5,000 people HEAR THE GOSPEL and receive medical care with this message EVERY DAY! That is a lot of people who would love to say thank you! 

I really only know one Russian word- let me tell you about it. 

Many of the Ukrainians being displaced speak Russian as well as Ukrainian.  So many of them would say “Thank you” using the word “spasibo” (спасибо) instead of “dyakuyu” and this word’s literal meaning is “Let God save you”!

Amazing – that is EXACTLY the message of Medical Evangelism’s hope and help – “Let God save you!”  So when I say Thank you to you for your partnership – the message we are sending to thousands every day is Russian for Thank you – “Let God save you!” 

One of your FAME Scholarship recipients, a graduate and New Licensed Medical Doctor in Kenya reports feeling helpless due to a lack of resources, unpleasant working environment, and generally unsafe healthcare provision.  

Currently, I work in my home county, with the local government at the Kajiado county  Referral Hospital, which ideally is meant to be a level 5 hospital, but the service provision situation is wanting.  The situation here gives me a feeling of dissatisfaction and it is not a good setup to effectively show the love of Jesus.

Working at the county hospital, we are helpless due to a lack of resources, an unpleasant working environment, and generally unsafe healthcare provision.  

One week ago we lost a 23-year-old female, married, who hails from Kumpa (I know her husband), she presented at a local private clinic at Ilbissil with bleeding and Lower abdominal pain, and without any proper investigation, a procedure was performed and the uterus was perforated by mistake. This was not noticed and she was discharged home. A few days later her condition deteriorated and she came to the Kajiado referral hospital, where an ultrasound was noted to have an ectopic pregnancy, and also diagnosed with peritonitis (severe infection in the abdominal cavity), she went into septic shock and passed on 2 days after admission, the operation was delayed because the theatre was not clean and casual laborers have not been paid. This is saddening and heartbreaking.

This does not need to happen!  That is why YOU through FAME are partnering with this Doctor (who grew up in a cow dung hut in Kajiado) to develop a Self-Sustaining Healthcare System in this desperate Kenyan County.  Phase One is underway and so far FAME has committed $50,000 of the $150,000 Phase-One cost for the property to be purchased, fenced and a well drilled, preparing for the first Clinic of many in this region. Here is what this scholarship recipient said,

“It is always my dream that one day I’ll be able to offer safe quality healthcare to this desperate population, for the glory of God, as a way of thanksgiving to all of you who invested and trusted me. 

I have a dream to develop a privatized self-sustainable healthcare system in Kajiado offering both primary and secondary healthcare services to maximize revenue generation, and that in the future the system will be able to operate with minimal or no support from donors.” 

FAME is committed to a multi-year plan to impact millions of the Maasi people in this underserved region!  When you partner with FAME – you bring help and hope to the people of Kenya and nearly 60 other Nations around the world!  Thank you for your partnership! 

It was nearing 9:00 p.m. after a very long day the first weekend of April…

…and your FAME partner doctors were caring for the last of hundreds of patients seen that day. The importance of your partnership became very clear, once again.

Earlier this month one of your FAME short-term teams was serving alongside your FAME partner doctors in a remote, mountainous region of Mexico. They were hosting a Campana de Salud Familiar Gratuita (Free Family Health Campaign) in a series of villages that has no church, actually, no known Christians live there. These events treat people with the care of Jesus, but intentionally every participant hears a presentation of the gospel!

People are treated on a first-come-first-served basis (last-come, last served) and the day had been full and it was nearing 9:00 p.m. while the Doctors were patiently treating the last family of the day. It was a mom and dad with 2 young children. Your wonderful FAME team was getting tired and was ready to start their hour and a half drive back down out of the mountains to their late dinner and their soft beds.

The team was forever impacted though when they realized the family that was leaving the doctors were walking home. Your FAME team members asked the translators and partner Doctors about the family. They were the last to arrive and the last to leave because the family had walked 3 hours to come. That meant they were walking 3 hours yet that night with their 2 little children back to their home. They were taking Medicines and The Message back with them. You have heard us say, Access to Healthcare, Brings Access to the Gospel many times if you’ve been connected with FAME very long- it is SO REAL a need and your FAME team in Mexico just witnessed it a couple of weeks ago. They wanted to give them a ride, help them get to their homes and so much more- but our FAME partner doctors assured the team the family was safe and going to be okay- this is their way of life.

But your FAME doctors will follow up with them AND follow up with the community. The plan is that once 5 people become Christians in the village that a church will send a van to pick up those 5 people. Once that core group grows, the day will come that a church will be planted!

For 50 years FAME has been doing what Jesus said 2000 years ago, “He sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” Luke 9:2

This Good Friday, remember Jesus opens doors so people see Jesus is Alive!
If you want to send the hope of the gospel – partner with FAME!
If you want to plant seeds to start churches – partner with FAME!
If you want to help treat people with the love of Jesus – partner with FAME!

I’m part of FAME, our staff is committed to FAME, hundreds of people like you, and churches like yours partner with FAME because the Message of the Gospel is shared the Medical Care!

Happy Easter!

Bill Warren
Executive Director

 

 

Do You Remember This Crisis and Solution From 2020?

 

 

 

 

 

 

A FAME partner in Ivory Coast had to shut down their mid-wife-based clinic, other than prenatal care because the Ambulance in their region was broken down and the government wouldn’t replace it.

Many of you partnered with FAME for this Ivory Coast Proper, Timely, Transportation emphasis for my “Run for Global Health”.

This week I received an email that the Ambulance HAS ARRIVED!    Here is their report:

I wanted to let you know that the ambulance has arrived at the PIM clinic in Abengourou and we are ready to begin delivering babies in our maternity. We will be the second place in town that does deliveries. In a city of over 150,000 people, you can imagine what a need that will meet!  We are excited to minister to families in our community even more as we meet their need to have a safe place to bring their children into this world. 

We can’t thank you enough for this generous gift that will allow us to serve our community in even greater ways, in the name of Jesus. 

That Thank you note is TO YOU!  You are FAME!  You make life-changing provisions possible for families around the World!

This team, we have bragged about them before, has a high success rate in bringing HIV-free babies into the world, and even greater than that, a high success rate in bringing the mothers to Jesus!

Thank you for your partnership that brings access to healthcare, bringing access to the gospel!

Dear Prayer Partner,

We are so blessed in knowing that we have partners like you that come alongside us daily to pray for our FAME partners, staff, board of directors, volunteers, mission trips, and other items of ministry. Through times of plenty and times of storms in life, we find such comfort in knowing you are partnering with us and the ministry through prayer.

This month we continue to pray for our FAME partners in Ukraine. Please continue to pray for the safety of these partners, for wisdom and discernment, and that through such tragedy, people may turn to God and find Christ as their true Savior. We have shipped or will be shipping much-needed medical supplies to many of these partners.

One of our FAME partners in Ukraine has many workers still in their home cities serving those in need. They also have workers that for their safety have left the country or have moved to the western part of Ukraine. As to protect those serving, we are listing only their initials at this time. God knows who they are. Please join us in praying for the safety and strength of each of these Christian Healthcare workers and that they may show the love of Christ in this time of need for so many.

A.Z. M.S. O.K. A.M. V.K. N.K. I.B.
N.V. V.Y. E.K. E.L. N.N. L.K. D.S.
V.S. T.L. V.K. S.B. I.S. D.S. J.O.
E.K. O.B. S.P. R.K. V.M. L.G. L.M.
N.Z. L.L. A.I. O.Z. S.B. A.D. A.I.
G.S. G.G.
J.N. serving refugees food at a train station and treating others
S.L. was injured in war and needs surgery
V.H. wife is expecting soon
N.G. and L.R. there has not been contact with these individuals

Other people to pray for this month include our FAME Board of Directors. The Spring board meeting will be held in late April, and leading up to that we ask for your partnership in praying for each of the board members that they be led by God as they make decisions for the ministry.

In addition, please also pray for some volunteer groups that will be coming this month. We are so blessed to have so many wonderful volunteers help us in our work. If you or your group would like to volunteer, you can contact Barry Reed, FAME’s Director of Mission Resources at barryr@fameworld.org. We would LOVE for you to come. All ages are welcome. 😊

In a devotion I read by Billy Graham written some years ago he says, As Christians, our great task is to obey the command to tell the whole world about Christ crucified, buried, yet risen again. My prayer for you during this season of the year, when we meditate on our Savior’s great sacrifice for us on the cross, is that you will be filled with great peace and hope, because “He is risen!” That is the Good News.

We too, pray that you may find peace and hope this Easter season. He has Risen!

Blessings in the coming month.

Click here for the April Prayer Calendar

The man was brought to the FAME Partner hospital with a serious machete wound across his face and his head and his life was in danger. FAME partner doctors examined him closely, looked at all of their options, but came to realize that because of the supply issues in Haiti they did not have the antibiotic or other medicines they needed to treat this man and he probably would not make it.

Ro Ro Eustache of Haitian Christian Outreach (HCO), who oversees the hospital, arrived that evening just in time to hear the story of this man whose life was in danger.  He gathered the hospital staff to pray since the only obvious option was a miracle from the Great Physician to be able to treat this man with his machete wound. 

At the same time, the security guards at the gate to the hospital compound were very frustrated with a truck driver who was continuing to honk at the gate requesting to be allowed to pull his delivery truck into the compound to have a secure place to stay for the night. The men kept telling him that they could not allow him to come into the compound just because he was seeking a secure place to sleep in his truck.  The truck driver continued to honk and disrupt the prayer meeting they were having for the life or death situation of the man with the machete wound.  Finally, after the honking continued, Ro Ro went to the gate to ask the security guards what was the problem. They explained the situation and Ro Ro decided to step outside the gate and ask the man how he could help.  He explained he had a delivery to take North many miles and he would not be able to drive safely that night and was requesting a place to park his truck so that he could sleep safely until morning. 

Ro Ro was intrigued and inquired what the man was delivering and found it was medicines to the government hospital.  Ro Ro invited him to pull his truck into the compound and asked him for permission to contact the hospital to be able to find out what type of medicines they had inside the truck.

They called the hospital, finding out that the exact antibiotic, IV fluids, and supplies that they needed were on the truck.  The hospital agreed and they immediately treated the man with the machete wound and his life was saved!

Amazing, that the very answer to the prayer was an interruption to the prayer meeting! 

This FAME partner relies heavily on medical shipments and supplies that you have helped provide for many many years.   But they also rely on the prayers of God‘s people! 

When you receive our Monthly Prayer Calendar- and pray, it IS healthcare and evangelism work by you! 

Thank you for your partnership! 

As a partner with FAME, you have already been helping Ukraine’s Most Vulnerable!!! 

Impacting the world’s most vulnerable is what YOU do through FAME every day!  Refugees are being helped in Africa, Asia, and Europe in an ongoing way by FAME partners year-round.  By partnering with FAME you ARE HELPING HUMANITARIAN CRISIS’ every day – but your impact includes something that many don’t – an Evangelism message and the hope that comes from Jesus! 

In 2016 a current Ukrainian ministry with 39 community health workers scattered throughout that country began receiving medical equipment and supplies from FAME.  Well before most of the world knew of any conflict between Russia and Ukraine, these partners, the young man pictured in particular, provided Wound Care Supplies that were given by FAME to a rescue organization on the front lines to treat and care for victims of violence in the war zone! 

In other words, you have been providing the “boots-on-the-ground” the medical supplies they need as they share the hope of Jesus for 6 years! 

Here are 3 recent stories from the last few weeks:

1. The head of a Ukrainian surgical hospital expressed his gratitude as this FAME partner provided crutches for the hospital when the hospital had NONE!  These were processed, repaired, and shipped from Indianapolis!!!

2.  A FAME partner community health worker Thanks God for your prayers- she shares that one Babushka (grandmother) was resting on her bed in her room when her son called her outside to see how he was working in the garden preparing it for Spring.  She got up and went outside.  At that very moment, a huge shell flew into her window in the bedroom where she was just resting and destroyed the wall and everything in the room.  

3. Additionally, a large Emergency Fund gift was just approved to help refugees who are being safely cared for by an Evangelistic organization that has been training leaders, but is now caring for a growing number of Refugees! 

Your FAME partners have been courageous- taking food to Ukrainian soldiers, making runs in their vehicles to take people to safety, visiting the elderly, and taking them a stockpile of food/blankets/medicines at great risk to their own lives.  Power is off, water is off, store shelves are emptying, gasoline is hard to get.  The lines of vehicles waiting to be processed at borders reach up to 30 kilometers long. 

Help and hope is being given to the people of Ukraine, now and for the last 6 years, because of YOU!  Here is what one partner reported, “our team is doing everything they can wherever they are, leading, loving, sharing the Gospel.  And people are listening…”  They also share, “Our team is alive…this is the direct hand of God…”

When you partner with FAME, you partner with heroes like these in Ukraine and over 50 other countries this last year!  Even when the news media did not report on the Ukrainian war zone, YOU WERE ALREADY HELPING THERE! 

Thank you for your partnership in prayer and generosity!

**To give to the Ukraine Emergency Fund Click Here  and choose Ukraine-Emergency Relief in the drop down. 

For years a young couple had been creating much trouble for a FAME partner’s work among a  remote people group.   This husband and wife criticized the gospel and raised up many young people to oppose their work.  They were so aggressive that they would work with these radical young people to chase the evangelists and workers from their neighborhoods in the villages.

This faithful FAME partner put them on their prayer lists for over one year. 

Recently the husband became very ill and it became serious!  His wife went to the ministry to ask for help and prayer.  This ministry had the Grand Opening of a brand-new clinic in February which FAME funded through YOUR generosity! 

“We responded quickly to go to him, pray for him and help all that we could!  We added them to all of our prayer cells at the churches and also in our Tuesday fasting, we prayed for his speedy recovery.” 

By the grace of God, work of the medical care at the clinic, and prayer he was cured.  The husband and wife started coming to Church on Sundays.  Your FAME partner reported March 6th in an email, “Today they asked me to give baptism for the remission of their sin.  After their baptism, they both smiled for the first time.  Because of their life change, they took the new names, Mercy and Stephen.” 

Because of you, stories like this happen every day!  Every day over 5,500 people hear the Gospel Message when they receive Medical Care through FAME’s partners!  And not only are they treated in the name of Jesus, but MANY also receive eternal hope because of you! 

Thank you for your partnership with FAME. The world’s most vulnerable are less vulnerable because of you! 

 

Dear Prayer Partner,

Thank you for your continued partnership with FAME through prayer. We find it a great blessing in knowing you have come alongside us in prayer as we pray for our mission partners, volunteers, scholarship recipients, board of directors, staff, sustainable healthcare projects, shipments of medical equipment and supplies, short-term mission trips, as well as various church visits and conferences.

This month, please partner with us in praying for the people of Ukraine, and especially our mission partners there. Last week we received an email from the Director of one of these missions who wrote, “I ask that you try to put yourself in the shoes of those we have named for prayer…imagine choosing to leave people who you cannot take with you – elderly, ill, new believers, not yet believers, your church family, your neighbors…imagine having to leave people behind…you have a vehicle, but most of them don’t.  Imagine leaving behind your house and most of your things…  Imagine leaving those things behind and not being sure where to go, what is the safest way to go, and what you might experience along the way.  Yes, our amazing team knows the Lord, and trusts in Him…but we are talking about incredibly hard circumstances.”  These ministries have team members all throughout the country and they are in need of prayer for safety, as well as wisdom and discernment during this time of uncertainty.

Please also pray for a short-term medical mission team that will be going to Mexico at the end of the month to serve with Worldwide Hispanic Outreach (WWHO) in La Biznaga, Mexico. This team of 11 will be participating in medical outreaches in rural communities providing medical care and health education. Pray for the mission doctors and hosts, team members, and those to whom they will be providing medical care. Dr. Elsy Fuentes of WWHO writes, “I believe each patient that walks through our door is searching for physical healing. As we gain their trust, we share the real meaning of being healthy which is having abundant life in our Lord Jesus.”

Others to pray for this month include FAME scholarship recipients that are studying to become medical professionals in their home countries. Currently, FAME is providing scholarships to 12 students in 7 countries who are all studying to become doctors, nurses, or other medical professionals. These students will then serve with a sponsoring mission upon graduation for a set time, providing medical care in the name of Christ in their home country.

Pray also for various volunteer groups that will be serving this month at FAME, new church partnerships, new mission/ministry partnerships, church visits, and FAME partners in countries that are experiencing persecution and unrest.

Thank you again for your partnership in prayer.

Click here for the March Prayer Calendar