Hospital Ministry

    It has always been exciting for me to see where something started. As a child I remember going to Independence Hall and seeing where the American Declaration of Independence was signed. Meghan and I once took a side trip to Charleston, SC and we saw Fort Sumner, where the first shots of the American Civil War were fired. Even standing in the same wing of the hospital where I was born was so exciting. So, when Meghan and I had the opportunity to see the hospital where Helping Hands Healing Hearts Ministries began we jumped at that chance!

    As some of you may know, Helping Hands has four branches to the ministry. One branch is our Children’s Home which is for children who have become orphans (through abandonment, removal from family or surrendering) or are there for temporary placement while their family works to create a stable home environment. Another branch is our Children’s Recovery Unit, where children who have medical weaknesses (disease, physical  injury, cancer, malnutrition or birth defects) can recover and get the necessary attention that their family may not be able to provide or afford. The third branch is our “Kidz Klub” which is a weekly time where our Olongapo staff go into parts of their community to put on an outreach program. This consists of games, music, crafts and a chance to share the Gospel with children in the community. The fourth branch is what started it all, our hospital ministry. The hospital is where the entire ministry started.

    You see the hospitals in the Philippines require the patient’s family to get any medicine or medical supplies the patient needed before they would administer them. So a family member would need to walk to a pharmacy to get the appropriate medicines. Many families couldn’t afford the medicines or supplies so they would have to go home and hope their child would recover. Our director Claire, while at the hospital, noticed that families were taking children home without hope of recovery from simple aliments. She began the ministry by going from bed to bed at Gordon Hospital in Olongapo City looking for children to help. She would give medicine, prayer, encouragement and give hope to families who otherwise had none. Our hospital ministry in Olongapo continues to do that even today. They even have been blessed with two offices in the hospital which allows them to be in the hospital every day.

    In Baguio, where we live, our hospital ministry is still being formed. A few years ago Helping Hands was in our hospital each week, but we have never been able to have a full time staff in the hospital. Our presence in the hospital is very small, but that is one thing Craig and one of our center heads, Marissa, have been working on the past couple of months. They are beginning to recruit volunteers and develop a program to get us into the hospital in Baguio. Teams were able to go into the hospital twice this month which is exciting for everyone who has wanted to see this part of the ministry grow.

    While in the hospital the team will put on a short program in the primary children’s ward. Since not everyone speaks English well, we will have a video (in English) that helps illustrate a point in the Gospel and then a question and answer section in Tagalog (the native language) that will review the video. Children who answer correctly get a little prize to keep. This encourages the children to retell the story which helps solidify the point in their minds :) After the question and answer we take time to tell the whole story of the Gospel to the parents in Tagalog. Next we begin to go from bed to bed learning about the children and their story. We take time to pray with each family and see in what way we could help the family.

    Spending time with the families is the most exciting part for me because it is less about a program and more about meeting people with needs. The program does well to tell the story of Jesus to the kids, but talking with and praying with families truly allows us to say, “You are loved by God.” Now I could go on about how one of the most important things you could tell a person is “You are loved by God,” but that’s not the point of this post, maybe another time.

    I would like to ask for your prayers as we develop a presence in the hospital in Baguio. Please pray that the staff and management will look favorably on Helping Hands and continue to allow us to work in the Children’s Ward. Pray that we are able to find those in need of our ministry. Pray for our current staff who volunteer to come to the hospital on their days off because we are unable to staff this part of the ministry right now.