Ukraine Impact Surprises and Contrasts!

Your impact in Ukraine through FAME has been a story of contrasts and impact.

First, through your FAME staff’s partnerships, some nearly miraculous deliveries have occurred! In the midst of shipping chaos and a war-torn system, FAME partners have received two shipments of catheters for angiography at the children’s cardio center in Kyiv! These pictured heart catheters were in the FAME Indianapolis warehouse just months ago – AND NOW they are in use in Ukraine!

A surprising situation of stability in the midst of chaos, providing life-saving supplies with the Compassion of Jesus.

Second, heartbreaking destruction and loss for FAME partner health-care evangelists! This picture is of Lenny’s* home in the Dnipro region. She has been the link to hundreds of vulnerable “Babushkas” and children in the midst of bombings, fighting, and air raids. She has been providing medicine, bandages, and essential supplies that YOU provided through FAME. Each delivery and visit includes the gospel message – and many receive the “mp3-like” player full of the Bible, the gospel, and encouraging sermons.

Lenny has now moved her ministry to the refugee camp shown above and is a light and joy to others even though very little hope exists as they worry about the approaching winter.

Your partnership with FAME impacts people at a moment of great need, and the compassion, love, and message of Jesus shines bright and full of hope!

Keep praying for your partners in Ukraine and around the world- as together, YOU and FAME bring hope to over 5000 people every day with access to health care that brings access to the gospel.

It couldn’t be done without you!

* “Lenny’s” name has been changed for privacy.

“All We Had Was Tylenol, And That Allowed Us….”

Last Saturday, on a phone call with a potential partner, we heard their desperate need for partnership so that thousands could be impacted in a closed SE Asia Nation! They have been helping oppressed people who do not have the basic services we in America consider customary. Such needs include health facilities and basic health supplies!

They said, We have been taking Tylenol with us on our evangelism outreaches. Just having Tylenol to meet basic needs has allowed us to share Jesus with people! We never imagined the opportunities that would come through medical outreaches and supplies!

This mission has been working diligently for years reaching remote people in SE Asia, and now they have an open door of opportunity into another Country! They had not heard of FAME until this year when someone who went to college with him shared FAME’s work and recommended he reach out to us!

You can make the same type of connections and open new doors of evangelism through your network of friends, family, and colleagues.

You can send help and hope by partnering with FAME in prayer or by collecting medicines and supplies for our mission partners and short-term mission trips (see our website for lists).

You are a partner in reaching closed countries when you give to FAME!

You are a partner we can count on – Thank you!

Even villages that have been closed to evangelism will have access to the good news because of access to health care and because YOU partner with FAME!

 

August Prayer Calendar

Thank you for your continued partnership with FAME through your prayers for the ministry. Each month we are blessed in knowing that you have come alongside us in praying for the FAME board, volunteers, mission partners, scholarship recipients, the staff, church visits and conventions or events.

This month, with so many of the kids going back to school, we ask that you partner with us in praying for our FAME scholarship recipients who are studying to become medical professionals in their home countries. These Christian students all desire to serve God through their medical professions. Each of these students are sponsored by a FAME Partner mission.

Please pray also for a short-term medical mission trip that will be leaving at the end of the month to serve with Central Brazil Mission. This team of 10 participants will be serving on a boat trip along the Amazon River. They will be docking at multiple remote villages along the river and will treat patients experiencing both physical and spiritual needs. Patients will make their way on board the boat to be seen by medical professionals on the team.

We also ask for your continued prayers for our partners in Ukraine and Haiti. Please pray that they will remain strong in their faith during these turbulent times. Recently, our FAME partner in Ukraine gave an update on the ministry there and wrote,  Russia needs to understand that just like David and Goliath, just like Gideon, this battle isn’t about human strength.  This is a battle of good and evil.  Ukraine may not have modern weapons or sufficient numbers of soldiers, but they have God with them.  The people of Ukraine continue to need our prayers most of all.

Thank you once again for your faithfulness and your partnership in prayer for FAME.

Blessings in the coming month.

Click Here for the August Prayer Calendar

Your Partnership Saves Lives

In a small mountain village, a young girl was carried to a clinic after traveling in Pastor Philip’s car for over 12 hours to reach the clinic.  Many of FAME’s partners LIKE YOU heard her story and wanted to help prevent such a tragedy from occurring again.

FAME partnered with YOU, churches around the country, Asia Christian Services (ACS), and IDES to send the needed funds to Pastor Philip in this small Himalayan foothills village to purchase an ambulance.  Here’s the quote from ACS about the Medical Evangelism in that region.

The eastern part of the State is devoid of many basic resources and Medical Outreach has been a very effective evangelistic tool.  It has given the team favor with the Government and the people in the area.  Philip regularly charters a taxi to take extremely sick people to a hospital 6 hours away.  IDES and FAME jointly sent funds to purchase a new vehicle to use as an ambulance, but the funds were frozen in the India bank system by the Hindu government.  After much prayer and many months, the funds were released and the vehicle is in the hands of the team.  THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNERS FAME AND IDES! 

Partnership has many layers, from YOU, to churches, to global agencies, missionaries, and the indigenous leaders in the community being served.  But I specifically want to recognize our partnership with IDES!  FAME and IDES have been partnering with a global impact for decades, we share many churches here in the USA as partners and around the world.  We both have differing focuses, but many times we overlap and are able to multiply our impact!  In a book I gave to our staff a few years ago it says this:…if you have the right people with you, they will give you the courage to keep going. 

I was in communication with a church partner recently as they told me about a trip they took recently, and how amazed they were to see an Ambulance in operation in this country they visited.  They shared how this wonderful ministry was changing lives, and treating people in the name of Jesus, and that it was so wonderful that this ministry had somehow acquired such a wonderful Ambulance.  I enjoyed the fact that they hadn’t seen or mentioned what I already knew, and then pointed out in their photos– that FAME and IDES had partnered with YOU once again to meet the need of this Central American mission Clinic.

Thank you IDES for your partnership!

Thank YOU for YOUR partnership that makes global partnerships possible!

Bill Warren
Executive Director

I’d Like You to Meet Atifa and Regina

Atifa was expecting her first child and came to the Malek Christian Hospital. She was concerned because 8 out of 10 mothers in South Sudan experience sepsis and tetanus infections during labor and birth. Due to traditional practice, there were no clinic deliveries by skilled birth attendants in this place before Malek Christian Hospital was built.

Atifa is pictured here in the current waiting room resting on the floor waiting for her time to give birth. This is not how the hospital wants things to be, but they have increased the quality of care greatly! BUT YOU CAN HELP UPGRADE THIS SITUATION.

Regina and Dr. John in an exam room and consultation room divided by a drape.

Regina is the Registered Midwife Volunteer worker at MCH Maternity Unit who is one of the heroes who have created a safe and clean clinic where 45-55 mothers are giving birth free of infections every month!

FAME is partnering with the Malek Christian Hospital to build a 4-bed Maternity Delivery room will be a significant upgrade not only in the capacity but also in the quality of care given to mothers in this remote isolated region.

  • Brand New Delivery Rooms
  • 4 Brand new beds
  • Privacy will be increased
  • Brand new equipment and supplies
  • The 4 delivery bed structure will impact good health through: infection prevention and adequate room for effective and efficient practice.
Dr. John Kuot at the back of the hospital where the delivery room will be added

Dr. John Kuot, the Sudanese overseeing Physician says, “We are pursuing the great commission and we don’t feel good when the mother and children we are supposed to help are getting infections or risk getting an infection at our facility. These upgrades will allow us to give quality care WITH the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

If you’d like to know more about this Project click here.

Escape! “From the 25th Floor of Our Kyiv Apartment…”

“From the 25th floor of our Kyiv apartment, my daughter woke up at 5:00 am to the sound of bombing and began crying because she could see the explosions of war in the distance.”  As they got closer and closer, this FAME partner realized that they needed to find a place of safety.  From basement to basement, and shelter to shelter they eventually (over 2 months) were able to get to the West and then out of the country to Turkey.

Escape!  I can’t imagine having to escape my home and Country.  I was relieved last week when I was able to escape the oppressive heat outdoors and go into air conditioning.  Your FAME partners around the world serve people who have no escape from lack of access to healthcare, illness, or disease, except what you help provide!

Back to our Ukraine ministry partner; She is still coordinating a team of nearly 40 healthcare workers, the majority of whom are still serving the elderly, injured, and vulnerable in this war-torn region.  She visited us at the FAME headquarters last week- so many stories of heartbreak and impact!

You, in partnership with FAME, have sent 150 shipments through this partner to Ukraine!  Many times we are excited to report about the successful delivery of medical equipment and supplies to you, but today I need to ask for prayer for 120 of these shipments.  30 of them can be accounted for and have reached the intended destination INSIDE Ukraine!  But 120 have not been received, and actually are not trackable at this time.

Here’s the opportunity – these shipments not only have needed medical equipment and supplies- this partner (Marcel Fund)includes what is called “In-Touch” players – basically small MP3-like players that have the Bible, the gospel/salvation message, and encouraging messages in multiple languages.  They have been received by thousands and the gospel has been heard in Europe through these players.

Please pray that these shipments will reach the people God ordains, whoever that may be!   I heard of a Border guard many years ago who confiscated Bibles at a border crossing; he read one and became a powerful leader of an underground church!  God can do more than we can ask or imagine with a shipment of supplies – whether they reach the people to whom they were sent or the people God re-directs them to impact!

Thank you for your partnership in prayer, funding the shipment of gospel-impacting medical equipment and supplies – all that open the door for the good news giving access to help and hope around the world!

No Freedom, No Access, No Hope

Freedom, Access, Hope.   Can you imagine a country missing those three things? The USA  is one of a kind out of nearly 200 countries in the world!  Many do not have these values that give us a reason to celebrate.

Freedom, Access, Hope. 

Malika woke up to sounds of terror in their village and they realized not only had their government invaded the village, but it was killing leaders and burning every home in the village. Malika did exactly what every other village family did; grabbed what they could carry and ran into the jungle. 

This isn’t a story from years ago in the past…this is happening to Village after Village in Myanmar this year.

FAME partners have brought help and hope to refugees by providing food, shelter, and even starting churches in refugee camps along the border of Myanmar and Thailand. 

FAME recently approved a project with Asia Christian Services (ACS) to establish a clinic in one of the Refugee Camps that will bring Access to healthcare and the gospel.  ACS will bring Hope, and we will continue to pray that the day will come that they will have Freedom from the tyranny of the government. Until that time, you through FAME, and other partners will bring help and hope through Medical Evangelism. 

 If you would like more information about this Project at the Refugee Camp at the Myanmar/Thailand Border click here

Thank you for your partnership!

Bill Warren
Executive Director

July Prayer Calendar

Thank you for your continued prayers for the ministry of FAME; its partners, staff, board members, volunteers, trip participants, scholarship students, and special projects. People all around the world are being blessed by your faithful prayers each day.

As we begin the month of July and then celebrate July 4th, Independence Day, let us be reminded of the freedoms we have here in the US. With these freedoms, we have religious freedom where we can express our faith in Christ and share that good news with others. In other places throughout the world that is not always the case. Many of your FAME Partners face opposition and persecution for the faith they profess. May this Independence Day be one where we reflect on God and the ways he has blessed us through the freedoms we have here and pray for FAME partners that are sharing the love of Christ through medical evangelism in the midst of persecution.

This month, please also partner with us in prayer for the FAME staff and Board members that serve the ministry. Pray for wisdom and discernment as FAME starts a new fiscal year and considers new sustainable healthcare projects, locations to ship medical supplies and equipment, and locations and dates for short-term medical mission trips.

Other items of prayer include praying for FAME Executive Director, Bill Warren and Director of Development, Jeff Coon as they speak to partner churches and at special events on behalf of FAME this month. Pray that partnerships with the churches or organizations they will be visiting will be strengthened and that new opportunities for partnerships may form.

And pray also for all our volunteer groups listed on the calendar this month. FAME could not do all we do without them, as they share their time and talents in serving the ministry.

Blessings in the coming month.

Click here for the July prayer calendar

If You Walked to School as a Child….

If you walked to school as a child, you understand the situation of Jolinea and millions of people in the world. 

I walked to school until sixth grade.  I took the route out the back door, up an alley about a block to my school.  I walked home for lunch and back in time to play on the playground.  My co-worker Jeff Coon claims he did the same thing but walked further (7 blocks) and in worse weather (Michigan vs. Ohio)!  You may have walked in snow, heat, uphill both ways and carried your sister J!  Either way, you’ll understand this global need a little more! 

Recent research of how FAME can best help the medically at-risk found that 805 million people walk more than 3 hours to receive healthcare, and 20% walk more than 24 hours!  One of the studies used a “walking OPTIMAL SPEED” variable- and acknowledged that “being unwell will increase travel times” – now that’s an understatement! 

Every FAME partner Clinic, Health Ministry, and Hospital shares the gospel with every patient. 

That makes EVERY HEALTH FACILITY OR TEAM –
 EVANGELISM OUTPOSTS!!! 

That is why YOUR FAME IMPACT has Eleven (11) facilities ready or under construction to move access to healthcare and access to the gospel CLOSER TO MILLIONS of the world’s most vulnerable! 

 YOU help people like Jolinea every day!  Jolinea was feeling pain in her abdomen, she rested hoping it would go away.  The next day she was in so much pain she could barely stand, but decided to walk to a FAME partner clinic she had seen many times, but never visited.  She walked only 7 blocks (notice I said, only, Jeff) and was able to be treated caringly, hear about Jesus and resolve her medical issues.  Most importantly she is now attending one of the churches which is partnered with the clinic! 

ONLY 7 BLOCKS FROM HER HOME WAS THE HELP AND HOPE SHE NEEDED!  And she never had heard the gospel even though it was only minutes away!  This is Medical Evangelism! 

Together, let’s shorten the trip for more of the world’s people in great need of help and hope! 

FAME and YOU together can move access to healthcare and access to the gospel closer and closer to more of the world!  

Thank you for your partnership!

Bill Warren
Executive Director

Inflation Impact is Global

I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that we aren’t the only ones facing an economic pinch these days.  Many of your global FAME partners are working diligently to maximize the help and hope you have sent to stretch and be used to complete their projects to the best of their ability!! 

Eleven (11) sustainable projects are READY or UNDER CONSTRUCTION right now!
One of those is a long-term partner of FAME, Ghana Christian Mission! 

Last year FAME funded the construction of critical Housing for Hospital Staff for the Ghana Christian Mission.  In Ghana the majority of Ghanaians WALK to reach healthcare, a high percentage of those people walk more than 3 hours to reach even a clinic!  The staff faces similar limitations for travel, so adequate housing is needed for the mission to hire and keep quality Nurses on staff. 

The solution:  Kumdi Nurses Project! 

GCM Hospital Staff
Current GCM Hospital Housing


                                           

 

 

 

 

But inflation is hitting Ghana hard!  Here is a report I received recently: 

Several factors have led the economy in Ghana to see a 25% increase in materials costs on most items, most notably cement and steel.  Fuel prices have increased the most by nearly a 50% increase from January to this point in 2022.  Of course, this increases the cost of living for all the skilled workers and so it is affecting labor costs on the project

The results of all these external changes have led to a projected shortfall of about $20,000 to fully complete the Kumdi Nurses Quarters.  Wisdom (Wisdom Nyador Executive Director in Ghana) has been diligently managing the cash flow and reducing the number of workers for the time being to ease the situation. 

I know we’ve had to tighten our belts here in the US, but if you find it possible to help this global inflation impact in Ghana go to www.fameworld.org/donate and choose
Project Fund-Sustainable Projects and put “Inflation” in the notes!

if you would like to know a little more about the Staff Housing Project at Ghana Christian Mission, Click Here

Construction Progress of new Staff Housing

 

New GCM Staff Housing Floorplan