“Roads? Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need Roads”

Many times FAME partners go to the underserved and neglected where there is no access by road! 

FAME has learned:
Where there is limited access to healthcare, there is limited access to the gospel.
Where there is limited access to the gospel, there is limited access to healthcare.

In the busy suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, at one of the nation’s best hospitals, is an ER Doctor who is one of the best!  Year-round he treats terrible situations in the ER and the Level II Trauma Center. But his favorite “shifts” are places with no roads in Central and South America.  He and his wife have been traveling to Panama, the Amazon region of Brazil, Bolivia, and Guatemala since 2005.  FAME has been sending medicines, sutures, surgical equipment, and supplies for many years!

He reported from a trip this summer, We saw 2115 patients, fitted 731 pairs of glasses, screened and treated all of the adults for hypertension and diabetes, gave nearly 1000 vitamin injections, hundreds of steroid joint injections, dozens of surgeries.., gave away hundreds of toys, and trained local missionaries/pastors how to use their new autorefractor to continue to test and fit the 4000 pairs of glasses we left them. Most importantly, we shared the Gospel message with everyone!”

Thank you for your partnership that sends the gospel to unlikely, and difficult-to-reach regions.  God has been sending people to deserted areas since the church began.  In Acts, we are told that an angel of the Lord told Philip to go South of Jerusalem to a desert path and he found an Ethiopian who was ready to hear the gospel.

YOU are being used by God to send messengers to areas with and without roads so the gospel can be shared! 

Thank you for your partnership.

Bill Warren
Executive Director

September Prayer Calendar

Dear Prayer Partner,

Thank you for your continued support of the ministry of FAME through prayer. Whether your prayers be for our numerous mission partners around the world, FAME international scholarship students, our numerous and faithful volunteers, participants and team leaders on our medical mission trips, our devoted Board Members, or our passionate staff, your prayers ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE!

This month we ask for prayers for two short-term mission teams that will be going to Colombia. These teams will be serving alongside the mission, La Costa Colombia providing medical care through medical outreaches in the coastal cities of Barranquilla, Santa Marta, and Buena Ventura to develop and support indigenous Christian ministries, as well as providing health education seminars for women in the area. Medical outreaches and education open doors for our Colombian hosts to engage in personal relationships with those who come to receive treatment from our team.  Through those relationships, the good news of Jesus can be shared, and ultimately lives will be transformed. Please pray for the individuals that will be going to serve and those they will be helping and teaching.

Other items of prayer this month include:

  • Wonderful volunteer groups
  • A shipping container we are loading with medical supplies for Ghana Christian Mission.
  • Other shipments of medical equipment and supplies being prepared to be sent to global mission partners in Liberia, El Salvador, DR Congo, and Haiti
  • Some FAME staff members. Happy Birthday to Director of Mission Resources, Barry Reed on Sept. 20th.
  • The Spire Conference in Nashville, TN where ministry leaders who inspire a movement of healthy growing churches go to be encouraged and equipped.

Thank you so much for your continued partnership with FAME through prayer.

Blessings in the coming month.

Click here for the September Prayer Calendar

Long Drives, Closed Clinics – FAME is Doing Something About It!

Me-lika, an eight-year-old boy faced unimaginable loss when both of his parents passed away within a year of each other. One succumbed to AIDS, and the other fell victim to malaria. Me-lika is now a resident of an orphanage where he receives compassionate care. However, life took a frightening turn when he fell seriously ill one night. A house parent monitored him and realizing the severity of his condition, swiftly placed him in a car and started on a three-hour journey to the nearest clinic. Their hopes were dashed upon arrival though as the clinic was closed. They then continued on to the hospital, another hour away, where Me-lika was admitted, treated, and eventually discharged after a few days of recovery.  All he needed was an antibiotic in a timely manner. This scary situation is too vulnerable for orphan children and their families!

New house parents, Mathew and Upendo

FAME has a new partnership with an organization called Remember the Children. They have been working for many years in Romania and recently expanded their work to Tanzania. Remember the Children is a ministry that is focused on providing housing and families for orphans. There are 3.1 Million Orphan children in Tanzania because of Aids and Malaria.

They have already built ten homes in the village of Malolo. Each home can house twelve children and their parents, and they are filled to capacity. Homes 11 and 12 are currently under construction. A church has been started to meet the spiritual needs of the children and the community. They baptized 20 people in July! A school has been started to provide for their education. It has a capacity of 600 children and is currently at 270.

There is very limited access to healthcare in Tanzania particularly in this area. So, Remember the Children is building a Healthcare Clinic to meet the medical needs of orphans, school children, and the people in their local community. The clinic will be built next door to the church because they want to connect the physical ministry of the clinic with the spiritual ministry of the church!

 

Your partnership with FAME touches the lives of orphans, like Me-lika, part of those we call “the world’s most vulnerable” whom FAME reaches with medical evangelism!

Video by Abigail Russell, Remember the Children

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going Through a Phase

“Going through a phase…”

Just an idiom?

So many of your FAME global partners have EXTENSIVE dreams and visions to MEET THE HEALTH NEEDS of the community they serve in order to SHOW THE LOVE OF JESUS, and then TELL THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS.  “Phases” to the Medical Evangelism process!

But those visions have humble beginnings.  A Burden, prayers, connections, open doors, sketches on napkins, conversations with leaders, building permits, funding partnerships, church connections, government approvals, obstacles, persecution, community emergency health crisis’, ground-breaking, and on and on to the moment when a person is treated in the name of Jesus by a healthcare provider and a family hears the gospel.  “Going through Phases”

Over the last year, FAME received updated photos of a hospital project of a specific room in the hospital.

Tile delivery
Tile installed
Electrical and lights installed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hospital bed installed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Phases” that lead to people making eternal, permanent decisions for their lives!

Next time someone says, “…going through a phase….”  Think of FAME global partners who YOUR PARTNERSHIP WITH THEM takes them through hundreds of phases, fulfilling visions to bring the gospel to thousands!

Thank you for your partnership!

Does FAME Have a Children’s Hospital?

Not a simple answer, because, the short answer is, “No.”

But it is a “no” because FAME has no hospitals – FAME is a partner in medical evangelism!  The answer to the first question is “There is better news than having A hospital or clinic!  There are over 2000 hospitals, clinics, and ministries which have been a FAME partner!” 

In just the last 3 years FAME partnerships have supported:

  • -multiple orphan care ministries
  • -ministries serving abandoned babies
  • -ministries rescuing trafficked children
  • -hospitals and doctors specializing in children’s surgeries
  • -distribution of mobility supplies for children
  • neo-natal care facilities
  • mother and child facilities
  • birthing centers

Recently a partner in a persecuted region reported that a CHE (Community Health Evangelism) Training on Trauma Healing and Recovery was led for 80 evangelists and many others.  Medical Kits and basic first aid training were provided for those evangelists.

One of those evangelists went back to his tribal region and after counseling and caring for some of the people he showed the Jesus Film to children and adults who had never even seen a moving picture.  Attached to the news was a photo of 20 people who had just been baptized…clearly most of them were children!

Your partnership is a multiplying impact partnership!

Can I re-phrase the question from the beginning of this email?

Does my partnership with FAME reach and care for children?

“Yes!”

When you say “Yes!” to FAME it allows FAME to say “Yes!” to global partners so that millions of people will say “Yes!” to Jesus!

 

Not Quite Overnight…. But Amazing

“What we really need is a dental handpiece, but I know those are almost impossible to find and very expensive.” That’s what the dentist in Honduras told our staff who was visiting there last week. Barry, FAME Director of Mission Resources, answered, “You mean a dental drill?”  As the conversation continued, not only did Barry start to realize that the dental equipment this dentist needed was something that FAME had on hand, but it was also of even greater quality than this FAME partner dentist could hope to acquire.  Barry was not only able to promise delivery of a piece of equipment that will open the doors for the gospel to patients served at your FAME partner clinic in Honduras, but delivery within a week. Wednesday a suitcase with that dental drill and other equipment and supplies left with a friend of FAME, taking it to that very partner in Honduras!

One week, that’s a quick response. If it weren’t for partners like you, FAME would not be in a position to have or send the needed equipment and supplies that our global partners need to treat people in the name of Jesus, and share with them to love Jesus.

Thank you for your partnership. 

August Prayer Calendar

Dear Prayer Partner,

Thank you for your continued support of the ministry of FAME through prayer. We are blessed by your faithfulness each month in praying for FAME Mission Partners, volunteers, scholarship recipients, staff, board members, trip participants, shipments, projects, trips, and other various ministry activities.

This month, we ask that you join us in prayer for many of our regular FAME volunteers that come weekly or monthly to serve. We are blessed to have them use their time and talents to help further the Kingdom through the important part they play in medical evangelism.

We also ask that you pray for the FAME scholarship recipients that are studying to become medical professionals in their home countries. The current scholarship recipients are studying to become doctors, nurses, and community health workers. We are blessed to be able to provide these medical scholarships to these talented Christian young people who have a heart to serve others.

Lastly, please pray for some of the shipments of medical supplies that are being prepared to be sent to many of our mission partners around the world. Please pray that the medical supplies will be a blessing to the ministries to whom they will be going and that they will help the mission in their efforts to bring people to Christ through medical evangelism.

Blessings in the coming month.

Click here for the August Prayer Calendar

Nursing School With No Equipment?

How confident would you be of receiving care from nurses whose training did not include having any nursing equipment or supplies?

Without your partnership and FAME, there are nursing schools that would be in that exact situation. One such partner, in a central African nation, has two hospitals and a nursing school. But recently, they were unable to acquire needed medical equipment and supplies. FAME was able to send a shipment that included blood pressure cuffs and stethoscopes for the nursing students. Shockingly, these were something that they could not get because of cost, shipping, and supply chain issues.

This ministry is touching the lives of thousands of people through the hospital, but without a new flow of trained medical professionals, the needs of the community will never be met. This nursing school is a critical piece of the evangelism network of this hospital ministry.

Julie, a young girl, was having difficulty breathing and no one in her family knew why. She was able to go to the emergency room at one of these hospitals and the nursing staff there was able to identify what was wrong because they were well-trained and well-equipped. This could’ve been an emergency without a positive outcome if it hadn’t been for your generosity!

You allow FAME to say “Yes!”, to global partner’s requests for help.

Every time FAME is able to say, “Yes!, more people say “Yes” to Jesus and the hope that He brings.

Thank you for your partnership. 

Bill Warren
Executive Director

3,100,000 Orphans

FAME has partnerships all over the world with those that are bringing help and hope to those who desperately need healthcare and the gospel. We now have a new partnership with an organization called Remember the Children. They have been working for many years in Romania and recently expanded their work to Tanzania. Remember the Children is a ministry that is focused on providing housing and families for orphans. There are 3.1 Million Orphan children in Tanzania because of Aids and Malaria.

They have already built ten homes in the village of Malolo. Each home has the capacity to house twelve children and their parents and they are filled to capacity. Homes 11 and 12 are currently under construction. A church has been started to meet the spiritual needs of the children and the community. The church started with six people and is now running 120-150. They baptized 20 people in July!

There is very limited access to healthcare in Tanzania and particularly in this area. In response to the lack of access to healthcare,  FAME is partnering with Remember the Children to build a Healthcare Clinic to meet the medical needs of the orphans, the school children, and the people in their local community. The Clinic will be built next door to the church because they want to connect the physical ministry of the clinic with the spiritual ministry of the church.

The Pastor of the local church said, We as a Church intend to use this opportunity to reach all who will come to access medical care, including those who are desperate for life, to tell how Jesus is the best Father to the Fatherless, how He is a help to the helpless, how He is hope to those who have no hope. Malolo is predominantly Muslim so the need for the gospel is great.

FAME has committed $30,000 toward the $44,000 needed to construct the clinic.

Your continued partnership with FAME will help orphans and so many more!!

Knee Replacements, Hip Replacements….

I’m surrounded.  That may be an overstatement, but I feel like the conversations I have every week here in the States include at least one “knee replacement” surgery of someone I know.  Even among the FAME staff, there are close connections to knee replacement surgeries this month!

And we have good shoes, cars, safe environments, and GREAT medical care options including follow-up care! 

One FAME shipping partner serves in Ecuador doing orthopedic surgeries on people who would never have such an opportunity!  This ministry started by two orthopedic surgeons from Alabama now has treated thousands of patients for nearly 40 years.

But most moving is the work they do with children.  These children and their families have been able to not only receive the hope that comes after such a surgery…but they have heard the good news of the gospel.  This surgery center shares the gospel to those people who otherwise have no hope to correct their musculoskeletal conditions.

Another shipping partner is arriving today to pick up walkers and other mobility equipment from your FAME Indianapolis warehouse.  But even more shocking to me was when one ministry partner had such a need, that they were able to have FAME ship 434 walkers to their global workers!

Thank you for your partnership in Medical Evangelism!

Pastor Jonas from DR Congo and Barry Reed, FAME Director of Mission Resources