Samaritan's Purse
Samaritan's Purse is a Christian relief and evangelical
organization that meets emergency needs around the world. Samaritan's
Purse works through local churches, missionaries, and Christian missions
to spread the gospel by meeting the physical and spiritual needs
of victims of war, famine, disease, and natural disasters. The current
leader and chairman of the board of Samaritan's Purse is Franklin
Graham, son of Billy Graham. Franklin is also chairman of the board
of World Medical Mission, the medical arm of Samaritan's Purse. World
Medical Mission was founded in 1977 and helps mission hospitals spread
the gospel by providing volunteer medical personnel, equipment, training
and financial assistance. The following short excerpts are taken
from Franklin Graham's autobiography titled "Rebel With A Cause",
with the exception of what's in brackets [ ].
"Tenwek"
"Shortly after my return...I asked Dr. Lowell Furman to join
me for a survey trip to visit mission hospitals in Africa that wanted
our help. It was our strong conviction that before we sent a doctor overseas
to work in a hospital, either I or one of our board members should go
and see it firsthand so we would know what we were getting into. One
of our stops would be at Tenwek Hospital in western Kenya.
To reach Tenwek, an extremely remote area, we had to fly in a small plane
across the Great Rift Valley and mile after mile of African bush. This
was an exhilarating experience. Our pilot, Keith Jones, once had been
with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and had flown planes off aircraft carriers
in the rough waters of the North Sea. He handled the Cessna as if he
were on a bombing mission.
As we approached Tenwek, Keith said, "We've got to let the hospital know
we've arrived." He dived to treetop level and buzzed across the hospital
compound with the engine wide open. It would have been a great strafing
run--the only thing missing was the sound of machine guns. After terrorizing
those below, Keith banked sharply to the right and climbed out. As we
circled above, he said, "I think I'll go down one more time to make sure
they heard us."
Lowell and I looked at each other. Neither of us said anything, but I
knew we both were thinking: Make sure they heard us? That last pass
was so loud, the dead probably hear us! No question--we had a wild
man at the controls!
Keith yelled at us again, "Write a note on the back of several of your
business cards. Ask the missionaries to meet us at the airport." I wrote
the message.
This time Keith cut the engine, slowing the plane's speed, and came in
even lower--I felt like I could almost reach down and touch the heads
of the people who were looking up, wide-eyed, at us. As the plane drifted
over the hospital, I waited until our pilot yelled,
"Now!"
I dropped the cards. They fluttered to the ground, and several children
raced to pick them up...Keith set us down smoothly, and within minutes
hundreds of people appeared out of nowhere and surrounded the aircraft...Within
half an hour a VW van came bouncing down the dirt road that paralleled
the strip. Out hopped a slender man of medium height. He greeted us with
an infectious grin. "I got your card," he said. "My name is Dr. Ernie
Steury."
Ernie, Lowell, and I immediately felt a common bond, and our visit got
off to a great start. The hospital had an impressive, efficient ministry,
and over the next two years I made several trips back to assess their
needs. The hospital was seriously overcrowded with their 130 beds often
filled to 200 percent occupancy!
Each time I visited I would ask, "Ernie, why don't you build a new ward?
You need more space."
"Maybe someday," he would answer with that bright smile of his.
On one of my trips, Ernie told me they now had plans to build a new ward.
"How much do you think it will cost?" I asked.
"About four hundred thousand dollars," Ernie replied.
"How much money have you raised?"
"Nothing," he said with a laugh. "We don't have any money but God knows
our need."
I smiled, too, because I was remembering the missionaries in Jordan and
others I'd met over the years who had the same confident attitude. That
kind of faith always got my blood pumping. I really wanted to do something...
It took several years to build that ward at Tenwek because of the hospital's
remote location. It was difficult to get steel, concrete, and skilled
laborers, but God provided.
When the hospital was completed, Kenya's president, His Excellency Daniel
T. Arap Moi, came to the dedication and personally opened the new ward
with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. In his address to the thousands who had
gathered in the hot African sun, he reminded everyone that the name "Tenwek"
came from the early missionaries who had come to the region at the turn
of the century. They had walked "ten weeks" from the coast to reach that
part of Kenya.
President Moi praised the early missionaries who had brought the gospel
of Jesus Christ at great personal sacrifice. And he thanked the doctors
and nurses of today for their service to the people of Kenya.
Shortly after the dedication at Tenwek, I learned about the hospital's
need for Bibles. Of the thirty thousand patients who had been treated
in twelve months time, eight thousand had made decisions to follow Jesus..."
[Evangelism Walks on Two Legs: Now stop right here.
I want you to realize a significant principle that's at work here--whether
applied on a individual, local church, national or international level--these
30,000 people in one year had been shown the demonstrated gospel of Christ,
and now they hungered for the written and spoken gospel of Christ. The
preached gospel is not that effective without the lovingly demonstrated
gospel of Jesus Christ. The point being, the effective presentation
of the gospel walks forward on two legs, the active demonstrated Word,
and the spoken or written Word of God. The old saying "Actions speak
louder than words" applies to the presentation of the gospel as equally
it does in any other situation. 8,000 divided by 30,000 = 26.7 percent.
That means almost 30 percent who experienced both forms of the gospel
acting upon their lives gave their lives to Jesus Christ. Two or three
percent return on your investment in business and advertising is considered
very good in the modern business world. This is a whopping 30 percent
return on investment!
"...I told him that Samaritan's Purse would buy a thousand--I was operating
in the "God room" mode again, because we did not have money set aside
for this. Just two days later, one of our Samaritan's Purse surgeons
who was serving at another hospital offered to pay for the Bibles. Praise
the Lord!
I was realizing more and more that when we faithfully present the world's
needs to God's people, they do respond...
...I began to get invitations to speak at various events. As I accepted
those invitations, I decided I would never ask for money. Although it
was tempting to change the strategy, I stuck to our policy of not giving
emotional appeals or twisting the arms of God's people. If people offered
to help, we would gratefully accept their gifts on behalf of the Lord.
But I wasn't going to ask....We stuck to our original plan: Present the
facts, let people know the need, and then back off. We would let the
Holy Spirit do the rest. We learned it works."
Samaritan's Purse has given emergency aid and/or set up emergency
hospitals in such war torn areas and hot-spots as Bosnia, the Iraqi-Turkish
border, Lebanon during their civil war, Rwanda, Nicaragua, Jordan, as
well as many other places around the world, and continues to do so anywhere
disaster strikes. Franklin has noticed that in many of these circumstances
it took weeks or even months to set up portable hospitals and aid stations
that could have been set up within forty-eight hours. Had this been possible,
many more lives could have been saved. With this observation he has a
dream. It is my hope this dream becomes a reality. In his own words,
here is his dream:
"...I can't help but envision a C130 Hercules transport aircraft that
could carry a Disaster Response Team made up of Christian professionals,
to any part of the world in a time of crisis. This type of plane can
land on just about any kind of runway in the world.
Perhaps one day the Lord will allow us to equip such an aircraft, with
medicines, supplies, water, and a MASH-type hospital unit that could
lift off at a moment's notice in response to a Rwanda or Bosnia. Instead
of taking weeks or months to get medical personnel on the ground in such
critical situations, a C130 could be airborne within forty-eight hours,
fully equipped and staffed with doctors and nurses from the United States
and Canada.
A project of this magnitude could cost as much as $15 million to set
up, and possibly $2 million a year to maintain. But the lives it could
save and the avenues it could open to the gospel are vast.
We see humanitarian organizations worldwide like the International Red
Cross and others responding to human tragedy. They do a tremendous work,
but they are missing the most important ingredient for healing the hurts
of the world--the message of God's love.
What a testimony it would be to the name of Jesus Christ for a Christian
organization to be on the cutting edge of disaster relief--bringing God's
redemptive love to a lost and dying world.
Samaritan's Purse is a small organization with limited assets, but God's
resources are immeasurable. A dream--yes, a future reality--I certainly
hope so, if "God room" prevails."
[These excerpts were taken from Franklin Graham's autobiography "Rebel
With A Cause". For information on how to obtain a copy of this book which
describes an incredible work of God and the man the Lord has appointed
to currently run it, click on http://www.christianbook.com. It is currently available
for ordering online for $9.99 (retail price $12.99), paperback, 336 pages,
ISBN # 0785271708. In the search section click on Title and then where
is says for type in "Rebel With A Cause", and click
on Go Or you can contact Samaritan's Purse at: http://www.samaritanspurse.org. Ordering and reading this
book will give you a full picture of what Samaritan's Purse is all about
and how powerfully the gospel of Jesus Christ is promoted with so little
resources--truly an example of the missing dimension in the successful
promotion and proclamation of the gospel! This is a true picture of the
style of servant leadership that Jesus taught
his disciples about (read Mark 9:33-35 and Matthew 20:20-28) and it is
a vital key to successful evangelism at all levels, personal, local church,
national and international. Support of Samaritan's Purse strongly promotes
the gospel on the international level.]
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