Help the Sisters Serve the Poor in Hue, Vietnam

Do you remember seeing your unborn child for the first time on an ultrasound screen? Have you or someone you love benefitted from early cancer detection? These are things we take for granted every day here in America.  The ultrasound at Kim Long Charity Clinic in Hue, Vietnam is over 18 years old and cannot accurately diagnose and address these medical issues.  I am hoping to raise $20,000 for my senior project in order to purchase a new ultrasound device for the patients of the Kim Long Charity Clinic.

After visiting with Sister Bong at the Kim Long Charity Clinic in December I saw the amazing work the sisters do.   Kim Long Charity Clinic serves the poor and offers reduced or often times free health care.  Every day the sisters use the ultrasound on at least 20 patients.  The ultrasound is used for the diagnosis of breast, thyroid, and abdominal complications.  However, the current machine is not adequate to provide the medical care needed and some patients must be turned away and sent elsewhere.  

With a new ultrasound the sisters would be able to efficiently and successfully address these issues in their clinic as well as provide essential heart and pregnancy ultrasounds.  Witnessing firsthand the dedication and passion the sisters have in caring for their patients, I was inspired to try make a difference for them and the people they serve.  $20,000 will allow the clinic to purchase a new ultrasound device.  If you would like to join me in helping the sisters provide better medical health care please write a check and send it to MIPC with “ultrasound” in the memo line.  If you would like more information contact me at: cody_hall@rocketmail.com.

A Story from Cambodia

Sacred Moments

Missions Musings

We had heard last spring that one of our students in Cambodia, Sovanara, had stopped going to school because her mother was very ill and no longer could sell vegetables in the market. So Sovanara went to work in a factory to support her mother and younger brother.

We alerted her sponsor to the situation, and her sponsor would not let her go. She wanted us to do what we could to convince Sovanara to stay in school and offered to pay her factor salary of $100 a month. Her sponsor had met her on one of our trips a few years ago, and Sovanara told the sponsor that her dream was to go to medical school. Her sponsor hadn’t forgotten that.

So when we were in Cambodia last month we arranged to meet Sovanara and her brother at our hotel to tell her about the offer.  Tragically, their mother had just died of AIDS the Thursday before we arrived.  That left Sovanara and her brother alone. Maybe 50 years of factory work lay ahead of her because she was only 17 years old.

Our scholarship administrators in Cambodia, Sina and KC, talked with her about the offer to pay her to go to school and talked about how working in the factory would leave her little time to be with her brother. Sovanara agreed to think about it and the next day she decided she would go back to school even though she would be much older than many of her classmates.

In reality, her sponsor couldn’t afford the $100 a month payments in addition to her scholarship payment, because her husband is in school, and she is the only one working.  But she was determined to find a way to help Sovanara to have a better life, a life of hope.

It turned out that one of the people in our group who met Sovanara said that she would write a check for her every year…$1,200 to pay her salary.  The benefactor could more easily handle that $1,200 payment every year and was more than willing to help.

What do you make of this story? Does it remind you of the Gospel? The one lost sheep?

Sometimes we are able to catch a glimmer of what God’s love and generosity must be like. Those are sacred moments.  May we each find them every day.