Manorom Christian Hospital Revisited

Manorom Christian Hospital Revisited
– By Dr Felicia Lim

God etches some impressions deeply on our minds. That seems to be what He was doing when I first visited Manorom Christian Hospital in Thailand as a young medical student doing my elective posting. Although I do not remember much of that visit, it had actually made a great impact on me. I graduated from medical school and went on to do my postgraduate studies in anaesthesia. Yet the impressions of that mission hospital endured. For years I carried this dream of going back to visit the Hospital. Then in 2003, I attended a conference where I met someone from the Manorom Hospital. God was putting arrangements in place for my dream to be realised! We established contact and in August 2003 I made my first return visit to Manorom Hospital. Later that year, in November, I was at a conference in Bangkok and again I took the opportunity to make another visit to the Hospital. I had waited for several years and now God was giving me two visits in one year! I knew I would be back.

August 2004. I have just returned from my third visit to the Manorom Hospital. I spent two weeks there. Manorom is a small village in Central Thailand, situated about two hours by car from Bangkok. The Manorom Christian Hospital was set up by Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF) in 1956. At that time this was the only hospital serving a big area in Central Thailand. Hospital staff consisted of missionary doctors and staff nurses. Local nurses were trained to be practical nurses (like our assistant nurses). Through the years, local Christian doctors and nurses have been recruited. The hospital has since been handed over to a local Christian mission organisation.

I provided anaesthetic service during my two-week stint in the Manorom Hospital. An OMF missionary surgeon performs almost any surgery although he was trained as a general surgeon. There is no qualified anaesthesiologist but there are two nurse anaesthetists – one, a local staff nurse and the other, an American missionary nurse. Both of them have been trained in anaesthesia. Even though anaesthetic facilities in the operating theatre are basic, they have been doing a good job at maintaining a high standard of care and safety to their patients.

My visits to the Hospital have been meaningful. As I offered my services and they learned from me the finer points of anaesthesia, I also learned from them. So often I can easily forget that it is the Lord who gives life and who heals. Doctors and technology are just God’s instruments. When I was at the hospital, I was reminded that skills and knowledge, technology and machines are helpful in treating patients, but ultimately it is the Lord whom we should depend upon to see us through. It was also a humbling experience for me to see God bring healing to patients in the absence of all the sophisticated equipment that we have in a modern hospital.

The Manorom Hospital provides most of the basic facilities that are available in a hospital such as X-ray and laboratory facilities, a pharmacy, physiotherapy, an operating theatre, outpatient clinics, an emergency department and a dental clinic. Besides these, since its inception, the Hospital has been taking care of leprosy patients who are normally shunned by the community. In 1997, an AIDS programme called the Friday Friendship group was started for AIDS patients. It provides counseling and teaching about AIDS to HIV positive patients and their families.

Patients who come to the Hospital have the opportunity to hear the Gospel. Each morning, at the Outpatient Department, before the clinic starts, there will be a time of preaching of the Gospel by one of the hospital evangelists to those who are waiting to see the doctors. The hospital evangelists also visit patients in the wards to share with them the Gospel and to pray with them.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for foreign medical personnel to work in Thailand because of the need to sit for qualifying examinations in Thai in order to obtain a practising licence. It has also not been easy to recruit Thai doctors and nurses to work here, because it involves a lot of sacrifice. As a result of the shortage of staff, some services and some wards have had to be closed. There is a need to pray that more Thai Christian doctors and nurses will respond to God’s call to serve in this hospital. God had placed the call and vision in the hearts of His people to engage in this evangelistic medical mission 48 years ago. Many lives have been blessed and touched and it will be wonderful to see the work go on.

I had the privilege of joining them in celebrating the hospital’s 48th anniversary on Aug 14. It was exciting to hear the testimonies of many who have come to know the Lord through the hospital. Lives have been touched and transformed as a result of patients seeking treatment in this mission hospital. Manarom Christian Hospital has played a very significant role in evangelism and church planting in Central Thailand these past 48 years.

The church in Manorom was set up when the hospital was established. Today it is the largest church in Central Thailand with a membership of 120. Many of them came to faith in the Lord through the hospital. God has truly been faithful in sustaining His work in Manorom Christian Hospital. Let’s pray that God will continue to use it to extend His kingdom in Central Thailand. – Dr Felicia Lim is a Professor and Consultant Anaesthesiologist with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. She worships at Praise Baptist Centre, Bandar Sri Damansara, Kuala Lumpur.