The Oral Roberts Ministries medical outreach team was God’s love in action at the free medical clinics in the city of San Salvador.
Isabel lay in a hammock at her home, too ill to move. When her family heard about free medical clinics being set up in their village by Oral Roberts Ministries and local doctors, two of her sons rushed to the clinic and begged doctors to come to their home to help their sick mother. And like Jesus leaving the 99 sheep and going after the one in distress, ORM team member Dr. Stephanie Gillette made a house call.
When Stephanie and other medical team members arrived, they learned that Isabel had surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from her breast 18 days earlier, but had not received follow-up care afterwards. The staples from the surgery had not been removed, and the site was infected.
Dr. Gillette knew the situation could get serious quickly. She cleaned and drained the wound, and trained Isabel’s family to do it themselves so that they could care for Isabel.
As Dr. Gillette finished ministering to Isabel, she noticed Isabel’s husband Fernando standing in the doorway. By the urging of the Holy Spirit, Dr. Gillette asked Fernando if he’d like to accept Jesus Christ as his Savior. Fernando said he would, and Dr. Gillette prayed for him and led him to the Lord right there in his own home. And even though he may live in a cardboard city today, someday he’ll be walking on streets of gold!
Nothing Is Too Hard for God
Isabel and Fernando live in a semi-organized community called a cardboard city with about 1,500 other families. Their homes don’t have doors. They’re made of scrap metal, wooden poles, cardboard, and plastic tarp tied together with string. These people have no electricity or running water, and they live with improper sanitation. When it rains (as it often does in El Salvador), the community turns into one muddy mess.
Everyday life is difficult for these people, who are unemployed or underemployed and do not have enough food to eat. ORM’s team of doctors and nurses, working with El Salvadoran volunteers from several churches in the area, came to bring health to these people who are desperate for a touch from God.
Medicine With a Mission
Organizing a medical outreach clinic for the needy is a huge undertaking. Fortunately Richard Roberts knew the man for the job. Dr. Jose Coto is not only a well-respected surgeon in El Salvador, but he also works to improve public health for coffee plantation workers and still finds time to conduct several Bible studies a week.
With the assistance of an El Salvadoran medical team, Oral Roberts Ministries medical personnel held medical clinics for people who needed medical care but had no money to see doctors. And for three days, over 300 people a day were able to receive much-needed healthcare.
The doctors involved in the medical outreach donated their time, leaving busy medical practices to treat people in need at no cost. Not only that, Partners of Richard Roberts helped bring thousands of dollars worth of medicines to El Salvador.
Three stations were set up at each clinic. After the patients saw a doctor, they were sent to spiritual counseling. Team members prayed for whatever needs the El Salvadorans were facing, and they were able to lead many to the Lord. Then the people were directed to the pharmacy to pick up their prescriptions. Packed along with their medications were food packets containing enough food to feed an entire family, thanks to Hunger Needs a Voice®, the humanitarian outreach of ORM.
The Marriage of Medicine and Prayer
Sometimes the needs of the people were so great; the doctors didn’t have the right medicines or equipment to treat their patients. In those cases, the medical team merged medicine with prayer and God performed healing miracles right in front of everyone’s eyes.
One of those miracles was a little boy who had fallen and hit his head a few days before. Stitches and bandages had been applied to the injury, but he was limp and listless. He had to be carried to the clinic. Doctors and nurses couldn’t do much for the boy, but nurse Deborah Nord found Richard and asked him to pray.
“Richard Roberts came, laid hands on the boy, prayed, and believed that he would be healed,” Deborah said. “Within a couple of minutes, the boy’s eyes started to open brightly. Within an hour or two, I saw the boy running around the courtyard, playing with the other children. I thought, ‘Is that the same boy?’ And it was!”
Even after the medical clinics were shut down, God was still performing healing miracles.
A precious mother had rushed home to pick up her 7-year-old girl and take her to the medical outreach. The little girl had already undergone four operations for cysts up and down her spine. She was in incredible pain and the cysts were starting to affect her nervous system to the point of paralysis. All the mother wanted was something to alleviate her child’s pain.
But when she arrived, the medical clinic tents were already closed. It was too late.
Then Richard Roberts drove up.
Dr. Coto brought the weeping mother and her child to Richard and said, “Please, Dr. Roberts, will you pray for this little girl?” Richard immediately prayed and believed for the little girl’s complete healing. Dr. Coto went back to check on the child a few weeks later, and reported that she is totally, 100% healed!
Partners of the Oral Roberts Ministries were so generous with their financial gifts to the international medical outreach efforts. Those gifts and prayers allowed us to bring Jesus to the people. By joining together, ORM and its Partners made a lasting impact in El Salvador. Mission accomplished!