Medical missionary from Nepal visits
When a recent earthquake struck Nepal, timing was such that Dr. Becky Eiwen, a medical missionary serving that country’s people, was appearing at Resurrection Lutheran Church during a visit that had been planed weeks ago. Eiwen had come to talk about her work in a hospital in Tansen, Nepal. The hospital where she works is just 50 miles from the epicenter of the recent 7.8-scale earthquake. The scheduled visit abruptly changed focus when she learned of the devastating earthquake that shook central Nepal just 24 hours prior.
“Our hospital, United Mission Hospital, is located in the village of Tansen, about 50 miles from the epicenter of the 7.8 level earthquake,” she said. “We heard that the hospital was not damaged, but we haven’t learned yet the extent of damage to the rest of the area.”
Dr. Eiwen lives and works in Tansen, through Interserve USA, an evangelical organization. On this, her third visit to Resurrection, she described her work in the hospital, treating patients, providing obstetrical care and training health care workers.
“We treat a great number of children and babies for malnutrition. Teaching the mothers and families to better feed and care for their children is helping to improve life-expectancy. The people there are hard-working, but basic resources like clean water are in short supply. I imagine that now many of the limited number of wells have been destroyed or severely damaged.”
As one of several mission projects around the world that Resurrection supports, Eiwen brought a slide presentation to show the mountainous countryside, villages, ancient temples and rural family life in Nepal. “Many of these areas were probably damaged in the earthquake,” she said.
Although Eiwen was here in Garden City and not in Tansen on that fateful day, she’s eager to return to help provide much-needed medical care. David Schoenfeld, chair of Resurrection’s Special Missions Committee, announced that the church has committed financial and prayer support for Dr. Eiwen’s medical ministry to the people of Nepal.
Resurrection Lutheran Church is a multi-site Christian community of faith, with our main campus located at 420 Stewart Ave., near Clinton Road in Garden City. All are invited to worship at 5:30 p.m. on Saturdays and at 8:30 and 11 a.m. Sunday mornings, with Christian Education at 10 a.m. For more information, call 516-746-4426 or visit www.resgc.org.
