VIETNAM MEDICAL MISSION REPORT BY DR LUKE SOONG

COMPLETION REPORT FOR HOPE CHURCH BRISBANE MEDICAL MISSION
HO CHIH MINH CITY, MEKONG DELTA AREA VIETNAM 16/11/2012 – 25/11/2012

WHAT: Hope Church Brisbane has history of providing mission teams to various localities either at a national level and international level. In the recent years, the growing numbers of health professionals in our congregations in conjunction with the growing understanding and conviction of being a Missional Church (and individual), there is a growing need to establish platforms for health professionals to utilize their skills/knowledge, honing with their Christian faith to fulfill the Great Commission. It plays a part in being a missional church, it is not the totality of missions, but it is a vehicle to which the gospel and the love of God is both preached and exemplified. This is our first medical mission team sent off from Hope Church Brisbane; we are pioneering a new vehicle for the Mission Department and greater things are yet to come.

WHEN: 16/11/2012 – 25/11/2012

WHERE: Mekong Delta: Province of Vinh Long Vietnam

BENEFICARIES: 1440 children and elderly in 4 communities in the City of Vinh Long

THE MISSION DETAILS: 

THE VENUE: 

Vinh Long is the capital of Vinh Long Province in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. It covers 48.1km2 and has a population of around 150,000.

THE VOLUNTEERS: 

The team consist of 4 medical doctors, 2 theatre scrubs nurses, 1 pharmacist, 1 physiotherapist, 4 Vietnamese translators (from AOG Vietnam), and Peter Truong.

Doctors: Dr Pang Chieng LOO, Dr Eugene HOW, Dr Dexter Yow, Dr Luke SOONG
Nurses: Allan GONZALES, Rachel LIN
Pharmacist: Florence YIP
Physiotherapist: Jaime KONG

THE BENEFICARIES: 

The initial reported figure given by the local government official was set at 200 patients a day in 4 different communities, bringing the initial estimate to a total of about 800 patients. The initial target patient population was in the pediatric age group ranging from 5 – 18 years of age. We did not receive any personal and medical details of the patients prior to our arrival. Patients were hand picked by the local government officials from local schools and communities with priority given to sick children. Selection process was unclear to the medical mission team and there were no clear guidelines specified to guide the selection of the target patient group. Each patient was given an invitation card for the medical mobile clinic issued by the local officials, and the invitation card must be provided at the registration desk to receive medical treatment.

As it turned out, the total number of patients treated over the 4- day period rose from the estimated 800 patients to a staggering number of 1440 patients. 95% of the patients treated were from the pediatric age group with the remaining 5% deriving from adult population between 20 – 80 years of age. The main diseases we encounter were skin infection, respiratory disease (flu, bronchitis, asthma), parasite infestations, and failure to thrive. We were not prepared for the major influx of patients coming in with dental caries and suggestions has been made to bring dental teams in future endeavour.

THE SYSTEM: 

Medical missions are a very unique health care system for various factors. Generally they are limited by lack of resources including funding, medical supplies, medical personnel, medical infrastructure and patient factor (lack of medical history and language barriers). Therefore the system we adopt for the medical mobile clinic must be effective in addressing each concern we have above, and delivering the best health care to our patients. It was interesting to see the evolution of the system we adopt over the 4-day period, and we have much to learn for future medical missions particularly in patient flow and crowd control. The initial system involved registration of the patient with the registration desk manned by local government officials. They would then proceed to a general waiting area waiting to be triaged by the triage nurses. The role of triage nurses in this medical clinic encompasses the recording of vital signs (blood pressure, heart rate and body temperature), manage patient flowing to the treating doctors in a numbered/alphabetical system (1, 2, 3, 4 or A, B, C, D) and managing the wound dressing clinic. Doctors would consult with the help of Vietnamese translator and prescription ordered where patient would bring to the mobile pharmacy to collect their medications. Initially, there is no structured triage system as we were unclear of the caseloads we would receive. However, as the mobile clinic progresses over the next few days, we set up a fast track clinic to screen through relatively healthy children and provide nutritional advise and vitamins. This was found to be effective in managing patient flow and

THE MEDICINE: 

All medications were purchased from local pharmaceutical warehouse in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). We were able to purchase generic antibiotics, vitamin supplements, anti-inflammatory and anti-parasitic medications with reasonable prices; much appreciation goes to Ruth for helping out in the negotiation for all the purchases. The decision was made to purchase medication from local pharmaceutical warehouse to prevent complications at custom level when we enter Vietnam such as corruptions and quarantine of medications.

THE TRANSPORTATION: 

Public transportation in Saigon is not well established and we travelled everywhere in a 12-seater Mercedes van with an experienced Christian driver who was also an integral part of our medical team logistically.

CHURCH VISITATION: 

We were also delighted to be able to visit our local Hope Church (underground church) and provided spiritual supports and spent most of the Sunday afternoon praying and imparting to the local leaders. We had an intense time of praying for the leaders and speaking words of encouragement and prophecy to their lives. They were greatly encouraged. It was an exciting yet dangerous Sunday for us as we knew that any Christian congregation without governmental approval is illegal, but God protected the local church and the mission team from any harassments or intimidation.

On the last Saturday, we joined our local church members in their outreach effort in the city of Saigon. We went out in pairs in one of the popular local park, approaching numerous young Vietnamese and later invited them for a picnic in the evening. The mission team took a giant step of faith and took opportunities in evangelizing to the local and later on while entertaining the crowd with music and songs, we broke out into Christian songs out wide in the open sky of a Communist country! We had more than 20 new contacts that day, and it was reported later that 2 of them have converted and are attending our local church. We had the opportunity to worship with the AOG (Assembly of God) congregation in Saigon under the leadership of Ps Paul. Both Dexter and Luke had the opportunity to minister to the local congregation in the word of God with the help of one of our translators. It was their first experience in preaching to a crowd on a Sunday Service; the team also presented a song to bless the congregation.

TESTIMONIES: 

 1. Funds raised: One of the challenge for the medical mission is that it is an expensive project because we had no funds to work on for the various needs in this mission trips especially the funds needed to buy medications. God inspired an idea to reach out to our colleagues and friends outside our church setting and began to share with them our burden and passion for Jesus, especially in this area of providing to the poor and needy. It was to our amazement that we raised more than we had planned for; we managed to collect close to AUD 5000 in a matter of weeks. Most of our funds came from interstates/overseas via Facebook and from our colleagues/friends. We were glad we had the opportunities to share the love of Christ and our passion for Jesus amongst our scientific orientated health profession and hopefully more testimonies will birth out of this to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2. Medications – The 5 Loaves and 2 Fish miracles: We went into Vietnam with minimal assurance from the local government officials regarding the actual number of patients we would be treating, in fact the team was only approved to do the work the day before we touch down; so much for adrenaline rush. The next challenge was to be able to provide to all the patients with appropriate medications in a safe environment. We were skeptical initially that our funds would suffice, however, God amazed all of us and did Himself the miracles of multiplying the medical supply we bought and we were able to supply more than enough medications to more than 1400 patients in 4 days; and we even had a surplus of medications that we donated to the local government health clinics and blessed the local church members with free medications. The total impact of God’s miracle was beyond the 1400 patients we treated. Our eyes were opened to the miraculous God, and our heart is stirred to believe for much greater things ahead of us!

 3. Miraculous healing: one of the challenges in the mission field in Vietnam is that we were unable to preach the gospel openly to our patients. However, the team managed to pray for most of the patients (children) we encountered. It was either through their consent or the treat-and-pray approach. We were burdened to see these generations of children would grow up knowing and loving Jesus Christ. We witnessed a young girl being healed; her shorter leg grew to length and she happily ran around the compound after that! Praise God for healing!

4. Favor amongst the government officials: We were amazed with the warm reception by the government officials in Vinh Long Province. We were welcomed with banners giving credit to the Church and were invited to dine with them for most meals. One of the most interesting encounter was we were invited to dine with them in the Communist Party Head Quarters in Vinh Long and the medical team was later presented with not just 1 but 2 plaque to honor the medical work done in the 4 days. We knew in our hearts, glory and honor was given to our God. 5. God’s name was lifted high: Later in the week, we were informed that the news of the Christian medical work was aired in the local TV news. Little did we know that the government officials had invited the local TV news crew to film the medical clinic on Day-4 of our work; Hallelujah! God’s work was promoted on prime time TV of a communist country. How awesome is that!



PARTNERS: 

We want to thank and praise God for His covering and protection, His provision, and showing us His faithfulness and grace in this adventurous journey. We would like to thank all our sponsors, volunteers (both from AOG Vietnam and Hope Church Brisbane and Perth), our intercessors from Hope Church Brisbane + Ipswich, our families and the HIM and Hope Church Brisbane + Ipswich leadership team for allowing us to pioneer the medical arm of missions. We also want to thank Peter Truong for welcoming us to his home country and providing us the spiritual covering and guiding us through the cultural and political differences of Vietnam. We hope that the lessons learn on the field will be a valuable resource for future mission trips, we also hope and pray and seek to inspire more Christian health professionals to heed God’s call for their lives and to be an integral part of the Great Commission.

 Report prepared by Dr Luke Soong Hope Church Ipswich, Brisbane