A Worthwhile Missions Project

Zamir Angos is a Baptist pastor. Like many Baptist pastors in Brazil, he works another job to earn a living for his family. It was his “other job” that brought him to Alabama in February, but he was here as a part of a Brazilian Baptist delegation.

Angos works with hospital supplies. He was in Alabama seeking donations to the Baptist Centennial Memorial Hospital in Goiania, Brazil. His first task was to inspect supplies gathered by Birmingham dentist Bill Powell. Among the supplies are 28 hospital beds phased out by area hospitals. When Angos inspected the beds stored in a warehouse he smiled broadly and said in broken English, “Yes, these will do fine.” Later he said the beds will be the only electric hospital beds in the Brazilian state of Goias of which Goiania is the capital.

With Angos were Austiclinio de Abreu and Antonio Justino Lucena. Abreu is an American-trained cardiovascular surgeon. He did his training in Boston and Pittsburgh. Though offered positions in the United States, Abreu’s mission was to return to Brazil to care for his countrymen. Because of his training, he is a leader in Brazilian medical circles and has done more than 12,000 open-heart surgeries. Abreu has left his private clinic to devote himself to helping start the new hospital.

Lucena is an attorney but Baptist Centennial Memorial Hospital has redirected his life also. He is the director and administrator of the hospital.

To call the facility a hospital may be stretching the word a little.

Now it is an 18,000-square-foot building. Six thousand square feet are finished and ready for the first stage of 50 beds. The facility also houses the area’s only drug and alcohol recovery center for women. When completed, plans call for 57,000 square feet of space with 867 hospital beds. It will be the largest hospital in Latin America. The plan is ambitious.

It has been a dream of Brazilian Baptists since land was donated for the project 40 years ago. Ten years ago campaigns began to raise money for the facility. More than $4 million has been raised, half of it coming from the Brazilian government. The rest came from small contributions from individuals and businesses.

International Mission Board (IMB) missionaries support the project. Former IMB vice president Thurman Bryant is the project’s stateside coordinator. Missionary Robert Hensley and his wife initiated the drug and alcohol program housed at the hospital. However, the IMB no longer funds new medical institutions.

That is one reason why Angos, Abreu and Lucena were in Alabama. They met with several hospital officials seeking donations of equipment and supplies being phased out. Items no longer usable in the United States are often better than equipment and supplies available overseas. The supplies gathered by Powell are a beginning, but much more will be needed to transform this dream into reality.

From Alabama, the group traveled to the annual meeting of the Baptist Dental and Medical Fellowship and then on to other states where contacts indicated an openness to their needs. At each opportunity the Brazilians shared their dream and their needs.

They told of community response and government support. They related the missionary and evangelistic opportunity the hospital will offer to that whole region in Brazil. They pointed out how about 60 percent of the medical care will be provided as charity work because of the poverty of the people.

The Brazilians always add that all donations are tax deductible.

Some of their requests are for big-ticket items — mammography equipment, ultrasounds for cardiology, magnetic resonators. Some are more common — stretchers, wheelchairs, bedpans. Some of the requests are for personnel to help with training.

Whether enough donations will be secured for Baptist Centennial Memorial Hospital to function, no one knows. The Baptists of the area are praying so. Some in Brazil, in Alabama and elsewhere are committed to that end.

Recycling equipment and supplies is good stewardship. Helping that happen is a worthwhile missions project. Personally, I have been a part of securing medical equipment and supplies for a third world country and know the difference such gifts can make.

Baptist Centennial Memorial Hospital has a Web site — www.netogo.com.br/memorial — where more information can be seen via computer. One may also write Dr. Thurman Bryant at 7701 Blossom Drive, Fort Worth, TX 76133 for additional information.