When missionaries arrived in Paraguay in 1947 it didn’t take long for them to recognize the immediate need for medical ministries in that part of South America.
The Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board) sent missionary Franklin Fowler and his family to Paraguay in 1949 to start such a ministry and by 1952 the Baptist Hospital (Hospital Bautista) opened in Paraguay’s capital and largest city of Asunción.
Since that time more than 7 million patients have received care. But that’s just the start.
Points of progress
Among the milestones that have blossomed from the hospital are the creation of the Central Medical Baptist University (Universidad Centro Médico Bautista — UCMB); an ownership transfer to Paraguayan Baptists; a medical ministry to Maka Indians; the creation of a vision program, diagnostic unit, obstetrics and gynecology unit, heart institute; the expansion of the intensive care unit and pediatric specialties; and the formation of the Paraguay Baptist Medical Center Foundation (PBMCF) to provide assistance to the hospital (which receives no outside support and exists in an economy where the average per capita income is $334 a month).
Notable points of progress are numerous.
Marlin Harris, a member of Wadsworth Baptist Church, Deatsville, and former missionary to Paraguay for 11 years, was able to see this advancement firsthand as the hospital’s administrator. He arrived at the hospital just as the school of nursing was opening with only four or five students, he said. Today the school, which offers bachelor’s degrees in various fields, sees more than 1,000 students graduate each semester.
One of Harris’ main tasks as administrator was to facilitate the transfer of ownership from the Foreign Mission Board to Paraguayan Baptists. And the transition was highly successful, he said.
After retiring, Harris, a Samford University alumnus, founded PBMCF in 1999 and served as its president until 2015 when he became president emeritus.
To Harris there was a clear connection between the ministry growth happening in Paraguay and the progress being made at the recently established College of Health Sciences at Samford, and he could not let that connection go overlooked.
College of Health Sciences
He met with Samford President Andrew Westmoreland and College of Health Sciences vice provost Nena Sanders and proposed a partnership between the Birmingham school and UCMB in Paraguay.
That initial meeting took place in April 2015 and by June 2016 the partnership was formalized during a missions trip to Asunción led by Michael Crouch, dean of Samford’s College of Health Sciences.
“Paraguay and the people of UCMB in particular were so incredibly warm and welcoming,” Crouch said of the June 18–25 trip.
The team of 22 (which included PBMCF board members; nurses; Samford faculty members in the fields of pharmacy, social work, public health and nursing; and others) participated in five daily clinics in the cities of Yeguarizo, Cerrito, Julián Augusto Saldívar and Luque.
Crouch also participated in UCMB’s commencement services and signed documents as part of the formal launch of the partnership.
Mark Thomas, a 1988 Samford grad and PBMCF board member, also was on the June missions trip.
“We believe this partnership will provide many wonderful opportunities for students and faculty members of (both universities),” Thomas said. “The Lord’s leadership has been very evident in this partnership proposal, as we have found such a warm and encouraging response from the beginning.”
Both universities will participate in faculty/student exchanges through conferences, research projects and student practicums as part of the new partnership. Another aspect in the works is a weeklong camp for special needs children in Paraguay. Faculty from both universities will lead educational conferences for health care professionals in both locations. Samford and UCMB also will seek to develop ways for UCMB students to participate in seminars and distance learning in graduate level courses conducted at Samford.
For Harris the partnership captures a part of his heart for the ministry in Paraguay, a place he knew the Lord had called him to serve.
He said he is “so grateful to the Lord” for the new bond between UCMB and Samford and foresees “new dimensions of learning” for faculty and students at both institutions.
He also hopes the new partnership will “bring each school’s faculty and students closer to Him and help form a strong bond between the two schools and their students.”
Thomas, a doctor in pediatric medicine in Tuscaloosa and a member of Woodland Forest Church, Tuscaloosa, said he witnessed the start of that strong bond during the June trip.
“I was struck by the personal warmth and dedication to the teaching mission of both (universities). … The hand of the Lord was very evident in preparing the way for the partnership to be initiated and in guiding the mutual visions for collaboration of the two groups.”
Thomas also said he was amazed at the eagerness of the Paraguayan students to learn.
“They treated certain Samford professors like rock stars,” he said.
Jane Jones, a former missionary who worked alongside Harris at the hospital in Paraguay and who served as the missions trip liaison and interpreter, wrote in the latest PBMCF newsletter that the “passion, dedication and knowledge demonstrated by both of the groups” bodes well for the future of the partnership.
“But more than that, I was reminded once again of the beauty of the body of believers who are joined in by Christ in mutual love, service and compassion for the world. What more can we ask of a collaboration?”
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PBMCF forms Harris scholarship fund
To honor Marlin Harris and his years of leadership at Baptist Hospital (Hospital Bautista) in Asunción, Paraguay, the Marlin Harris Scholarship Fund was recently formed by the Paraguay Baptist Medical Center Foundation (PBMCF), which Harris founded in 1999 and now serves as president emeritus.
The scholarship fund, which was voted into place Aug. 8, will provide opportunities for Universidad Centro Médico Bautista students to travel to Samford University in Birmingham as part of the new partnership formed between the two schools (see story, page 1).
For more information on the fund, visit thepbmcf.org. (TAB)
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