Dr. Marcelo Zambrano heads Hospital Vozandes-Quito (HVQ) where his third-floor office overlooks the satellite and microwave technology of Radio Station HCJB and a nearby television station.

Traffic noises from the street below waft up-a world away from Ecuador's rain forest where he served his rural year* of medicine decades ago.

Dramatic contrasts are within the man as well.

Now a sincere Christian physician, committed to caring for the whole person at the hospital, he's come a long way since he first began studying medicine. He once modeled himself after Che Guevara, the bearded Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary who helped Fidel Castro overthrow Cuba's government in 1959.

Despite his political leanings, Zambrano was impressed by HVQ's medical training program. He applied and was accepted even though he checked "atheist" in the "belief" slot on the application form.

At a retreat soon afterward Zambrano revealed to a young missionary physician his reluctance to pray to a God he didn't believe in. Much like the Apostle Paul's acknowledgment of the Athenians' reverence for an unknown god, the missionary challenged Zambrano to pray anyway-even if it meant praying to the silence of the sky above. He agreed.

Two weeks later Zambrano found himself kneeling in a Baptist church, committing his life to Christ.

After fulfilling his rural medical year, Zambrano extended his service in Ecuador's Amazon region. Later in his career he spent nearly 15 years in Buenos Aires, furthering his education and learning different aspects of clinic and hospital administration. In Argentina he also married the daughter of Italian immigrants.

Returning to Ecuador in 2006, he managed the mission's family practice clinic in Carapungo, a fast-growing community in the Quito metro area. Within a year he became the general director of HVQ, a 76-bed facility operated by HCJB Global Hands.

His days are full, consisting of meetings to keep the hospital functioning well. He considers administration a spiritual gift, adding that "it's a joy to administrate, but it's a joy mixed with various challenges and responsibilities?. I don't know if there's a special word for that."

Offering many services such as a wound clinic, a tuberculosis clinic and an HIV/AIDS clinic, HVQ helps meet both the physical and spiritual needs of patients. Praying for newly admitted patients by name each morning, a chaplain visits each room. The hospital's emergency room serves as a 24-hour trauma center.

Zambrano said his job is demanding--"I go home thinking about it, even dreaming of it"-leaving little time for hobbies. But he enjoys music and sports as well as reading. His own book about medical work in the jungle, Horizonte verde (green horizon), is due for a second printing.

His heartbeat is still for the world's poor, but the definition differs from his beliefs as a young medical student. "I've found more sadness in the urban area-or the concrete jungle of Argentina-than in the tropical jungle," he said, smiling. "And so the question is, 'What is poverty? Is it about having needs? Or lacking comforts?'"

He concludes that people's spiritual poverty is a much bigger concern, adding that Christians are to follow Jesus' example in caring for people's physical needs even as they share the gospel with them.

"Within the jungle or elsewhere, there's poverty. But one needs to balance priorities, determining what is the greater poverty," Zambrano said. "The Bible tells us it is spiritual poverty."

* Ecuador's Ministry of Health requires physicians to serve one year of rural medicine as part of acquiring a license to practice medicine.