Dr. Fernando Espinoza, an Ecuadorian physician, examines a child during an outreach in Ghana in 2010. Ecuadorians working at HCJB Global's medical facilities in Ecuador have been involved in healthcare ministries to about 10 countries worldwide.

(June 14, 2013 - by Ralph Kurtenbach) After nearly six decades of operating a hospital in Ecuador's capital city, HCJB Global has announced that it is selling the 76-bed facility to an Ecuadorian buyer.

On Friday, May 31, in Quito, Dan Shedd, executive director for the mission's Latin America Region, announced the sale of Hospital Vozandes-Quito (HVQ) to Ginsberg Ecuador, S.A.

Speaking in a packed auditorium, Shedd revealed his initial doubts in 2012 about meeting stiff board-established qualifications for a potential buyer. He credited God's provision in encountering a like-minded buyer to carry forward the hospital's historic ministry.

Shedd recounted that he sensed an abiding peace as the mission's board members unanimously approved the sale. He read aloud a letter from President Wayne Pederson stating that "the process of seeking a new owner has been disciplined, complete and bathed in prayer. It was managed by an independent broker in Ecuador."

An Ecuadorian dentist prepares to do a filling on a patient in HCJB Global's Carapungo clinic in Quito.

"Options were considered, taking into account objectives set by the board during their May 2012 meeting," Pederson's letter continued, listing their desire that Christ-centered ministry continue even as the sale would allow the mission to fulfill its legal and financial obligations to employees.

Representing the new parent company at the Quito announcement were Dr. Marco Serrano and his wife, Maira Mancheno. Serrano pledged to continue the hospital's Christian philosophy and values. He said this would include its chaplaincy services, medical education and assistance to the poor. Foreign missionaries will be allowed to continue serving at the hospital after the mission concludes its ownership on June 30, 2014, Serrano said.

Ginsberg manufactures pharmaceuticals at laboratories, according to the website, ekosnegocios.com, and Serrano not only specified the plant locations but invited the HCJB Global staff for a visit at the one north of Quito. One of the company's products, Gladox, is provided to the country's top athletes under a 2012 agreement with Ecuador's Olympic Committee.

Dan Shedd (right) and Dr. Marco Serrano address the crowd at HCJB Global's facilities in Quito on Friday, May 31.

Interviewed later, Pederson explained that handing off to Ecuadorians the daily workings of HVQ shifts the mission's strategies. He compared it to the HCJB Global metamorphosis from a single shortwave radio site in Ecuador to an agency that has played a role in seeing more than 400 FM stations established worldwide. So, too, selling the Quito hospital can help the mission become more nimble and global in spreading healthcare resources elsewhere, including Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia, Pederson said.

Shedd told his listeners during the announcement that Ecuadorian staffs have already accompanied clinical and emergency response in several countries. As two screens portrayed a map of HCJB Global's ministry regions, Shedd listed Pakistan, Ghana, Malawi, Haiti, Peru and Lebanon as places where they have gone. He said he finds it very gratifying to see that God has guided the hospital's Ecuador ministry to a new point of expansion on a global scale.

Dr. Oswaldo Vásconez

At the same meetings in Quito, Dr. Oswaldo Vásconez acknowledged to the crowd, "We know many of you have been anxious, tired and discouraged, all this time wondering in the last months, 'What is the decision? What is going to happen?'"

"You have to understand that the timing is in the Lord's hands. I am totally convinced that we have kept to our word from the beginning of this project. We wanted to be fair, straightforward and honest, trusting completely in the Lord," added Vásconez, whose deceased mother, Lois, was a longtime HCJB Global missionary who served in Ecuador. A pianist and music teacher, she regularly accompanied the Vozandes Choir at annual concerts celebrating the founding of Quito.


"Throughout the process, God closed doors while opening others," Vásconez said. "I want to thank each of your for you commitment, faithfulness and patience."

Pederson, in the letter that Shedd read, offered that "we must focus forward on the great work awaiting us-that of caring for the neediest people in Latin America and in other parts of the world. We believe that without the restrictions of managing a hospital, we will be more effective."

A doctor at Hospital Vozandes-Quito lets a young patient use a stethoscope to hear her own heartbeat.

"We have found that our strategy of working with our radio partners around the world has served well," said Sheila Leech, the mission's vice president of international healthcare. "We engage with our partners who are working at a grassroots level in communities where the stations can be heard. We add an incarnational aspect to their ministry as we work … to address felt needs, that is, the needs that the communities feel they have."

"We encourage, enable and empower our radio partners to engage in holistic ministry-ministry to the whole person through providing counseling services, clean water, sanitation and primary health care," Leech continued. "In countries that are not very open to the gospel we find that healthcare gives us an entry to engage with local people and model Christ through kindness, compassion and professional healthcare and development services."

Sources: HCJB Global, El Universo, ekosnegocios.com {source}
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