Presbyterian Mission Agency hospital Archives

Spiritual Lay Leaders

Posted May 19th, 2021

A Letter from Jeremy and Luta Garbat-Welch, serving in Malawi | Spring 2021

CCAP Chaplains Unite

Posted May 16th, 2019

A Letter from Jeremy and Luta Garbat-Welch, based in Malawi | May 2019

Christmas Greeting 2018

Posted December 4th, 2018

A Letter from Esther Wakeman, serving in Thailand | Christmas 2018

Walking Alongside Refugees in Greece

Posted October 26th, 2018

A Letter from Nadia Ayoub, serving in Greece | November 2018

From Patient to Hospital Administrator at Nkhoma Hospital

Posted May 1st, 2018

A Letter from Martha Sommers, serving in Malawi | May 2018

A letter from Bill and Ann Moore serving in Japan

April 2015 – God at Work in Japan

Dear Friends, As part of our work both of us have the privilege of speaking in chapel services at Yodogawa Christian Hospital (YCH) in Osaka, which is a ministry founded by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and operated by our corporation in Japan called “Japan Mission in mission partnership with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.),” also known simply as Japan Mission. From Monday through Saturday at 8:30 in the morning well over 200 YCH staff and patients gather in the chapel for a brief service of worship to begin the day. As Representative Director of Japan Mission, Bill recently spoke at chapel on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of YCH’s founding. He spoke about the Japan Mission’s efforts from YCH’s early beginnings to provide compassionate and loving whole-person healing of body, mind, and spirit to witness to the love of God that we know in Jesus Christ, the Great Physician. He encouraged the staff to let their lights shine every day as they cared for patients and carried out YCH’s ministry of healing. After the chapel service ended and the staff rapidly dispersed to their respective workstations, a man wearing pajamas remained behind. He was immediately identified to Bill as a patient, because in Japan it is the custom of inpatients to roam the hospital in their pajamas. The gentleman slowly walked to the front of the chapel, bowed deeply toward the cross and with tears streaming down his cheeks, softly uttered a prayer. Thinking that he was in distress, Bill approached him and asked if he cared to talk. It turned out that his tears were actually tears of joy and thanksgiving and that he had come to the chapel to thank God for the healing he had received. He entered the hospital with little hope for relief, but now that his illness was under control he had new hope for the future. God used Yodogawa Christian Hospital to give him his life back, so he was overcome with joy and felt compelled to thank the Lord. Like the one Samaritan among the ten lepers that Jesus healed, it was this one who came back to praise God and give thanks to the Lord.