Church-run Hospital in Lingqu
Model of Christian Social Service
The Church-run hospital in Lingqu was first featured in issue no. 27 Winter 1993 of the Amity Newsletter. In April 2000, Theresa Carino visited Wangshe Village in Shandong and reports below on the hospital's development.
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Church-run hospital in Lingqu County |
A small county in Shandong Province with a population of 850,000, Lingqu has the distinction of having the earliest and the best church-run hospital in China. Started in a small building in 1984 with only nine rooms, the hospital initially had only 15 staff (including eight doctors). Today, the church-run Lingqu Hospital is held up as a model of Christian social service with its low fees, quality care, high-level of competence and dedicated staff. Its dental and eye-care services are among the best in the entire county and can rival those of larger township hospitals. Boasting now of 48 staff that includes 10 dentists and four ophthalmologists, the hospital is open 24 hours a day. More than 150 cataract operations were carried out last year and farmers were charged only 700 RMB per operation compared to 5,000 RMB in a city hospital.
"Why did you start the hospital?" I asked Rev. Abel Zhao Yapo, the moving spirit behind the hospital and a dentist himself. "To serve God, you must serve others first," he replied without any hesitation. Zhao attributes the idea of a Christian-run hospital to his father Zhao Bing Chang. The senior Zhao was a medical doctor who had served in North Korea during the Korean War. He had also been a leader of the Jesus Family Movement in Tai'an (also in Shandong Province) before 1949. It was his belief that Christians needed to be the "salt and light in the world" and starting a clinic in 1984 was a concrete expression of this.
Lingqu hospital is completely staffed by Christians who begin each day with 5 a.m. devotions in the chapel. Since many of the doctors and dentists are also farmers, they work in their fields and gardens before starting their rounds at the hospital. Their income from the hospital is small and much of what is earned from medical fees is reinvested in the development of the hospital. Staff incomes are augmented by the sale of produce from their land. The Amity Foundation began supporting the church-run hospital in 1993 with financial contributions and equipment. Many of the dental chairs currently in use are second-hand equipment from Nanjing hospitals, but in Lingqu, they constitute the best in the area.
More than its equipment and professionalism, Lingqu Hospital is best known for the "caring spirit" among its staff. Many of its patients are non-Christians who come from Lingqu county and beyond. Sometimes, they are too poor to pay for treatment but none are sent away. Not only has the hospital expanded and its reputation grown, the Christian population in Lingqu has more than doubled since 1984 to 4,620. On Sundays, worship services which used to be conducted in the home of Rev. Zhao are now held in the new church building which can seat a thousand people. Both church and hospital are located in the vicinity of "Gospel Street", with its 30 Christian households, further evidence of the strength of the Christian presence in Wangshe Village in Lingqu.
Extending its community outreach in recent years, the church has been sending medical teams to remote mountain areas. According to Rev. Zhao, "As a result, some of the villages have become Christian." He stresses, " Our service knows no color or creed: we serve rich and poor, Christians and non-Christians. Even government cadres have been known to be converted through their healing experience!"
