As we walked into the Open Door Medical Clinic, we could smell the wonderfully clean environment patients were treated in. This may not seem significant, but after a short history in Romanian medicine over the past decades, believe me, it’s astounding! We’ve heard stories of people going into the hospital for minor surgery and dying of infection days later. Stories of nurses going from patient to patient, washing hands without soap and drying them all on the same towel. Of a room filled with x-ray equipment and not a lead apron or wall in the building, and x-rays being done on numerous patients simultaneously! Offer the doctor a bribe, and maybe you’ll get treatment. Offer the doctor a larger bribe, and maybe you’ll live. We were told of a man who went into the hospital for hip surgery. He was told he had to be in the hospital a full week before surgery. He had to stay for 5 or 6 weeks after the surgery. He caught an infection and almost died. While in the hospital, they offer no food, no gowns, and no bedding. It must all be brought into the hospital by someone outside willing to care for the patient. We in the United States have never even considered this kind of medical treatment; not even in our worst dreams!
We were greeted by Drs. Milt and Linda Hanson. Originally from Minnesota, they have just recently received their Romanian citizenship papers to add to their US citizenship. They have invested years in sacrificial ministry here in Bucharest, since 1992 when Milt first received the call from the Lord. They had a three pronged plan for their ministry: 1) Take care of poor people and other missionaries and their families, 2) Share the gospel with the people who come to them, and 3) Raise up medical doctors from Romania, teaching them western medical practices along with the gospel, and helping them establish practices in their own country. As we listened to them share the course of their ministry over the past 17 years, we could hear the weariness in their voices. It’s been a lonely and exhausting place for them. They had to spend 7 of those years working diligently to get the paperwork that would legally allow them to practice medicine in Romania. The process they had to go through was a cross between a marathon race and an obstacle course.
We didn’t fully comprehend the depth and scope the effect of their ministry until we had the opportunity to visit other missionaries in Bucharest. In every case so far, they have testified of the fact that the Hansons were instrumental in assisting in vital ways (often in life and death matters), to those who were ministering Christ’s love to the people of Romania. It became clear that God placed the Hanson’s in Bucharest as a foundation of solid medical support for other missionaries, as well as a means of serving the poor with care they would not be able to receive from the state- operated medical system.
In our exploration of this ministry, we began to formulate a portrait of the Hansons, and found they had a beautiful and remarkable resemblance to Christ. They did not compromise their principles when they were trying to get legal clearance to practice medicine, nor when they built their facility. In both these instances, it is customary to offer a bribe, knowing it will expedite matters and, in terms of the building, it will cause officials to look the other way and prevent them from putting a harsh and undue burden on the building standards. They never offered bribes, in spite of the fact that not doing so created huge and expensive obstacles in the path of their goals and desires. The Hansons built a facility larger than they needed so they could share the facility with others. Currently they are housing the second Clinica Pro Vita (pro-life clinic) in Bucharest, and have allowed them to be there rent free for their first year. They also have two different churches who are meeting in the basement of their building. They have made dental treatment available in their facility by allowing two dentists to come and work there as well. At one point Milt expressed a frustration that over the years medical needs consumed so much of their time and energy, and yet he has a burning desire to make the gospel more prevalent in their daily focus. What we saw was the gospel being lived out in their integrity, their loving sacrifice of care for the poor, their priorities in the use of their building, and in their sweet care for others in the ministry. They are a remarkable couple who have sacrificed much for the people of Romania, but you can see by the joy in their countenances that they wouldn’t have it any other way.
Over the last decade, medical care in Bucharest is continuing to improve, and the Hansons sense that God may be changing the emphasis of their ministry. Please pray for Drs. Milt and Linda Hanson, that God would give them clear direction, as He has done in the past, for the next phase of their medical ministry.
