Alabama Solar Panels
Headed for Tanzania
January 30, 2009
"The solar panels arrived and we're shipping them out to Tanzania tomorrow, Saturday, January 31!" Scott said. He had received sixty feet of solar panels originally obtained from Eugene Saiter of Josephine, Alabama, by Becky and Steve Vasko of Silverhill. Saiter had used the panels to heat water for a swimming pool application, but decided to remove the solar collector. Steve Vasko had assisted with the dismantling!
The scene is January 30, 2009, one day before the solar panels received from Silverhill, will be shipped to Dr. Steve Friberg's medical mission in Tanzania. Scott Lien, Director of Operations for Global Health Ministries, noted that "We added 2x4 sides and plywood for stacking on top. It's a long pallet and it will be interesting to load in the 40' sea-locker container! In front will be mattresses, a ortho bed, six ultrasounds, x-ray view boxes, solar batteries, x-ray film, vital signs monitors, two ice machines, office chairs, and lots of other medical supplies." The solar panels will have lots of company on the way to Tanzania.
"I hated to just throw them," Vasko said, "so I asked Eugene if we could have them. We were talking at church about them when I heard about Global Health Ministries." Just before Christmas Scott Lien, Director of Operations for Global Health Ministries, visited Silverhill and assessed those panels stored at the Vaskos'. He instantly saw a health-related application for them through one of the Lutheran medical ministries supported by Global Health.
But, Lien had some concerns about the donation. He noted that, "I confess I was concerned as to who to offer this donation to. I wanted to make sure the end-user would actually install it, use it, and maintain it. And there's not many medical-mission partners out there that I can say 100% this would happen. So, after much prayer, I offered it to Dr. Steve Friberg, a medical missionary serving in Tanzania for the past 10 years. Dr. Steve is a great guy. He's the one that Gary knew."
Gary Engel was a visitor in the Zion congregation the Sunday Lien was visiting. When Scott Lien talked about medical mission in Tanzania and mentioned Friberg, Engel stood up and said, "Yes, I know that guy and I spent time with him in Tanzania!" Engel is a son of Eva Engel, a member of Zion church. He had participated in a church-building project in Tanzania, hence the connection with Friberg. (It is a small world after all.)
The day before the shipping of the panels from Fridley, Minnesota, Lien advised that Global Health Ministries had constructed a pallet with 2x4 sides and plywood for stacking on top to ship the solar panels. Lien reported, "It's a long pallet and it will be interesting to load into the 40 foot sea locker container! In front will be mattresses, an ortho bed, six ultrasounds, x-ray view boxes, solar batteries, x-ray film, vital signs monitors, two ice machines, office chairs, and lots of other medical supplies. The majority of the items are for Arusha Lutheran Medical Center and Selian Lutheran Hospital in Arusha, Tanzania."
So, solar panels from Josephine travel to Silverhill to Fridley to Arusha. Along the way, people interested in honoring the Lord Jesus through medical mission get connected. No matter how you look at this connection of people to ministry, for these solar collectors, that's one long trip!
Solar Panels Shipped to
Global Health Ministries
January 15, 2009
"We just got back from Mobile," she said. She (Becky) and Steve Vasko had identified some valuable used materials which could be applied to the medical mission fields. They met with Global Health Ministries' Director of Operations, Scott Lien, in December to discuss how to get the donated solar panels to warehousing in Minnesota so that those panels could be shipped to Lutheran medical missions around the world.
Silverhill resident Steve Vasko (l) and Global Health Ministries' Scott Lien, Director of Operations, viewed solar panels in December. Panels were recently prepared for shipping in early January and are on their way to Fridley, Minnesota, for processing and shipping to Lutheran medical missions around the world.
"It is not easy to give. Yes, it is easy on one hand, but we had to get appropriate pallets, wrap the panels, and then get them over to the trucking concern in Mobile. What seemed like a little, nice donation, had a lot of work in it," Becky reported. Sometimes donations have a lot of sacrifice in them that we don't often recognize.
The Vaskos attend Zion Lutheran Church in Silverhill, Alabama, where they were introduced to the para-church organization called Global Health Ministries. Global Health Ministries receives used medical equipment and distributes it through a network of global health-related missions.
Global Health Ministries
December 23, 2008
"We were just coming down to Summerdale to visit my in-laws and our daughter Olivia's grandparents for Christmas," Scott Lien of Fridley, Minnesota, said. "Grampa Gary Small joined us for worship when my wife Heather and Olivia visited Zion Lutheran Church of Silverhill. We had heard from Pastor Dave of a potential donation of used solar panels." Scott Lien is Director of Operations for Global Health Ministries, a twenty year-old foundation, which seeks to connect medical supplies from the US with Lutheran medical mission throughout the world. GHM, which works with many different Lutheran churches and synods in the world, has an active recycling ministry which often involves things like x-ray machines and operating tables. It receives a variety of health-related goods that may be used in health applications in unique settings.
GHM recycles more than surplus crutches and splints. It provides mid-wife kits, hospice kits, mosquito netting, and such items as solar collector paraphernalia for Lutheran medical ministries throughout the world. - Click each photo to enlarge.
Director of Operations for Global Health Ministries Scott Lien (r) cannot believe his eyes. Steve Vasko (l) explains how these solar panels from Eugene Saiter of Josephine, Alabama, ended up with Steve in Silverhill, Alabama. It turns out that Saiter dismantled his 60 foot solar collector used to heat a swimming pool. The panels were salvaged by Vasko.
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Steve Vasko (r) points out the solar panels and related plumbing to Scott Lien (r). The smile on Lien's face? "I saw something like this in a mission field in Papua New Guinea. Our Global Health Ministries can find a mission home for these!"
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Steve Vasko pointed out an inventory tag. A closer inspection of the sixty feet of solar panels revealed a relatively recent date of manufacture, a real windfall for the mission organization, but Global Health Ministries is adept at restoring and recycling a variety of materials for use in Third World Health applications.
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Scott got "connected" with Steve and Becky Vasko who had obtained sixty feet of solar panels from Eugene Saiter of Josephine, Alabama. Saiter had used the panels to heat water for a swimming pool application, but decided to remove the solar collector. Enter Steve Vasko who helped with the dismantling! "I hated to just throw them," Vasko said, "so I asked Eugene if we could have them. We were talking at church about them when I heard about Global Health Ministries." Skip a half dozen months and go to Becky and Steve Vasko's place in Silverhill just before Christmas! When Scott sees those panels stored at the Vaskos', he gets real excited. "I saw something like this in Papua New Guinea. These panels will have a home a world away in a health-related mission," Scott announced.
Global Health Ministries website receives a broad variety of donated health related items for use in the Third Word, things as simple as rolled cloth bandages put together by churches to medical/surgical equipment from clinics upgrading their equipment to computers from offices and individuals to (here we go!) solar collectors. Many surplus items can be received by the foundation and it recycles them after repair if necessary. Scott [scottghm@cs.com] routinely is contacted about a variety of donations and connects donators with GHM, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. GHM is located in Fridley, Minnesota, at 7831 Hickory Street NE, Minneapolis, MN 55432-2500, and people with potential medical gear can contact him directly at 763-586-9590.
Scott Lien of Global Health Ministries
December 21, 2008
Global Health Ministries' Director of Operations, Scott Lien, brought a message of hope to Silverhill's Zion Lutheran Church on December
21, 2008, for the medical needs of the Third World. His organization, Global Health Ministries, was set up about the time of the last great Lutheran synods merger of the late 1980s. At a time when interest in medical ministry was waning in many church quarters, the idea behind the foundation was to enable medical missions to tap some of the abundance of health materials available in the US that might ordinarily be discarded. It began shipping whole sea-containers and 55 gallon drums of medical supplies to Madagascar, but now ships medical supplies throughout the world. Supplies are donations of materials that would be considered surplus in this country. The ministry is a para-church organization, embracing the broad spectrum of Lutherans in this country and the world. GHM has supported well-drilling among some of the small villages served by the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations - India, located in Andra Pradesh, India.
Click each photo to enlarge.
Scott Lien, Director of Operations for Global Health
Ministries, discussed how the ministry works and how it focuses on
health needs in the Third World, in a brief Temple Talk on December
21, 2008. GHM is headquartered in Fridley, Minnesota.
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Director of Operations for Global Health Ministries, Scott
Lien brought greetings to the Silverhill congregation.
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The Lien family (Scott, Heather, Olivia, and father-in-law
Gary Small) joined in Advent worship.
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The speaker was Scott Lien of Fridley, Minnesota. He was accompanied by his wife Heather, daughter Olivia, and father-in-law Gary Small of Summerdale. He presented the special GHM ministry of "hospice kits" and "mid-wife kits" for use in such places as Tanzania. "We are an instrument through which your love and compassion are channeled for the health and hope of God's children around the world!" Lien would say. "Those small kits, distributed by local health care workers, open the door for the Gospel."
"Global Health Ministries is a response to the Good News of Jesus, the 'Great Physician,' where our abundant resources are used to impact the lives of disadvantaged children and adults in other parts of the world. Involvement is direct. GHM enables individuals and congregations here to be involved in Christ's healing ministry in remote places and countries," Lien would suggest the logo of the organization is "Helping the Hands that Heal."
Click to see Website.
The mission statement of the foundation is simple, "Global Health Ministries continues the healing ministry of Jesus Christ by enhancing health care programs of Lutheran churches in other countries." US resources enable ministry, the funding of approved health care projects, scholarships, support for charity patients, capital improvements, development of appropriate technology, the gathering and shipping of useful donated health care equipment and supplies to countries where such materials are not available or are very expensive, the sharing of opportunity with groups and congregations concerning specific needs of the church health care programs abroad, the prayer support of health care missionaries and those they serve, and the recruiting of nurses, dentists, doctors, surgeons, and allied workers for overseas service through a variety of Lutheran mission boards.
Dollars raised support such programs as supplying facilities for patient care, mosquito netting to protect a family from malaria, subsidies for remote clinics, well-drilling, health care worker training, intervention and interdiction of the spread of HIV/AIDS and supporting those already affected, and the sending of sea containers of donated medical supplies throughout the world. And, yes, those hospice and mid-wife kits, too!
The foundation's paraphrase of 1 John 3:17 summarizes the program and its roots in the church of Jesus Christ: "... If we have the world's goods and see our brothers and sisters in need, yet close our hearts against them, how does God's love abide in us?" US dollars still make a difference for Christ in health care ministry.
Lien will be back in Fridley, Minnesota, in early January. People interested in Lutheran-oriented medical mission may be interested in viewing the Global Health Ministries website or contacting Lien directly by phone at 763-586-9590 or by US mail at Global Health Ministries, 7831 Hickory Street NE, Minneapolis, MN 55432-2500. Lien's e-mail address is scottghm@cs.com. There are abundant opportunities for Lutherans and their friends to facilitate world mission using a medical model.
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