VanderWals dedicated to medical mission work

SAGLE — While Dr. Harry and Echo VanderWal and their four boys might be physically back home in Sagle for a couple months during Swaziland’s rainy season their hearts are still in Africa.

Since 2005, these Christian medical missionaries, representing The Luke Commission — a faith-based, non-profit organization, have spearheaded a medical team consisting of North American medical volunteers combined with local Swazis assistance members to help deliver health care to the nation of Swaziland — a poverty-stricken country desperate for medical help.

A doctor of pediatrics and internal medicine, Harry VanderWal grew up in North Carolina and accepted Christ at an early age. He met Echo while they were both attending college at Pensacola in Florida. Later, they transferred schools and both graduated with honors from Cedarville University in Ohio and lived in that state for 14 years. Harry completed his residency training at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

Echo grew up in North Idaho. When she was 8 years old, Echo became determined to study medicine so she could serve Jesus in Africa after listening to a missionary speak at her local church of the great medical needs in the country of Zaire. Echo attended Kettering College of Medical Arts in Ohio and graduated as a certified physician assistant in 2000.

During their time in Idaho, the VanderWals have been conducting various speaking engagements with several North Idaho churches and at community functions. They  sought prayers, support and operations funding as they spoke of TLC’s mission when they visited Christ Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Sandpoint during Sunday services on Dec. 5.

Dr. Harry VanderWal thanked the Christ Our Redeemer congregation for allowing them the opportunity to explain The Luke Commission’s African mission. Following his introduction, their four sons, 6-year-old Zion along with their triplets, Jacob, Luke, and Zebadiah, 9, performed a Swaziland dance number. The family then combined their voices in a rendition of the song, “God is Still Doing Great Things.”

Their talk concluded with an overhead graphic pictorial presentation by Echo as she explained with pictures some of the medical missionary work they’ve done in Swaziland. The VanderWals explained that this small southern African country has the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the world. Life expectancy has declined from 60 years in 1991 to just 31 years of age by 2009 and TB (tuberculosis) has reached epidemic levels.

These remote rural communities lack health clinics and poor roads prevent access to an medical assistance. If health projections continue, by 2012 nearly 20 percent of the population of the country will be orphans under age 17.

According to the VanderWals, in the past six years that TLC has served, via mobile medicine vehicles, more than 200 remote locations across Swaziland, and treated nearly 100,000 patients. Last year alone they traveled some 13,000 rural backcountry miles, taking their medical entourage to the people most in need.

The VanderWals first traveled to Swaziland in 2004 as medical students — Harry studying to be a doctor and Echo to be a physician’s assistant. They explained that they knew in their hearts that they wanted to offer medical assistance in the name of Jesus. At the time they had their four children. That first year, the triplets at age 3, stayed back in Idaho with grandparents but they did travel with their 3-month old son.

The following year, they founded The Luke Commission, which comes from Dr. Luke in the Bible, who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts.

While the challenges they face daily in Africa often seem insurmountable, they are encouraged by the miracle of God’s work and feel they are privileged to serve. With God’s help, in 2010, all their older fleet of vehicles was replaced by more powerful new vehicles.

“We could now, spend more time caring for people instead of repairing and fixing vehicles,” Harry VanderWal explained.

The VanderWals explained that in the past year they’ve received $125,000 from the Christian Life Center in Dayton, Ohio, for seed money to begin the building of a permanent TLC home in Swaziland called the “Miracle Campus.” Construction of this campus complex would be built in three stages.

With God’s help, the are currently raising another $85,000 so that the first phase of construction — housing for both patients and staff — could be completely paid for. The second phase is estimated to cost $98,000 and the third phase is expected to cost $110,000. When the campus is completely finished the total cost would be nearly $400,000.

It could also house a medical treatment facility, a kitchen/cafeteria and meeting area, vehicle warehouse, campus fencing and entrance gates, additional patient housing, staff homes, volunteer homes, bathrooms and showers, a pharmacy and storage buildings. The campus will serve as a staging area to continue medical work in the rural communities.

Two days each week, the VanderWals head into the bush at sunrise from their base headquarters and, quite often, they don’t return to their compound until midnight. They explained, that during the early years of their TLC medical mission service, they’d often arrive in a village and be met by small numbers of’ people, but today the word is out and sometimes they’ll be a gathering of some 600 people who seek some type of medical help or need.

In her presentation, Echo VanderWal said that all village gatherings begin with a 45-minute to one-hour introduction (translated into the Swaziland language) that includes a video highlighting TLC’s work. Next, screening stations manned by Swaziland volunteers are set up that include registration and questionnaires, HIV and TB education, and testing. On an average day, they might test between 150 to 200 people for these diseases. The TLC staff conducts patient medical examinations and medicine packets are distributed as needed They also provide family counseling.

Following an eye vision examination (if eyeglasses are needed) TLC maintains an inventory of some 3,000 pairs of donated glasses. School-aged children receive school supply packets and new mothers and orphans are clothed with new outfits and shoes. New believers seeking God’s word are given their own Bible and may join in prayer devotionals. Extended care is spearheaded for patients who need surgeries, wheelchairs, crutches, cataract operations, and long-term medication for HIV.

Echo said their sons travel along with their bush outings, and help with the fitting of boys’ clothing. While in Africa their sons are home schooled.

“God has opened the doors and in recent years, we acquired visiting surgeons and dentist volunteers from the United States and Canada,” Echo VanderWal said.

If a patient that has been diagnosed with cancer needs chemotherapy treatments it is only done in South Africa. TLC staff members complete the necessary paperwork and make arrangements for transportation with Swaziland government health officials.

In some communities they sometimes find people that have such extreme physical handicaps that their only means of mobility is by crawling on their hands and knees as they don’t have wheelchairs or crutches. For these folks TLC members build and provide specially-built wooden carts or wheelchairs that are powered by hand cranks.

Presently The Luke Commission and the VanderWals are accepting donations and raising funds for 2011 so when the rainy season ends in early January 2011 they’ll depart once again for Swaziland.

For further information on their missionary work visit their web site at www.LukeCommission.org. They can be reached by phone at (866) 351-1254, or by writing to them at: The Luke Commission, P.O. Box 1335, Sagle, Idaho 83860.

Yes, Dr. Harry and Echo VanderWal have found their calling as they and their children work for God doing his service in Africa, You might say the TLC stands for compassionate medicine, but then again it could also stand for tender loving care.