CUSCO, Peru – “'Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness.’ Matthew 9:35. That’s our theme verse,” said Patricia Verde, a Honduran doctor who has served in Peru on an EMM team for the past six years. As “Doctor Patty” trained health promoters for distant Quechua towns that had no medical services, she was excited to realize that she was often training future church leaders. All who volunteered for medical training also gave their lives to Christ,” Verde said. And almost everywhere the medical program has gone, churches have also sprung up. Many of the health promoters are also the church leaders.”

As she brings her assignment in Peru to a close, Verde told EMM staff that she loves to make return visits to villages that now have trained medical workers. As villagers receive medical assistance and teaching on nutrition and hygiene as well as the Bible, she has been awed to see community-wide transformation. The villagers enjoy showing us their latrines, source of clean water, and garbage dump,” she said. They are proud of their accomplishments.”

She was moved to tears to see children who were once too weak – because of poor nutrition – to hold pencils proudly present her with colored pictures. People often walked for hours to receive treatment from the mobile clinic Verde oversaw. At one clinic, she was especially touched by a young man who had walked for four hours over the mountains carrying his sickly mother on his back.

Steve Shank, EMM’s representative to Latin America, commented, “Verde is as much an evangelist as she is a doctor. She prays for people even as she dispenses medicine. After leaving her current EMM assignment, Verde, who is a member of the Amor Viviente circle of churches in Honduras, plans to marry a Peruvian man and hopes they can serve together somewhere in North Africa.

–Jewel Showalter