The Mae Sariang Christian Hospital

 

The original building of the Mae Sariang
Christian Hospital as it looked in 1986

In 1984, the Mae Sariang Christian Hospital still served an important role in providing health care not only in the town of Mae Sariang, but in the entire region. It also served as the unofficial center of all the Baptist mission work in the area with medical staff often involved in the church, hostels, evangelism work, etc.

The hospital was started in the early 1960s by Dr. Keith Dahlberg. Dr. Dahlberg had been a medical missionary to Burma working at the Kengtung Christian Hospital. However, a military coup in Burma in 1962 led to the Dahlbergs as well as many other Baptist missionaries being driven out of the country or not allowed re-entry. So, Dr. Dahlberg came to Thailand and started the Mae Sariang Christian Hospital.

By 1984 as we arrived to live in Mae Sariang, Dr. Bina Sawyer, another former Burma missionary displaced by the coup headed the hospital. At times, Dr. Bina, would have short term help with doctors coming from the US or Sweden. Dr. Eli Kong and his wife Dr. Joyce Kong, also came through mission circles from the Philippines and stayed for several years.

Marcia and I, being decidedly unmedical had no role in the medical side of things but supported the hospital and the medical missionaries however possible. Hopefully, we were seen as helpful as we surely appreciated having the hospital there and took advantage of the medical services offered.

Some of the crowd touring the new wing of the
hospital at the dedication in October 1984

The original hospital consisted of a single, wooden rectangular building. Later, another wooden wing providing
mainly rooms for in-patients was added followed by a concrete building that added new examining rooms and room for medical equipment. As we arrived on the scene, a brand-new wing was being added funded through the Baptist Union of Sweden. This new wing featured additional inpatient rooms and updated birthing and operating rooms.

The dedication for the new wing was held in October of 1984. It was a big occasion with Cecil Carder, our Area Secretary from Baptist headquarters in Valley Forge, PA in attendance as well as Sven Ohm who headed the Baptist Union of Sweden. With such mission leadership coming, there were numerous meetings, gatherings, tours, visits, dinners, worship services, conversations, etc. as well as the main dedication. In such occasions, our role in addition to participant was usually on the side of organizing, facilitating, set-up and tear down and transportation.

Meal time at the dedication of the new hospital
wing. On the left, seated in brown pants is Cecil
Carder. Marcia is the red top on the left. On the
right side is Rupert Nelson, Me, and Sven Ohm

In spite of the new hospital wing and the excitement it generated in Mae Sariang and abroad, there were already concerns about the future of the Mae Sariang Christian Hospital. The nascent attitude shifts of distrust of government and church institutions in the US was already eroding support of denominational supported mission work like International Ministries of the American Baptist Churches. The difficulty of funding doctors, nurses, medical equipment as well as buildings, vehicles, etc. was already being felt and would only get worse.

Fortunately for the people of Mae Sariang however, the Thai government was finally funding a government hospital in town. A number of the Christian Hospital nurses went to work at the government hospital taking advantage of the better pay and benefits. The Thai government could also tap into the pool of available doctors of which the mission had no access and insufficient resources to support.

Dr. Bina Sawyer (left) headed the
hospital during our time in Mae
Sariang. Kim Brown
 (foreground) started as a nurse
 but later started several programs
that continue today. 

Watching the Mae Sariang Christian Hospital suffer through declining years was painful to watch. Both the Mission and the local church leadership and church members made heroic efforts to keep the hospital going until it’s closing in 1993.

Despite closing as a hospital however, it’s legacy lives on. Kim Brown began her mission career as a nurse at the
Mae Sariang Christian Hospital. As the hospital was closing, she began looking for other work and started what began as an AIDS education project called the Health Project for Tribal People. Seeing other needs through the work of this project Kim soon started the House of Love, House of Blessing Day Care and the Christian Center for the Development of People with Disabilities (CDPD).

As the Mae Sariang Christian Hospital pioneered the introduction of modern medical care to the Mae Sariang area, the CDPD pioneered the introduction of developing the potential of people with disabilities. Prior to CDPD people with disabilities were largely tucked away in their home with no help from the government or anyone else. Families cared as best they could but didn’t have the knowledge or vision of how they might be of more help. CDPD came on the scene though and has helped the disabled and their families join society and live up to their potential. Visit the former site of the Mae Sariang Christian Hospital today and the original wooden buildings are gone, replaced by the headquarters of the Christian Center for the Development of People with Disabilities and is alive with the CDPD, it’s people and programs.