Several statistics highlight the tremendous need for accessible health care services in India. Infant mortality rates and life expectancy are two measures of the level of health care services in a country.

The Ludhiana Christian Medical College and Hospital (CMC) has integrated a vital Community Outreach Program into the training of doctors, dentists, and nurses as a means of delivering health care services to the villages around Ludhiana in northern India. During the Mission Ambassadors trip to Ludhiana CMC in March 2011, we visited several urban and rural medical clinics where villagers can receive inoculations and basic medical care.

We tagged along with student nurses who visit villagers’ homes to interact one-on-one with people who have little access to any other health care providers. During the home visits nurses share health information on topics such as balanced diet, HIV prevention, contraception, immunizations, and clean water.

The village clinic and hospital in Malerkortla is located in a building that was formerly used as a school. A local Muslim businessman provided the funding to refurbish the building as a small hospital. He partners with Ludhiana CMC to have doctors and medical students visit on a rotating basis to provide medical care to the residents of Malerkortla.

At the rural clinic of Lalton Kalan, nursing students live at the complex for two weeks at a time because of the distance from CMC. They travel by bicycle into the village to meet with families, provide health care assessments, and answer questions. We observed nurses meeting with family members in their courtyard while two water buffalo tied up just a few feet away kept a wary eye on the visitors.

CMC owns two large vans equipped with dental equipment that are dispatched to dental camps around northern India.

CMC holds dental camps 10-12 days each month where dentists and dental students provide a variety of free dental services including X-rays, extracting teeth, and making dentures. Often the dental care a villager receives at a CMC dental camp is the first time he or she has ever seen a dentist.

Ludhiana Christian Medical College and Hospital places a strong emphasis on community health care. The urban and rural clinics provide a valuable training opportunity for student doctors, nurses, and dentists. Many CMC graduates recognize the importance of community-based health services and dedicate their careers to meeting the needs of the poor and underserved throughout India. Ludhiana CMC’s mission is to provide health care to all whether they are able to pay for services or not. Through their community outreach efforts, CMC students and staff are following the example of Jesus Christ to heal the poor and sick.

Sue Cobb, from Church of the Shepherd, in St. Charles, Missouri, is one of five Ludhiana Christian Medical College Mission Ambassadors who traveled to India in March 2011. Sue and the other mission ambassadors are available to speak on Sunday morning or to groups during the week. You can contact the Missouri Conference Office of Creative Ministries for more information. (Phone 573-474-7155 / [email protected])

Bindu’s third child was about to be born. In her 20 years life had been hard. Her first baby died at age 17 days. The second, a girl named Greena, was almost two years old before succumbing to diarrhea. The first 2 pregnancies had not been difficult, but this one was different. There were no mid-wives in this rural area south of Ludhiana and certainly no women doctors. Custom prevented male doctors from entering the woman’s section of the home. Something was wrong with the baby and no one knew what to do or could offer direct help.

Born in 1864 to a respected English family, Edith Mary Brown grew up in a strictly disciplined Christian life. She was influenced by a series of events to develop a vision leading her to become a doctor and go to India to share the love and comfort of Jesus Christ, particularly to women. With intense perseverance she studied at the best schools in England and became one of the first female graduates in medicine and surgery.

Edith Brown transitioned from one life to another when she first arrived in India in 1891 at the age of 27. Ludhiana was a large and busy city in the Punjab region of northern India. English and American missionaries had already established a presence there including a very small hospital and nursing school. Here Edith Brown now found herself as the first qualified medical doctor on the staff.

Edith made an immediate impact on community health including its first surgery – primitive by today’s standards. She was even called to attend to a Brahmin cow, sacred to the numerous Hindus. There was great rejoicing, and the doctor’s stature immediately increased in the community, for she had saved the life of a sacred cow

The need for trained assistants and hospital staff was obvious. It was extremely challenging for Edith to manage a clinic, dispensary, and rural visits by herself, much less perform surgery.

In addition to generally limited opportunities for women, the custom of the time did not condone the free association between male and female students. It would be unthinkable to have boys and girls sit together for a lecture on human anatomy and biology. Training Christian girls who could be missionaries as well as medical assistants would be difficult.

A dream took shape and in 1894 the North Indian School of Medicine for Christian Women was started by Dr. Brown and her colleagues with the object of training Indian nationals to serve in the field of medical education and health care services. In 1952 the name was changed to Christian Medical College to enable it to admit men and women for the upgraded MBBS course.

Almost one hundred twenty years later, Ludhiana Christian Medical College and Hospital continues to be a key educational and medical facility in northern India. Over the years many United Methodist missionary doctors, nurses and staff members have served in the College and Hospital. The Missouri Conference Creative Ministries Team and the Festival of Sharing Coordinating Committee are currently urging support for this ministry.

Spread over a patchwork quilt of 46 acres in the heart of the older section of Ludhiana, students, faculty, and staff are a common sight walking in their white coats and Punjabi style student nursing uniforms. After all this time CMC still serves the community – those who can pay, those who can not, as well as those of other faiths – educating desperately needed medical professionals and performing cutting edge research and surgery, all of this in the name of Christ.

Steve Hall, from Red Bridge United Methodist Church, in Kansas City, is one of five Ludhiana Christian Medical College Mission Ambassadors who traveled to India in March 2011. Steve and the other mission ambassadors are available to speak on Sunday morning or to groups during the week. You can contact the Missouri Conference Office of Creative Ministries for more information. (Phone 573-474-7155 / [email protected])

The Ludhiana Christian Medical College Governing Body took an historic action during their September 2010 meeting; they voted to receive international students for the first time in their history.

Years of civil war in Liberia brought about an extreme shortage of dentists. So that there were only three dentists serving the entire country, and they were all in their 60s. The Ganta Methodist Hospital in Liberia, which had a dental clinic but no dentist, contacted the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church for help with this problem.

In the past the General Board of Global Ministries would have looked for a solution here at home. However, this time they turned to the Ludhiana Christian Medical College in India.

Dr. Abraham Thomas, Director of the Ludhiana Christian Medical College and Hospital sent, Dr. Abi Thomas, Principle of the Ludhiana Christian Dental College, to Liberia to see how they might help.

The trip led to an arrangement whereby the Ludhiana Christian Dental College is sending their graduates to Liberia to serve at the Ganta Methodist Hospital on a rotating basis for 8 months at a time. Their $1,500 a month salary and travel expenses are born by the General Board of Global Ministries.

Mr. Franklin Walker, Creative Ministries Team Chairperson, made a special point to meet and visit with Dr. Ashwin Zechariah when he lead the St. James United Methodist Church VIM team to Liberia in November.

While in Liberia, visiting with Liberian United Methodist Bishop Arthur Kulah, Dr. Abi Thomas suggested a longer term solution to their shortage of dentists. He proposed that Liberian students be sent to the Ludhiana Christian Dental College to receive their training. This proposal had three bright sides. First, they would receive the best training offered anywhere in the world. Secondly, their training would cost less than sending students to the United States, as has been the practice in the past. And Bishop Kulah feels the students will be more inclined to return to Liberia to serve upon graduation.

Posted on December 15, 2010 by friendsofludhiana.

It’s daybreak in Northern India.

As the city of Ludhiana emerges from darkness, Muslim and Sikh prayers drone over loudspeakers from countless places of worship. Men in turbans emerge from their homes, and street vendors start cooking the day’s spicy fare.

In one small corner of this city – population 1.3 million – a crowd of Christian staff and students fills a breezy chapel with standing room only. Under a wooden cross, the students intone in Hindi to the beat of a tambourine, “We are singing unto thee.”

This small corner of the city is Ludhiana Christian Medical College.

The school, surrounded by auto-rickshaws, honking motorcyclists and bicycles laden with heavy loads, bears some resemblance to Christian institutions in the United States. It employs common symbols, for example, and common scriptures.

But seated in a city where religion so noticeably touches all aspects of life – the clothing, the food, morning routines – Ludhiana Christian Medical College goes farther than many similar institutions. It makes worship central every day, all day long.

The religious life at the school and its teaching hospital starts at 7 a.m. with a daily audio broadcast throughout the hospital of scripture, prayer and music. Two daily worship services in chapels – one for students and one for staff – follow at 7:30 a.m.

After the services, one of which competes with a simultaneous loudspeaker broadcast of Sikh prayers, the school’s seven chaplains meet with staff in various departments of the school for departmental devotionals. Within a week, all departments have a chance to meet and worship.

At 9:15 a.m., the seven chaplains of the school and hospital begin their corridor rounds. Standing next to snack stands, inside waiting rooms, beside elevators and in airy hallways lined with sick people waiting to be seen, the chaplains greet gatherers and take names of people in need of prayers. The chaplains make about a dozen stops a day.

At each stop, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and Christians, alike, bow their heads in prayer. The language that the chaplains use is Christian, but the message works for everyone.

“These are all religious people, Indians, so when you say, ‘Prayer,’ they are all attached,” said Rev. Stanley Thomas, the head chaplain. “No one will disrespect prayer. You just have to initiate.”

After corridor rounds, the chaplains go to their assigned hospital wards to talk individually with patients until evening arrives. At the end of each day, the hospital’s audio system comes alive again with 20 minutes of prayers, scriptures and music. Then it’s just a matter of hours before Ludhiana wakes up again to the sounds of its many religions’ prayers.

The Healing Touch

by Max Marble

“Where cross the crowded ways of life….” These words from our hymnal keep playing in my mind as we turned from the street, jam packed with humanity, into the Ludhiana Christian Medical College and Hospital compound. The melody continued with me as we walked the halls of the hospital and saw at every turn a picture of Christ or a scripture passage of hope. “…cup of water given for you still holds the freshness of your grace; yet long these multitudes to view the sweet compassion of your face. O Master, from the mountainside make haste to heal these hearts of pain; among these restless thongs abide; O tread the city’s streets again.” (UM Hymnal #427)

We United Methodists have a rich and long history of compassion through the healing ministry of Christ at Ludhiana, India. The parents of a number of my school mates, at the missionary boarding school that I attended while growing up, served as doctors and staff members.

We currently do not have any long-term missionaries working in Ludhiana. As our missionaries have left so also has the ability to easily generate the funds needed to carry on the ministry. Our parents, including mine, went to India and other places, to train leaders and work to themselves out of a job. The wall of pictures of past hospital directors tells the story of the transition from all missionaries to all Indian directors. The pictures testify to our missionaries having done their jobs well.

The pictures also testify to our need to continue to tell the story and raise money for these ministries to which Christ has called us. There are many such ministries but I am grateful for the opportunity to share with you our ministry in Ludhiana. Please give generously by clicking on “Donate” at the top of the website. Or by sending a check to Ludhiana CMC Board USA, PO Box 2713, Columbia, MO 65205. For more information email Max Marble at [email protected],

Sunday morning we worshiped in the jam packed medical college chapel. The chapel was filled with students and staff. I was intrigued by the book of worship. After the service was presented with a copy. It is called “Shifa” which in Hindi means “the healing touch.” On the front cover is a sketch of the woman touching the hem of Jesus as he passed by in order to receive his healing touch. Such faith and hope resounded through halls, wards and class rooms of this amazing place of healing known to us as the Ludhiana Christian Medical College and Hospital.