And United Methodists in the United States plan to supply the medical equipment for the new hospital, according to The Rev. Dr. Robert Howerton, Jr., assistant general secretary for health and welfare ministries. Howerton and other GBGM staff recently visited Indonesia, which is enduring its worst economic and political crisis in three decades. It also has the world's fourth-largest population, at more than 200 million. The hospital would serve the existing Methodist Medical School, a branch of the Methodist University in Medan. Rice is spread for drying outside in a rural village in Indonesia.
Hunger is a major problem in the wake of the economic crisis.
The Methodist Health Care System of Memphis, Tennessee, has agreed to equip the hospital, Howerton said. They've had no place to train, at least in a Christian environment. They're having to use the government hospitals to train. They want to train the doctors in a Christian environment. Indonesia is a heavily Muslim country.