May 16, 2003

Bethany Hospital
United Church of Christ in the Philippines
Tacloban City
"A Medical Center For The Sick Of All Creeds"

Message

"Behold a sower went out to sow...But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty." Matt. 13:3 & 8.

In 1913, Dr. Warren J. Miller, a missionary physician of Board Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, USA, planted a seed in Tacloban, Leyte, Philippines. In, 1918, he constructed the first hospital building largely from contributions of his friends in the Church of St. Paul in Philadelphia.

Today 85 years later, that seed is a 125-bed tertiary Hospital with standard facilities, i.e. an Emergency Room, Operating and Delivery Rooms, Laboratory, X-ray, Ultrasound, Pharmacy plus a Dialysis Center, a Heart Center (treadmill street test), and C-T Scan. It serves 2,000 out-patients and 600 in-patients per month.

This growth has made possible because of the dedication and commitment of a number of people who devoted the best years of their life to the Healing Ministry of the Bethany Hospital.

Foremost of these, aside from Dr. Miller, were Dr. J. Andrew Hall, Dr. Acadio Ortiz, Dr. McAnlis, and Dr. Julio E. Dolorico, who presided over the growth of Bethany from a 25-bed hospital in 1936 to 125-bed hospital it is today.

The 85th Anniversary is, therefore, a time for thanksgiving, to the Lord Almighty who saw fit to use us as His instruments in serving the people of Leyte and Samar through His Healing Ministry.

Braulio L. Laurino, Jr.
Administrator
Bethany Hospital