Hands of Luke ministry helping children in El Paso and Juarez_12604

Posted: 1/26/04

Hands of Luke ministry helping
children in El Paso and Juarez

By George Henson

Staff Writer

EL PASO—Hurting people need healing for both body and spirit, according to Marco Samaniego. And that philosophy has guided the Hands of Luke medical ministry since he founded it 10 years ago.

The ministry, in addition to being the primary medical care provider for many, also seeks to make sure the children in the area are well fed. Every day the ministry feeds 500 to 700 children in three nutritional centers and two orphanages in Juarez, Mexico.

It is a ministry based totally on faith in God, said Samaneigo, bivocational pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church in El Paso.

"We don't ever know where it's going to come from, but God always provides. Sometimes churches and businesses and individuals give us money to buy food, and sometimes the food itself is donated, but God always finds a way," he said.

In addition to providing health care and food, Hands of Luke also offers Bible studies and Sunday worship services.

"Through all these outreach ministries, we really get to know the people and make a difference in their lives," he said.

As an example, he pointed to 17-year-old Luis Armando. The young man formerly led a gang, but about a year ago he accepted Christ after getting to know ministry volunteers. "Now he works with one of the mission pastors and has led six other gang members to Christ," Samaniego said.

That desire to make a difference especially was evident to Samaniego during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, especially when he considered his family's blessings compared to needs in nearby Mexico.

"It's hard to be thankful when there is a big bird on the table and family all around and know that nearby there are families with little if anything to eat," he said.

Just before Thanksgiving in 1993, he felt God was leading him to find the means to feed 1,000 people that holiday. "I didn't know how to do it, but I told my wife, 'This is what the Lord told me to do, and we need to get busy because it's only two weeks until Thanksgiving.'"

That year, through the help of area churches and individuals, 1,000 people had a Thanksgiving meal they would not have had otherwise. Each year since, the ministry has grown. In 2003 more than 13,000 people were fed, including 5,000 people in a Mexican prison.

More than 300 volunteers from 25 churches are needed now to prepare and distribute the food.

Volunteers prepare the food, freeze it and reheat it at an orphanage in Juarez, one of the 25 places food is distributed. Wherever the food is served, God's word is preached, he said.

"We don't do feeding without preaching," he said. "Our main goal is to have people come to know the Lord, and then for the churches in the colonias to disciple them afterward."

At the prison, 300 men made professions of faith in Christ, he noted.

At Christmas, the ministry distributed gift bags to 6,000 children. Each bag contained a toy, fruit, peanuts, socks, underwear and a Bible.

While the ministry has grown each year, Samaniego said he doesn't know what next year will bring.

"This is a ministry of faith. Whatever the Lord gives us to do, that's what we're going to do. It's all under his leadership," he said.