Testimony by Larry D. Hull, MD

My son Dean still lets out a deep, chortling laugh whenever we talk about the time in 2001 when I left our hotel in San Salvador, El Salvador to take a cab to the airport. The humor is that I, an older orthopedic surgeon who is accustomed to having a whole staff of people making sure I’m where I’m supposed to be, was setting out for Managua, Nicaragua (a place I had never been) alone with a Spanish vocabulary of about ten words. I was meeting up with a Work and Witness team whose orthopedic surgeon had cancelled at the last minute. I went because Bob Prescott called me right before I left on a business trip to El Salvador and persuaded me to just “hop on over to Nicaragua” for a few days to help out.

Before I left the United States, I hurriedly assembled a trunk of medical supplies and orthopedic tools of the trade (drills, plates, screws, implants).

I made it to Managua with my ten Spanish words. Missionaries Dr. Tami Buell and Eric
Buell welcomed me and integrated me into the Work and Witness group. We quickly became a team with the common goal of ministering in the name of Christ at the hospital in Rivas, Nicaragua. For me, it was life-changing.

The hospital at Rivas had several orthopedists on their staff, and I experienced great joy in
working alongside them. From that very first trip, I knew God had called me and my medical practice (Washington Orthopedic Center) to partner with this hospital and their doctors.

In January 2007, I completed my eighth Work and Witness trip to Nicaragua. We have participated in over 6,000 volunteer hours of direct hospital and clinical work in Nicaragua which doesn’t include the hours setting up clinic sites, travel, church services, and pre-trip coordination of medicine and supplies. Hundreds of people have given money to purchase supplies. Others have gathered to pack crates, while others have offered prayer and encouragement.

Besides the hospital work, our ministry has extended to remote villages where people are
medically underserved. We call them “jungle” clinics because of the remoteness of the sites. We travel by boat on rivers inhabited by alligators and large turtles. We listen to monkeys howling in the trees and watch hundreds of birds roost on the river banks. Sometimes we travel by bus for hours on bad roads with narrow, rickety bridges. We call it “adventure travel” at its best. Our teams have consisted of physical therapists, dentists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, lab technicians, pharmacists, as well as podiatrists, orthopedists, internists, pediatricians, nurses, family practice doctors, and non-medically trained helpers.

As for the Rivas Hospital, my partners and I have been back many times. We have supplied
them with valuable equipment and training. They have taught us many things as well. This
October, we plan to do approximately 20 knee replacements.

Sometimes I pinch myself and wonder, “Is this really happening?” Am I really in the jungle on my way to a site where more than a hundred people are waiting to be seen by a doctor? Are the words “Washington Orthopedic Center” really burned on the back of the benches at Rivas Hospital? Is God really allowing me to bring God’s love through caring and through the training God has allowed me to have? Why am I so blessed to be traveling with groups of wonderfully talented, passionate, smart, adventurous medical professionals?

 I don’t know why God uses me. I only know that I am blessed beyond measure because God allowed me to go to medical school and become an orthopedic surgeon. It is because Bob Prescott called me frantically needing an orthopedist in Nicaragua. It is because my wife and son pushed me into a cab and assured me I would make it to Managua, and it is because God put it in my heart to say, “Yes, Lord. I’ll go.”

I guess that’s what it takes for God to extravagantly bless. A willing spirit, a little faith, and four words: “Yes, Lord. I’ll go.”