Dr. Sam Kojoglanian – Heart & Soul
Written By: Michael D. McClellan |
Interventional cardiologists aren’t supposed to be this cool.
Dr. Samuel Kojoglanian joins the Zoom call from his office in Southern California, the USC grad overcoming all manner of obstacle to become one of the most respected specialists in his field, his journey from the war-torn Middle East to sunny SoCal a testament to faith, family, and fearlessness. He’s nothing like you might expect; while most doctors come to the game equipped with the requisite compassion needed to connect with patients and their families, Kojoglanian – Dr. Sam to those who know him best – is über high-relational, his charismatic personality infectious and easy to love, especially to those facing difficult conversations. Kojoglanian is an unscripted jazz riff in a medical world filled with concertos. He’s loquacious, spontaneous, generous, and authentic. His vibe reflects his upbringing; confident yet humble, driven yet down-to-earth. He’s a hugger, something that’s become harder to do during the coronavirus pandemic. He’s a giver – of his time, his energy, and his money. Above all else, Kojoglanian is a disciple of Christ and a man whose choices are driven by the Word of God.
“You can’t go wrong serving people,” he says, when asked about his mission in life. “You can’t go wrong loving people. God made it clear that I could rock this world if I put my priorities aside and focused on His will instead.”
Today, Dr. Sam pours his heart and soul into his practice, the Santa Clarita-based Mender of Hearts, where he has been honored with the prestigious Patient’s Choice Award three years running. Of the 900,000 active physicians in America, only 6% receive the award. Even more telling: Less than 3% of all active physicians receive the Most Compassionate Award. Dr. Sam has three of those as well. Those qualities only scratch the surface of what he brings to the table. His Beacon of Hearts ministry brings together volunteer staff from Third World countries. By partnering with pastors, churches, and medical personnel, an army of volunteers is set in motion to serve those without access to adequate medical and dental care – all while also delivering the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
“The ministry that God has given me is special, because it’s not just preaching the gospel,” Dr. Sam says. “That part is obviously very important for the soul, and it’s our main priority, but we are also able to feed people who are indigent. We treat hypertension, diabetes, and high cholesterol. We educate people on the importance of making dietary changes. We evangelize the benefits of physical activity. It’s all part of fulfilling God’s will.”
The pandemic may have paused Dr. Sam’s mission overseas, but it hasn’t slowed him down. He continues to write, focusing his attention on the Book of Revelation. Rev It Up series sheds important light on one of the more complicated books in the Bible.
“Nobody really understands the Book of Revelation,” Kojoglanian says. “It has taken me four years to come up with this series, which is comprised of two books: Rev It Up – Verse by Verse – Vol. 1, which covers Chapters 1 through 11, and Rev It Up – Verse by Verse – Vol. 2, which covers Chapters 12 through 22. The two volumes together are almost 1,000 pages in total, but don’t let the size intimidate you. I made it very easy to understand. There are beautiful illustrations. There are little hearts throughout that clue the reader in to what is really cool. There are easy-to-understand medical references, where I discuss how medicine aligns to the Bible. There are also geopolitical references, where I draw parallels between the Book of Revelation and what’s going on in places like the United States, Israel, Russia, and China. These aren’t today’s headlines. They’re tomorrow’s headlines. All of it discussed verse-by-verse.”
The Rev It Up series also has a couple of other intriguing offerings.
“Rev It Up – Rhyme by Rhyme is something that nobody has ever done before. This is the Book of Revelation in poetry. Rev It Up – Image by Image brings the Book of Revelation to life in a tangible, more understandable, and relatable way. The front cover is insane. Most of the time, the pictures that you see depicting the Book of Revelation are kind of cheesy. These are not cheesy. These are the real deal.”
Kojoglanian has other books in the works, including Rev It Up for Kids. He has a thriving practice that continues to save lives. He continues to plan his next mission trip overseas. All of it while keeping Christ front and center.
“God has put me on this earth to do my part, and to make this world a better place,” he says. “I may be one person, but baby, I was put on earth to rock this whole planet in the name of Jesus Christ, and I’m going to do it.”
Take me all the way back.
It’s a fascinating story that starts in Jerusalem. You won’t believe this, but I was born in a hospital in Mount of Olives. The reason that we were in Jerusalem to begin with was an enormous massacre conducted by the Turkish people in 1915, during which approximately 1.5 million Armenians were killed. It’s known today as the Armenian Genocide. My grandparents had to flee, and they ended up in an Armenian diaspora, which is an Armenian community located outside of Armenia. Some fled to Lebanon, while others, including my grandparents, ended up in Jerusalem. So, lo and behold, I was born smack dab in the middle of the Holy City – the holiest city in the world – and I was brought up on the Via Dolorosa, the processional route in the Old City of Jerusalem. That’s the path that Jesus walked on the way to his crucifixion. That was my backyard. I have chills on my arms just thinking about it!
What childhood memories to you have of your time in Jerusalem?
We played marbles. We ran up and down the street and played soccer. My dad would take us to Bethlehem and say, “This is where Jesus was born,” but we were just kids at the time. We were like, “Seriously? Can’t we go somewhere else fun?” We learned a lot of languages while we were in Jerusalem, but I didn’t know English just yet. Little did I know that it would become my main language.
How old were you when you realized you wanted to be a doctor?
Two great things happened in my life at the age of five, and one of them was in the tablet of my heart. It was like an awakening. I don’t know if that happens to all five-year-old children, but it did to me. I sensed that God was saying I’d be a heart doctor when I grew up. He said, “I’ve called you to touch the hearts of mankind.” That’s when the second great thing happened: I gave my life to Christ.
What church did you attend in Israel?
I grew up in a Nazarene church. I think my mama taught me Bible verses when I was in the womb [laughs]. I wasn’t a Christian when I was born, because you can’t be born Christian, but I went to church and Sunday school. My mama made it clear from an early age that you may have many friends in life, and they might say that they’ve got your back, but truly, truly, truly, there’s only one person that’s got your back, and that’s Jesus Christ. He is powerful. He is good. He is kind. If you want to serve others, and if you want to be a light to the world and a salt to this earth, then you put your faith in Jesus. It’s been nothing but sweet to follow Him.
The Middle East can be a dangerous place. Was it like that for you?
We had soldiers pointing guns at us when we went to school. That was the norm for us, so you don’t really think about it. Still, we wanted to get to school safely. It could be scary. There might be bombs falling, but that was the norm and you didn’t know otherwise. You didn’t think that you were supposed to be riding a school bus, and that the school bus is supposed to be yellow, and that it’s supposed to have a stop sign that folds out to alert oncoming traffic to the children crossing the street. You’re not growing up in that kind of environment, so you accept your reality at the time because that’s all you know.
Is that why your family moved to the United States?
I remember my dad saying, “One day you’re gonna thank me because we’re leaving this place. We’re going to go to a place called America. I didn’t understand this at the time, but my dad used to work long days, oftentimes 16 hours or more. He didn’t do it to get rich. He wanted his kids to taste America. He wanted us to go to the other milk and honey land. Why? Because Jerusalem was a warzone. He worked very hard for many years to get us to America.
Your family relocated to Tennessee. That had to be a culture shock.
My uncle was already living in Chattanooga, and he told my father that it was a lovely place to raise your children. He explained that the people there are nice. It’s the South. It’s the Bible Belt. The people in the South see you and they are like, “Hey, honey.” If you don’t say ‘hi’ then they’re like, “What’s wrong with you, baby?” They’re gonna hug you. We moved from a war-torn country to a place like that, so I loved it. And then later we moved to Cali [California] where people don’t speak. If you speak to them, they look at you like they’re gonna take you down [laughs].
You had your friends in Jerusalem. How did you fit in with the kids in your new hometown?
It was crazy. My last name is Kojoglanian, and I have dark hair and brown eyes. Everybody there was a Smith or a Jones, and most everyone had blonde hair and blue eyes. They’re wearing Nike shoes and Levi’s jeans. I’ve got on sandals and pantalones. They’re hip-hop cool. I’m just a foreigner boy. I didn’t make sense to people.
Was it hard adjusting to your new school in the United States?
I remember the first day of school very clearly. The teacher went one-by-one and was like, “Who’s got their lunch?” I started crying because I didn’t know what lunch was. Everybody was like, “Yes, I got my lunch. I got my lunch.” I didn’t know what lunch was, baby. It was a difficult transition as a fourth grader.
Bullying is a big thing today with social media. Were you every bullied for being different?
I was beat up in school, and not because I was a thug. I was just different. I didn’t know how to speak no English, and some people say that I still don’t know how [laughs]. I remember getting hit on the nose on the playground, and I ended up in the hospital ER because we couldn’t stop the bleeding. I told my mom and dad that I wanted to go back to Jerusalem.
How did you overcome this adversity?
My mama and daddy told me two things: One, you sit on your butt and you study hard, because that’s why we came to America. And two, if you want to fight with these people, if you want to knock them out, then you get on your knees and pray to the Lord. You pray that He gives you the grace and the strength to weather the storm. They promised me that things would change if I did that, and they did.
In what ways?
As a fourth-grader, I remember sitting in the school auditorium with 900 kids and watching the awards ceremony. One of those awards was for the best all-around student. Over the next two years I went hog wild. I started praying and I started studying. I learned the English language. I served my community. I played sports. I joined the choir. I sold the most candy bars in the history of my elementary school in the fifth and sixth grade. Then, at the end of my sixth-grade year, we were in the same auditorium having this huge graduation ceremony. They handed out award-after-award. I didn’t think I’d win anything, but, at the end of the ceremony, the school principal announced that Samuel Kojoglanian had been voted by the students and teachers as the best all-around student.
I stand here today and give God the glory for that. Two years’ worth of hard work by a boy who was not only beat up, but who had tasted bigotry and hatred. I was like, “No, no, no…on my knees, and on my butt. Pray and study. I’m gonna change this place. I’m not going to be a victim. With God’s help, I get to choose.” We weren’t rich. We weren’t privileged. We came to America with a purpose of serving and loving people. My mama and daddy were right. I listened, I gave myself fully to the Lord, and I turned my life around in a matter of two years. I give God the glory for that. When I speak today, I share the advice that my parents gave me. Today I hear people say, “I’m the wrong color, I’m the wrong creed, I’m the wrong sex.” Wait. You’re the wrong nothing. God made you just like you are for a specific reason. You are the light of the world, and you are the salt of the earth. You can rock this planet if you want, it’s all up to you. Sit down on your butt and study hard, and get on your knees and pray. Let’s change this world. That’s my whole attitude in life, man.
Today you’re a world-renowned doctor. What was your journey like?
We moved to Cali and I took my undergrad at the University of Southern California. Of all the schools in the world, USC was where I wanted to study. My whole life was geared towards becoming a doctor. I went to USC for three years, and I excelled in my classes. Then, when the time came, I took the MCAT, which is the Medical College Admissions Test. What a nightmare! I had studied like a mad boy. I thought I had done good on it. I was like, “Yeah! Praise God!” And then I got my scores. I went ahead and applied to nine colleges and universities that have medical schools in California. One-by-one, the schools wrote back and rejected my application. All I ever wanted to do was become a doctor, so that I could serve and love God by serving and loving people. My world started to crumble. It was a very disappointing and discouraging time in my life.
Did you hit the panic button?
I was a senior at USC. I had majored in psychology and biology, and all I could think of was, “What do I want to do with that? Am I going to sell pharmaceuticals? Medical equipment? Am I going to teach?” People were always coming at me like, “Did you get into medical school? We know you’re in, right?” It was so embarrassing. It was total humiliation.
I regrouped and studied like a mad boy again. I took the MCAT again. I applied to medical school again. This time around I decided to add a different wrinkle – I also applied to the Graduate School at USC, with the goal of pursuing a Master’s in Gross Anatomy and Microbiology. That would at least let me get my foot in the door. The problem was, they were picking three candidates for the program. I’m was Number 4. I prayed to God, “Lord, can you take out Number 3 because I can’t get into the program unless a spot opens up.” That is not good prayer. I had to ask for forgiveness. He didn’t take out anyone, and I didn’t get in.
How many medical schools did you apply to the second time around?
I applied to 18. My mindset was, “If you can’t get into nine, double it up and try 18.” And again, I decided to try something different, another wrinkle – I had learned about a limited status student program, which allowed individuals with a bachelor’s degree to take a limited number of courses at USC without formally applying for admission to the university. You get to enter the medical school, not as a master’s student, not as a medical student, but as someone who takes courses with them, just to get a feel for the program. I met with the admitting professor and said, “I will give you my heart and soul. I will serve your university, I will serve you, and I will serve the students.” He said that he’d never seen such passion. He let me into the program.
So, you’re in medical school at USC, but you’re technically not a medical school student.
This was my backup plan, because I was sure that one of the 18 medical schools that I had applied to would accept me. However, one-by-one, I started getting all of these reject letters – 17 of them to be exact. I was beginning to feel like a failure again and then, bam, I got an interview at Loma Linda University in Southern California. This was my chance. I met with the kindest lady, and she asked me, “What will you do if you don’t get into medical school?” I responded by saying, “I guess if I don’t get in, I’ll do psychology so that I can at least help people.” That was the wrong answer, baby. She didn’t want to hear that. I should have said, “If I don’t get in, I will learn from my mistakes. I will break down the walls and the iron gates that are before me, and then, if the door is locked, I’ll find another way to get into medical school. I’ll find a window. I’ll climb down the chimney. I’ll do whatever it takes.” She as looking for that kind of dedication. Instead, Loma Linda became my eighteenth rejection.
Did you experience doubt that you were meant to be a doctor?
At the time I had a poster on my door of an F-35 fighter jet that takes off vertically, and the slogan said, “Aim High.” That was my life. I had always aimed high. But my world was falling apart. People were telling me that maybe I’d missed the boat. Maybe I wasn’t meant to be a doctor. Maybe I had heard God wrong. It was painful for me. I was hearing these things, my heart was crushed, and I felt like a loser. It didn’t feel like there was any way out. I tore the poster off my door and I hurled it under my bed. Then, in my darkest moment, I got on my knees. I said, “Lord God, what is happening? What’s going on?” I’ve never heard the Lord audibly, but at this moment I heard him in my heart. He said, “Don’t call me Lord. I’m not your Lord. I’m your Savior, but I’m not your Lord. Medicine is your Lord. You worship medicine.”
That day, I made the hardest decision in my life. I said, “I’m making you my Lord, and I will give you medicine. If you decide to take it away from me then you may take it. If you do take it away from me, part of my heart will die, but I would rather have you than medicine. I would rather worship you than medicine. I’d rather be on the right path than the wrong path. You are the way, the truth, and the light.”
In what ways did God answer your prayer?
I reapplied for the master’s program, and this time I got in. Then, seven days later, a dean in the medical school called me. My first thought was, “I’ve only been in the master’s program for seven days and I’m getting kicked out.” Instead, he said, “We’ve been watching you, and we want to know if you would like to teach our medical students.” He went on to explain that they were short a teacher, and that they wanted me to be a teaching assistant…to teach medical students at the University of Southern California! It was an insane phone call. Here I was, rejected by 27 medical schools, a year into the limited status student program, and a week into my master’s program…and they wanted me to teach students at one of the most prestigious colleges in the world. At that point I’m looking up to the Lord, and I’m like, “Baby, you’re good!”
How did you handle the opportunity?
I taught those students like crazy! It was an amazing time in my life – a medical school reject who had tasted bigotry and hatred was suddenly teaching medical students. I was different – I came in playing rap music, and they were like, “Who is this?” We’d go out to lunch and dinner, and we studied together like crazy. It energized them, and it reenergized me. I still wasn’t a medical student, but I was convinced that God’s grace would prevail and that my prayers would be answered.
There’s an old adage that the third time’s the charm. Was that true in your case?
I finished my master’s program, and I applied to one medical school. This was my third try. I’d taken the MCAT five times. This was it. A 12-person committee was going to decide my fate, and they knew all of this. They weren’t going to seriously consider me. They were going to reject me again, but God had other plans. He had touched the heart of an African-American lady on the committee named Althea.
Althea had been watching me work with those medical students. She saw me giving my love to them. She saw me helping them even though I wasn’t being paid for all of these extra hours I put in. Althea said, “I’m sorry, but hang on just one minute. I have watched this kid work like a dog for the past three years. He’s won the Teacher of the Year Award at the University of Southern California two years in a row. The medical students love him. He has excelled in pursuing his master’s degree. He has proven to you that he belongs in this place. If you don’t accept him, then perhaps I’m on the wrong committee.” On that day in 1991 I was unanimously voted into the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California.
That is a testament to the power of perseverance.
I remember when I was trying to get into medical school as an undergrad, there was one professor that said, “Son, you don’t have what it takes to be a medical doctor.” I’m telling you, I have memorized this man’s face, because there might come a time when he ends up on my table. I’m going to be like, “Remember me? Thank you, because I remember you.” And not out of vengeance, but because I had decided to rise above. I had decided to Jesus Christ my Savior and my Lord. God was with me even everyone else had given up.
Do you think that God moved Althea to speak up for you?
I’ll share another story, and then you can decide. Fast-forward a number of years. I’m working in interventional cardiology, and one day a code goes off in the ER. They call for Dr. Kojoglanian to come down. We’re saving this man’s life – he dies, he comes back, he dies again. We’re pouring our souls into getting him back. At one point I’ve got to go talk to the family in the ER, and I run into Althea, who I haven’t seen in 10 years. We share a moment and I tell her that I love her, and that I’ve got to go talk to the family of this patient. She grabs my arm, holds my hand, and says, “No, you’re not going anywhere. That man’s life you just saved, that’s my husband.”
I had tears in my eyes. She said that she knew there was some reason that she’d spoken up for me. It was an incredibly power moment. That was God’s hand at work. That was God’s plan. You tell me the odds of being in Los Angeles, with all of the hospitals we have, and the millions of people that live there…and then, 10 years after Althea helps me get into medical school, her husband ends up in my hospital, when I’m on call, and I’m leading the team that gets to save his life.
If you weren’t close friends before, I’m sure that you are now.
That day she called me Black Jesus [laughs]. That day I got the biggest promotion of my life – I went from a white, Armenian cardiologist, all the way straight up to Black Jesus!
You are in the minority in the medical world – you are a man of faith, and a man of science. Most in your profession feel that the two are mutually exclusive.
People think that science and faith are incompatible. I believe otherwise. Why? Because God created science. He is so far ahead of science. For instance, it took mankind a little while to figure out that the earth is round. In Isaiah, Chapter 40, Verse 22, it says, “The Lord sits enthroned upon the circle of the earth, and all its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.” The Lord proclaimed that the earth was round long before science figured it out.
God is always right. In the Book of Leviticus, Chapter 17, it says that the life of the creature is in its blood. God is telling you that blood makes life. George Washington, our first president, was bled to death. He was 67 at the time, and had been out in the cold weather and got wet. He ended up with a sore throat, which led to an infection. It could have been strep, who knows. The point is, the doctors who treated him decided that the best approach was to bleed him. They then bled him four more times over the next eight hours, with a total blood loss of 40 percent. At the time they thought that taking out his blood would save his life. It wasn’t that long ago that we said to ourselves, “Wait, maybe blood is important. Maybe we should perform blood transfusions rather than bleeding people.” Well, look at what God said to us 3,500 years ago! God put it in the book of Leviticus, that the life of the creature is in the blood!
What is your take on evolution?
People like to say that we evolved from monkeys, or that we came from an amoeba. Seriously? Our bodies are so complex, and yet we came from a one cell amoeba? I believe in micro-evolution if you will, where maybe the length of a bird’s beak changes, but a bird will never turn into a dog. There may be 300-plus species of dog – you’ve got our German Shephard, your beagle, and on-and-on – but a dog will never turn into a wolf.
There are a lot of atheists in your profession.
I love all people. I don’t go, “He’s an atheist. He’s this, he’s that.” I love all people. I truly believe that there was a time when everyone actually believed in God. Sin changed everything. You can think what you want to, that’s your choice, but God is going to love you anyway. At some point we decided to become kings of our own souls. We decided that there is no God. But those same people, you put them in a foxhole and there are bullets whizzing past their heads, the first thing they do is look for God to save them. How did God suddenly become real in a life-or-death situation? I thought you were an atheist.
Your warmth and magnetic personality set you apart from other doctors.
The Number 1 complaint from patients and their families is how the doctor treats them. They’ll say, “You didn’t even look at me. You looked at your computer the whole time. You didn’t listen to me.” I always go back to Jesus, and the compassion he showed. He didn’t say, “I’m God, I walk on water, you can’t touch me.” Jesus let the kids come and sit on his lap. That’s how I want to treat people. I want to treat them as I want to be treated. I treat people as if they’re my family. I always ask myself how I would want someone to treat my mom or my dad. When I enter a room, I don’t go, “Hello, Mr. Smith, how are you today?” I’m like, “What’s up, kids? How y’all doing today?” They’re like, “Oh my gosh, he just called us his kids, and we’re 95 years old.”
Do you ever have someone question your sincerity?
I’m real. This is who I am. It’s not an act. It doesn’t matter if I’m one-on-one with a patient, or I’m on a stage talking to 10,000 people. In fact, when I look out at an audience that size, I know that there are people out there hurting. It doesn’t matter if they have a blue-collar job or they’ve got Grammy Awards on their mantel, when the lights go down everyone is the same.
Sometimes the more fame you have, the easier it is to go down a dark path.
People today are lost, and it doesn’t matter how much money or fame they have. Why else would they be drowning themselves in alcohol and drugs? At the end of the day, what do all of the trophies and accolades mean? If those things solved everything, why would they still be angry, agitated, lonely and depressed? Whether they realize it or not, there’s something in our souls that seeks eternity, that seeks a God, that seeks a love that’s unconditional and unfailing and unmatched…a love that can only come from Jesus Christ.
Do you find yourself walking a fine line with your faith as a doctor?
There’s a time for everything. There’s a time to say, “Hey, you need the Lord Jesus Christ,” and then there are times when I need to shut up and save somebody’s life because they’re dying right in front of me.
I would imagine that not everyone is receptive to your message.
One day, I was working in a hospital and I saved a man’s life. By God’s grace, we were able to put a stent in his heart and save him from the widow maker. He ended up in the ICU, where he was barely making it. His wife was bawling and crying, there were nurses present, and suddenly the Lord spoke to me. He said, “Tell him about Jesus.” I’m like, “Lord Jesus, you’ve got the wrong man, you have the wrong time, and you got the wrong ICU!” Then it hit me: I tried to tell the Creator that He was wrong [laughs]. He spoke to my heart again and I’m like, “Jesus, look, there are four nurses here. This is not proper. This is not the right time to tell him about Jesus Christ.” And then, as I turned to exit the room, He said, “You need to turn around now, because this is your only chance to tell this man about me. He will never respond ever again.”
Now I’m sweating. I’m sure I’m going to get reported; somebody’s going to say something and the hospital administration is going to come down hard on me. In that moment, I decided that I didn’t care. It was more important for me to be obedient. I was doing anything illegal. I wasn’t doing anything immoral. I was just sharing the love of Jesus Christ. Imagine if I had discovered a cure for COVID-19 and I only shared it with myself and my family. Shame on me. Jesus Christ is love. He is goodness. He is great. He has mercy. Jesus Christ is the cure for the soul. Everyone born in sin is going to die one day, and we only have two places to go – heaven or hell. Jesus said, “I’m the way, the truth, and the light. Nobody comes to the Father except through me.”
On the way out the door I thought, “What gonna happen if he dies tonight?” So, I went back to him and explained that he had almost died. He thanked me for saving his life, and I explained that there was a moment when I actually watched him die on the table. I said, “Your coronary artery was blocked 100%, but now the flow is open and your heart’s happy because it’s receiving nutrition.” I explained that Jesus had done the same for us on Calvary. He died for you. He died for me. He died on the cross to save us. I said, “If you accept his blood and say, ‘Lord God, I’m a sinner,’ then the artery to your soul will be unblocked.”
I asked him if he would pray with me, and he did. Now, everybody’s looking at me. There are even more nurses in the room, and I just know for sure that I’m in trouble. I didn’t care. The patient had tears running down his cheeks. His wife was bawling. One of the nurses came up to me after I left the room and she said, “Dr. Kojoglanian, I’ve been in an ICU nurse for 25 years, and I’ve never, ever seen something so beautiful. The wife comes after me next. She goes, “We’ve been praying for my husband for 15 years – me, my family, the whole church – but he has not come to Christ. And finally, he comes to Christ because of what you did.” That is the beauty of Jesus Christ. He tells me to use the gifts that he’s given me. Jesus does the hard part. In this case, all I had to do was start the conversation.
Your ministry has taken you all over the world.
There’s a certain joy that comes from serving people. Whether we’re in the Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, Armenia, Argentina, or Africa, we are there for a very specific reason. If I go and tell people that Jesus loves them and they need to be saved, that is the ultimate reward, but that doesn’t make a lot of practical sense. We first honor the people by helping them medically. We work in some very crude conditions, because we’re talking about Third World countries in many cases. There’s barely any water. The people are indigent. They don’t have shoes or adequate clothing. They don’t have food. We treat them as patients first, and we do it dirt cheap. We recruit nurses and doctors through my ministry, Beacon of Hearts, and we provide them with medication for things like diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol. And then, when we’ve addressed their medical needs, we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s beautiful, because we get to touch the hearts of the patients that we serve. We get to touch the body, the mind, the heart, and the soul.
Final Question: If you had one piece of advice for others, what would that be?
You have to put your faith in Jesus Christ. It’s important to stay low, stay humble, stay true, stay obedient, and serve mankind. I fail on a daily basis, but I am sold out on Jesus Christ, so my failures are transformed into opportunities. I’m His servant, and because of that I can serve others. Trust the Word of God. Believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins. You will find yourself blessed in ways that were previously unimaginable.
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