NewsPosted November 18, 2015 Hong Kong: A Miracle Hospital Opens

A boon in Chinese births paves the way for a $219 million expansion project.

By Andrew McChesney, news editor, courtesy Adventist Review

Perched on a Hong Kong hill is a brand-new 25-story hospital building that Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders call nothing short of a miracle.

The US$219 million building, which officially opened Tuesday, will significantly expand Adventist health-care services in a secular megacity where the church has found that the most effective way to share Jesus’ love is through the healing work of its two local hospitals.

“God brought the right people to the right positions at the right time to make sure this project was successful,” said Robert Folkenberg Jr., chairman of the two hospitals and president of the Adventist Church’s Chinese Union Mission.

The new building is an expansion of Hong Kong Adventist Hospital - Tsuen Wan, which has been housed in a neighboring five-story building since its founding by prominent Adventist doctor Harry Miller in 1964.

The hospital, which got off to a rocky start, has flourished over the past decade, especially for a period of about seven years when the Hong Kong government allowed mothers from mainland China to have their babies in Hong Kong.

“This open door allowed our hospitals, whose maternity wards were immediately flooded, to minister to thousands of families from China while at the same time bringing in much-needed revenue that provided the considerable funds to build this massive expansion,” Folkenberg said.