VOICES OF AMERICA - DR. JERRY UMANOS

Chicago has a reputation for some rough neighborhoods with much gun violence, but the light of Christ shines in dark places.

Thirty years ago, the Lawndale Christian Health Center was born, birthed out of Lawndale Community Church.  They are folks who love Jesus and are committed to loving their neighbors.  Annually now they serve 150,000 visitors in four locations (plus an eye center, fitness center, legal office, and dental center with eighteen chairs).

LCHC's letterhead banner says it all:  "LOVING GOD/LOVING PEOPLE".

Lawndale Christian Health Center lost one of its pediatricians last week.  Perhaps you read of the three Americans killed in Afghanistan.  Dr. Jerry Umanos was one of them.

What was an inner-city Chicago doc doing in inner-city Kabul?

Dr. Jerry Umanos finished his pediatric residency 25 years ago and went to work at Lawndale for the same salary he made as a resident....proving he sure wasn't "in it" for the money.  Then his heart for the underserved took him 7,000 miles away to the poor in war-torn Afghanistan.  And for the last 10 years, Dr. Umanos has worked half the year in Chicago in order to fund the other half that he (and his wife Jan) spent in Afghanistan.

In Kabul, the doctor wore several hats.  He saw pediatric patients at the Cure International Hospital, which is funded by a Christian charity.  But he also worked to train Afghan medical residents, and he put together a community health training program for Afghan women.

Jerry Umanos must have been a special man.  He leaves a wife and three grown children.

This tragedy seems to bring harm to everything it touches.  Foreign doctors who are in the country to do good...will be dissuaded.  Afghan medical staffing will take a hit as will the community health outreach.  Dr. Umanos' family and friends and colleagues and home church will all be grieved.  This episode illustrates well the Bible verse that says the enemy comes to steal and kill and destroy.  Only the Lord can bring good out of what looks like such a tragic waste.

At this LINK Dr. Umanos' wife Jan speaks of her husband:

"Jerry always wanted to serve the under-served populations.  Afghanistan was just one of them.  He always had a desire to be the hands and feet of Christ.  He had a love and commitment that he expressed for the Afghan people because of that love for Christ. I know Jerry would also really like everybody to know about his love for the Afghan people and that we don't hold any ill will towards Afghanistan in general, or even the gunman who did this.  We don't know what his history is." 

  
Jan is right.  We don't know the shooter's history, but we know HER HUSBAND'S HISTORY that brought glory to God.  Jerry Umanos and the others who died that day were very likely Christian martyrs.  


* LINK If you would like to know more about the father and son who were also killed, their story is similar in their commitment to God and Afghanistan.