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UM missionaries plan visit to Michigan

Posted on by James Deaton
Doctor seeing a patient
Dr. Les Dornon talks to a patient at Tansen Hospital in Nepal. Each day after rounds, Les sees patients in what is called the outpatient department. Five days a week, a clinic (like an urgent care) is available where patients can see a doctor, get tests done, receive prescriptions, or, if needed, be referred to another hospital. The hospital also has a separate emergency department for patients requiring immediate care. ~ photo courtesy Debbie and Les Dornon

Read this invitation from United Methodist missionaries Debbie and Les Dornon, who serve at Tansen Hospital in Nepal. They will visit Michigan in November and December and would love to share ministry updates with your congregation.

DEBBIE DORNON
Missionary at Tansen Hospital, Nepal

Jaimashi! This is the greeting Nepali Christians use when meeting each other. It means “Victory to Jesus” or “Jesus is Lord.” We have been privileged to have lived and worked in Nepal alongside many believers for 25 years. While we have enjoyed being part of the body of believers here, we have also been blessed to have been part of the wider body of Christ — mostly through United Methodist churches in the United States. We look forward to visiting churches in Michigan later this year and are thankful for many who have supported us over the past 10 to 12 years.

My husband, Les, is a family physician, and he and I first came to Nepal in 1990 with our two- and one-year-old children. We served in Tansen — about 200 miles west of Kathmandu — at the United Mission Hospital. Les worked as a doctor and training coordinator, and I was a mom and a personnel coordinator for missionaries in Tansen. We stayed 12 years. Our third child was born in Tansen, and all our children consider it home. We left in 2002 so that our oldest could go into tenth grade in the United States. Homeschooling in advanced subjects like algebra and chemistry was a bit beyond me!

Missionaries to Nepal
Then and now: The first photo from 1991 shows Les and Debbie along with their two oldest children during their first year in Tansen. Their youngest child was born in early 1992. They are standing in front of their house, dressed and ready to walk to church. The simple house, a Nepali-style brick-and-mud house, had whitewashed walls made from hard mud, a cement ground floor, and hard mud covered with bamboo mats for the upper floor. The second photo was taken during the last few years. Les and Debbie are dressed up as they were attending a friend’s wedding. The town of Tansen is seen on the hill behind them. ~ photos courtesy Debbie and Les Dornon

After almost 10 years living in Ohio, Les and I returned to Tansen as our kids were all either out of university or partway through it. We took on the same roles again, this time with more experience and more time, now that we were empty nesters. We have seen the hospital in Tansen grow from about 100 beds to 200 beds. We now have teams of both general and orthopedic surgeons, along with doctors specializing in internal medicine, pediatrics, OB-GYN, and ENT. More than half of our senior doctors are highly qualified Nepalis. Of the staff of 400, there are currently about a dozen expats serving as missionary doctors and support staff.

Our hospital is known as the “Mission Hospital” by the locals — and our sign proclaims in English and Nepali: “We Serve, Jesus Heals.” We are also known as the hospital that will never turn anyone away, even if they cannot pay. We have a Medical Assistance Fund, which is filled by donations from friends of Tansen from all over the world. Many of you have donated to that fund, and we truly appreciate it. The dollar still goes a long way here. For example, I recently fell and broke my finger. The total cost, including ER visit, orthopedic consults, multiple X-rays, splint, and follow-up occupational therapy visits, came to a total of $61. For medical care, consider flying to Nepal for treatment!

Doctor visiting patients in rehab area
Dr. Les does rounds on the rehabilitation ward with a nurse and the physiotherapist. A missionary friend of the Dornons did the painting on the wall. It is created from a photo of someone who had previously spent time in the rehab ward and had gotten well enough to go home again. ~ photo courtesy Debbie and Les Dornon

As a family physician, Les has worked on all the various wards and clinics — pediatrics, medicine, and maternity. These days, one of his tasks is helping to cover the rehab unit, which is specific to patients needing long-term physiotherapy for recovery from strokes, accidents, and falls. Yesterday, he saw four patients who are all in rehab due to spinal injuries, including a 75-year-old man who had been up in a tree picking fruit when he fell. Our orthopedic surgeon team is first-class, but even they cannot repair everything!

We believe the most important department in our hospital is our pastoral care team. These eight believers are the ones to whom all the financial and social problems are referred. They assess patients to identify their needs and provide charity care to those who cannot pay. They take care of patients who have no family to help. They pray with patients and counsel them to help their lives improve. Through their work, along with the other believers who are hospital staff, the Holy Spirit performs works beyond what we could hope to accomplish on our own.

Pastoral care staff member visits patient in hospital
The pastoral care staff at Tansen Hospital is staffed 100% with Nepali Christians. In this photo, a pastoral care staff member visits a patient at his bedside to give counsel, encouragement, or prayer. She is wearing a mask because, in Asia, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, people would wear masks if they felt they had a slight cold or something that they didn’t want to pass on to anyone else. ~ photo courtesy Debbie and Les Dornon

We hope to visit some of you and share what has been happening here at the hospital over the past several years. Tansen Hospital has been a “light on the hill” for over 70 years, and we are thankful for the small part we have played in God’s work in Nepal.

We will be in Michigan from November 29 to December 21, 2025. To schedule a time for us to visit your congregation, email Audra Hudson Stone at [email protected]. She is the Michigan Conference Secretary of Global Ministries and is helping to coordinate church visits for us. We are happy for small groups in homes as well as groups in churches. Feel free to send us an email if you have questions or want to hear more: [email protected].

Visit this website to learn more about Tansen Hospital, where we serve. You can also check out our blog. We kindly ask that you refrain from posting on social media or reproducing elsewhere, except when sharing with church friends. Thank you, and we hope to see you later this year!

Last Updated on August 19, 2025