When Ramon Vidauri entered medical school in Guadalajara, Mexico, his goal was to be a rich and famous doctor in Mexico, but, in 1985 he became a Christian while working at a government clinic in Tiajuana, Mexico. It was there while continuing to contact the numerous extremely poor in need of medical attention that his heart was broken by God. In Mexico, seventy percent of the extremely poor have no means to receive medical attention because only the people who work in the factories or those who make a good living can afford medical care. Dr. Vidauri and his wife, Mirabella, then stepped out in faith and moved down to Ensenada where he provided medical care to the poor at no charge. By doing this he accepted the fact that they would not have a secure income or even a clinic from which to practice.

At first, Ramon drove out to rural farm areas offering his medical services to the workers who were so poor that many times there was not enough money to buy food let alone medicine. For them the cost of just one visit to the doctor was equal to the salary they would make in five or six days of working. He soon learned that besides basic medical care what they really needed was to know Christ’s love and the gospel message. So, after gaining their trust and friendship he would introduce them to the local missionaries and pastors and soon small churches started where only superstition and idol worship previously existed.

As time went on God expanded Ramon's vision and brought around him a group of faithful Christian brothers and sisters from the Mayo Clinic of Arizona, Westmont College in California, the University of Azusa Pacific, Rancho Agua Viva Ministries and other local ministries within Ensenada. The Potter’s Clay group from Westmont College built homes for the poor and provided brief medical care. They also built him an office in the slum district of Ensenada where physicians from around Santa Barbara and Ventura, California, would come down on mission trips to help him.

In 1990, after helping the Potter’s Clay group, Allen Voorman, the brother of Scott Voorman, MD, who is one of our chapter members, died in an automobile accident on the way up from Ensenada to California. As a result, Scott and another chapter member, Larry Hartley, MD, introduced Ramon’s ministry to our CMDA chapter. They told us about Ramon and the special connection he had with the poor, that many persons who did not know Christ were becoming believers because of his ministry, and that God was blessing him by establishing many churches in the farms and villages of the area.

We felt God’s leading to support Ramon because there was no mistaking that he was a role model for us of a physician dedicated to Christ. We also realized that if we had thought to send out a missionary doctor from our chapter to Mexico the ideal person would be someone like Ramon - a national physician who knows the culture and people, who could work with the existing government, who had a real love for Christ in his life, and who had a long term commitment and a compassion for the poor.

Our chapter's first effort to help Ramon was in 1992 by donating medical supplies, equipment and cash to him. In 1993 we raised $5,600 to buy him a 4x4 truck. Unfortunately, the used truck did not last long on the rough roads of Mexico, so, in 1997 we raised nearly $15,000 to buy him a used Toyota 4runner. The following year, when Ramon’s home in Ensenada was broken into and all of the wiring and plumbing stolen, we raised over $6,000 to help him repair the damages and replace the stolen materials.

In 1999, Ramon had to abandon the clinic built for him in the poor district of Ensenada, where he, a dentist and optometrist were providing services. This left him without a permanent place to practice. He then located another property in central Ensenada on which to build a new clinic that would be much more accessible to the poor of the city but would cost $65,000 to buy. He and a group of Mexican pastors were able to raise the first $5,000 as a down payment but they had no idea as to where they would get the rest of the money. In January 2000 he wrote a letter to his supporters about the need.

When our chapter learned about this we also wondered how they would get the remaining $60,000 for the property. It was a very bad time to be raising money regardless of how worthy the cause. The stock market had just fallen dramatically and later a local large medical group went into bankruptcy leaving many of our chapter doctors without payment for services. Nonetheless, after much prayer and discussion we decided to step out in faith with Ramon and see if we could somehow help him raise the money. We knew that this would be entirely by God’s doing because many hearts would need to be touched to get the support for this project. We started with a meeting in Ventura where interested doctors were invited to come and meet Ramon. Then we sent out two appeal letters about three months apart.

In October 2000 the final payment on the property was due but we had only raised $30,000. An extension was given by the property’s owner to Ramon. Amazingly, by February 2001 we had raised the exact amount needed and sent it to Ramon to complete the property purchase. Three months later, another donation of $20,000 came in from a supporting physician so that Ramon could begin the process of putting a building on the site. In all, we had collected $80,000 for Ramon, exceeding our expectations by far.

The clinic building is still only partial completed and it is estimated that it will take another $60,000 to finish. We are trusting that the needed support for the clinic will be raised because there is no task too great for our God.