His Story
Ever since he was 7 years old, “Joey” has wanted to be a missionary doctor to the Congo. God used the exciting tales of wild animals, saving lives, and other adventures in the jungle as told by veteran missionaries Gene & Sandy Thomas to capture this young boy’s heart.
Joe went on to take Biology at Houghton College, then entered medical school at Tulane University in New Orleans where he completed an M.D., Masters in Public Health & Tropical Medicine joint-degree program in 1992, and finished Family Practice Residency at Saint Vincent Health Center in Erie, Pennsylvania, in June, 1995
The Harveys were serving in the capital city, Brazzaville, while learning the French language. In the Spring of 1997, they were forced to leave the country due to civil war. They returned to the US for the remainder of that year. It was during this time when God confirmed in Joe’s heart the vision of returning to Congo to start that country’s first-ever Christian Hospital.
In January 1998, the Harveys moved to Vanga, Democratic Republic of Congo for two months, where Joe worked at the Evangelical Hospital of Vanga. After returning to the US and working in an Emergency Room there for much of 1998, Joe and the family went to Gabon in November, working for 8 months in a Christian Hospital in Bongolo. In August 1999, God opened the door for them to return once again to the Republic of Congo, in the city of Impfondo.
The Harveys worked in Impfondo with nurse Sarah Speer re-open a health clinic that had been closed for over 5 years. They celebrated the grand opening of the clinic in January of 2000. In two years’ time, the clinic saw 10,000 patients!
While working at the clinic in Impfondo and continually seeking God about starting a Christian hospital, Joe went one day to a wedding reception that some frends held at an abandoned communist youth camp. The camp had been built about ten years earlier by communists to indoctrinate the area’s youth in communist and marxist philosophies. But the 1990s brought wars and changes in the Congo’s government, so the camp never got used once it had been built. Joe looked around the site, saw how structurally sound its 29 buildings were, and immediately envisioned what the camp would look like if God were to open the way for His people to transform it into a Christian hospital. Joe began regularly visiting this site, about 3 miles from his home, and walking around its fence, praying specifically (according to Matthew 16:18) against the spiritual gates that Satan had established around it, that God would open the way for the missionaries to build a hospital there.
One day, as Joe went to pray outside the camp, he found that the large, steel gates in the wall of the camp had been removed! Apparently some fishermen had taken them off and used their long rods with sharp spear-like tops as new fishing spears. Encouraged by this rather tangible answer to prayer, Joe approached the governer about using the camp. The governor said the camp was national property, so Joe would have to ask the president about using the camp. A few months later, when the president and his wife came for a visit to Impfondo, Joe was able to have a meeting with the president’s wife. As it turned out, Mrs. Sassou-Nguesso had personally overseen the construction of that camp ten years earlier! She had since become a follower of Jesus Christ, and was delighted at the idea of the camp becoming a Christian hospital!
With Mrs. Sassou-Nguesso’s help, Joe was able to meet with her husband in Brazzaville a short time later. President Sassou-Nguesso gladly told Joe he could have the camp, and told his cabinet that they were to do everything they could to help Dr. Harvey get that hospital started. God indeed answers prayer!
The Harveys came back to the USA for a 1 year furlough from 2001 to 2002. They went to dozens of churches, sharing the news of what God had been doing in Congo, and asking people to pray, donate money and equipment, and especially to come join them in Congo. Joe collected 13 tons of donated equipment and in August, 2002 sent it by boat from New York in a 40-foot shipping container. The Harveys returned to Congo in late August and two months later received the equipment in Impfondo.
The hospital construction phase is now underway. One 6-man work team came to Congo in October, 2002 and more are expected to come soon. One long-term missionary, Andrea Schneider, has joined them in Impfondo and more are due to arrive in the coming months. God is pulling together the team, the equipment, the local Christians, the finances, the relationships with the government, and most importantly the prayer to make the vision become a reality over the next few years.
That vision is to bring the hope and healing of Jesus Christ to the people of Congo, as each person who visits the hospital for healing is provided with excellent medical care and more–much more: the Gospel invitation of eternal healing, eternal hope and eternal life with Jesus Christ.
His Passion
– Dr. Harvey in his own way can call himself a social entrepreneur. he works fervently to benefit his hospital and expand his mission. his mission statement for the Congo is, “To impact the health of a nation by offering health and hope to those who need it most”. what makes Dr. Joseph special to me is first his passion for Christ but secondly his passion for expansion.
His Plans
– when i last spoke with Dr. Harvey we talked about the needs of his hospital in the Congo and the work that needed completion. he didn’t stop the he then went on and talk about his passion for Egypt and Syria and his hopes to start christian hospitals in those countries as a way to spread the love of Christ.
A day in the life for Dr. Joseph and his family
The Harvey’s story is certainly in inspiring one! It’s an amazing feat that the hospital was able to start. Obstacles that seem impossible to overcome, yet are anyway is a common theme in many stories of entrepreneurship, especially those of non-profits. God must have had a huge hand in the story, especially concerning the gates literally falling off and meeting the President’s wife who supported him in establishing the hospital. The idea to use the former camp as a hospital was certainly an innovative one!
This was really such an inspiring story. It is really crazy that he was able to overcome so many obstacles in order to become as successful as he has. That was really a great story!
I love this! It’s the pinnacle of irony that a camp that was used to spread this idea of communism is not being turned into a hospital for Jesus! I mean, what a perfect way to cut the cost of building a hospital and transforming a communities symbol of the past into something bright and useful. One thing though, the last date mentioned is 2002, and all that’s said is that they’ve started getting their work teams. That was over ten years ago, where are they now? Did their dream work out? Or did it fall? I want to know what happened!
I have to echo the comments that this is a powerful and moving story. As Prof. Alison stresses, you have to be able to tell your customers/investors and Dr. Harvey most certainly has a great one. This goes to show that with God, all things are possible. Like we talked about in class today, Mark Zuckerberg did not wait around and let somebody else come up with Facebook. In the same way, Dr. Harvey did not sit around and say, “somebody else will help those poor people in Congo out.” He went out and made it happen.
First off, I think the most amazing part of this story is that he knew what he wanted to do at age 7! This is truly remarkable reading this as a sophmore in college and not knowing what I want to do exactly after college yet. Along the same lines as John mentioned, Harvey had a plan and knew what he wanted to do, and pursued it. This is a very inspiring story in that the hospital benefitted so many people in need. Great to see an entrepreneuer with the mindset of helping others first instead of having selfish motives.
I think this story is very inspiring. I got looked down upon by friends when I said I was majoring in something other than missions. It’s always nice to see that someone who doesn’t have any Biblical scholar background is doing incredible mission work. I also enjoyed the fact that he didn’t do the “typical” mission work. He had new ideas that he could easily market for donations because they were different than the normal mission work.