Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
Page 17
Page 18
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
7DECEMBER 2015BODY OF CHRIST NEWS And let us not be weary in well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not Galatians 69 Growing up in my church I realize now that I thought my church was the center of the world I also thought it was not advisable to visit other churches or certainly work with them in any way. I actually believed this until well into my adult life. I thought my church was just so superior to other churches I would be a traitor and somehow defiled by attending or working with other churches on any project. However my opinion changed radically after an experience I had working and living abroad. First of all I and my wife and children ended up living in a foreign country because of news reports in the mass media in 1984 about a huge famine in the eastern African country of Ethiopia. I would get up late in the evening and at times the middle of the night to watch the reports of a some eight million people being threatened by starvation along with disease and war. What really grabbed my attention was reports by a Christian organization called World Vision. They were making appeals for money and for funds and appeals to adopt children in Ethiopia. They showed pictures of starving children looking miserable and sick. I was moved beyond words. I thought to myself someone should do something about this. As time went on I came to believe that the someone who should do something should be me I thought about this and soon the idea of help- ing became an obsession. Soon I called my church and told them I wanted to go over to help out as a missionary in Ethiopia. I told my wife what I wanted to do as we would have to go as a family and we had two small children ages 5 and 10. This was in about April of 1984. My wife supported my decision. Things happened vey quickly and believe it or not by August of 1984 a plane we were on landed in Addis Ababa the capital of Ethiopia. My assignment was to be the Health Ministry Director for our church. I was totally uninterested in titles sitting on commit- tees or any supposed prestige associated with accepting the position. I just wanted to help the children like the ones I saw on television. I was a bit disillusioned to find that helping those fac- ing starvation was going to be more of a challenge than I thought. My church was not really set up to do large scale intervention. Finally a total- ly unexpected chain of events occurred. One of our clinics in the northeastern location in Ethiopia in a city called Makale was without a nurse to run the clinic. The lot fell to me to oper- ate the clinic. However I was going to have to be separated from my wife and children who for safety reasons had to stay back in Addis Ababa. As it turned out the separation would last a total of 6 months So I found myself living in one of the famine areas with many sick hungry people and a large camp for those displaced by the famine housing about 50000 people. My clinic had a small feeding program for about 200 people and I used the clinic to treat the sick. This was the beginning of a grand collabora- tion. I worked with the Catholic Relief Services The Christian Relief and Development Agency Africare World Vision the International Red Cross the Adventist Relief and Development Agency and oth- ers. I received from these groups food medication clothing and blankets. I believe many lives were spared because of our collaboration. I saw with my own eyes children like those I had seen on televi- sion. I still have flashbacks and indelible memories of the people I helped take care of. I will remember their faces as long as I live. Praise God for the experience as it changed my life and my wifes life forever. When we returned from Ethiopia in 1987 we decided that we could not work in iso- lation. We decided to work with as many people as we can for the benefit of the community. The mission field had changed us. We started a health minis- try that included collaboration with many churches and many organizations such as the Center for African American Health the American Heart Association the Alzheimers Association the Inner City Health Center the American Diabetes Association and oth- ers. This was something new for us. We did not worry about differences in theol- ogy or doctrine or if someone took a totally secular approach. We just wanted to help people in the community. I wish every church in the African American community could make health ministry an integral part of their ministry to bring healing to the community. Moreover churches can band together to do screenings and educational seminars for the community. As I mentioned last month my church Park Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church will be collaborating with nine other churches to do a ministry focusing on screening and education re HIVAIDS for our community. We will be continuing our BarbershopSalon outreach with the Colorado Black Health Collaborative to do blood pressure and blood sugar screening. Words are inadequate to explain the satisfaction and the rewards of serving the community along with a coalition of others. I am so grateful for the Lord revealing to us the need to work in the community with others for the good of the community. We can actually save lives just as the workers did in Ethiopia. Consider working with other organizations and churches to bless our community. BenefitsofChurchCollaborationinHealthMinistry Dr. Conner By Byron E. Conner M.D. HEALTH So I found myself living in one of the famine areas with many sick hungry people and a large camp for those displaced by the famine housing about 50000 people. My clinic had a small feeding program for about 200 people and I used the clinic to treat the sick. 1. KIRK FRANKLIN - LOSING MY RELIGION 2. SAM LEVINE - SMOOTH HYMNS 3. JAMES HALL - W A P NEW ERA 4. DEITRICK HADDON - MASTERPIECE 5. PATRICK RIDDICK - READY 6. TOBY MAC - THIS IS NOT A TEST 7. JOHN P. KEE - LEVEL NEXT 8. FLAME - FORWARD 9. DAVID WRIGHT - NEXT GENERATION 10 ANTHONY BROWN - EVERYDAY JESUS