I read an article last week that talked about thanking our donors (and volunteers, in my opinion :), helping them understand who they are impacting.  This month I have seen a patient in extreme dental pain come out with a smiling spouse because they'll both be resting in peace again.  I've been hugged by a woman as I handed her antibotics for her cough.  I've had a beaming patient exult, "It's like Christmas!" as she put on her new glasses.  I've seen a child enter an exam room sobbing and leave smiling.

If you have given, prayed, labored, consulted, or encouraged, you have helped touch these lives.  You are keeping patients out of the emergency room, giving them dignity as they pursue better health with excellent doctors, and allowing us to serve out of Christ's sacrificial love.

It has been a very full year at Samaritan Health Center.  We have changed medical records, opened a second clinic, welcomed a new Executive Director, and hired several new staff members.  We are very, very grateful for God's faithfulness and your partnership.  Happy Thanksgiving!

"I thank my God every time I remember you." Philippians 1:3

Elizabeth Stephenson, a rising senior at UNC, is a Spanish speaker with a heart for the underprivileged and previous experience in other clinics.  Asked what she has learned so far, she told me, "Where to start? I have learned so much about what goes on behind the scenes, which I think will be really valuable in the future, from the little office tasks like filing to designing publicity for the new clinic. I have especially enjoyed patient interactions. One of the coolest projects has been helping people apply for patient assistance programs and seeing them get approved for needed medication at no cost."

Collin Burks is in the Triangle for the summer from her college studies at Dartmouth.  Also a Spanish speaker, she told me she is here to learn about how SHC operates, help serve the low-income and uninsured population of Durham, and be inspired by people who are already volunteering at SHC.  Collin has already submitted a major grant proposal for us and is doing great work!

We are so grateful for these two women--say hello and thank them if you cross their paths!

After All Saints Church graciously partnered with us for clinic space and the renovations began, one SHC staff member developed a habit of dropping by the building when it was empty, both to see the progress but also to pray over the space.  It was a sweet time to dream about seeing God work in this place for healing and reconciliation and life in His name.  But this week, I realized those quiet prayer times are almost over: it is time now for plumbing, moving, cleaning, and ultimately seeing patients!  

We are privileged to be servants of Christ in this work.  Thanks to each one of you who has cleaned, prayed, given, encouraged, and volunteered.  We need you (at two clinics :). 

"And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.  Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart."  II Corinthians 3:18-4:1

Perhaps this sounds like a "normal" clinic.  When you remember that nearly everyone present was a volunteer, and that these uninsured patients had unhurried encounters and even prayer with excellent physicians, you realize it's actually quite a special clinic.

"Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us." Romans 12:4-6a 

Mark 6: 35-38

I was reading the Gospel of Mark last week and was struck by how clueless Jesus' disciples were. They were with Him every day: watching Him compassionately heal a sick woman and raise a dead child to life, going out at His command to preach repentance and drive out demons, listening to His parables.  When I got to Chapter 6, I impatiently thought, what SMALL faith these 12 had!  They stated the obvious shortage of food and resisted helping from their own resources; Jesus took what was available and fed the crowd.  Yet when He walked on water soon after, "They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened." (6:51b-52)  Wow, I evaluated, these guys really didn't get it. 

Today I realized my own small faith: dwelling on a need instead of asking, but especially trusting, God to provide.  My Sunday school lesson yesterday was on the Holy Spirit empowering Peter's faith and words at Pentecost--and that He empowers Christ's other followers as well!

Why do you complain, Jacob?
   Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD;
   my cause is disregarded by my God”?
Do you not know?
   Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
   the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
   and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
   and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
   and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
   will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
   they will run and not grow weary,
   they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40:25-31

I am often tempted to rely on my own strength.  When I do that, it encourages me to work harder and harder.  This passage reminds me that God's understanding and strength is far beyond any human's.  Christians have the privilege to be a part of His work in the world (at SHC, that is sharing His love through health care), but it's not because we have the innate strength and skill to do so.  I hope Isaiah's words encourage you both in GOD's power and ability, and in His intimate concern for His creation.  "Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." (Luke 12:7)  These truths are our hope, and the hope we offer to our patients.

I've also been struck lately by the number of sick patients, of new patients, we are seeing, and of the depth of need.  SHC's name comes from the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10, reminding us that all of us are broken and in need of a Savior.  When I have wrestled with fatigue, discouragement, or impatience, Paul's prayer for the Ephesians (3:16-21) has challenged me in this continuing work:   

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

We all need this love--and as the Lord's holy people are filled to the measure of all the fullness of God, I pray we offer, we live, this same transforming love to others.  To Him be glory.

I heard a sermon recently about success and suffering.  The pastor pointed out that the gospel means credentials don't matter.  Degrees, accolades, and salaries don't earn us closeness to God.  Rich or poor, successful or suffering, we are all in need of a Savior. 

At Samaritan Health Center, each one of us serves in a different role.  Every role is a special opportunity to be used by God to touch lives--and to be touched ourselves, in His great mercy.

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving."
Colossians 3:23-24

It has already been a very busy fall at Samaritan Health Center.  We've welcomed new volunteers and new patients, and we continue to move toward the opening of a second clinic location.  We also held our second annual fall fundraising dinner at the American Tobacco Campus in September (check out the pictures on Facebook).  

New people mean new stories.  We've had both patients and volunteers successfully secure employment.  We've gotten to know some of our international patients better.  We have spent time in prayer for very difficult financial and health situations. 

I was reminded this week that God is faithful in crises and in the everyday commitments of life.  He never fails.  We need never doubt His love.  These are truths every one of us desperately needs, and that we want to share at Samaritan Health Center.  May God meet you wherever you are today.

“We do not need the grace of God to stand crises, human nature and pride are sufficient, we can face the strain magnificently; but it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours in every day as a saint, to go through drudgery as a disciple, to live an ordinary, unobserved, ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is inbred in us that we have to do exceptional things for God; but we have not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things, to be holy in mean streets, among mean people, and this is not learned in five minutes.”
-Oswald Chambers via Os Guinness (The Call)

Today the Summit Church hosted a full-day health clinic at Samaritan Health Center.  They organized transportation, food, and volunteers in order to offer medical and dental care to 50 patients from three different countries.

Years ago, when I was deciding whether to move overseas, a friend told me that it would likely grow me in empathy because I would be walking in others' shoes as a foreigner, a stranger building a life in a different land.  His words came back to me today as I got a tiny but eye opening glimpse of navigating American health care when you come from a very different culture and language.   

In Matthew 25, Jesus says, "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me [...] Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." (vv. 35, 36, 40)

We plan to follow up with many of these patients who would like continued health support.  It is a natural response to the mercy and hope we have experienced because Christ came to our world as a stranger.

Huge thanks go to Chris Evans and the entire Summit team--it's a joy to see the skills of different members of the Body of Christ coming together on days like today (Romans 12:4-6a).