Jun 1, 2022 The Biggest Blessing

I was expecting to learn a ton of new medical diagnoses and treatments and get to do a lot of cool things. And instead, I’m getting to know people’s names. I’m getting to know their families…. It’s been the biggest blessing. Shelby, QHM team member

When Jesus sent out His disciples to visit a community, part of their work was to heal the sick. This makes perfect sense. When people are ill, or in physical pain, they can’t think about concepts like salvation and grace.

When Quiet Hour Ministries works with an international church, one of the best ways to help the church make friends in their community is to hold free clinics. These clinics are at or near the places where evangelism meetings will be presented. These clinics meet several purposes:

1. meeting the physical needs of the people;
2. helping the people see that the neighborhood Adventist Church is an organization that cares about and loves their community;
3. provide an opportunity to invite people to the evening meetings.

Quiet Hour Ministries medical, dental, and optical services are more than just using the church facility to hold standalone clinics. The clinics are in partnership with churches. Church members help in many ways; sometimes welcoming people, managing lines and crowds, translating for our team members, assisting our clinicians, and sometimes they are the clinicians.

Clinics are not always easy. Different countries have different regulations about what is allowed. Sometimes we are not allowed to have doctors diagnose and treat people. The best case is when we have permission, and we have medical doctors, nurses, dentists, and eye doctors who go on the mission trip. If we don’t have medical professionals as team members, we try to arrange for local medical personnel to work with us.

In some places, the local church adds a whole health fair with a variety of different stations: screening for hypertension and diabetes, taking vital signs, height and weight, dietary counseling, personal hygiene education, exercise classes and more.

At the very least, we try to hold an optical clinic to test people for reading glasses.

We have testing machines, and train our team to determine the correct strength for reading glasses. We receive eyeglasses from the Lions Club, and other reading glasses we purchase at a discount. All glasses are distributed free of charge.

At the clinics, Quiet Hour team members work alongside the international church members to help support the church in making friends. We have the opportunity to pray with the people and invite them to the evening evangelism meetings.

Our team members tell us that they enjoy the clinics because the contact doesn’t end with the clinic visit. They see the people they served come to the meetings. They get to meet their families. And they get to lives changed when people give their hearts to Jesus.

Jesus replied, Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Matthew 11:5

---