Spiritual care is an important part of whole person care but is difficult to incorporate into a busy practice. Drs. Mamier and Srikureja share principles that can be applied in many clinical settings.

AMEN NW 2017: Comprehensive Health Care/ Developing Your Ministry Toolkit

<p>Spiritual care is an important part of whole person care but is difficult to incorporate into a busy practice. Drs. Mamier and Srikureja share principles that can be applied in many clinical settings.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

AMEN Northwest

Iris Mamier

Wichit Srikureja

Whole Person Care: Tools for Incorporating Spiritual Care in a Busy Practice

Our Father in heaven, we're grateful for this time that we can learn and interact and obtain new thoughts of ways to minister to our patients.

And we pray that you would bless the presentation this morning, in Jesus' name, amen.

I'm actually just a husband to a beautiful wife, and just a father to 3 beautiful children.

And it's just, I'm very humbled that Michael had asked me to share something with you.

And it's also a great joy, actually, to have a very good friend to do this with.

And in a bit, I will introduce her, who actually will be taking the majority portion of the talk here.

We want this talk or this session to be as interactive as much as possible.

But before we begin, I really enjoyed the Elder Stanton's lecture because there's really nothing that we can share if we don't have it.

If we don't believe that we have something that is wonderful we will never ever want to share.

I mean it's just like a boy who finally found a cookie jar can't stop telling about it to his friends or to his siblings.

Anyway, 1 of the most important thing that has shaped what I do in terms of caring spiritually for my patients dates back all the way when I was actually a young child.

And let me give you this testimony before we launch into the presentation.

And that is, when I was a little boy, I didn't grow up to be an Adventist, I was actually a Sikh.

And my father had the opportunity, through God's leading, to be in an Adventist school.

He graduated at the Adventist school in Bangkok, Thailand, and after his graduation, he became 1 of the first Sikh Adventists in his community.

As a result, it was not very easy for him.

As a result, he faced a lot of persecutions and especially after his graduation he joined business with his father, my grandfather, and it was not very easy to actually operate the business and take Sabbath rest.

Nobody understands that in business world, at least at that time, Sunday is a regular business day.

Anyway, slowly but surely, he slid back, stopped going to church, stopped reading his Bible, stopped having a prayer life.

And very soon, he has forgotten God until he came back from a business trip in India, from India, and when he came back he was gravely ill.

I can still remember that at this time in my life I saw my father who was deeply jaundiced, back from India, lying on the bed.

In fact, he couldn't even climb up the stairs to his bedroom.

We have to get the bed down into the living room for him to stay at.

And it was at that time when he was quite ill, his doctor said, we don't know exactly what had happened and we don't know whether he will live or not.

The word got around to a very compassionate pastor at the church, at the Adventist Church at that time.

And it was the work of that compassionate pastor that actually I believe saved my father's life.

He came faithfully every day, spent time by my father's bedside, prayed with him, And as a result of that prayer, my father actually was healed, and he was alive.

But it was a door that opened in our home because of that compassionate work of that pastor, there began a brand Sabbath school at our home, inviting not only me, my siblings, my cousins, but some of the neighbor's kids.

We began to have Sabbath school there, brand Sabbath school there.

And with that came the knowledge of God in my life, and with that all of our family actually became an Adventist.

So a compassionate prayer of a minister led my father back to God and opened the door for God in our lives.

So I truly believe that from that moment on, I really viewed God's work in healthcare very, very, very distinctly, especially as I became a physician, because I know that illnesses happens in this world.

Some people get healed, some people died, But I think in the process of it all, God is at work trying to reach not only that individual, but also to reach people around that individual.

Your and my illnesses can be a door not only to your salvation, but to salvation of other people around you.

And as healthcare professionals, as ministers, we are basically God's worker to show compassion to the ones who are suffering and to the ones who are sick.

I remember the story of the demoniac that Christ healed, and if you look at the conclusion of it all after he was healed, the demoniac really, that guy really wanted to follow Jesus, get onto the boat, and get on being close to Jesus.

But Christ's imparting word to him is this, and it's found in Mark chapter 5 verse 19 and I think we can take time to read that together.

Okay so Mark chapter 5 verse 19 and this is what Christ said to him in red letters, go home to your friends and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and how he has had compassion on you.

1 is the telling of what God has done and the love of God.

And the only way that you can tell is not only by speaking, but also by showing the love of God.

And so there are 2 things here that we can do as we share.

We can talk, but we can also show compassion.

We can also show, without even saying a word of what God's love is, by your love they may know who God is.

Anyways, my joy and privilege actually to introduce Iris Mimir, Dr.

She's actually an associate professor in the School of Nursing at Loma Linda University.

And she has really been tasked to help whole person care at the university there, at least in the School of Nursing.

She has done quite extensive research in spirituality, spiritual care among the nurses, not only at Loma Linda, but also in the United States and also internationally.

And again, you will find that We want this interaction to be very interactive.

And I think in this audience, I'm Iris, and That's just fine.

It's different to come together in this type of an audience, Adventist health care professionals, health ministry workers, fellow believers who care about that call that God has on our lives through health ministry.

I think it is 1 of the special calls that God has laid on this church to move the gospel forward through 2 major means, and 1 is health care and the other is education.

And I continue to marvel about the fact that God didn't ask angels to do the work.

I often find that they would be so much more equipped.

But going back to the story that Richard just read to us again, when you think about the demoniac, he had an experience with the Lord.

And remember, he was so excited that in his desperateness, in his hopelessness, the Lord had met him and had liberated him from the ties of sin and obsession.

And his 1 desire was to go with Jesus, to follow him.

He called others and said, follow me, follow me, follow me.

Jesus knew that this man had a story to tell.

And it is based on that story that we do our ministry as teachers, as health care providers, wherever, as Christians, Adventist Christians, wherever the Lord has planted us.

So I'd like to do something very different with you this morning.

I'm not going to take a scholarly approach.

I'm going to take an experiential approach with you.

I would like to invite you to engage and to come.

And first of all, I'd like you to move closer.

I feel like we are very, very much spread apart in this room, and if you're comfortable, why don't you just move a little bit closer.

And then secondly, Richard is going to distribute a little index card, and I'm going to do something, ask you something different, too.

I want you to write a love note to Jesus, telling him what you are thankful for, what has he done in your life, how has he met you in your despair, in your brokenness, in your darkest moments.

But I want us to set the stage by Reflecting for a moment on that story, what has God done for you?

To meet me in my darkest moments, my brokenness, and how has he picked you up?

Thank you for taking the time for this reflection.

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Whole Person Care: Tools for Incorporating Spiritual Care in a Busy Practice

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