ASI 2019: Business Unusual

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Special Interest Forums

Brian Schwartz

Lyndi Schwartz

Medical/Health

Father in heaven, we have been so blessed by being here at ASI.

By the messages that we have heard, by the workshops we've attended, the things we have learned, the fellowship we've had with 1 another, And I ask now that your Holy Spirit be with us as we discuss something vital, I believe, for these last days, the union of the ministry of the medical work and the gospel work.

And we want to come together and share ideas about how we can be more effective evangelists for you in these last days I pray give us the wisdom that we need and collectively maybe be able to come up with great ideas for your service for Jesus sake amen amen okay so just a little bit about us Lindy and I are both physicians we practice at Kettering Health Network in Dayton Ohio so the Kettering Medical Center is an Adventist Health Hospital and I'm a cardiologist a heart doctor we've done Lindy is a internal medicine doctor and she's the program director for the internal medicine residency.

We are also involved in AMEN, the Adventist Medical Evangelism Network.

AMEN has been going on for about 15 years now and we were part of the original group that got that founded.

And that has the aim of restoring medical ministry to churches and back to medical practices.

Just a slide, this is just a thought from Christ's Object Lessons, page 69.

It's familiar to many of us, but it is the privilege of every Christian not only to look for but to hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Were all who profess His name bearing fruit to His glory, how quickly the whole world would be sown with the seed of the gospel, quickly the last great harvest would be ripened, and Christ would come to gather the precious grain." The only reason I wanted to start with this quote is because I absolutely believe that just as the pastor in a church can't be the 1 that does all the Bible studies and all the evangelism and all that, the health educator, whether it's a physician, a nurse, a dentist, can't be the 1 that does all the medical outreach.

Every member is called to engage in this process.

So you guys are basically already saying that and just saying, how do we do it with such small little churches here and there?

How many of you would say you have churches that actually have an effective medical outreach where the church is engaged in it?

We'll circle back to some of you guys in a little bit then to get your input to how that's worked and what that looks like.

Here's just a few questions that I raised, but you guys are coming up with some of the same ones already.

How can we restore medical and gospel ministry to a blended outreach in our churches?

That's basically what you guys have all been asking for already, right?

How do we restore this in our church and in our community?

And who are called to be medical missionaries.

So we'll talk about that or medical ministers and then how can we heal the gap between lifestyle centers and traditional practices.

We could say the same thing between churches and medical practices.

And then how can each of our churches have effective medical outreaches.

So we'll come back and talk about that, but that's basically what we're going into.

So let me just read another quote from the, entitled Missionary Health Restorative Gospel.

The Lord has signified that the missionary health restorative gospel shall never be separated from the ministry of the word.

How many of you would say that our typical Adventist health care and our typical evangelism is combined?

How many say that they've seen that typically happen?

So there's a couple of places where they're doing that but sadly too much it's been not united there's been a disconnect between pastors in the medical community and the churches as a whole have languished for lack of that.

So the Lord Jesus has in his own example showing us the way in which his work is to be done in the restoration of suffering humanity.

So Ellen White is basically saying here that the gospel and the health ministry need to go together.

If I teach somebody to deny themselves by giving up alcohol abuse or giving up smoking, is that a health principle or a gospel principle?

So wherever you start, if you're starting with helping them deny themselves, that's a gospel principle.

And as a physician I've found that if I don't tap my patients in to the source of strength to overcome their smoking habit, in fact I believe now it's medical malpractice, if I don't point them to the source that can actually give them the power to change their smoking, then I'm not doing them any favors.

The success rate on stopping smoking in most cardiologists' practices is somewhere around 15% of their patients.

And I don't know for sure, but mine is closer to 70% of my patients.

And I believe it's because I offer to pray with all of my patients.

But here's what happens, just as a little example, and you can extrapolate that to your churches, but when I tell my patient, if I say, John, you know you really should stop smoking, well, John already knows that he should stop smoking, right?

All I'm doing is adding extra guilt to him.

And in fact, if I say, John, you really should stop smoking, you need to work harder at stopping smoking, what am I doing?

And that's a divorce between the gospel and the health message, right?

So we, in our efforts to get people to make lifestyle changes, we need to be careful that we're not pushing them into legalism, which is the opposite of the gospel.

And so I've learned instead to say things like, John, I know that God will give you the strength to overcome smoking.

I know that if you ask him he will give you power in your life to do that.

I know that he'll help take away the urge to smoke.

I know that many other people have done it successfully through God's strength and I know that he'll do the same for you.

Is that legalism or is that the gospel message?

They've got to be together and if they're not together, there's no power in them.

So let me go on to 1 more quote and then I'll tell a couple of stories and then we'll try to get it back to some of you guys that are actually effectively doing this.

So another quote I think is familiar to most Seventh-day Adventists but I think it's really important.

So this is from Councils on Health page 34.

During His life on earth, the sick and afflicted were objects of His special compassion.

The sick and afflicted He especially cared about.

So when he sent out his disciples, he commissioned them to heal the sick as well as to preach the gospel.

When he sent forth the 70, he commanded them to heal the sick.

And next, to preach the kingdom of God had come nigh unto them.

Their physical health was to be first cared for in order that the way might be prepared for the truth to reach their minds.

Yeah, he ministered to their needs and then he made them follow me.

We need to be caring for people's needs with the needs that they are concerned about.

I am convinced that as we are living more and more in a post-modern world with all these millennials and even generation Xers, they no longer care about hearing us preach to them about doctrine.

But They are very big about getting engaged in a cause.

Very big about getting involved in service.

And when they see the gospel lived out, it'll have a powerful effect.

So how many of you have heard of Pathways to Health or Amen Free Clinics?

So we've been engaged in both of those, which are just a way to go into a community and to do a free health clinic.

It usually involves dental cleanings, dental teeth, sometimes they do tooth extractions and they do some fillings.

They've even done some bridges, but the machine's a little bit slow, so it's pretty limited.

At some of the bigger events, they will also have some clothing, they'll cut people's hair, they'll do massage.

Some of these are very small scale in small churches, and I'll show you an example of that.

Some of these are very large scale like what was done with Pathways at the General Conference Session and in other big cities.

I took care of his blood pressure issues and his heart issues.

He'd also gotten some dental work done and he was just amazed that there were so many volunteers and so many people that are willing to come and just minister for free to him.

And Finally he said, what group are you guys with?

And I said, well, we are Seventh-day Adventists and we are trying to do what Jesus bid us to do, which is to meet the needs of people.

He says, I don't know what a Seventh-day Adventist is, but I want to be a member of your church.

And that just again reiterated to me that there's more than 1 way to preach the gospel, right?

So people would rather see the gospel lived out than to hear the gospel and not see it lived out.

Rick Fleck

Orphan Ministries

Dear Heavenly Father, we know that you came and rescued us and that we were left separated, disconnected from our main family, which is you.

So Father, you came down to earth and you lived life with us and you got dirty and you struggled and suffered and eventually died and you resurrected and became sovereign over what was lost and that means that we were rescued completely.

And so now we understand why you have such a heart for children who have been separated from their family.

And So help us here all who have a heart for children to be connected to yours, to your heart, and help us to have a good conversation together, and improve our approach on how to help children and represent your heart.

Thank you God, we love you, in your name we pray, amen.

So it's 1 of the questions that I wanted to ask, and by the way, my name is Kent Grieve, and I've had the privilege of working in orphan care work for the last 21 years.

And I, along with my wife, was able to travel to Romania back in 1997 to help establish our children's program there, a children's village.

Well, 1 of the questions that I wanted to ask was, how many orphans do we have in the group?

Someone who, if you grew up an orphan, Raise your hand.

And the reason I wanted to ask that question is because oftentimes in a group that's talking about orphans, we're talking about it from the outside looking in.

If you've never been an orphan, how do you know what an orphan feels like?

He came by our booth yesterday and we saw him at ASI.

Was that the first time we saw you at ASI last year?

And so we asked him if he would be willing to come to our group today because he has a very unique perspective, as you can imagine.

And I wanted to share, just before we jump into this, what is the orphan text that a lot of people talk about?

Pure religion and undefiled before the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Want to share a quote from Ellen White, second volume of the Testimonies, page 25.

It says, when hearts sympathize with hearts burdened with discouragement and grief, when the hand dispenses to the needy, When the naked are clothed, the stranger made welcome to a seat in your parlor and a place in your heart, angels are coming very near and an answering strain is responded to in heaven.

Every act of justice, mercy, and benevolence makes melody in heaven.

Every merciful act to the needy, the suffering is regarded as though done to Jesus.

When you succor the poor, sympathize with the afflicted and oppressed, and befriend the orphan, you bring yourselves into a closer relationship to Jesus.

And that quote really stuck in my mind when it said, making melody in heaven.

As we befriend the orphan, we have the privilege of making music in heaven.

To me, that's a really neat thought, that Jesus wants us to do that.

I wanted to also share a little bit, a few thoughts, just as a way of introduction.

And this is not supposed to be a seminar.

This is supposed to be a discussion group, and we have some questions to get into and we'll be talking about.

But I wanted to ask if the group has seen this book, The Primal Wound.

It's primarily written for adoptive families, adoptive parents and adoptees.

And my wife and I had the privilege of adopting 2 children.

Our son, we were at his birth, and his 15-year-old mother gave him up.

And then when we lived in the country of Romania, we adopted our daughter.

So she was from that country and she came into our home when she was about 5 months old.

Now, we didn't know exactly what it was that we were getting into.

And of course, it wasn't until years later that we understood maybe some of the things that we should have done and shouldn't have done and all that kind of thing.

But this book, when we were given it, when it was mentioned to us and when we received it, made a profound impact in our lives because of the impact that being an orphan has on the child itself.

Now 1 of the concepts that it brings out is that when a child is physically born from their mother, they aren't necessarily emotionally born.

But emotionally, they're tied to the mother for about 7 months until they are able to actually know who they are as an individual.

And then they start to realize that there is an apartness from the mother, but until then, they are very much attached to the mother.

And if something happens, if there is a separation that happens during that time, and even after that time until the child is able to leave the mother, they have what is called a primal wound.

And I wanted to bring this out because it's important as we work with orphans to realize that it's more than just a name that we place upon them.

It's easy just to put a label on it and say this is an orphan child, but what does it really mean and what is the significance of being an orphan to that particular child.

And I want to read a couple of thoughts from the book, and then I want to open it up to discussion and then hear from you, your thoughts, and also maybe some questions that you have.

This says, many doctors and psychologists now understand that bonding doesn't begin at birth, but as a continuum of physiological, psychological, and spiritual events which begin in utero and continue throughout the postnatal bonding period.

When this natural evolution is interrupted by a postnatal separation from the biological mother, the resultant experience of abandonment and loss is indelibly imprinted upon the unconscious mind or minds of these children, causing that which I call, the author calls, the primal wound.

Now we as orphan care ministers and ministries basically adopt, so to speak, the children that come into our care.

In a sense, we're adopting these children.

And so, I'm going to read the next quote and it says, adoption, as we are orphan caregivers, is a traumatic experience for the adoptee or orphan.

It begins with the separation from his biological mother and ends with his living with strangers.

Most of his life, He may have denied or repressed his feelings about this experience, having had no sense that they would be acknowledged or validated.

He may instead have been made to feel as if he should be grateful for this monumental manipulation of his destiny.

Somewhere within him, however, he does have feelings about this traumatic experience.

And having these feelings does not mean that he is abnormal, sick, or crazy.

It means that he is wounded as a result of having suffered a devastating loss and that his feelings about this are legitimate and need to be acknowledged rather than ignored or challenged.

And I share this with you because I think it's important for us to remember who it is that we're working for.

It would be easy just to say, okay, this is a child that has been abandoned or the child's mother and father have died and we need to do something about it.

But It's so important for us to understand where the child is coming from.

And that's why it's interesting that unless you as a newcomer are orphaned yourself, we only have 1 expert today, who's Daniel, who's experienced that from the inside out.

And so I'd like to include him, certainly, in the discussion.

I, as an adoptive father, experienced this firsthand with my children.

I remember 1 of my kids, my son, we were at his birth.

My wife is a nurse and we have several nurses here.

She tried to comfort him and he arched his little back and would not be comforted.

The primal wound, He could tell that something had changed, something was different about this person that was now taking care of him.

And you think about all the orphans in the world and all the trauma that they've gone through.

And yes, we could just simply say, well that's again a child that needs our care and I have a heart and a compassion for that child.

But unless we give voice and understanding to where these children are coming from, it's easy just to gloss over it and say whatever I can do is great enough for that child, and the child should be thankful and grateful.

We as orphan caregivers can only, well, we can befriend the orphan and we can give them the best that we have and we need for God to do the rest and have that good understanding of what is going on in their lives.

Does anybody have any comments about that And then we want to go into some questions related to that.

Anybody have an experience that they'd like to share relative to that?

Kent, you said that your son later, fairly soon after, had an experience with the birth mother.

Yeah, when he was a teenager he was seeking the birth mother.

When he was a baby you said- Oh yeah, that's right.

In the state in which we live, the birth mother had to come to our state and sign away rights.

When she came, and she was a young mother, and when she had the opportunity to hold him.

He was contented, he was at peace, and there was this look, you could see that he was making eye contact with the mother, And it was like everything was right with his world again.

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