Take a trip trough the history of medical missionary work.

Wildwood 80th Anniversary

<p>Take a trip trough the history of medical missionary work.</p>

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Wildwood Lifestyle Center

Kyle Allen

History of Medical Missionary Work

An hour and a half, are you ready for that?

Some of you are like, I didn't sign up for an hour and a half straight.

I used to fall asleep in those 90 minute classes, I understand.

So, if anybody's sleeping, that's okay, I know it's been a long week.

I'm excited about our topic this morning.

And let me just make sure I have, sometimes you misplace your clicker, you know, and you gotta find it.

But it is really good to be here at Wildwood.

I know we're in Georgia, but this is still Chattanooga area, amen?

And it's just a blessing to be here and to see how God has continued to bless this institution and how his hand has been upon this institution for over 80 years.

Amazing, amazing, 80 years of God's leading here.

Thank you Yvonne and all our wonderful staff here.

I could say many things but you know working with Pastor Atwood and I see my good friend here, good to see you.

We're extremely blessed to be a part of this legacy, friends, and I am excited because as I got the opportunity to study the history of Adventist medical evangelism, medical missionary work, it really opened my eyes to things I had never seen before and how God was leading in our past and how he wants to lead us in the future.

And so I believe as we look back at how God has led we can see a more clear picture for how God wants to lead us in the future.

And so I believe as we look back at how God has led, we can see a more clear picture for how God wants to lead us in the years ahead, because we know that Jesus is coming soon.

If there's anything, and I know I'm not here to talk about AWR, but my friends, let me just tell you that we are seeing miracles around the world I don't know if any of you have seen any of the latest stories but God is doing incredible things if I could just say that in the Philippines Some of you may have heard about the the rebel conversion story.

Do you know that last Sabbath over 1, 100 more were baptized?

At the general conference session not only will the head rebel general who was baptized, by the way this is in the Philippines, for any of you who may not have heard this story, check out our AWR website to find the full story.

But the head rebel, the head general for the Philippine army in that whole region is coming to General Conference session.

And by God's grace, we'll be baptized by Elder Wilson on the Monday of G.C.

But friends, do you know the rebels who came to Christ, do you know what their first point of contact with the Seventh-day Adventist Church was?

It was radio, but do you know what the program was?

Why did it take a health program to reach those rebels' hearts?

They realized that somebody out there cared for their physical health and as they began to listen to those health programs then they wanted to listen to the Bible programs and what 50 years of war and what money could not buy the gospel changed their hearts and 700 were baptized in November, including that head rebel general, and just last Sabbath, a thousand were baptized friends.

Jesus spent more time healing than he did preaching.

That's why we have institutions like Wildwood, because we need to meet the physical needs of people, the emotional needs of people, and then we bid them to follow Jesus.

As I was studying this subject, my eyes were just opened to the incredible power that God has given the Seventh-day Adventist Church in this message.

And I hope that as we look back, we're gonna take a quick look at history.

And I know 90 minutes seems like a long time and I'm already losing time now, but it's gonna go fast.

So buckle your seat belts because we're gonna go through some history pretty fast and I hope you'll be blessed.

But before we do anything else, we should pray.

So bow your heads with me please as we pray.

Father in heaven, thank you Lord for this beautiful day.

Thank you Father that we can be together on this Friday, April 15, to look back, to thank you for what you've done in the history of Wildwood, Lord.

But not only in the history of Wildwood, in the history of this Seventh-day Adventist movement.

This is your movement, this is your plan, and we are just a part of this great plan to reach the world.

Lord, as we look back at this story, I pray that Jesus would be lifted up and help all of us to see our part in this Last Day movement.

Well, friends, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has always placed a heavy emphasis on the threefold, the blended ministry of gospel plus health evangelism, amen?

The church has had a whole person health focus unique among evangelical denominations.

Our task is not just to preach the gospel, our task is to preach the whole gospel, right?

That Jesus wants to restore people physically, mentally, and spiritually.

In fact, if you look at the official mission statement of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, it states the following, and I don't have this on the screen, but it says, "...affirming the biblical principles of the well-being of the whole person.

We make healthful living and the healing of the sick a priority through our ministry to the poor and oppressed, cooperating with the Creator in his compassionate work of restoration.

In harmony with this vision, the Adventist Church operates the largest Protestant health system in the world.

An international network of over 600 hospitals, sanitariums, clinics, dispensaries, that's not even counting many of the self-supporting institutions around the world.

Friends, Seventh-day Adventist Church is doing incredible health and gospel work around the world.

But just as a reminder, and I know most of you know this, but how did we come to have such a strong emphasis on health ministry?

Now we're not going to do a we're just going to touch on this briefly here, friends, but you will remember that it began with Ellen White's first health vision.

This is a crowd of medical evangelists, wow.

In this first vision, the outstanding feature was the relation between physical welfare and spiritual health or holiness.

It developed slowly When the church began to embrace these health principles, given in this vision, subjects such as diet, temperance, and how to care for the sick with natural means began to be incorporated into our strategy for mission.

The next vision, does anybody remember when it was?

It made more clear the relation of that reform to the gospel message to be given to the world.

She says, I was shown again, I was again shown that the health reform is 1 branch of the great work which is to fit a people coming for the coming of the Lord.

It is as closely connected with the third angel's message as the hand is.

You take your hand with you wherever you go, I hope.

Now again, we're just looking at a brief, going from the beginning, looking at a brief summary.

Well, who would you say during Ellen White's time and during those early years was probably the most well-known Seventh-day Adventist in the world?

But of course, he played a key role in the development of our church's health work.

He was mentored by James and Ellen White.

The future doctor would learn many of the health principles that would guide his life work from the whites.

And throughout his remarkable career as a physician, as a surgeon, a dietician, he made a profound impact not only on the work of our church, but also on American thought in terms of the interrelation between health, personal habits, and lifestyle.

And of course, as we know, from 1876 to 1943, he was there at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, an institution that at its height was 1 of the best-known medical facilities in the United States, ministering to all classes from presidents to top business leaders.

Now he was deeply influenced by Ellen White and her teachings on the importance of medical missionary work.

For Kellogg, good deeds were an essential companion to the proclamation of the gospel." Now we're going to go to our first quote here.

This is John Harvey Kellogg as quoted by Dave Fiedler in his book De Sozo.

How many of you read that book by Dave Fiedler?

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History of Medical Missionary Work

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