AMEN 2006: The Right Arm, the Right Approach, Right Now

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Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

AMEN 2006 Plenary Sessions

Lorayne Barton

Serving God, Saving Souls: The Purpose of Medical Evangelism

Barton will present this opening address.

She will challenge us to consider what medical evangelism really is and what role we each can play.

She's an active practicing neonatologist at Los Angeles County Women's and Children's Hospital with ministry experience as the head of a non-profit agency and president of ASI Pacific Union and a board member of AMEN.

She's currently doing a pre-med residency at Loma Linda University.

The Lord is doing a new work among us, isn't he?

Last Thursday, I was asked to go up and see a gentleman that just couldn't wait.

We were supposed to have clinic, it was supposed to start in a few, in about an hour, but this man was in a hurry, didn't want to wait, and so the nurse asked me if I would please go up and see him a little bit early.

So I walked up to the room and walked into where this gentleman was, and Wow, he was scary.

This man was about 6 foot 5, I would guess.

He was about 290 pounds, I think, covered from head to toe with tattoos.

If I'd seen him out on the street, I would have been really kind of a little bit frightened of this gentleman.

But he was nice, he was pleasant, he didn't scare me at all from what he said anyway and he was there because this happens to be my rotation on the smoking cessation unit, and I'm trying to help the different people get off of their smoking, which most of them have been on for 30 or 40 years.

So I sat down to try to turn on the computer.

All of you who work at the VA know how you have to get into the computer.

It takes you a few minutes to get all your passwords in and everything like that.

And I hadn't said anything much to him except, hello, how can I help you and things like that?

And he turned to me and said, what church do you go to?

That's kind of strange and I said, well I'm a Seventh-day Adventist and he said, I thought so, I thought so because you're not wearing any jewelry or any makeup or anything like that.

Well, I didn't want to be known for that was why I was a Seventh-day Adventist.

But I asked him, what made you ask that question?

And he said, well, I used to be a Seventh-day Adventist.

I was a Seventh-day Adventist for 15 years.

I used to go right here at the Campus Hill Church.

But I'm an alcoholic, I smoke, I drink, I have been using drugs, and I just this last week got out of an absolutely life sentence.

If I had gotten convicted, I would have been in jail forever.

I'm ready to turn my life back over to the Lord.

And you know, this scary gentleman, before I even had a chance to do much else, we were able to pray together and we were able to talk.

And before he left, after I did all the things that we needed to do, this man actually came up and hugged me.

I've never had that happen from a big scary person like that.

It was quite quite amazing to me, but I of course invited him back too.

I told him, you know, you don't have to stay away just because you've been smoking, just because you backslid.

He goes to the Baptist church, not to the Adventist church, because he's afraid, of course, to come back to the Adventist church right now.

Well, my topic today actually is titled Serving God and Saving Souls, because this is what we really want for amen.

I believe the Lord really is beginning to do a new work.

And if you have remembered what the new general conference's theme is for this year, maybe this quinquennium?

And so ASI added on to that, tell them now, and then our main speaker at ASI just here in August said, well what are we going to tell them?

And so they they put all those themes together, you know, tell the world, tell them now, what are we going to tell them?

And so they put all those themes together, you know, tell the world, tell them now, what are we going to tell them?

I think we need to know why we need to tell them, And I think it's because they need to know.

Every single person I have come in contact with, it seems to me, in the last year or 2, compared to the first 30 years of my practice, just absolutely needs to know something more about God or is wanting to know or else is totally absolutely not interested and doesn't want you to talk about it.

1 of those 2 things is happening and if you're open and if you're listening to what the Lord is doing in their lives, it can make a major, major difference.

So tonight I actually want to start with 3 key points.

It's what do we really want AMEN to accomplish, and what do we want our group here to accomplish.

And why haven't we, as a church or as a group of Adventist physicians, why haven't we accomplished what the Lord set out to do through the medical work so many years ago, almost 120 years ago now.

Why haven't we accomplished that at this time?

And then the last point I'd like to make is how do we accomplish it?

What can we do to change all of this long-standing, not that we have not done anything at all, we've done a lot.

We have a wonderful medical system all throughout the world.

So I don't want to imply to any of you that you haven't already been doing the Lord's work.

I don't want to imply that our hospitals have not done any good for the Lord.

But just like Israel of old, we haven't really met the Lord's plan for his work.

So what I think we need to do is think about first what we want to accomplish.

And maybe the question really should be not what we want to accomplish, but what does God want to accomplish through us?

And I think that He has a plan and a purpose, but is it my plan or is it his plan?

This is what I'd really like to think about for myself.

And this, this, these 3 questions are really questions that I personally have had and have tried to study out what is God's plan for my life and what can I do?

So before we really get started, could we just bow our heads again for just a minute?

Lord Jesus, I want to ask you tonight to come here to be with us, to help us understand what your purpose is for our lives, for our medical work, for our educational work, for what the purpose that you want Amen to accomplish.

And I ask your Holy Spirit to be with me tonight, to be here in this audience, that we may listen to your word and to your servant.

Tonight I have 2 scriptures I'd like you to look at with me.

We're just going to read them and then later we're going to get back to them.

Isaiah 50 verse 4, the Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary.

Now those are those are verses that we've heard many times before but I'd like to to talk about them a little bit more.

It's Isaiah 35, 1 through 10, and you know this 1 very well as 1 of the things that is talking about the glory of Zion and of heaven.

It's a fairly long passage, but I think it's important because we're going to talk about what these verses really mean to us.

I'm reading from the New King James Version.

The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them.

The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.

It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing.

The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it.

The excellence of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, the excellency of our God.

Strengthen the weak hands, make firm the feeble knees, say to those who are fearful-hearted, be strong, do not fear, behold your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God, he will come and save you." And now here's the verses we just love to quote, and knowing what's going to happen soon when we get to heaven.

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing.

For water shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert, the parched ground shall become a pool, the thirsty land springs of water, in the habitation of jackals where each lay, There shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the highway of holiness.

The unclean shall not pass over it, But it shall be for others.

Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray, nor shall any ravenous beast go up upon it, shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads.

They shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Well, You know, those verses remind me of what the promises are for the future.

AMEN 2006 Progress Notes, Part 1

All kind Father in heaven, we thank you so much for the traveling mercies you've given us, for giving us the opportunity to be here to attend the second annual Amen Conference.

We thank you for the ministries you've given to each of us, for the call you have given each of us into ministry.

We've heard so many interesting stories just from talking with people and during the breaks and during the dinner tonight.

And we know that it's a miracle that some people got here, but you've all brought us here for 1 purpose, to talk about sharing Christ in our practices wherever we go, so we can further this gospel commission that you've given to us and win souls for your kingdom.

May everything that's said and done here tonight and through the rest of this weekend be done to your name's honor and glory.

And most of all, may Jesus Christ be uplifted in his majesty and glory.

We pray in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen.

We're gonna start with our progress notes where we have actual physicians, dentists with ministries in action.

And each person will take a few minutes just to share what God has done and is doing in their lives and in their ministry.

Michael Gerson up so he can share with us what God has been doing in and through his life.

So Michael, you are in Lincoln, Nebraska, right?

My ministry is actually training youth to go out for disasters.

And not only, say, physically, but also spiritually.

Now, How did the Lord bring you to this point?

You didn't just find out that you were in this ministry.

There was a process of bringing you to this point, wasn't there?

Well, to make it short, I was an ER physician for 12 years, level 3 trauma center in Colorado, in southwest Colorado.

And we started working with youth, and we started doing a summer program with youth we bring youth into Colorado we start teaching them survival different types of rescue in wilderness medicine and eventually God gave us the idea to do a four-year degree, a Bachelor of Science degree in International Rescue and Relief and actually disaster work.

And so I quit my work, my partners thought I was crazy, I was a director of the ER and when I quit a school hadn't actually accepted this four-year degree yet.

So we went and actually worked with David Gates for a little bit down in Venezuela and then eventually Union College accepted this degree.

And we started the degree 2 years ago and we're going into our third year and we have 114 students.

And as next year we'll be the largest division on campus.

I know last year you told us a story about your your leap in faith and how God has had led you and it was tremendous.

Well all we need is a grain of mustard seed, don't we?

And so when these students are trained, what do they do?

Well The degree is basically 42 hours is the main degree, semester hours.

And we train them in all kinds of rescue.

So they do low angle, the high angle rescue, swift water rescue, confined space, dive rescue, and it goes on and on.

We also train them in survival, and they get disaster management.

And right now we're with David Gates' program down in Venezuela.

And we actually bring these EMTs, they all get their EMT degree, almost to a mid-level position.

We show them how to do dental blocks for those of you that are dentists, and we pull teeth.

As a matter of fact, I spent some time with an oral surgeon recently so I could pull teeth.

So we pull teeth, we set fractures, we do gram stains, we look for malaria and all kinds of fun things.

And we feel like the third world training is an excellent training for disaster.

As we know with New Orleans Katrina, it basically became a third world.

And so all these students then go out and they either go into professional school or go directly out to work for an NGO, faith-based NGO.

So were you guys directly involved in the Katrina rescue and the mission down there?

That's kind of a sore point for me, but I will tell you what happened.

Katrina happened and I told the staff that we needed to go down to New Orleans.

We were supposed to work with a Coast Guard with helicopters.

And the faculty at that time said that risk management, they weren't ready to let us go down because of risk management.

But now we do have it all arranged so that when the next disaster hits, and we've been watching all the hurricanes come through, including Florence that just came through and missed, we are ready with our students now to respond.

Now, how do you see AMEN fitting into this whole disaster relief program and being a part of this ministry?

Well, what we've done is we've teamed up with AXE, Adventist Community Team Service, a group down in Florida run by Dale Bass right now and David Canther.

And now with the disaster relief, they call them pods, point of distribution.

So when a disaster comes in, they get either the National Guard or volunteer agencies to run these big pods.

And so AXE goes out and runs 1 of these pods and they try to set it up at 1 of our Adventist churches.

And what they desperately need is they need a medical component.

We've also offered to do the rescue component.

So we will be looking for nurses and dentists and physicians to join us for the next disaster that we have to try to run this medical component.

We are now designing an emergency vehicle.

And we're making it into a mobile emergency department.

We also have some big tents, 60-by-100-foot tents that we'll be seeing most of our patients in.

So we'll be asking AMEN physicians and dentists if they would like to join us.

So where does your funding come from for programs like this?

We've had some generous donors that have come forward, at least given us a trailer.

We're trying to raise another $60, 000 to finish the trailer up.

And it looks like GE is going to donate a floral unit for us too.

Don Mackintosh

God’s Right Arm Revealed

A warm welcome to those for the early morning meeting.

We're very grateful that my young pastor, My ex-pastor, let's see, how do we say it?

My former pastor is here to share with us the morning devotional.

I had the privilege of working with him for more than a dozen years and continue to work with him on various projects.

And we are thankful that he has consented to come and share with us.

Pastor McIntosh has been very involved in medical evangelism.

He was a nurse when we were able to prevail on him to accept a call to come and pastor our church.

And his nursing roots showed through in his committed pastoral ministry.

I believe that you will appreciate what he has to share with you this morning.

I am going to go down and work on the computer so that the colors improve.

And Pastor Don, we are going to be praying for you, and we know that this will be a blessing.

Let's just ask the Lord to be with us today as we begin our time with him.

Father in heaven, as we consider the right arm today, we realize it can only be accessed through the Spirit and through prayer.

And it's when we come to the end of ourselves that we become we come to the beginning of what you can do.

And today I just want to ask for your presence.

Lord, I have nothing to bring, but you have everything we need.

And it is only through your power and your might that we have anything so come with us this morning we pray in Jesus name amen do you believe that I want to talk with you today about the right arm.

I can't see my screen, so I may come out here just a little bit, if you don't mind.

Now, I have a mic here, I think, it's okay.

As I thought about this conference, I thought, you know, there are some familiar quotes that come to mind that we've probably heard many times.

The medical missionary work is to be the work of the church, be to the work of the church as the right arm is to the body.

Millions of times, hundreds of times, thousands of times.

Medical missionary work is the right hand of the gospel.

Harding on the hand, and he said basically the arm is useless without the hand.

I suppose you could do some very gross motor movements and maybe knock a few people out of the way, but it's true.

The right hand is used to open doors through which the body may find entrance.

This is the part of the medical missionary work, this is the part that the medical missionary work is to act.

So these are familiar statements that we often hear.

But I have this, I guess, practice that whenever I read something in Ellen White's writings, I may not have time every time, I'll accept it and act on it right then because I know that what I'm about to tell you will come true.

But I go back and try and find where she got this idea in scripture.

I think it's really important to do that.

And 1 of the statements that sometimes has been misused, I'm not trying to misuse it, but this has always caused me to think, do not repeat what I have said, saying sister white said this and sister white said that find out what the Lord of God Lord God of Israel says and then do what he commands now I'm not trying to say that you use that statement to not quote Ellen why you understand what I mean But I've taken that to always mean go back and do your research in the Bible as best you can.

And I have never been disappointed, ever been disappointed in that.

And I have always been in awe of the spirit of prophecy as a result of that.

It is a discipline I would probably think you are familiar with.

Well what does the Scripture say about God's right arm and hand.

You know, when you look for texts that deal directly with health and the right hand or the right arm in scripture, there are not very many.

Here's 1, length of days is in her right hand.

Both have their purposes and both can have their problems as well.

But other than this text, and I would say also Daniel chapter 5, you know when Belshazzar went against everything he knew to be right and God said, don't you know that I have your breath and your entire life in my hand?

But other than those 2 texts, now I want you to inform me otherwise, but overtly mentioning the right hand or right arm and healing.

I don't see anything except this text directly, but in studying God's right hand and right arm, I think you'll see some powerful connections this morning.

There's usually a clock in the back of my church.

Here's what I discovered as I was looking at this concept.

God's right hand, actually both hands, are talked about when God is described as the Creator.

Oh Lord God, behold thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm and there is nothing too hard for thee.

Well there's different passages I know you can find where it talks about his hands, but notice this 1 in Jeremiah, My hand also hath laid the foundation, or rather Isaiah 48, 13, My hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand hath spanned the heavens.

When I call unto them, they stand up together." So here we have both hands alluded to in Scripture, but the right hand especially alluded to.

And so in creation that right hand was active, both hands were.

As I studied it more, it seems as though 1 formed things and then the other filled it.

They worked together, but The right hand is the dominant hand of power and authority.

And God himself, the name Elohim, means the mighty covenant maker or the mighty relationship maker.

And on day 1 he created light and dark and there's kind of a relationship between those if you don't have 1 you don't really understand the other.

Now I'm not like Plato who said that means that there was good and evil from the beginning of time but there are light and dark cycles that we know impact the body and impact our health and we can learn about many of those things.

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