AMEN Australia 2012: Right Arm, Right Approach, Right Now

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Adventist Medical Evangelism Network Australia

Tim Howe

Medical Missionary Work, the Gospel in Practice

I thought I would start this morning by reading the mission statement of Amen.

And when we have our board meetings, we always start our board meetings by reading this mission statement.

To motivate, train, and equip Seventh-day Adventist physicians and dentists to team with pastors and members, uniting the church to restore Christ's ministry of healing to the world, hastening his return.

Skip is gonna talk later about a split that occurred between pastors and healthcare medical missionaries, if you will, but the whole mission of amen is to unite the church in ministry.

Well, the question of course that I think is paramount is what is Christ's ministry of healing to the world?

And I think the definition that I like best is found on page 19 of Ministry of Healing.

As He, that is Christ, as He passed through towns and cities, He was like a vital current diffusing life and joy.

Jesus is in town and everyone says, hey, wouldn't you really like to have a good time?

Remember Christ said, I came that they might have and have it more abundantly.

So wherever he went, there was a current of life and joy.

As you work in the health professions, as you go about your day seeing patients, talking with people, are you diffusing that current of life and joy?

It's a wonderful aspiration that we have, and I would encourage you as I'm speaking today to remember life and joy, that current that we all have the opportunity to get caught up in.

Rob Granger and I had some opportunity, how long ago now Rob?

Yeah for 2 years in 1998 to 2000, we had the opportunity of working together and playing together a bit.

And we took Rob down a whitewater river in Maine in an open canoe.

And fortunately, it wasn't a real exciting 1 like we usually go on, or else Rob might not be here today.

He learned more about canoeing in that short time than I think he's ever thought he'd learn, but it was still exciting.

But when you're in an open canoe and you're going down a whitewater river, you learn something.

And you have to be aware of that current.

But when you learn to ride that current, there's nothing like it.

If anyone wants some excitement, come go with us down the St.

John River, 110 miles of wild white water, and I'll tell you, you'll understand about current of life and joy.

Before we go on, I'd like to just have 1 more word of prayer, if we might, let's bow our heads.

Our Father, we're thankful to be together on this, your Sabbath day.

We're thankful that you are here because you've promised to be.

We pray that you would send your Spirit to each heart, each mind.

May they be changed and be like Jesus for having been in his presence today.

I don't know about here in Australia, but in America a lot has been written in the past 6 months in the American medical literature about the importance of learning how to change patient behavior in order to address the healthcare crisis in our country.

You may not have 1 here, I don't know, everyone looks healthy here today, but in America there is a healthcare crisis.

An Editorial in the October 2012 issue of Journal of Correction of Mayo Clinic Proceedings sums up the literature about as well as anything that I've read.

It is widely Accepted that if people follow the principles of cardiovascular disease prevention their risk for cardiovascular disease can be reduced by 75% now that's mainstream You know use of statins and a few things.

Data there shows you can reverse it by at least 90%, if not 99%.

But this is just the standard medical literature, no doubt, at least by 75%.

However, currently available data are less instructive in identifying how to change human behavior in an effective and lasting way as a means to improve outcomes.

We know that we have a long way to go when interventions for smoking cessation that have no more than a 20% quitting rate are considered successful.

You run a program, you introduce a method of smoking cessation, and you get a 20% success rate, and they call it successful.

And when the overwhelming majority of people with obesity who lose weight will regain all of the weight loss in less than a year.

It is generally accepted that healthcare workers are poor at getting people to change their behavior and physicians are particularly poor.

They've gotten us to floss and brush and do all manner of things inside our mouths that we wouldn't naturally do, but physicians generally are poor.

When it comes to smoking cessation, the average physician wins about 4 to 8 percent of the time.

When it comes to an exercise prescription, at least in the States, if I offer my patients or encourage them to exercise, about 10 to 20 percent of them will actually follow through on a regular basis.

And weight loss advice, if I give them advice and help, about 2 to 4% of people actually lose weight and keep it off.

I don't know about you, but I was sitting on the plane coming down from Sydney yesterday next to a medical student She's in Newcastle and medical school, and I asked her I when talking about this.

I said now if you were getting 20% score on your tests would they pass you?

The key to solving the healthcare crisis is very, very simple.

That's it, you see that 70% or more of the healthcare dollar in our country, and I would guess in yours as well, is currently spent on preventable diseases.

70%, diseases that would not exist if patients would simply change their behavior.

Now we could create a new health care crisis if we could learn how to change patient behavior.

It would be doctors and nurses in the unemployment line and most hospitals close down, at least 70% of them.

But that's a crisis we could put up with, isn't it?

You see, our generation is not the first generation that's had problems changing.

The Apostle Paul nearly 2, 000 years ago said, the good that I would that I do not, and the evil that I would not, that do I." Describing his powerless condition, Paul cries out in Romans 7.24, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?

The only power strong enough to deliver Paul was the power of the gospel.

He said, I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation.

The Greek word translated as salvation here is, correct me if I'm wrong, skip, sozo, right?

That Greek word is also translated in the New Testament as healing.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto healing.

And viewing salvation as healing is actually very accurate.

Speaking to the sinful nation of Israel, God through the prophet Isaiah says, the whole head is sick, the whole heart is faint.

We as healthcare providers need to see that illness of the body and illness of the soul are in fact on a continuum, both occurring as a result of sin, which is transgression of the law, and both requiring the power of God for solution.

More research, as suggested by the Mayo Clinic proceedings editorial, will not, or our patients, change our health for the better.

Health education, no matter how true the information is, is powerless to change behavior.

I was reading a book while visiting my wife's cousin in Sydney just a few days ago and let me read you a sentence from that book Tim Costello you may recognize that name I think he worked around here in Melbourne for a while, right?

He said, better information does not lead to better human formation.

That is critical for us to understand as health educators.

Information is powerless to change behavior.

And because of that, it is critically important that we, as Seventh-day Adventist health professionals, remember that health education does not equal medical missionary work.

Health education is a part of, but it is not medical missionary work.

This is from 8 Volume of the Testimonies, page 77.

Medical missionary work is the gospel in practice.

Ellen White in another place says this about the law.

She says, men and women cannot violate natural law by indulging depraved appetite and lustful passions without violating the law of God.

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Medical Missionary Work, the Gospel in Practice

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