Lake Region health ministry booth at the Black Women's Expo in Chicago
Health and Community Engagement is front and center at Lake Region this year.
During the weekend of April 12-14, the Lake Region Health Ministry Department participated in a major expo in Chicago. Thirty thousand people filled McCormick Place for the Black Women’s Expo and it was a gigantic opportunity for the Lake Region Health ministry to share God’s plan for our health in a practical way.
Lake Region health director, Christina Wells and her team, passed out almost 1,200 bags which contained health educational materials, GLOW tracts, Who are the Adventists magazine, and a Ministry of Healing book. Over 1,500 people were engaged, in alignment with “Touch 10k”, an evangelistic outreach effort adopted by regional conference and is aimed at reaching 10,000 people in major cities across the United States.
In Chicago, visitors to the Lake Region booth expressed that they were eager to learn more about their health. “People were so interested in their health and were excited that we were giving them free information,” said Wells.
One lady who had cancer stopped by the booth and as Wells was sharing about who they were, she was excited to tell them that she had spent time with an Adventist naturopathic doctor who helped her overcome cancer.
Volunteers from the Shiloh, New Life, and Independence churches in Chicago provided assistance and said they enjoyed interacting with people at the expo. One of the volunteers, Nina, from the Independence Church, said she was “so excited to have the opportunity to allow her light to shine.” Volunteers also collected names and contact information of visitors, and the plan is to stay connected via a health newsletter.
“Medical missionary work is an open door through which many will be reached by the gospel,” said Wells, a medical doctor. “This medical missionary work starts in our own neighborhoods. The world needs today what it needed nineteen hundred years ago- a revelation of Christ. A great work of reform is demanded, and it is only through the grace of Christ that the work of restoration, physical, mental, and spiritual, can be accomplished. (Ministry of Healing p. 142, 143).”
