Samuel Girven
April 21, 2022In partnership with Indiana, Lake Region, and Lake Union conferences, the Pathway to Health mega clinic provided free healthcare and other services to over 4,000 in Indianapolis on April 17-20.
The goal for the event held at the Lucas Oil Stadium was to show people God’s love and message by serving as many people as they could with free medical, dental, vision, and lifestyle care. Organizers accomplished this by working together, in harmony with the theme “United We Serve.”
“We know that we could never have done this on our own,” says Vic Van Schaik, Indiana Conference president. “By uniting together with the Lake Region Conference and the Lake Union Conference and other ministries, we were able to do something that only God could have brought about.”
How It Came Together
The mega-clinic’s arrival was complicated by the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, leading to its postponement. World church, city, and event leaders were prepared to serve Indianapolis in 2020. But when the pandemic suddenly burst onto the scene, this forced the Pathway to Health board to cancel the mega-clinic. While the clinic was rescheduled for 2022, event organizers took many precautions, such as COVID-19 testing, requiring face masking, and social distancing.
Volunteers arrived as early as April 10, with the mountain of preparations having to be spread over the entire week before the mega-clinic began. Trailers full of curtains, pipes, equipment, and more were transported even earlier from a warehouse in Arkansas, to Indiana Academy, and then transported from the Academy to Lucas Oil Stadium. Equipment then had to be unloaded from the eight 53-foot-long van trailers. Then, it had to be unpacked, assembled, and placed on the covered football field.
Other volunteers arrived later in the week, on April 15 and April 16. They were treated to Sabbath programs with inspiring messages from Maurice Valentine, North American Division vice president; Mark Finley, assistant to the president of the General Conference; and Duane McKey, president of Adventist World Radio.
“We can be ambassadors of health in a world that is dying prematurely, often from self-inflicted diseases,” Finley said during the Sabbath worship service on April 16. “But one person can make a difference.”
What’s Next
Lake Region and Indiana conferences are planning a variety of health and lifestyle supportive classes as a follow up to the mega-clinic.
“Together, we’ve been able to have eight locations that people can go to have health instruction and learn how to have a healthy lifestyle throughout the city,” said Kevin Rogers, pastor of the Capitol City Church in Indianapolis. “We are grateful for the opportunity to minister.”
Samuel Girven is a student at Northview Adventist School and ARISE Academy.
A more comprehensive article on Pathway to Health Indianapolis will be published at a later date.
