Continuing Jesus' Healing Ministry

In 1997, I was invited to preview a medical clinic, called Branches of Faith, which provides free health care to the people of Nuevo Progreso, Mexico. Expanding the ventures of West Ohio Volunteers In Mission to include medical missions seemed a good idea, so I accepted the invitation.

During several days at the clinic, we saw person after person needing medical attention, prescriptions, and care. After a while, the patients seemed to blend together in a swirl of active children, language differences, and dust.

Then one little boy totally changed my perspective. Alejandro was six years old. He lived with his large family in a 10- by 14-foot home with a dirt floor, no electricity, and no running water. He had cerebral palsy and used his arms to pull himself around on the earthen floor. No one had ever dreamed that he could walk.

After a search of stored equipment, we found a child-sized walker that another volunteer group had donated. A team member put it together to fit Alejandro's exact specifications. As the boy stepped up to the walker, we held our collective breath as we witnessed his first halting steps of freedom out into the world.

The healing ministry begun by Jesus Christ 2000 years ago was carried out anew in the hands of clinic volunteers that day. I returned to Ohio with renewed vigor to begin a venture that, over the past two years, has sent more than 200 volunteers from the West Ohio Conference to the Branches of Faith Clinic to continue Jesus' ministry of healing.