Have you ever stopped to consider which part of the Body of Christ you represent?
When we think of the ministry of medical missions, there is so much work to be done, and every part is essential. While everyone fulfills their special roles in their own ways, we like the analogy of hands. After all, like those in medical missions, hands are helpful, practical, and capable of carrying much, including relief.
In this issue, we’re featuring groups and individuals who represent each “finger” of hands-on service. Be proud knowing you serve in at least one of these essential areas.
Partners: the Most Active Finger
Health Talents International
Partners are the index finger of our mission. This essential digit is the most active and precise. As the pointer finger, it is naturally directed in a forward “Go!” position, just like our partners who take medicines and supplies from Blessings International all over the world.
Health Talents International (HTI) is an Arkansas-based organization which has been distributing Blessings’ products for decades. Founded in 1973, they have two medical facilities in Guatemala, lead by seventy staff members and supported by over a dozen volunteer specialist teams from the United States each year. Together, staff and volunteers provide Guatemalans with dental, optometric, and surgical services. Last year alone, they served 44,000 people.
“What [the locals] will tell you,” says Bode Teague, the US Mission Director for HTI, “is that if you go to a Guatemalan hospital, you're going there to die.” However, HTI has heard on numerous occasions a different description about their set-up. “[When] they’re speaking to their friends and neighbors about our hospital or our clinic—they say, ‘That’s where Jesus works.’”
Because of the level of care the locals receive, including consistent treatment, meals, and personal attention, Health Talent’s service to Guatemala is changing lives every day.
“Our goal is Kingdom growth,” Bode says. “When you are a non-profit and you're trying to provide as much medical attention to the groups that we are, that's a lot of supply. So we're always looking for a more inexpensive way of obtaining either supplies or medications. And Blessings to us is just that.”
“It takes a team; that’s for sure.”
Donors: Contributing Strength
Dr. Alice Inouye
If the index finger is the most versatile finger, the second finger is the tallest and strongest one, contributing to the hand’s overall gripping ability.
At the center of it all, donors stand tall by supporting any of our five causes. By doing so, they back not only our mission, but the people who are going. Talk about empowering!
Dr. Alice Inouye is one such donor. She actually began as a Blessings International partner over a decade ago. During her fifty years as a physician, she’s keenly felt the calling to practice medicine but has experienced frustration within the American medical system. It’s no wonder then that she loved going to Guatemala four times a year prior to the pandemic to truly practice the art of medicine wholeheartedly. As her ministry model changed in 2020, she shifted to being a regular Blessings donor.
When she was placing regular orders as a partner, she “could not believe Blessings paid for shipping,” she told us. “To me, Blessings International is like a point of light in the medical field and street medicine.” Today, she helps Blessings International provide medicines for orphans, a cause that speaks to her heart. She told us of the transformation God has done in her life, from being a child who felt unloved, to now testifying of the overwhelming love of God who wants to know us.
“If we cannot share Jesus and his love to every single person we serve, whether we're doing it from the Blessings International part versus those outgoing out on the field,….that gives you a sense of not only incredible blessing, but incredible sense of oneness.”
Volunteers: Hearts of Faithfulness
Parkside Baptist Church
In ancient times, people believed only the third finger had a vein that stretched directly to the heart. This is why wedding rings were placed on what we now call the ring finger.
Love, faithfulness, and steadfastness are marks of the volunteers who have served at Blessings for over twenty years. Once a month, a group of women from Tulsa’s Parkview Baptist Church give their time by helping the production department package and label products, especially hygiene kits and educational coloring book packages for kids.
“It’s a team effort; a hands-on mission,” Nancy Fink said, directing our attention to Joanne, a regular volunteer who is legally blind. Every month, Joanne assembles with as much speed as the other ladies. “You can’t say you can’t serve,” Nancy added.
Joyce Berryman, whose life echoes with faithfulness as a member of Parkview for forty-seven years, told us, “Just to know that someone is going to receive these gifts, and that when they receive them, their eyes will be bright—that’s why we keep coming back.”
Ambassadors: Extending the Reach
Anita Ross
The pinky (or little) finger is a small but mighty digit, having a wider range of motion than its counterparts, and provides it an extended reach.
This is a perfect analogy of our ambassadors. Not only do these dear people tell others about Blessings International, but they also represent us before God by praying for the ministry on a regular basis. They extend our reach farther than effort alone ever could.
Anita Ross’s affiliation with Blessings International goes back twenty years. She began as a volunteer through Parkview Baptist Church—which she continues today, never missing an opportunity to serve.
“I have fallen in love with this place, the ministry, the people that you work with,” she told us. That love has stretched into a self-led ambassadorship which has brought Anita to represent Blessings to her church and to organizations who could benefit from the ministry.
But even more importantly, Anita is a person of prayer who regularly brings Blessings International’s work to the throne of God. “I pray that as your medicines go around the world and across America, that God [will] bless them and use them to tell people about Jesus Christ and to heal their bodies.”
“Prayer is important to me,” she adds. “[God] tells us to come before him with our needs, with our supplication, even with our sins, and He forgives us. By Jesus’ stripes, we are healed, and part of that healing is the medicine that Blessings International sends out.”
.png)
Staff: Holding Tight to the Mission
Blessings International staff
When clinging to anything, the thumb holds all the fingers fast, lending its strength to strengthen all the others. We’d like to think our staff is as much a support as they are co-laborers in the global mission.
Those of us working every day at Blessings International know we wouldn’t be able to serve if it wasn’t for every other member in the broader mission. It’s an honor to provide hands-on service and serve the universal mission alongside our partners, donors, volunteers, and ambassadors.
Global and local health is, hands down, a massive mission. Whichever part you play in medical missions, we salute you and thank you for your hands-on service. Please contact us at our website or info@blessing.org if you’d like to learn how you can join other parts of our mission.
