The very first midwest Compassion Clinic in New Brighton, Minnesota on June 19th was a beautiful picture of God’s people working together to love and serve their neighbors through the provision of free health services. We are so grateful to all the volunteers who helped provide basic medical, dental, chiropractic, massage, footcare, haircuts, meals, vaccines, and more to people in the Twin Cities area. After the clinic we received an email from Bekah, a local leader who was instrumental in helping her church learn about Compassion Clinics two years ago through a “vision trip” to our Portland headquarters. We are grateful to Bekah for being willing to share these encouraging stories!
“I wanted to share an update on the Compassion Clinic as it was such a great experience. We had 13 people from our church there for most of the day, about 6-8 hours or more! The traffic started off slow for the first half hour but then we had a steady stream of people and all doctors, dentists, chiropractors, and hair stylists filled their slots!
Video: Little Girl Can’t Stop Giggling Getting Special Foot Treatment at Clinic
It was such an easy, low hanging fruit type of experience where our direct neighbors got to see people from several churches working together in unity! I am glad that our church promoted the event and would love to see us be one of the main partnering churches for the next round. All the partner churches had a little promo card in the take home bags so we can continue to be in better relationship with these neighbors of ours.
Planting Seeds of Relationship
It was amazing to see Highview Middle School transformed into a clinic, dentist office, chiropractic office, hair salon, social service fair, free breakfast/lunch spot, etc! A few of us met two older Eritrean women, one of whom told us she has been experiencing depression and was stressed about needing to move because her asthma was so bad in her apartment. We have been in touch with her and just recently we were able to help her move into a much cleaner apartment with the help of a handful of other church members that were willing to do some heavy lifting.
At the end of her move, she said, “God knew I had to be at that Clinic and meet you!” We talked about Jehovah, our Provider God, and prayed for God’s blessing on her in her new home. Then she sent us all home with mangoes and an invitation for an African meal at her home in the near future! The one time event of the clinic has led to the beginning of a relationship.
Ongoing Opportunities for Unity
In addition, a woman from River of Life church near us, who was one of the key leaders in the Compassion Clinic, will be reaching out to our church about a potential opportunity to reach out to our vecinos latinos (Latino neighbors) who live in a nearby trailer park. She knows we have a love for the latino community and wanted to offer another, more local chance to walk alongside others.”
-Bekah, Compassion Clinic Volunteer from Emmanuel Covenant Church, Minnesota
To learn more about Compassion Clinics, please visit us here! Compassion Clinics are made possible by local volunteers with all kinds of skills, gifts, and passions. The challenges in our neighborhoods are overwhelming for just one person, church, or organization, but together we can tackle them and can love and serve our neighbors in big ways!