The emergency alert, indicating TORNADO WARNING, instructed them all to immediately take shelter. Without another moment’s hesitation, Sarah, Dylan, and Jake all ran from their places of accommodation into the inner room of a basement, the three of them huddled over their phones, expectantly watching for any updates of the tornado’s movement. It was a little more than surprising, given that all the tornadoes that had torn through Arkansas in 2024 had bypassed Decatur.[1] What was perhaps more shocking to them than the sudden natural disaster was hearing the place they were sheltered in–the Wellness Center–was precisely where the tornado was headed.
Jake recalled that they “were right next to the Bible trail, and the guy on the news [said] that the tornado [was] headed towards the Taste of Eden, and the Bible trail, and the Post Office.”[2] And it turned out that it wasn’t just one tornado–there were two.
“Decatur, Arkansas… you guys are really in a dangerous spot,” a commentator remarked. It was official; the three of them were in the most dangerous part of the storm, along with the Wellness Center where they had just begun Total Wellness, a summer blended evangelism program of medical missionary and Bible work. But despite the apparent bleakness of the situation, faith shone forth in the simple declaration of Jake: “There’s no way God’s gonna let Wellness Secrets get wiped out. There’s just no way. We’re in the safest place actually. I’m sure.”
At one o’clock in the morning, they fervently prayed together in the basement. Sarah recounted their simplicity and optimism: “You have us here for a purpose, Lord. Maybe You’re gonna use this so that we can reach people. We don’t know how You’re going to use this, but I know that You’ll turn this around for good.”
Their prayers were already being answered.
Not only were all three kept safe, but the widest tornado in Arkansas on record, spanning 3,200 yards, missed them by around ten miles.[3] Its accomplice, the tornado headed toward them, missed them by even less. Wellness Secrets and the Taste of Eden restaurant had been covered by the very hand of God Himself.
Following the devastating destruction that tragically claimed lives, the Total Wellness group was determined to be engaged in the community with healing and restorative efforts. With more student arrivals to the group, they attempted to make connections with local businesses and city officials. Jake and Nathan prayerfully stepped into the town hall to speak to the Mayor. After three visits, a kind, red-headed lady managed to find them a community contact who needed assistance with tornado clean-up: A woman who needed help cleaning a tree out of her yard. The two men dropped by her house, and although she wasn’t there, they were not deterred.
They left a note with their contact details, telling her that they’d come by because they’d heard she needed help. The same day that she got in touch with them, the men returned, cleaning up her tree and yard, and responding to a God-given opportunity when the door opened for one of the guys to share a slight portion of his testimony with her. The sharing lit something within her; she volunteered that she wanted help to quit smoking and was interested in getting reconnected and affiliated with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. The Total Wellness group was more than eager to help, and the fact that she had willingly volunteered this desire was evidence to them that God was, indeed, already moving.
She still had some yard work to do, so the men returned with more hands, Isaac and Lilienne. As Isaac finished working on the yard, the team was mobilizing–Nathan and Lilienne arrived at the local woman’s home and had a Bible study with her. About an hour into the study, Nathan questioned her regarding her decision to stop smoking, which she emphatically reaffirmed. She had a plan, she told them, but this wasn’t her first time, nor her second, or third. In fact, she had tried to stop smoking twenty-four times. Not a single attempt had been successful. Upon hearing the near-impossible odds, only one thought ran through Nathan’s head: “Lord, You’re gonna have to do a miracle.”
Lilienne recalled the woman’s nervousness as she told the two of them, “I have three packs left, but I’ll get rid of them on Sunday, and that’s my end date,” but Nathan wouldn’t take this for an answer. “I wish that’s the way it worked,” he carefully continued, “but the Bible says that today is the day of salvation, so you’re going to have to give it up now.”
“I’m going to have to make a decision then,” she told them both, but the reluctance was clear in her voice as the struggle began anew–perhaps for the twenty-fifth time. But God was moving. He impressed on Lilienne’s mind to share a story she’d read in her devotions over two months prior; she opened the woman’s Bible and turned to the book of Joshua, to the story where the five Amorite kings came against the tiny, seemingly-defenseless nation of Israel[4]. Lilienne, guided by the Spirit of God, narrated the entirety of chapter 10; how the men had fought all night and throughout the next day, to the point where God had even granted Joshua’s sincerest plea to make the sun stand still; how the Israelite soldiers continued, chasing and executing all five of the Amorite kings hidden in the caves, then destroying all the cities. The conclusion was a sobering reminder of the way God’s omnipotence works through willful human effort: “It was complete, full effort on the Israelites’ part, but God also was working for them mightily and they could see [it].”
The woman was captivated, listening intently as Lilienne came to the end of the Biblical narrative. The Spirit had already begun His work. Somewhere towards the end, while Lilienne passionately recounted the tale of God’s might and the woman eagerly grasped hold of every word, Nathan texted the Total Wellness group chat: “Pray hard. This lady is under conviction, and our friend needs to make a decision even today, or I don’t think she’ll make a decision ever. Pray really hard.”
Not even a few minutes after his digital plea, the lady made her decision. She disappeared into her room and emerged with all of her smoking paraphernalia–all her cigarettes, lighters, and ashtrays. She surrendered it all to the two medical missionaries with just two words: “Take it.”
“If I ever saw a miracle,” Lilienne beamed, “[that was] a miracle.” It was clear the woman was open to God and seeking Him. The next night when they did hydrotherapy, they learned that in all her previous attempts to quit smoking she had struggled with a persistent cough for months following. By God’s healing intervention through hydrotherapy, her post-quit cough was completely eliminated after the first few treatments.
And it is no coincidence–no small thing–that this story began with a tornado.
Given the outcome of this single life touched by the Spirit through willing hands and medical missionary work–plus the countless others who, we pray, will also be recipients of the LORD’s holistic salvation–it’s a foregone conclusion who set about with this kind of natural destruction. “The terrible tornadoes…. are because of Satan’s wrath”[5], and his great wrath is because “he knows that he has a short time.”[6] The devil is working, and Ellen White warns, “Even now he is at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, is Satan exercising his power.”[7]
Medical missionary work – whole-person-healing – is a vehicle through which God works mightily. It is His weapon of choice in this supernatural conflict to ensure that Satan’s power is broken.
But God’s power–His Word–will prevail. Ultimately, while we recognize in these miraculous stories the hand of God in protection, provision, and transformation, we are reminded that we are not warring against fleshly powers[8], and this supernatural opposition can only be faced with supernatural power. James counsels us to this end with the simple but powerful exhortation: “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”[9]
Our only resistance is submission; to God’s will, to His plans, and to His blueprints. Though the recorded counsels on medical missionary work and the company-model medical-gospel evangelism[10] may seem irrelevant or inapplicable to our modern world, God’s Word is unchanging[11] and Its very essence is fruitfulness[12]. In following God’s counsels precisely, of course, we’re bound to anger the very enemy whose only task is “that of resisting the meritorious work of Christ…. [resisting] Him in His efforts to come to the help of the tempted and tried soul who calls upon Him. ”[13]
But we may be encouraged. Just as God is using the hearts and hands of His faithful servants in Total Wellness–both those named and unnamed here–, He desires to use all of us in His service as priestly physicians to a world that is dying–physically, emotionally, mentally, and above all, spiritually. Medical missionary work–whole-person healing–as a vehicle through which God works mightily is His weapon of choice in this supernatural[a] conflict to ensure that Satan’s power is broken.[b] And while God meets the attacks of the devil head on, absorbing on our behalf his pathetic blows, we are equipped through His almighty power to reach the hearts of precious souls, for “the medical missionary work is the pioneer work of the gospel.”[14]
This is not mere theory. The story of this woman who was supported in her decision to quit smoking, and is now receiving ongoing help in overcoming her addiction is called “true medical missionary work”, as Ellen White instructed that “[we] are to seek to reach hearts, to [pray] with and for the helpless beings who have not strength of will to overcome the appetites which passions have degraded.”[15] Through this experience, the Spirit has placed within this woman an interest for spiritual things, and the door has been opened for her heart to be deeply reached–not just by home remedies and naturopathic medicine, but by salvation; whole-person salvation.
This is the goal. This is always the end goal of any method we employ in reaching others for Christ: “And I,” our Great Physician once told a crowd of heart-sick seekers, “if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”[16] Christ’s power to heal from physical sickness offers proof that He can heal us from our spiritual diseases too.[17] In a world filled with people desperate to break the chains of their addictions, manage their illnesses, and improve their physical health, we are faced with a field of souls that must see Christ lifted up. There is a global need, and God, through His medical-evangelism model, has equipped us with the methods, might, and mettle to fill it.
How will you let Him, the Great Healer, be lifted up in your ministry today?
To learn more about the mission of Total Wellness, you can visit: https://www.youtube.com/@TotalWellness.Is58
To watch the video of this incredible story, visit: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0QnpuMf_wbU&feature=youtu.be
[1] “Arkansas Weather Statistics for 2024.” National Weather Service, accessed June 20, 2024. https://www.weather.gov/media/lzk/StormsOf2024.pdf.
[2] The Decatur Seventh-Day Adventist Church, which owns a public trail called “The Bible Trail,” is located just across the street from an Adventist-owned lifestyle center and an Adventist-owned vegan restaurant called “Wellness Secrets” and “Taste of Eden”, respectively.
[3] Kyler Swaim, “NWS: EF3 Decatur Tornado Was Widest in Recorded State History.” KNWA FOX24, May 29, 2024. https://www.nwahomepage.com/weather/nws-ef3-decatur-tornado-was-widest-in-recorded-state-history/.
[4] See Josh. 10:1-43
[5] Ellen G. White, Manuscript Releases, vol. 3 (Silver Spring, MD: Ellen G. White Estate, 1990), 318.
[6] Rev. 12:12
[7] Ellen G. White, The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4 (1884), 408.
[8] Eph. 6:11-12
[9] Jam. 4:7-8
[10] Lilienne Stafford, “The Tindall Notes,” Prisoners of Hope, February 2024,14-18.
[11] Heb. 13:8
[12] Isa. 55:11
[13] Ellen G. White, Letters and Manuscripts, vol. 9 (n.p.: 1894), Ms 27, par. 33.
[14] Ellen G. White, Letters and Manuscripts, vol. 19 (n.p.: 1904), Lt 103, par. 16.
[15] Ellen G. White, Letters and Manuscripts, vol. 15 (n.p.: 1900), Ms 6, par. 34.
[16] John 12:32 (KJV)
[17] See Mark 2:5-11; Luke 5:20-24, 8:46-48; John 5:14