It was Monday afternoon, and my excitement grew as I prepared to interview one of the Bible workers from the Total Wellness program. All summer, I had heard small snippets of the work that they had been doing, but now I would finally have an opportunity to hear stories and details of their experience.
As soon as I sat down to interview Sarah, I knew things had gone well during the summer program because her face was glowing with a warm smile. As we started dialoguing, it became apparent that Total Wellness is a company evangelism program dedicated to reviving the work done in the past by such men as John Tindall. This summer, Total Wellness launched its pioneer program in Decatur, Arkansas. Eight young workers combined forces with the local Seventh-day Adventist Church and an Adventist-owned lifestyle center and plant-based restaurant. I was impressed with the fact that this was all the Lord’s doing.
I asked Sarah to describe company evangelism. She explained that there are different components that make up this work. For example, the Total Wellness summer program combined life coaching, natural remedies classes, a Live Long, Live Strong health program, cooking classes, church concerts, and in-home concerts with Bible studies and an evangelistic series. Each element played its role in following Christ’s method of mingling and sympathizing with people, ministering to their needs, winning their confidence, and bidding them to follow Jesus.[1]
I then asked Sarah how they transitioned individuals from the mingling, sympathizing, and ministering, to spiritual matters. Her response was fascinating. She said that in their summer experience, as they took time to sincerely minister to the needs of individuals, their new “friends” asked about spiritual things themselves. As they helped people physically and mentally, God worked in their hearts. Then, it was a natural response for people to become interested in spiritual matters after their needs had been heard and ministered to!
Sarah illustrated her point with a testimony. During the first few days of Total Wellness, the Bible workers went door-to-door, inviting people to health seminars and other similar events. They expected people to respond favorably, but this was not the case. As Sarah and her door-to-door partner earnestly prayed for God to reveal to them His way of ministering to people, they remembered that “Christ’s method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Saviour mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, ‘Follow Me.’”[2] She concluded that they must first mingle and sympathize with the people they met, then minister to them and win their confidence. After doing this, the doors to people’s hearts would be wide open to receive the gospel. This realization led Sarah to change her approach. From inviting people to events, she began to introduce herself and her colleague as new neighbors who had moved in for the summer and were getting to know the area and their new community. The people’s response was much more favorable. Whereas previously only 1 in 20 individuals had at least spoken with the Total Wellness workers, now the numbers climbed to 15 out of 20 individuals.
Sarah shared that one woman was suspicious that they were trying to sell her something when she first met them. But after they assured her that they were new in town and getting to know the neighborhood, she opened up and started talking about her family and her deep concern for one of her family members. This gave the team an opportunity to pray with this woman. A few days later, Sarah returned with a loaf of bread and told the woman that she had been praying for her family member. The woman was very grateful. Again Sarah prayed with the woman, and this time the woman expressed that she had severe back pain that did not allow her to sleep well. Sarah offered to do hydrotherapy, and the woman immediately accepted. The hydrotherapy treatment brought down the woman’s pain from an 8 to a 2 on the 1-10 pain scale. After the treatment, the woman allowed Sarah to read her a passage from Scripture and give her a book, Steps to Christ.
Sarah also shared a similar testimony with a wonderful ending. Other team members worked with a woman who desired to quit smoking.[3] Not long after they started working with her, she asked the medical missionaries to give her Bible studies. Sarah told me excitedly, “We didn’t say anything, but she said, ‘I want Bible studies.’”This woman has now been baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church!
As Sarah shared with me about her experience with Total Wellness this summer, I could tell that this was nothing less than the work of the Holy Spirit. What a privilege it is for us to be co-laborers with God and the angels of light in bringing souls into a knowledge of the truth. God has given us so much precious counsel through the Spirit of Prophecy that should we but heed it, we would experience the power of the Holy Spirit and see souls saved into God’s eternal kingdom.
The last question I asked Sarah during the interview was, “After your summer working with Total Wellness, what did you learn about what true medical missionary work is like?” In her response, Sarah shared that true medical missionary work is following Christ’s method of mingling and sympathizing with people and ministering to their needs. She explained that “sometimes we limit medical missionary work to only hospital work or visits or something like that, but it’s so much more than that.” She also stated that true medical missionary work fulfills the needs of those we are reaching even if it is not completely related to “medical work.” Towards the beginning of our conversation, Sarah had described what she meant by this. During her summer experience, she had seen the power of music, and other non-medical ministries, as effective entering wedges for the gospel and had come to understand the importance of blending the different talents God has given His people into one cohesive unit focused on winning souls for Christ.
As I finished interviewing Sarah, I was overwhelmed by God’s faithfulness to keep His promises when we fulfill their conditions. God took the willingness of eight young people and empowered them through His Spirit “to will and to do for His good pleasure.”[4] What could He not do if more young people took Him at His word and, filled with His Spirit, went out in “little companies who have received a suitable training in evangelical and medical missionary lines . . . to do the work to which Christ appointed His disciples.” Time is short and the world’s fields are ripe with souls. Who will go? Will you?
[1] Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1905), 143.
[2] Ibid.
[3] This testimony was covered in Issue 8. Luaryn Murray, “If I Ever Saw A Miracle . . .,” Prisoners of Hope, August 2024:12-17.
[4] Phil. 2:13