A Call to Medical Evangelism
and Health Education

Ministering to Body and Soul

Christ’s servants are to follow His example. As He went from place to place, He comforted the suffering and healed the sick. Then He placed before them the great truths in regard to His kingdom. This is the work of His followers. As you relieve the sufferings of the body, you will find ways for ministering to the wants of the soul. You can point to the uplifted Saviour and tell of the love of the great Physician, who alone has power to restore.—Christ’s Object Lessons, 233, 234.

A Door of Entrance to the Cities

Henceforth medical missionary work is to be carried forward with an earnestness with which it has never yet been carried. This work is the door through which the truth is to find entrance to the large cities.—Testimonies for the Church 9:167.

Organize for Harmonious Action

To those who have been engaged in this work I would say, Continue to work with tact and ability. Arouse your associates to work under some name whereby they may be organized to co-operate in harmonious action. Get the young men and women in the churches to work.

Combine medical missionary work with the proclamation of the third angel’s message. Make regular, organized efforts to lift the church members out of the dead level in which they have been for years. Send out into the churches workers who will live the principles of health reform. Let those be sent who can see the necessity of self-denial in appetite, or they will be a snare to the church. See if the breath of life will not then come into your churches. A new element needs to be brought into the work. God’s people must realize their great need and peril and take up the work that lies nearest to them.—Testimonies for the Church 6:267.

The Church a Training School

The church of Christ is organized for service. Its watchword is ministry. Its members are soldiers, to be trained for conflict under the Captain of their salvation. Christian ministers, physicians, teachers, have a broader work than many have recognized. They are not only to minister to the people, but to teach them to minister. They should not only give instruction in right principles, but educate their hearers to impart these principles. Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessing can be retained only as it is shared.

The monotony of our service for God needs to be broken up. Every church member should be engaged in some line of service for the Master. Some cannot do so much as others, but everyone should do his utmost to roll back the tide of disease and distress that is sweeping over our world. Many would be willing to work if they were taught how to begin. They need to be instructed and encouraged.

Every church should be a training school for Christian workers. Its members should be taught how to give Bible readings, how to conduct and teach Sabbath school classes, how best to help the poor and to care for the sick, how to work for the unconverted. There should be schools of health, cooking schools, and classes in various lines of Christian help work. There should not only be teaching, but actual work under experienced instructors. Let the teachers lead the way in working among the people and others, uniting with them, will learn from their example. One example is worth more than many precepts.—The Ministry of Healing, 148, 149.

The Need for Consecrated Nurses

Earnest, devoted young people are needed to enter the work of God as nurses. As these young men and women use conscientiously the knowledge they gain, they will increase in capability and become better and better qualified to be the Lord’s helping hand. They may become successful missionaries, pointing souls to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world, and who can save both soul and body.

The Lord wants wise men and women, acting in the capacity of nurses, to comfort and help the sick and suffering. Oh, that all who are afflicted could be ministered to by Christlike physicians and nurses who could help them to place their weary, pain-racked bodies in the care of the great Healer, in faith looking to Him for restoration.

Every sincere Christian bows to Jesus as the true Physician of souls. When He stands by the bedside of the afflicted, there will be many not only converted, but healed. If through judicious ministration the patient is led to give his soul to Christ and to bring his thoughts into obedience to the will of God, a great victory is gained.—The Review and Herald, May 9, 1912.

Serve With Sanctified Understanding

To those who go out to do medical missionary work, I would say, Serve the Lord Jesus Christ with sanctified understanding, in connection with the ministers of the gospel and the Great Teacher. He who has given you your commission will give you skill and understanding as you consecrate yourselves to His service, engaging diligently in labor and study, doing your best to bring relief to the sick and suffering.—Counsels on Health, 539.

Nothing but earnest, wholehearted labor will avail in the saving of souls. We are to make our everyday duties acts of devotion, constantly increasing in usefulness because we see our work in the light of eternity.—Letter 43, 1902.

Medical Missions in Every City

Intemperance has filled our world, and medical missions should be established in every city. By this I do not mean that expensive institutions should be established, calling for a large outlay of means. These missions are to be conducted in such a way that they will not be a heavy drain on the cause; and their work is to prepare the way for the establishment of present truth. Medical missionary work should have its representatives in every place in connection with the establishment of our churches. The relief of bodily suffering opens the way for the healing of the sin-sick soul.—Medical Ministry, 322.

In every city where we have a church, there is need of a place where treatments can be given.... A place should be provided where treatments may be given for common ailments. The building might be inelegant and even rude, but it should be furnished with facilities for giving simple treatments.—Testimonies for the Church 6:113.

The City Mission and Training School

A well-balanced work can be carried on best when a training school for Bible workers is in progress. While the public meetings are being held, connected with this training school or city mission should be experienced laborers of deep spiritual understanding, who can give the Bible workers daily instruction, and who can also unite wholeheartedly in the general public effort being put forth. And as men and women are converted to the truth, those standing at the head of the city mission should, with much prayer, show these new converts how to experience the power of the truth in their lives. This united effort on the part of all the workers would be as a nail driven in a sure place.—Testimonies for the Church 9:111, 112.

Training Under Competent Leaders

More attention should be given to training and educating missionaries with a special reference to work in the cities. Each company of workers should be under the direction of a competent leader, and it should ever be kept before them that they are to be missionaries in the highest sense of the term. Such systematic labor, wisely conducted, would produce blessed results.—Medical Ministry, 301.

From the instruction that the Lord has given me from time to time, I know that there should be workers who make medical evangelistic tours among the towns and villages. Those who do this work will gather a rich harvest of souls from both the higher and lower classes. The way for this work is best prepared by the efforts of the faithful canvasser.

Many will be called into the field to labor from house to house, giving Bible readings, and praying with those who are interested.—Testimonies for the Church 9:172.

Laboring as God’s Helping Hand

Our work has been marked out for us by our heavenly Father. We are to take our Bibles and go forth to warn the world. We are to be God’s helping hand in saving souls. We are to be channels through which His love is day by day to flow to the perishing. The realization of the great work in which he has the privilege of taking part ennobles and sanctifies the true worker. He is filled with the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Nothing is drudgery to the one who submits to the will of God. “Doing it unto the Lord” is the thought that throws a charm over the work that God gives him to do.—Letter 43, 1902.

Self-supporting Workers

The Macedonian cry is coming from every quarter. Shall men go to the “regular lines” to see whether they will be permitted to labor, or shall they go out and work as best they can, depending on their own abilities and on the help of the Lord, beginning in a humble way and creating an interest in the truth in places in which nothing has been done to give the warning message?

The Lord has encouraged those who have started out on their own responsibility to work for Him, their hearts filled with love for souls ready to perish. A true missionary spirit will be imparted to those who seek earnestly to know God and Jesus Christ, whom He hath sent. The Lord lives and reigns. Young men, go forth into the places to which you are directed by the Spirit of the Lord. Work with your hands, that you may be self-supporting, and as you have opportunity proclaim the message of warning.—Medical Ministry, 321-322.

Where are the men who will work and study and agonize in prayer as did Christ? We are not to confine our efforts to a few places. “When they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another.” Let Christ’s plan be followed. He was ever watching for opportunities to engage in personal labor, ever ready to interest and draw men to a study of the Scriptures. He labored patiently for men who had not an intelligent knowledge of what is truth. While we are not awake to the situation, and while much time is consumed in planning how to reach perishing souls, Satan is busy devising and blocking the way.—Medical Ministry, 303.

Hygienic Restaurants as Missionary Centers

The opening of hygienic restaurants is a work that God would have done in the cities. If wisely conducted, these restaurants will be missionary centers. Those working in them should have at hand publications on health and temperance topics and on other phases of gospel truth, to give to those coming for meals.—Manuscript 114, 1902.

To Supply Spiritual Food

The workers in our restaurants are to prepare for the future immortal life. Let them acquire the power and tact to prepare spiritual food for the souls of men and women in these large cities. Watch for souls as they that must give an account. The cities are to be warned, and these young men and young women should remember that time is precious. The world is increasing in wickedness as in the days of Noah.—Letter 279, 1905.

Results of Consecrated Effort

All missionary successes have been gained by consecrated effort. By God’s ordained means we can work successfully, meeting and surmounting obstacles, standing steadfastly under Christ’s banner, refusing to fail or become discouraged.—Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 2, p. 19.

The experience of apostolic days will come to us if men will be worked by the Holy Spirit. The Lord will withdraw His blessing where selfish interests are indulged; but He will put His people in possession of good throughout the world, it they will unselfishly use their ability for the uplifting of humanity. His work is to be a sign of His benevolence, a sign that will win the confidence of the world and bring in resources for the advancement of the gospel.—Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 1, p. 20.

As a people who are doing a special work for this time, we are now to manifest a faith that will have a convincing power.—Letter 82, 1907.