Last fall health evangelism began in earnest in Milton-Freewater, Oregon. Each Sunday evening, physicians, dentists, and related medical personnel of the area joined Elders Lloyd Stephens and C. C. Rouse in a series of evangelistic meetings with a distinctive health slant.
In March, the series turned into a giant nutrition class, climaxing the "School of Better Living" with actual practical demonstrations. Mrs. Stephens directed this phase of the activity, with her background as a trained lay nutrition instructor. Again, the physicians and dentists assisted with regular lectures and audio-visual aids. An average nightly attendance of 150, including many non-Adventists, in this comparatively small town (formerly thought to be thoroughly "overworked" because of its close proximity to a large Adventist center) indicated that people are vitally interested in their own health. Medical-ministerial cooperation pays.
Says Mrs. Stephens of the class, "The doctors worked with us through the whole series of meetings, and that, I am sure, is the reason for much of the success." We feel, too, that the ministry there has profited by the instruction:
"As a people we have been given the work of making known the principles of health reform. There are some who think that the question of diet is not of sufficient importance to be included in their evangelistic work. But such make a great mistake. . . . The subject of temperance, in all its bearings, has an important place in the work of salvation."—Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 112.
Pictured here are the group of medical and ministerial personnel who cooperated in the effort. This includes one hospital administrator; and a food service director, too. There are no limits to what can be accomplished when medicine and ministry are united in health evangelism.
