WE HAVE been discussing ways of making the most of our hospital visits. Now we come to another very helpful means of making it truly evangelical.
Literature Evangelism
By this we mean the leaflets, pamphlets, or magazines casually left at the bedside of the various patients you visit.
During my short hospital stay, three different ministers visited room 204: Church of Christ, Methodist, and Lutheran. All three had something attractive to leave with the ones they saw, to remind them of the visit and to turn their thoughts toward religious topics. In each case the pamphlet or leaflet was carefully chosen to be of interest to hospital patients.
One left a unique Bedside Prayer Card (printed by Whittemore Assoc., Inc., Boston), containing sample prayers for Fear, Pain, Before an Operation, Health, Hope, Thanksgiving, et cetera.
Another, in response to a question regarding one of the church's beliefs, left a small pamphlet explaining its various teachings to interested readers. Some of our pamphlets which would be handy to have along for a similar question would be:
"What Do Seventh-day Adventists Believe?" Know Your Bible Series, No. 29 (3 cents each).
Your Friends the Adventists, by A. S. Maxwell (30 cents).
I Became a Seventh-day Adventist, by H. M. Tippett (50 cents).
These, of course, would be purchased by the church, through the home missions funds, to aid you in your evangelistic work.
However, I feel that we should develop a new leaflet along the lines of "What Do Seventh-day Adventists Believe?" but with more up-to-date illustrations, the listing of Biblical support, and an attractive full-color cover. Even if the price went up to five cents each, they would be wonderful for hospital distribution.
Church Members Help
This form of evangelism need not be restricted to the minister, either. Friendly church members can very effectively be put to work Sabbath afternoons visiting nonmember hospital patients. Armed with a few back issues of These Times, Signs, Message, Listen, Life and Health, and even Liberty or Youth's Instructor, these members can create a lot of good will and shed light in every room they visit. Our members should be reminded to save all these magazines and turn them into the church for this type of missionary work.
A final note on this method of evangelism: don't be afraid to identify the literature given out. This can be done by means of a rubber stamp made to specifications, or by acquiring some "Return Address" labels for use on envelopes (as low as one thousand for fifty cents). They can be stuck on almost anything by simply moistening the back. Order them to read:
When you personally leave a pamphlet, be sure to hand one of your ministerial cards with it so they can reach you if they should desire further information.
Missionary Books
If our various missionary books can be placed in motels and hotels, why not in hospitals too? I know of little being done along this line at present, but it seems that the average hospital patient is 200 per cent more likely to read an attractive missionary book than would a motel guest. Why? Again because he has nothing to do all day long except lie there in that uncomfortable bed and vegetate before the TV (if he has one). He longs for new reading material.
In fact, today, as I walked down the hall of a certain hospital (about midafternoon), I noticed the following in the rooms nearby: four patients sleeping, three watching TV, and seven reading. If this tiny sample is at all accurate, then twice as many read at any given time as watch TV.
Why not provide each room with its "own" copy of our Missionary Book of the Year, say Life at Its Best (a superb hospital book by Ellen G. White—the 1965 Missionary Book of the Year), or Your Bible and You (very attractive book with sound doctrine and excellent reader interest). Both are still available at the very low one dollar missionary price.
Don't forget that, as compared with books placed in motels, these volumes will almost unanimously be read by people living within your own district, therefore in creasing the local missionary effect 200 to 500 per cent and more. That is to say, if these readers should someday be led into the Seventh-day Adventist Church, most likely they will join a church in your district, rather than one two thousand miles away, as is often the case with motel placements.
This naturally will not affect God's over all plan, but will make a considerable difference as to the support and funds you receive from the members in your church (es). People do not naturally spend money for fertilizer and water in order for their neighbors to have a larger garden. They want to see the results of the harvest right there at home. They want their church to grow.
Radio and TV Promotion
Yes, this may sound strange at first, but this is a most important aspect of hospital visitation. If you receive Faith for Today or Voice of Prophecy on a local station, why not make it part of your schedule to visit a floor or so of patients a few hours before or the night before (if it is an A.M. program) and just mention that they might like to tune in to the program. Then leave a radio or TV log with the local station circled in red, mentioning (if you know) what the subject will be and the time it comes on.
One could even give them an enrollment card and tell them to watch for the free Bible course offered on the program. Then, if they're interested, they can fill out the card and have one of the nurses mail it for them. You might even take along a sample lesson to show them how easy the free course really is.
An Effective Ministry
Again, this is work that any member can do, but this last section becomes even more effective when you can do it personally. The patients meet an Adventist minister who is concerned about their health. They receive a piece of informative literature about those Seventh-day Adventists they've heard so much about (or other literature). They receive an invitation to an Adventist program and an offer to learn more about their own Bible through a free correspondence course.
Wouldn't this stir you to be somewhat curious about those Adventist people? Certainly it would. Only Heaven knows the souls that could be won through these various methods of hospital evangelism. And who knows, it might even show up in next year's Ingathering work. People would certainly be more willing to give to an organization that they have had personal contact with, and to one that is concerned for them as individuals. Instead of dimes, they'll give dollars—wouldn't you?
Let's put our members to work in the "new" hospital mission field, and join with them as often as our own schedule permits.
