Serve Tour Armenia volunteers use health care to show, tell Jesus’ love

· July 17, 2024

A mother, with help from a neighbor, carries her 20-year-old son to a free medical clinic. American and Greek volunteers worked alongside Armenian churches to offer the services. IMB Photo

The trio struggled up the stairs of city hall in an Armenian village. The mother heard a medical team from the United States was seeing patients for free. She would do anything to have these doctors look at her 20-year-old son with cerebral palsy – like carrying him, along with a neighbor, almost a mile from her home.

Austin Calhoun, a medic and first-year medical student from Fayetteville, N.C., rushed to help. He settled the son and mother in a makeshift exam room and took the young man’s vitals. As they waited for the doctor, Calhoun shared a story from the Bible about another sick man whose friends carried him to meet Jesus.

Eli Oh, an ICU nurse from California, laughs with a patient as he gathers her health history before seeing a doctor. Send Relief’s Serve Tour in Armenia worked with local believers to help provide Gospel access in their communities to people who would not otherwise come to church. IMB photo

The medical student was one of more than 50 volunteers from the United States and Greece who, along with International Mission Board (IMB) personnel worked with local churches in Armenia to provide access to the Gospel using health care strategies. Send Relief, the joint compassion ministry of North American Mission Board and the IMB, partnered with IMB’s global health care department to draw from a network of professionals.

Bryant Wright, Send Relief president, explained this Serve Tour trip through Send Relief was a little different from trips in the past. While there was a small construction team that helped a church, most of the volunteers were divided into eight medical teams and dispersed around the country. The teams ranged from dental to physical therapy to general medicine.

“I think the beauty of a trip like this is that you see tangible results in people’s lives while getting to share the Good News,” Wright said, adding that some medical teams saw up to 60 patients in one day. “Meeting people’s needs while sharing and showing Jesus’ love can have an eternal impact – not just for the patients but our local partners and volunteers.”

This was true for Calhoun. He originally came on the Serve Tour trip to see how healthcare strategies are used on the mission field. He didn’t just sit back and watch, though. Veteran medical volunteers mentored the student and taught him how to segue from high blood pressure to the Gospel.

He learned how to balance compassion ministries with evangelism, something Dr. Rick Dunbar, IMB global health strategies ambassador, said is integral to this type of ministry. Dunbar explained that by addressing the soul, body and mind, health care professionals can provide access to an unreached community by fostering intimate conversations, meeting needs and making disciples.

“On this Serve Tour, we’ve had the opportunity to do many things that really bolster the local church and increase their credibility within the community,” Dunbar said.

Armenian pastors used the medical teams to reach neighborhoods surrounding their churches and in new work areas. Church pews were moved around a sanctuary to create exam areas. Some churches hung blue tarps from the ceiling for more privacy. Children’s Sunday School rooms became a place for counseling or gynecology. Some church members served as translators during the exams while others milled around talking to anyone waiting in the reception area.

One church just moved into the basement of an apartment complex. The pastor said the medical clinic helped them not only meet 100 of their new neighbors but showed they cared about all aspects of the community. Another pastor said the medical volunteers provided a natural way for his church to share the Gospel, invite their neighbors to church and make appointments for follow-up.

One local church planter had a vision to start a church and spent one year praying for an open door in that community. Serve Tour provided that opportunity when the mayor agreed to host the volunteers at the city’s community building.

“After only one hour of medical clinics, the mayor gave the green light for us to come back anytime,” the church planter said, pausing to wipe tears. “Forgive me. I’m a little emotional because people are seeing the Gospel in action and responding.”

Working alongside national believers and local churches was the high point of the trip for Pam Allsbrook, a nurse from South Carolina. She helped teach CPR certification courses to Armenian educators, therapists and health care workers. She also took vitals and medical history at one of the mobile clinics. As a veteran of medical missions, she said having time to spend with patients and talk about Jesus was priceless.

“This was a true partnership with the local church. Each of us used our complementary skills to show and tell about Jesus’ love,” Allsbrook said. “My church partners and I have laughed, cried and prayed with the people coming in. We’ve shared the Gospel and conveyed God’s love through touch, smiles and our tears.”

Dr. John Holston from Arkansas nodded his agreement. Without a doubt, the Gospel was shared during his exams and that simple act impacted him as much as those he saw. As he shared about sin and God’s forgiveness, one patient kept smiling and taking it all in – the Gospel message and the different elements of the examination.

The patient looked at Holston and said, “I’ve been waiting 15 years for something like this. I’ve never seen someone come out and share the love of Christ in this way.”