Health ministry in Upper Columbia Conference (UCC) continues to be influenced by former health director and obstetrician Jay Sloop. His untimely death in Kiev, Ukraine, in May 2013 was a sad time for many in UCC. It was his plan that with every health seminar or ministry the question should be asked, “How does this connect the physical and the spiritual together?”
Already committed to the physical and the spiritual is the AMEN (Adventist Medical Evangelism Network) organization. AMEN Northwest is a new chapter in UCC formed in May 2017 by health ministry leaders who came together at a health conference held May 11–13, 2017, and entitled "Comprehensive Health Care: Developing Your Toolkit." At that conference they voted a board, a president and a name for a local chapter of AMEN.
The focus of AMEN is to continue medical education and give people the tools they need for medical ministry. The AMEN has valuable resources to assist with medical ministry in UCC. Their core call to action is to “join a movement of likeminded medical professionals who are committed to restoring the body and reclaiming the heart.”
AMEN Northwest is active in hosting a conference on Optimizing Brain Health by Neil Nedley May 10–12, 2018, at the conference headquarters in Spokane, Wash. Michael Robinson, president of AMEN Northwest, says, “What I’m really hoping is that this conference can help us lay plans for how we are going to make this work. What will 2018 and 2019 look like because we now have AMEN Northwest?”
“It is wonderful to see that those dreams of Jay Sloop are being fulfilled through collaboration between health work and the gospel,” says Cindy Williams, board member of AMEN Northwest and a coordinator for health ministries in UCC. Attendees to these conferences will not only reap the benefits of the information; they can also join AMEN and become a part of this ministry. They will help shape the future of medical ministries in UCC.
At the conference last May, the group voted a board and a name for the chapter and voted to request permission to do this from the national organization of AMEN National. Now that AMEN Northwest if official, the board will work on bylaws at the next conference in May 2018.
While AMEN Northwest was birthed in Upper Columbia Conference, the plans are to expand throughout the Pacific Northwest.
