Darrow Miller and Friends

How Medical Aid Brought Gospel Transformation to One Community

As part of the DNA teaching on worldview, I share my “life message,” The Transforming Story. We talk about the need to tell the whole of the Biblical narrative and that our lives need to be understood and lived out within the framework of this story.

On a recent trip to Australia I taught this material during a workshop in Toowoomba. After the session, I was approached by one of the participants, Nancy Thomas, who told me that she had an illustration of the importance of sharing the Biblical narrative as it relates to women’s health. Nancy and her husband, Deryck, work in community development in Papua New Guinea.

Here is Nancy’s testimony. I believe you will be encouraged to see in a new way the importance of the Biblical narrative for your life and work.

In February 2008, in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, a Canadian doctor who had worked there for many years introduced us to two Christian Health Workers he had trained. They told us that their work was to run a government-sponsored clinic for women with sexually transmitted infections. When they first began, the local women, ashamed of their symptoms and circumstances, were reluctant to receive advice and treatment. Only five or six came to the clinic each week.

After this had been going on for some time, the medical officers decided to teach the Word of God while treating their patients. They taught that women are made in God’s image, that He loves them, and that it is Satan and our own sin that have made sex seem shameful. As the health workers encouraged sexual purity, they also taught that each woman has a ‘Garden of Eden’ within her body and she can pray over her baby’s future, even before birth.

From that time on, thousands of women began to flock to the clinic to be treated – hundreds every day! For two years, the assistants worked twelve hour days, with no time for breaks, even for lunch. The women congregated to hear the life-giving message of the wholistic Gospel as it applied to their own lives and circumstances before receiving medication. By 2008 the numbers coming to be treated had dwindled to between 150 and 180 each week and the workers testified with joy and thankfulness the enormous impact God’s Word had made on the women, significantly reducing the incidence of sexually transmitted infections in that whole area!

 

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About 
Darrow is co-founder of the Disciple Nations Alliance and a featured author and teacher. For over 30 years, Darrow has been a popular conference speaker on topics that include Christianity and culture, apologetics, worldview, poverty, and the dignity of women. From 1981 to 2007 Darrow served with Food for the Hungry International (now FH association), and from 1994 as Vice President. Before joining FH, Darrow spent three years on staff at L’Abri Fellowship in Switzerland where he was discipled by Francis Schaeffer. He also served as a student pastor at Northern Arizona University and two years as a pastor of Sherman Street Fellowship in urban Denver, CO. In addition to earning his Master’s degree in Adult Education from Arizona State University, Darrow pursued graduate studies in philosophy, theology, Christian apologetics, biblical studies, and missions in the United States, Israel, and Switzerland. Darrow has authored numerous studies, articles, Bible studies and books, including Discipling Nations: The Power of Truth to Transform Culture (YWAM Publishing, 1998), Nurturing the Nations: Reclaiming the Dignity of Women for Building Healthy Cultures (InterVarsity Press, 2008), LifeWork: A Biblical Theology for What You Do Every Day (YWAM, 2009), Rethinking Social Justice: Restoring Biblical Compassion (YWAM, 2015), and more. These resources along with links to free e-books, podcasts, online training programs and more can be found at Disciple Nations Alliance (https://disciplenations.org).

6 Comments

  1. Karen Pelt

    June 7, 2012 - 10:19 am

    Thank you for sharing this story with us. I was encouraged and challenged. I am new to the Biblical Worldview that your ministry teaches. My paradigm is expanding daily. What an example of the gospel of the Kingdom bringing life to individuals and the community.

    • admin

      June 7, 2012 - 4:44 pm

      Thanks for your response, Karen. We’re very happy to hear that the post was helpful to you.

      – Gary Brumbelow

  2. Jill Thrift

    June 7, 2012 - 12:37 pm

    What an awesome testimony of the power of God’s Word coupled with love!

    • admin

      June 7, 2012 - 4:47 pm

      Yes, indeed! Thanks for your comment, Jill.

      – Gary Brumbelow

  3. Jon

    June 8, 2012 - 2:39 am

    “LIKE”

    🙂

    (Because there is no like button I am just adding this as a comment.)

    • admin

      June 8, 2012 - 9:33 am

      Thanks, Jon.

      We now have a Thumbs Up/Down feature … added as a result of your response!

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