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Adventist Volunteers Offer Free “Mega-Clinic” to Los Angeles Residents

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LOS ANGELES – Starting one week from today, thousands of Angelenos will receive free health care at the LA Convention Center from a huge pool of Seventh-day Adventist medical professionals. At the Pathway to Health Los Angeles event, sponsored by Adventist-Laymen’s Services & Industries (ASI), full medical, surgical, vision and dental services will be offered to the public free of charge.

Your best Pathway to Health (YbPTH) is a Seventh-day Adventist organization that describes itself as using Christ’s methods to meet the physical, mental and spiritual needs of the underserved by providing free, mobile, multi-speciality clinics. The organization pulls together a wide array of entities; the official volunteer packet lists over 80 partnering organizations—from across the ideological spectrum—inside of the Adventist Church and outside. From Wal Mart to Weimar Institute, and from the University of Southern California to the Southeastern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, organizations public and private are pooling resources to make the mega-clinic possible.

Among the medical professionals volunteering their time and expertise will be doctors, nurses and dentists from neighboring Southern California communities, including Loma Linda University Health and White Memorial Hospital.

A similar event took place prior to the 2015 General Conference Session in San Antonio, Texas, providing services to over 6,000 Texans, some from as far away as Houston and Dallas. The services provided were estimated to be worth over $20 million.

Volunteers with YbPTH served residents of Oakland and San Francisco, California in 2014, San Antonio and Spokane in 2015. An event is planned for Beckley, West Virginia from July 13-15.

Pathway to Health defines its mission as reaching the great cities of this planet with the love of God. Dr. Lela Lewis, a Maryland-based OBGYN and president of Your best Pathway to Health, said, “Over the last year, by focusing on the love of Christ and demonstrating his love to others by caring and praying for the needy citizens of Los Angeles, Christ has reignited in my life a deep, unprecedented love and dependence upon him.”

The week-long event starts next Monday with a training session at the White Memorial Church. Volunteers register on Tuesday, and on Wednesday at 7:00am, patient doors open at the Convention Center on Figueroa Street in Downtown Los Angeles. Every day from Wednesday through Saturday will feature a plenary session with music and preaching. Speakers include North American Division President Daniel R. Jackson on Saturday and evangelist and former General Conference Vice-president Mark Finley on Wednesday evening.

The Convention Center will be transformed into a temporary clinic with services from hair styling to mammograms to colo-rectal surgical procedures available.

For more on this event, see the volunteer packet here.

Jared Wright is Managing Editor of SpectrumMagazine.org.

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