Health care needs in Texas demand innovative response, ministry leaders say_100404

image_pdfimage_print

Posted: 10/01/04

Health care needs in Texas demand
innovative response, ministry leaders say

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

SAN ANTONIO–Medical needs in Texas are vast, as 8 million uninsured residents struggle to receive adequate and timely healthcare, health ministry leaders maintain.

Jim Walton, senior vice president for the office of community health in the Baylor Health Care System, noted uninsured children are 1.6 times more likely to die during birth and 1.5 times more likely to die within their first year of life.

Uninsured individuals also are twice as likely to die because of an accident, Walton said during a conference for medical ministers sponsored by the Baptist General Convention of Texas Missions Equipping Center.

The Baptist Child and Family Services mobile clinic delivers health care to poor people.

These statistics largely are due to the fact uninsured and impoverished people often do not receive medical attention regularly or quickly, Walton said.

In response to these needs, Texas Baptists must respond to God's creative and diverse calling in their lives, said Kevin Dinnin, president and chief executive officer of Baptist Child & Family Services.

Christians need to find ways to provide medical care for people who cannot afford it, he said. That may be a medical clinic supported by a church. It may mean medical mission trips or supporting a medical missionary.

Baptist Child & Family Services has a mobile clinic that visits pockets of people in need of healthcare. Leaders found poor people in colonias did not have transportation to come to church clinics, so Baptist Child & Family Services took the clinic to them.

“The prescription this morning is diverse, and you are the author of how it is worked out in your congregation,” Dinnin said.

No matter the approach Texas Baptists take, Dinnin encourages them to utilize all their passion in doing it.

“Do all you can with all you have,” he said. “And never give up. Never give up.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.


We seek to connect God’s story and God’s people around the world. To learn more about God’s story, click here.

Send comments and feedback to Eric Black, our editor. For comments to be published, please specify “letter to the editor.” Maximum length for publication is 300 words.

More from Baptist Standard