Arise & Walk Ministries Foundation was born as a result of extraordinary experience, of witnessing a drastic need and perceiving it not as an insurmountable problem, but as an opportunity to serve. The vision to fulfill that opportunity and the mission to serve are the subjects of this profile.

The Need

It is for health care – the delivery of skilled personnel, quality resources, equipment and medication to achieve compassionate, professional treatment to alleviate pain, sickness and life-threatening disease. The most crucial areas of need are the underdeveloped nations, on the African continent in particular, where in many areas, access to even the most rudimentary treatment is severely limited. The extent of the inadequacy is almost incomprehensible to most of us as Americans, even to our poor and disadvantaged who are financially unable to obtain regular treatment within our health care system. And for Americans of average income, it would be unimaginable to face situations where there are no vaccines to ward off infant mortality, no emergency care for a serious wound, no antibiotics to fight pneumonia, no way to properly set a broken bone.

The Witness

Yet millions of people are living without the hope of treatments we consider minimal. On his first missions trip, taken under the auspices of a local church, an American medical doctor found himself, armed only with his classic “little black bag” and its few medications, called into service for a week in Nakuru, Kenya. A practicing Christian who traveled those thousands of miles to share the Gospel of Christ, this doctor found himself providing medical care for a few hundred people in drastic need. For example, the man who walked half-a-day with a severely injured leg to reach the town, to inquire if there really was a doctor. “I must know. My cousin was seen in a hospital a few months ago, she has pneumonia but we have no money for medicine, and she is at home, dying. If there is a doctor here, I will walk back to get her and carry her here. If you are a doctor, will you be here when I come back?” Not caring for his own terrible injury, yet trying to save a life. That is the need. The doctor saw many such extreme cases. As he recognized this vast need, he also perceived a spirit of thankfulness, true gratefulness among these people for anything that was done for them. At home in the United States, that same doctor, contributing time at an inner city public health clinic, hears screaming, “Hey doc, c’mon man, I been here twenty minutes, when you gonna see me? Whazup with that, c’mon man, I ain’t got all day.” In many ways our country, blessed beyond measure, can neither see and properly value its own privileges, nor see and properly respond to the terrible plight of others.

The Vision

On missions trips over the next four years, the doctor purposed to develop a greater ability to meet the need; he inventoried the maladies and catalogued what was dispensed and required; he recruited more doctors to travel and contribute services, he found sources to donate medications and equipment. Clearly, the situation required systematic solutions that would be impossible to achieve through the work of any single church. He perceived that the local church in Nakuru – with its membership of 10,000, was growing into its intended role of being able to minister to some of its people’s needs, despite their desperate poverty. He perceived that the local church in America, increasingly committed and active in its intended role of missionary activities overseas, could be the vehicle to shepherd the development of the regular supply of medical personnel, resources and equipment. The vision came: to equip and empower the local church with the personnel, expertise and resources necessary to provide healthcare excellence as an integral part of their missionary outreach to the nations of the world.

The Mission

The work-in-progress, officially launched in the Spring 2001 as Arise and Walk Ministries Foundation, has been established as a non-profit 501(c)3 corporation and has functioned to date as a result of continuing fundraising efforts, which have enabled the organization to supply increased personnel, medications and medical supplies.

But the need continues to multiply. While the response has been tremendous, it must grow at an exponential rate in order to address the dire need. The ministry of medical treatment in tandem with the caring outreach of the Gospel has proven to be completely compatible and well received by host churches, multitudes of patients, local governing bodies and media as well. It is a tangible demonstration of God’s power and His love for all people. The goal, which is reachable within the next five years, is to develop consistent sources of funding to support a range of Foundation activities, including the development of a comprehensive databank of accessible resources – physicians, medical personnel and supplies – to be made available to qualifying churches in the U.S., to enable the expansion of their overseas missionary activities to include the regular delivery of quality medical services. A further dimension of the goal is the establishment of a functional healthcare network to meet varied needs.

These include the continuing delivery of personnel, equipment and supplies and the launching of periodic clinics and training programs in overseas locations where the local church/community can participate in providing the necessary support. The long-term strategy, realized in coordination with the local church and appropriate partners, will result in the building of a network of mobile and permanent health care facilities to heal the bodies and souls of the sick and disadvantaged.