Healthcare for the homeless

A prayer was answered Tuesday night, Dec. 7. It was the first night of free healthcare for the homeless in Dothan. It's been a long-time prayer of ours that this would happen, so we were excited to see the first six patients walk through the doors of the Alfred Saliba Family Services Center's free health clinic. Thanks to the good folks at Alfred Saliba FSC and two great Christian doctors - Dr. Steve Stokes and Dr. H.L."Chief" Lassiter - we now have a free health clinic for the homeless every Tuesday night beginning at 5 p.m.

The homeless have very little choice for healthcare. Most just live with their infirmities, while others end up in the emergency room.  Now they have a choice. Dr. Lassiter and Dr. Stokes have volunteered to help, and they will rotate each Tuesday night.

I want to give a special "thank you" to Jack Sewell of Jack's Drugs for donating much-needed medication to the homeless health clinic. Jack has a great heart to help others.

Love In Action's part in all of this is to get the homeless to the clinic and help meet some physical needs other than the medical ones. Tonight we served delicious hot potato soup. It was perfect on this cold December night. Thanks to our Celebrate Recovery Inside Director Emily Hinderliter for making the soup.

We also had gloves, toboggan hats, scarves, blankets and hygiene kits to give to the homeless. They were very thankful for everything.

Six people may not sound like a lot, but we thought it was a great start. And, that's six people who wouldn't have received medical care tonight. There were some important healthcare needs met tonight as well.

We know it will grow more and more as the word gets out in the homeless community. And, we pray that more people will become involved. It is also our hope that the community will see what a great program this is, because it could lighten the load on the emergency room, which would save money. So it's definitely a win-win for everyone.

The clinic will also give us a chance to meet even more of Dothan's homeless population, and through meeting their physical needs, it will open the door to share Jesus Christ with them.

God is so awesome! The way He orchestrated all of this is simply amazing.

Please continue to pray for the clinic and this great outreach to the homeless.