Nancy’s Story

For Nancy, nature has always been a comforting, calming and healing place. “There is a special kind of love that emanates from nature that touches a place in our hearts that nothing else can reach,” she says. “Landscaping is my way of being of service to others by bringing this special love to the staff and patients at the Church Health Center.”

Nancy believes that nature is a subtle teacher, and that one has to be in her midst to hear her silent words. “It’s my goal to create an environment of natural beauty; peace and tranquility that would make people feel good, lift their spirits and hopefully promote some degree of emotional and physical healing,” she says. From the many words of thanks and appreciation she has received, it seems to be making a difference.

Beautifying the grounds of the Church Health Center for those who visit is Nancy’s way of showing she cares about them and respects them. “In doing so, I honor them as fellow travelers on life’s journey,” she says. “To be even a tiny speck of light along their path gives deeper meaning and purpose to my life. Volunteering at the Church Health Center nourishes my soul.”

Willie’s Story

Willie Baker was drawn to the stories of Jesus healing the sick, and she had always wanted to help.

But how?

Her pastor told her about our Congregational Health Promoter program, which trains people to be health leaders in their congregations, and she knew she’d found the way.
She heard God’s call to heal, and she answered it.

“There are lots of illnesses in our church,” she said. “I wanted to do something to help.”
Thanks to Willie, Mt. Zion Baptist Church holds monthly blood-pressure screenings and quarterly blood-sugar screenings to identify at-risk members. She has partnered with several nurses to speak about health topics including arthritis, diet and exercise, and topics relevant to seniors. She started a first-response team for emergencies and set up a first-aid room. She often refers members to primary care physicians, and when they’re uninsured, she sends them to the Church Health Center.

With all of the valuable information and programming Willie has brought to her church, her pastor likes to joke that she works for the Church Health Center. “Thanks to Willie,” he said, “I have diabetes, but it doesn’t have me.”

Depending on the season, the pews at Mt. Zion are often filled with members decked out in all pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month or sporting red for American Heart Month.
“Helping people who are hurting or sick is a passion for me,” Willie said. “You have to love your neighbor as yourself, and being a CHP allows me to do that in so many ways.”

And Willie practices what she preaches about healthy living. She works out regularly at Church Health Center Wellness, and says she loves sharing what she’s learned with her entire family.

“What I’ve learned at the Center transfers to our home life,” she said. “We can’t be good disciples if we are not well.”

Since 1988, the Church Health Center has trained more than 1,000 Congregational Health Promoters. Willie Baker has been a CHP from the very beginning, and she says she loves empowering her congregation to be healthier in body and in spirit.

Rosie’s Story

To say that Rosie Murrell is a Church Health Center Wellness success story is an understatement. She’s gone from a maximum of 437 pounds to 267, and still losing steadily. “A lot of people who see me now can’t believe it’s really me,” she says with a confident smile.

Before joining Church Health Center Wellness, Rosie’s diabetes required up to 140 units of insulin a day. Today, she only takes an oral medication, and her body is processing sugar as well as someone without diabetes.

Rosie lost 67 pounds before joining Church Health Center Wellness in October 2005. Unfortunately, she did it by skipping meals. She starved herself and then binged uncontrollably. She was depressed, suicidal, and knew there had to be a better way. “All I needed was for one person to tell me I was worth saving,” she says. “When I came to Church Health Center Wellness, I found a whole building-full. Each week I’ve got someone saying, ‘You can do it! You can do it! You can do it!’”

Rosie’s friends at Church Health Center Wellness aren’t the only ones cheering her on. Almost everyone in Rosie’s family has joined the Center.

“We were overweight, too, and we didn’t want to be sick like Mom,” says Rosie’s 16-year-old son, Jeremy, who has lost 50 pounds by walking on the treadmill, playing basketball and racquetball, training with weights and eating a healthier diet. “We saw her change, and we wanted to change, too.”

Rosie’s weight loss significantly reduced the pain she’d been experiencing because of her degenerative joint disease and severe arthritis. She says she plans to be a faithful Church Health Center Wellness member for the rest of her life.

“Church Health Center Wellness has worked miracles in my life,” she adds. “You feel like one big arm is wrapped around you, and it’s like no matter where you go, someone will catch you. When my pastor sees me now, he just smiles and says, ‘Rosie, God is good,’ and I say, ‘Tell me about it.’ I am living a life I had only dreamed of.”

Chris’ Story

Chris Zachry had been on pain medication for a year and was scheduled to have double hip replacement surgery, when suddenly he lost his job and health insurance. Walking with great pain and the help of two canes, he managed to find another job, but remained uninsured. He’d been a Church Health Center patient 12 years ago and once again turned to the Center for care.

“It was a tough transition for me,” Chris says.

“I’d lost hope I was going to get the care I needed, and if it hadn’t been for the Church Health Center, I might not have made it.”

Church Health Center Medical Director Dr. David Jennings referred him to Dr. Greg DaBov, head of orthopedics at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis (The Med), and Chris was quickly scheduled for surgery. Today, Chris’ confident stride and wide smile have returned. He once again has the firm handshake and swagger of a salesman. “Now I don’t even limp,” he says proudly. “I walk around like a regular guy.”

It would be easy to see Chris’ recovery as simply a great story of his receiving care for his broken body. But the Church Health Center cares not just for the body, but the spirit as well.

“When you’re in horrible pain and have nowhere to turn, it can be a hopeless, depressing situation,” says Chris, who has also seen Church Health Center Pastoral Counselor Ron McDonald as part of his healing journey. “The Church Health Center’s counseling services are as outstanding as its medical and dental services. The Church Health Center truly cares for the body, mind and soul.”

Now in charge of a community garden and driving horse-drawn carriages in downtown Memphis, Chris also volunteers his time to serve others in need. “For working people in this city, there’s no greater resource than the Church Health Center,” he says. “I’ve used just about every service the Church Health Center provides, and I couldn’t have asked for better care. I don’t know where I would be without the Church Health Center. The Church Health Center stepped in to help me when no one else would.”

Our walking programs set spiritual growth in motion

Different formats offer something for a variety of congregational needs
By Marvin Stockwell

Jesus and other figures from the Bible walked, a lot. They talked with others, took action and then they set out to walk somewhere else.

Walking is so basic to the way God designed us, and it can serve many purposes besides just getting from point A to point B. We can walk alone to contemplate and pray, or we can take a walk with a friend and have a heart-to-heart conversation. The beauty of walking is that it can serve all these purposes and it can help keep us healthy!

To make the most of this synergy, the Church Health Center has developed several walking programs for congregations, and we hope you and your congregation will step forward and join the thousands who are already taking healthy new strides.

You can choose from two six-week walking journals – Walking with Jesus and Walking with Abraham and Sarah. You get a pedometer and a mediation journal, which includes scriptures, meditations, health tips and a map showing the travel route of Jesus and other biblical figures. The program is designed to help you meet the following daily goals: Walk an extra 2,000 steps (about a mile), trim 100 calories out of their diets (about half a can of soda) and consume three low-fat dairy servings.

Six weeks is a good start, but if you want to keep moving, our Walk & Talk program is designed for congregations that want a year-long walking Bible study. Each month has a different theme and each weekly walk as a group takes up questions about that theme. Each congregation is different and has different needs, so Walk & Talk was designed with this in mind. You can easily tailor the program to take up the topics that best fit your needs.

Why focus on walking?

“It’s the simplest form of exercise, most people can do, it doesn’t require special equipment and it follows the model of scripture,” said Rev. Stacy Smith, who leads curriculum development efforts at the Center. “The disciples moved to go preach the Gospel. We wouldn’t know the scriptures if the disciples didn’t move.”

There are also devotional walking guides on Chreader.org, the Church Health Center’s faith-and-health site, such as Walking to the Cross, a Lenten devotional, and Praying through Advent, which are developed by our Faith Community Outreach Director Butch Odom. These devotionals have generated a lot of traffic for the site, in part, because they are linked to Textweek.com, a popular site for many preachers and other faith community leaders.

“Every time Jesus sends out the disciples he charges them to preach, teach and heal. TheChurchHealthCenter helps congregations answer this call to discipleship,” Odom said. “Our walking programs offer ways to combine spiritual growth within a context of exercise and movement.”

Odom recently started wearing a pedometer as a way to challenge him to walk more. He found that he looked forward to walking his dog as a way to increase his number of steps. So far, he’s lost about 10 pounds just by adding a regular walking routine to his life.

“We’re working to take all that the Church Health Center does and make it relevant to congregations,” Smith said. “What has been tested and proven to be effective, we want to make accessible for use in congregations nationwide.”

For more information about our walking programs, call our Faith Community Outreach office at (901) 261-8833 or e-mail fco@churchhealthcenter.org.

Water and the Spirit

By Susan Palwick

Part of my self-care regimen for depression, and also for a slightly unhappy back, is almost daily exercise. I usually manage to get to the gym six days a week; on the day I don’t go to the gym, I’m on my feet for four hours, volunteering at the hospital. Because I’ve always been slow and uncoordinated, I wouldn’t describe myself as athletic, but I have gotten to the point where I’m reasonably fit.

I alternate walking – since weight-bearing exercise helps prevent the osteoporosis for which I’m at risk – and lap swimming. Both activities are also prayer disciplines for me. For years now, I’ve had a set of mantras that I say to myself in three-three waltz time, matching the tempo of my steps or strokes. The mantras have changed somewhat over the years. I currently use a set of eight.

“God is good/light, life, love/I am a/child of God.”

“Come, Holy/Spirit come/Holy life/work through me.”

“Turn my fear/into faith./Turn my pain/into praise.”

“Turn my grief/into grace./Thank you, God/for all good.”

“Help me help/all you love,/you who love/all that lives.”

“Help me dis/cern your will/help me walk/in your ways.”

“Loving God/make me an/instrument/of your peace.”

“Make me more/loving, God/let me walk/in your peace.”

These phrases have become so automatic that it takes effort for me to swim or walk without saying them. They transform my workouts into a kinetic rosary. I repeat each phrase for five minutes: long enough to bring whatever present situation it evokes into full consciousness, but not long enough for it to become boring. The mantras keep the workouts from becoming dull, and the physical effort required by the exercise keeps my mind from wandering away from the mantras. The three-beat pattern keeps the entire process balanced, ensuring that the stress of each phrase falls on alternating steps or strokes.

When I walk – outdoors, or on a treadmill or elliptical at the gym – I often imagine that I’m a pilgrim toiling up a mountain, an effect heightened by my hilly neighborhood and by the steep incline I set on the treadmill. Walking is my second-choice activity, though, because there are so many distractions: friendly dogs and their equally friendly owners outside, people I know stopping by at the gym to say hi, and the wall of television screens, each set to a different channel, on the exercise floor.

In the pool, I’m completely immersed, both physically and mentally. I find swimming more automatically calming and centering than any other activity, with the possible exception of knitting. (If it were possible to knit while swimming, I’d surely achieve instant transcendence.) I’ve always loved water, especially the ocean.

I have fond memories oflong beachwalks in Montauk,New York; of snorkeling with sea turtles in Maui; of watching the sun set over the Pacific fromOceanBeachinSan Francisco. The ocean – with its depths and currents, beauties and terrors, shallows and depths – has always awakened in me a visceral sense of the presence of God.

A swimming pool, especially when it’s crowded with fellow lap swimmers and watercise classes, is a far cry from the ocean, of course. But even in this confined space, the feel of the water flowing over my body reconnects me to my love for wider, wilder water, and for its Creator. The patterns of sunlight dancing across the bottom of the pool remind me of the suntracks I’ve seen glittering across Long Island Sound andPyramidLake, Molokini and theMississippiGulf.

In 1988, I attended the World Fantasy Convention (an annual gathering of writers and readers of fantasy and horror literature) inLondon. After the convention, I took the train up toEdinburgh,Scotland, where I stayed for a week, the grateful guest of renowned author Jane Yolen and her husband. Jane and David both had work to do, so every day, I set off happily by myself to explore the city.

On one of these rambles, I walked the Royal Mile, which ends atEdinburghCastle. The walk took me along narrow streets bordered by buildings: it was a fascinating journey, but an enclosed one. When I emerged into the parking lot of the Castle, I found myself looking over a low wall at a far expanse, and my eyes filled with tears without my knowing why.

When I blinked away the tears, I looked into the distance and saw sunlight glittering on the Firth of Forth. My body had responded automatically, instinctively, to that vision, even before I consciously understood what I was seeing. Almost twenty years later, I still think of that moment whenever I swim, whenever I repeat the phrase, “Thank you God/for all good.”

Sit and Knit group delivers therapy and comfort

By Natalie Martin

Cindy joined the Sit and Knit group at Church Health Center Wellness more than four years ago. Soon after, she became a leader of the group, stepping in when Faith Community Relations Coordinator Sunny Ross wasn’t available for meetings. “She blended in with the spirit of the Church Health Center like a duck takes to water,” Sunny said. “God was calling to her to do this.”

Cindy attended meetings religiously, never missing one until her son passed away from a long battle with cancer. Sunny remembers Cindy saying, “you are my therapy,” about the group, which had grown very close after spending so many Monday mornings together knitting, crocheting and praying. Cindy has no medical background to link her to the Center, but she still identifies with the people and the mission. “We call her our angel,” Sunny said. Cindy often asked, “Where will they go if not for the Church Health Center?”

After Cindy’s 49-year-old son died, the group sent a sympathy card, but they wanted to do more for Cindy and her family. They decided to pull their resources together and purchase a rosebush for the Meditation Garden located outside of Church Health Center Wellness. After some help from one of our Master Gardeners, there is now a beautiful rosebush planted in the garden that honors the memory of Cindy’s son.

Sit and Knit was started six years ago by an intern, who originally called the group Unfinished Projects. It was designed for anyone to come and work on their unfinished craft projects in community with others. They met each week and worked on their projects in our Child Life area, sitting on child-sized chairs. After two semesters of running the group, the intern returned to school and the Unfinished Projects group decided to form Sit and Knit. “We had graduated too,” said Sunny. “We needed bigger chairs!” Over the years, the group has grown from the eight original members to 25 members that meet every week.

In the beginning, Sunny lead the group, but it soon became overwhelming with her busy schedule. Her work with the Center takes her outside of the office visiting congregations and churches throughout Memphis, making it difficult for her to meet on Mondays. Thankfully, Cindy stepped up to lead when Sunny wasn’t available, allowing the group to never miss a meeting.

“It’s a blessing to be facilitating this,” Sunny said. “We enrich each others lives”.

The members of Sit and Knit create an average of three prayer shawls a week to be donated to those in need of prayer. They don’t have group funds, so the members rely on donations of yarn, patterns, needles and crochet hooks. While most of the members knit, there are a few crocheters in the group as well. “Their shawls sometimes look like Joseph’s Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat of many colors,” said Sunny.

For the members of the group, it’s not about using expensive yarn or perfectly matching colors, it’s about the prayers that go into each stitch as they’re knitted.

People request prayer shawls frequently, and the group gives without hesitation. Each shawl is prayed over and given with a prayer attached to it for the recipient. The members pray as they knit and they all come together to lay hands on each prayer shawl before it is given away. The members range in ages and some have arthritis or vision problems, but they are all dedicated to their craft. “No human could have done this, this is God’s hand that works with us,” said Sunny. “We know each others pain as much as their joy.”

When the group began, 90 percent of the members weren’t knitters, according to Sunny. But now working together over time they’ve become “dynamite knitters” creating more than just prayer shawls. Aside from their regular projects, the members have also created squares for Haiti quilts, caps for MIFA and LeBonheur, and scarves and hats for the homeless.

Churches large and small have their own knitting ministries that Sit and Knit has connected with, and staff members of the Church Health Center have also joined in by donating and knitting.