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ow 20-Year-Old Student Changed U.S. Law for Adventist Free Clinic My phone rang. Sean Worix said he was about to speak to West Virginian leaders in the State Capitol Building. POSTED JULY 7, 2016 By Naomi Tricomi It was Thursday, June 9 — only four short weeks before the free mega clinic organized by Your Best Pathway to Health was scheduled to open in my hometown of Beckley, West Virginia. West Virginia’s law was not favorable to our plan to bring hundreds of out-of-state medical professionals to Beckley to provide $3 million worth of health-care services to 1,500 people from July 13 to 15. In fact, it appeared that we might have to cancel the free clinic because we were unable to secure state licenses for physicians and dentists to participate in the event. As the person responsible for organizing the event on the ground, I was deeply worried. Sean Worix, a 20-year-old pre-med student at West Virginia University. (Courtesy of Sean Worix) Driving to the Mountain View Camp Meeting in Parkersburg, West Virginia, that Thursday, I had several hours to plead with God to show us the way forward. Suddenly my cell phone rang. The voice on the other end was Sean Worix, a 20-year-old student from Beckley who was on summer break. “I am at the State Capitol Building as a representative of a student leadership summit called HOBY,” Sean said. Sean was calling from West Virginia’s capital, Charleston. HOBY is the acronym for Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership, an organization whose motto is “to train and nurture the young leaders of tomorrow.” Sean continued: “I have been invited to address the governor’s Cabinet in just a few minutes. I want to tell them about Your Best Pathway to Health, but what should I tell them?” I suggested that Sean give a brief synopsis of Your Best Pathway to Health’s mission to collaborate with the Seventh-day Adventist Church and health-care companies in providing medical, dental, and other services to uninsured people across the United States. I said he could also mention our need for temporary licenses for out-of-state physicians and dentists. Sean asked for prayer and hurriedly hung up. I immediately telephoned Larry Boggess, president of the Adventist Church’s Mountain View Conference, who happened to be leading a meeting with his pastors. After listening to me quickly tell the story about Sean, he asked for immediate prayer. I listened on speaker phone as the group of pastors fervently prayed. Read also: Sabbath School Class Paves Way for Beckley Free Clinic “I’m Your Guy” Moments later my phone rang again. An excited Sean spoke on the other end. He said that after he concluded his presentation, he was approached by Joey Garcia, director of legislative affairs for West Virginia’s governor, together with the governor’s secretary and chief of staff. Garcia asked for more information about how the state could help, and Sean explained how current state law prohibited Adventist medical professionals from coming to West Virginia to volunteer at the clinic. “I’m your guy,” Garcia said. “I will see what I can do to help you and your organization.” He gave Sean his contact information and asked that we send all requests to him. But that’s not all that Sean has done in recent weeks. State dental regulations meant that we could not provide dental services unless we were sponsored by either the West Virginia University School of Dentistry or the local dental association. Sean, who is a student at West Virginia University in Morgantown, contacted Richard Meckstroth, head of the School of Dentistry. When Meckstroth asked for additional information, I spoke with him by phone. He was most cordial and said he was a graduate of the Adventist Church-owned Loma Linda University in southern California. He also said we were giving him very short notice but he would do all he could to help us. True to his word, Mecktroth arranged for our dentists to work under the auspices of the School of Dentistry, making it possible for us to have a dental department at the free clinic in Beckley. Read also: Here's Your Chance to Organize a Free Adventist Clinic A Free Forklift Nine days before the clinic’s opening day, we needed a forklift. Sean went all over Beckley, population 17,600, before stopping at an equipment rental company close to the convention center where we’ll hold the clinic. He spoke to the managers, and they donated the use of a forklift. Sean also made successful contacts with various department heads at the local hospital to be sure that they would partner with us. Eight days to go, we needed an additional laboratory to process patients’ samples at the clinic. In just a few hours Sean made a successful contact with a major, Wall Street-listed company. I asked Sean how he was able to meet the right people to cover our needs. “I don’t know,” he said. “I just pray before I go in and tell them what we need.” That’s exactly what happened in the State Capitol Building. After Sean’s presentation and meeting with the governor’s top deputies, state lawmakers changed the law to allow out-of-state medical professionals to receive temporary licenses in West Virginia. Interestingly, when Sean spoke in the State Capitol Building, the lawmakers were not scheduled to gather in legislative session again until the fall because of the summer break. But the lawmakers found themselves in a special session because they had failed to finalize the state budget earlier. This made it possible to change the law to accommodate the Adventist free clinic. God is in control! Naomi Tricomi is a Bible worker in Beckley, West Virginia and the person on the ground responsible for organizing Your Best Pathway to Health in Beckley.

There are quotes when she comes close to this, but which the critics of women's ordination look for loopholes to try to say that she was only speaking about ministry in very general terms. It is hard to go with that argument when we find that some of these articles were written when the church wanted to ordain women and the General Conference President A. G. Daniels asked for the conferences and unions to wait just a little bit until the members can learn that it is not against the Bible to ordain women. Please tell me why a number of her articles on women in ministry were written in that historical context instead of her writing articles telling Elder Daniels and the other church leaders that they were wrong? That is where YOU are changing her writings, she wrote articles about women in ministry at a time Elder Daniels promised to try to educate our members that it was indeed Biblical to ordain women. Mrs. White appears to gently be trying to change the hard harts of those who Elder Daniels said he wanted to educate. You have to answer why she did not take advantage of these times to nib the problem in the bud and tell Elder Daniels and the others that they were wrong on wanting to ordain women. Why was she playing into their plan by writing articles about women in ministry when Elder Daniels promised to use similar articles to prepare the church to ordain women.

Pam, I thought that you raised a point that had value.

Martin, Twinity - I like that! I must be a twinitarian! BTW - twinitarianism doesn't seem to be that popular among SDA's these days. Maybe 1 in 10 is a twinitarian. I see no problem with accepting Jesus as God. Jesus says or implies several times that he and the Father are One. He also says "‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." (Mark 12: 28-30) If God can do anything, why can't He be in 2 places at once (i.e., in heaven and on earth)? Didn't Jesus also say that if you have seen Him you have seen the Father?

Praise God! He knows who's who and where when the time comes!! Well done, Naomi and Sean!

I'm assuming that's a rhetorical question. 14If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. 15If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever—…John 15 God is love!~Jesus saves!

It is easier to answer her silence than the not opposing when the church wanted to ordain women. She was concerned about people coming to a belief through study and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead them. We know that her friend and who she trained, A. G. Daniels was pro-women's ordination, but he was the one who stopped it in the first decade of the 20th century. He did not want to stop it but wanted us to move this gently and slowly so as to not confuse the people who do not realize that women's ordination is Biblical. The problem is that the anti-women's ordination movement wants to force their view on us in a manner that Daniels did not want to force women's ordination. He felt that other topics were more important and that this topic can wait (topics in like how we are supposed to use the Bible and Mrs. White, which finally got him thrown out of office). If women's ordination was accepted I would oppose for now a woman to be put in charge of a church out in the middle of nowhere, I'd want it to start out where churches where people have a choice, those who oppose women's ordination to have a church pastored by a male in the area. Remember Mrs. White put her reputation on the line by giving her food for worms vision when the church planned an evangelistic outreach, they gave the outreach to committee to implement and it got lost as well. Did Mrs. White change her mind and decide that evangelism was not important for her pen to be silent then even though it meant that all who heard that vision ended up food for worms? Mrs. White talks about the long slow process that God is willing to use to deal with the Great Controversy. A person convinced against their will is of the same opinion still. This is not an urgent point where God had to come out and state something strongly. He prefers taking his time for people to grow. He has us choose of the weight of evidence. He did just enough in the Bible and is teaching us more about the Bible that can make us question. He leads us into this situation of the church wanting to simply start ordaining women, but there are church members who think it's unbiblical, and instead of coming out and saying "It's Biblical so you better do it or else!" God troubles our minds with the questions "Why didn't Mrs. White nip the issue in the bud instead of allowing the seed to be planted?" "Why did she write articles that lean more in the direction of where the church wanted to go, even though we can act like a band of lawyers digging through those articles to find loopholes instead of uprooting the idea" and as more and more people kick against the thorns, and have to wrestle with the evidence, it will be a deciding to accept it by their own journey. The anti-ordination people are trying to use the methods of using the Bible and Mrs. White that Elder Daniels was trying to prevent and they are trying to make the ignorance that Elder Daniels wanted to dispel by education become official church dogma. They want to shred Mrs. White's articles that were written when the church actively wanted to ordain women to make them of no effect because of all the loopholes they can find in it and explain it some other way than face and historical value.

I find it quite amazing how many Christians say they'll vote for Trump. I guess his racism, bigotry and lack of a concrete plan on most things is plan to see so they know what they are getting. American Christians have been able to sit with bigotry and racism in the past why not do it again.

Someone posted a bunch of fake facts outside the cage or area of several animals at the Los Angeles Zoo.

You are quite correct about who is making an issue of this. It begs the question of why so much effort is being put into making an issue of it. If it really is nothing at all, why not just shrug and yawn... Much effort to make anything of no account that would support the idea of a woman doing even the smallest clergy thing...

Good grief. I merely posted what the Methodist ceremony of the time entailed because I thought it was interesting — and I thought it remarkable that Ellen White was allowed to perform part of that ceremony, as a non-Methodist. It's not me who is making an issue of this. Give it a rest, why don't you... addendum: I'm done trying to be informative. Done. That's it. Those who want to poke me with their verbal tridents can do so. Go for it.

Yes, move on. But with a gentle caveat. You should not presume that you have the right to respond in kind to what might be an inappropriate comment. You do so at the risk of escalating a bad thing to the point that two or more people get sideways with the expected decorum. Administrative tip of the day - assume the best of fellow participants. Mistaken assumptions about motive, attitude, or intent about another reflects back on you. Err on the side of kindness and grace.