Experiences
"It seems like you really care"
This story is about an individual whom I will call Jane. Jane came to me from another physician in town having been discharged from their practice for violation of a narcotics contract. Any of you in the medical field will recognize immediately that this is not one of our more pleasant problems to deal with. To add to that, Jane was usually crying when she came into my office and had an abundance of unsolvable problems. My practice over the last several years has been to give this type of person a second chance and so Jane became my patient. As time progressed I tried to not only treat Jane's medical problems but also her spiritual problems. On one occasion she gave me her father's rosary (Jane is catholic) as a token of her appreciation. On another occasion Jane stated that I had done more for her than any other doctor. This took me by surprise because I knew how I felt about tearful Jane. I managed to ask why she thought I had done so much for her at which point she told me "it seems like you care". Somehow God covered up some of the negative feelings I had for her and magnified my attempts to help and encourage her. (I can say praise God for that.) As I thought about the experience over the next several days and weeks I realized God had taught me a great truth: While good science is important and heals, what really heals is a demonstration of God's love to suffering humanity. As time moved on the opportunity came to offer Bible studies. This she accepted and came and very much enjoyed them. But as you know the devil never rests. After a while she informed me that she would not come anymore because of pressure from her Catholic family. Of course in such situations it is difficult to know what to say. On this occasion God spoke through me. I told Jane that it was fine if she stopped attending but, "you are in trouble." Jane was taken back and surprised. She asked in what way. I told her she already didn't believe some of the dogmas of the Catholic church and that was going to get her in trouble. (Jane understood confession was to be to God, not a priest). Jane's reply was "That's true but at least I have someone to come to when I have questions," implying that she believed more in what I told her than what her church told her. Again God spoke through me and I offered her Bible studies by mail. This she eagerly accepted. Jane's story is still in the making. I don't know the final outcome. --Dr. Wendell Heidinger
Family seeks baptism
A family came to me as patients. The conversation fairly quickly led to music and an invitation to church. They came on a day when I happened to play my trumpet for special music. As they are quite musical this peaked their interest. Over time Bible studies were offered. They accepted and started studying with our intern pastor. The time came for the intern pastor to leave and the studies stopped. Because of my ongoing contact in the office I learned of their continued interest. I arranged for one of our elders to study with them. The elder tried numerous times to arrange a meeting but always without success. He was ready to give up. Providentially, I called the elder to find out how things were going. He shared the above with me. God however was not going to allow the devil a victory and the family was in my office within a few days. I inquired again of their interest. It was reaffirmed. I promptly called the elder and he made yet another attempt to arrange a study time. This time he was successful. The conclusion of this story is very exciting. The family has asked for baptism. The oldest boy who is just starting college and is interested in becoming an Adventist minister. Furthermore he recently took his GED and scored the highest score in Oregon over the last 20 years. --Dr. Wendell Heidinger
A hardened officer softens
I have a patient who is a retired police officer. He has worked with the dark side of things all his life. He is a cussing, swearing, hardened, anti-Christian individual. In fact he has stated many times that he wants nothing to do with Christianity to the point where he told me that he wanted to follow me to my new practice but didn't want any of that "other stuff," referring to the outreach and spiritual issues that I want to address. So I agreed, fully expecting that the atmosphere would be so uncomfortable to him that he would leave me as a patient. How wrong I was!!! Here is what happened. He needed to be seen this last week and came early to his appointment. He was the first patient of the day. Since he was early, my receptionist, who did not know about any verbal agreement with him not to address religious things, decided to invite him to join us for staff worship. To my complete amazement, he accepted!! We had our worship. I read from John about the woman at the well. He was obviously nervous, but made a few remarks. At the end of our short devotion, my receptionist and assistant thought they noticed tears in his eyes. Apparently, something hit home. He called later to ask additional instruction with regards to medication and also told me he didn't want any of this religion stuff. So with his mouth he says one thing and with his feet he says something else. God is working on him and he is the last person I could imagine that would respond. --Dr. Wendell Heidinger
Medical assistant healed
Jan, my medical assistant, was having a really hard time. She had a bit of an inferiority complex. She felt like she couldn't get the job done. She was beginning to function poorly. She was getting more and more stressed. She asked me to fire her. She even started getting a rash which is very puritic. I was reluctant to fire her, because I hired her for her usual positive, spiritual interaction with the patients. I spent time talking with her on one or 2 different occasions. I tried to encourage her and tell her that she could do it. As I thought about it, I realized that an anointing might be to her benefit. I mentioned this idea to her and she seem to like it quite well. Within the next one or 2 days she asked her pastor to have an anointing service. She came back to work the next week and was a totally different person. She was much less stressed. She was getting her work done. Her itching and rash resolved. She felt much better. In my mind this is a clear example of how God healed through an anointing service. And last but not least, much of the ideology behind her attitude probably came from her background and childhood raising from an alcoholic father who abandoned her later during her teenage years. It seems God has healed her of some of this programming. --Dr. Wendell Heidinger
Never too old to memorize Scripture!
Letha Brumble is a 94-year-old female who I was begged by another doctor's office to take. At this point in time I was not taking Medicare so I was a bit reluctant. I decided to take her anyway. The patient has significant pain because of osteoarthritis in the neck. This is poorly controlled. I increased her pain medications but did not achieve a lot of success. It became apparent that she might be depressed and anxious. I began treating those processes. In the course of time I spoke to her about spiritual things. I even gave her a prescription of scripture to read and I believe it was Matthew 6:25-34. I even encouraged the patient to memorize Bible verses despite the fact that she was 94 years old. I found out later that the patient did exactly what I asked her to do. She did go back to her residential care facility and attempt to memorize. When she was in my office several weeks later I went out to talk to the driver who had brought her in. It turns out he was the pastor for the facility. He preached the Sunday sermons. He began to tell me how much she appreciated what I had done for her. At first I wasn't sure what I had done for her. Then I recalled that I had in fact given the Bible verses. As I inquired further I found out that the patient was much less anxious at her care facility. She was more interactive, and it appeared that the prescription and encouragement given to her from my office had made a large difference in her demeanor and attitude and anxiety outside of the office. It just goes to show that God is eager to work with anybody no matter what age they are. --Dr. Wendell Heidinger
