Todd Guthrie, MD, PC
Broadening Streams
After years of drought, we were blessed this year with an abundance of snow and moisture in Northern California. The rivers are full. A stream flows through our front yard again after years of being dry. Nearby lakes and aquifers are replenished for which we praise God.
In Ezekiel 47:1-12, the prophet Ezekiel describes a vision where he is standing in a stream of water flowing from the sanctuary. At first it was just up to his ankles, then it came to his knees and then his waist before becoming a river that was too deep to cross on foot; one must swim.
This vision is clearly a prophecy of the growth and spread of the life-giving power of God, the river of life. After quoting from the last five verses of this passage, Ellen White applies the prophecy to an area of special interest to medical missionaries. “From this fountain flows the mighty river seen in Ezekiel’s vision. Such a river of life and healing God designs that, by His power working through them, our Sanitariums shall be.”—Ellen G. White, Testimonies, vol. 6, p. 228.
We believe this is happening before our own eyes right now!
We may only be at the beginning stages of this outpouring of blessing through medical missionary work, but the promise is that the waters will cover the whole earth.
“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14, NKJV).
The medical missionary work is worldwide, not limited only to these United States. In this issue we read of reports of medical missionary work not only here, but also in Ukraine, Bolivia, Haiti, and Tanzania. In each case we trace the common thread of people being called to work in a way that is out of the ordinary and out of the usual order of things.
As friends and members of AMEN, our privilege is to support and engage in this work that will grow and deepen until the whole earth is filled with His glory.
“We shall see the medical missionary work broadening and deepening at every point of its progress, because of the inflowing of hundreds and thousands of streams, until the whole earth is covered as the waters cover the sea.”—Ellen White, Medical Ministry, p. 317.