MINISTRIES OF JESUS HELPS CHANGE LIVES IN EDMOND
EDMOND — In July 2010, Shawn Adams was “broken, defeated and ready to call it quits.” He no longer wanted to live. He knew he needed help, but wasn’t able to afford it.
“I came to Oklahoma five years ago from Iowa,” Adams said. “I was getting out of there just because I really had started to head down a path that was very destructive.”
Adams said he was burning through his income by partying and drinking, and was fighting depression.
Ministries of Jesus in Edmond had been around since 2001, and Adams found that it was much more than just something related to a church.
The free medical clinic is on the grounds of Henderson Hills Baptist Church. With the help of generous donors, a building was constructed in 2008 across the parking lot from the church, which allowed the more than 200 volunteers ranging from physicians to specialists to secretaries to more easily serve the uninsured with the help of their Christian faith.
“We have over 6,000 patients who have been part of our ministry over the years, and they’re still coming,” Medical Administrator Theresa Nelson said. “This is not a onevisit clinic; they become our patients.”
Rebuilding a life
Prospective patients go through an evaluation in which they are asked what kind of help they are searching for and what goals they want to set for themselves.
“They said, ‘It’s a willcall type thing, we’ll let you know’ and within a few days they said, ‘We’ve got an appointment for you,’ because I needed the counseling in order to stay on the antidepressant I had gone on,” Adams said.
Through the counseling he received and with the help of Medical Director Sherri Tucker, they came to the understanding that Adams was dealing more with bipolar disorder than depression.
Adams began rebuilding himself, and he got involved in the Christmas production at the church and began to make friends.
“At that point in my life, the job that I had been with for three years gave me papers because they were hurting and they needed to cut,” he said. “And here I am in the middle of this rebuild, and it didn’t hit me, it didn’t faze me. I immediately had people praying for me, both here and within the church. I had a family from the Christmas program say, ‘Come live with us for a few months.’ They were a major blessing.”
He got to know Jessalyn, who was in his Bible study group.
“I ended up meeting the woman I am now married to. This very professional, fully educated woman started dating a guy with no job, and now she’s my wife,” Adams said after six months of marriage.
“You’re not just a patient name on a ticket,” Adams said of Ministries of Jesus. “You are a living, breathing soul that has a reason to be here.”
Adams is no longer a patient because he is insured through his current job, but his goal is to volunteer at the ministry.
Healing and helping
“It’s the best quality care that I’ve ever seen. It’s amazing,” Nelson, the medical administrator, said. “It just never ceases to amaze us. We will pray, ‘God, we really need a neurologist or a dermatologist,’ and I’m telling you, they’re here. I have seen God heal through man and medicine, heal spiritually, heal through relationships.”
The ministry receives its funding from many sources. Transformation Fitness Center was donated to the ministry, and the income the center makes through memberships is given to Ministries of Jesus.
“A lot of our funding comes from Henderson Hills and the giving from there,” Tucker said.
The city of Edmond awards about $40,000 per fiscal year in grant money.
Patients are not required to be Edmond residents or members of the church.
“I was tired of this life, and now I have hope every day. I have a wonderful life,” Adams said. “It sounds cliche, but it is wonderful.”