Welcome to our new subscribers!! And if you haven't joined the conversation on Facebook, then find us @ptsonmission to continue to receive updates, encouragement, and information. Finally, tell a friend if you are benefiting from this site. Happy 1st Anniversary to PTs on Mission!! It’s hard to believe that 12 months ago at the beginning of a pandemic, this platform finally got off the ground! I do hope that you have found the content encouraging and informative. Fort this blog, I thought it would be fun to take a quixk review all that has taken place for PTs on Mission. Blog: I achieved the goal of providing 2 posts per month for the whole first year. There is now blog contact to encourage you in discipleship and evangelism in your workplace and to keep you informed with up to date journal articles on a wide range of physical therapy topics through the “Journal Club” series. You also played a pivotal role in achieving the blog goal this past year by providing personal testimony about your life and work through the series “Faith at Work.” So thank you for participating! Book: Six months after starting this platform, I was very pleased to release another project that I had been working on for about a year and that was my new book “Rehab the World.” That was a very personal project for me and I was happy to share it with you last October! I would like to extend a very heartfelt thank you to all of you who purchased it and or shared it with friends or family. My prayer is that you find it encouraging, helpful, and informative. I also hope that it inspires you in your career! Social Media: This past year also saw the launch of PTs on Mission Facebook page @ptsonmission. Many of you have also joined the conversation there and I hope you have found it helpful and impactful. There is a steady stream of Bible verses that are posted to encourage you throughout your day. You will also find many other informative and educational articles on that page to share with colleagues or your community Resources: Finally, and most recently was the launch of the “Resources” tab on the website. There will find helpful resources to impact your community and the world for the Gospel with detailed manuals and instructions to equip you to host a health screen at your church and thorough teaching and training modules to equip indigenous church leaders with a skill to reach people with the good news of Jesus Christ. So again, thank you for being a part of this community and your willingness to share this platform with others. So excited for the year that is ahead! Jason ***Check out my new book "Rehab the World" written for Physical Therapists to encourage us in our workplace and prepare us to serve those around us. If you like, please leave a review and spread the word!!***
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Welcome to our new subscribers!! And if you haven't joined the conversation on Facebook, then find us @ptsonmission to continue to receive updates, encouragement, and information. Finally, tell a friend if you are benefiting from this site. There is a passage in the Old Testament that has always stuck with me for some reason and it is found in the first book of Samuel. At the end of 1 Samuel 8 we have the scene of the people of Israel coming before Samuel and demanding a king so they could be like all the other nations. Samuel warns the people what desiring a king will do to them but they insist and ultimately God tells Samuel to obey the voice of the people and appoint a king over them despite the fact that it was a complete rejection of God’s kingship over them. The next chapter picks up and introduces Saul. Saul and a servant are commanded by Saul’s dad to go find all of his donkey’s who have apparently wandered away. So, Saul and his servant go off and look all over the place in several different lands to try and find these donkeys but they are unsuccessful. They end up in the land of Zuph (wherever that is) and Saul is ready to give up and go home, but his servant says something very astute. “But he [the servant] said to him [Saul], ‘There is a man of God in this city, and he is a man who is held in high honor; all that he says comes true. So now let us go there. Perhaps he can tell us the way we should go’...So they went to the city where the man of God was.” 1 Samuel 9:6,10 That man was Samuel. One of the great prophets of God. So, Saul and his servant sought Samuel out because they heard he was a man of God. They knew he could help them and give them direction and advice even if it was something little as finding some donkeys. They knew Samuel had a worthy reputation so they sought him out. That is how I want to live my life. I want to humbly live my life in such a way that people, colleagues, and patients will seek me out because I am trustworthy. I want that mentality to spill over into my clinic practice as well, not for prideful reasons but so the good news of Jesus and the gospel can be shared. And I hope you do as well. So, how can we begin to cultivate such a reputation? Here are 3 things I’ve thought about in building a humble, Godly reputation in your rehab workspace in order to be like Samuel. Be dependable with a good work ethic. If we view our work as a means of worship then our attitude will be vastly different from the attitude of those around us. Indeed, the Bible is full of passages about working hard for the glory of God (Col. 3:23, Phil. 2:14-15, 1 Cor. 10:31, Col. 3:17). So remember to do every work task with excellence and heart not for the approval of your boss, colleagues, or others but solely for king Jesus. I think we will find that as we do that we will become trustworthy workers with a positive influence in the clinic, much like Daniel in Babylon or Joseph in Egypt. Be knowledgeable and skillful in your field of PT. This boils down to being really good at what you do. Make sure you are taking continuing education courses that really improve your clinical decision making and interventions. Strive to be a clinician that other clinicians can come to if they have clinical practice questions. This requires humility to continue to learn, but I want to be a therapist that my patients and colleagues can seek out for truthful and helpful information. Be open and honest about your faith walk. Hopefully, your patients understand that you are Christ follower because you are talking about church and spiritual things as opportunities present themselves. As people figure out that you are serious and genuine about your faith, they will begin to talk to you about it. I’ve had several patients come to me for advice on a myriad of topics because they knew that I was a Christ follower. It opens up great avenues to share the gospel and to pray with and for them. But if that is an area in which you feel you need some help or ideas, I would recommend you pick up a copy of “Rehab the World.” Chapter 2 contains some practical ideas to help you be more intentional with your faith conversations at work. So what are you known for? What do you want to be known for? Reflect on those questions and pray that the Lord would humbly grow your faith, your attitude, your knowledge and skill, and your work ethic to reflect more of Christ’s love to the world in your rehab workspace. Let’s be Samuel’s in our rehab workspace this week! Jason ***Check out my new book "Rehab the World" written for Physical Therapists to encourage us in our workplace and prepare us to serve those around us. If you like, please leave a review and spread the word!!*** Welcome to our new subscribers!! And if you haven't joined the conversation on Facebook, then find us @ptsonmission to continue to receive updates, encouragement, and information. Finally, tell a friend if you are benefiting from this site. We all work hard to provide the most up to date evidence to impact our treatment outcomes for our patients but an equally big part of better treatment outcomes is patient education. I will likely talk more about that on a later post, but for now let's recognize that using analogies and visuals can really bring a greater understanding to the patient of the “why” behind what we are telling them to do. Sometimes, we use visuals and pictures for our patient education to help a patient return from the brink, if you will; to try and help the patient avoid going to a place of catastrophe. You know the scenario: A patient receives an x-ray or MRI and then they are told about all the structural deformities that are going to cause more pain and functional limitation. Naturally, the patient becomes anxious or worried and then is often scared to even move. That’s why I keep this study on hand. We, in the rehab world, are learning more and more about so many asymptomatic structural problems that appear on imaging (I use the phrase “wrinkles on the inside” to describe that phenomena to my patients). So we often cite the studies, statistics, and percentages to our patients which is important and helpful. But like I said, I keep this study on hand because a picture is worth 1000 words. Healed Disk Protrusion I love to show this study, especially for my patients with low back pain and imaging which confirmed disk issues. When they learn that the bulge nearly disappeared without any surgical intervention but only conservative treatment you can usually feel the anxiety and worry melting away. All of the sudden there is hope as they say out loud, “That healed?” Then I am able to affirm that the body is great at healing. We just have to help facilitate the natural healing process. I hope you find this article and picture helpful to your patient education and I hope you use it to help reduce anxiety and worry in your patients Jason ***Check out my new book "Rehab the World" written for Physical Therapists to encourage us in our workplace and prepare us to serve those around us. If you like, please leave a review and spread the word!!*** Welcome to our new subscribers!! And if you haven't joined the conversation on Facebook, then find us @ptsonmission to continue to receive updates, encouragement, and information. Finally, tell a friend if you are benefiting from this site. Today on the blog, I invited back my colleague Alyson O'Banion to participate in the "Faith at Work" series. If you missed her first thoughts on the blog about interdisciplinary care, you can get caught up here. Also, if you missed any of the "Faith at Work" series you can follow these links: Clinic Management, Outpatient/Sports Medicine, Spinal Cord Unit, Faith at Work Intro. Anyway, I hope you enjoy Alyson's honest and heartfelt thoughts! 1. Where do you work and describe the patient population in which you work? I work in the outpatient neuro physical therapy department of Augusta University Rehabilitation. My patient populations mostly consist of multiple neuro diagnoses to include: stroke, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, spinal cord injuries, ataxia, vestibular dysfunctions, imbalance and gait dysfunctions, neuropathy, and chronic conditions (i.e. osteoarthritis of the spine, hips, knees, and shoulders). 2. What do you enjoy about working in your field of PT? I enjoy the education component of what I do the most. Most patients do not understand the diagnosis that has been given to them. Receiving the knowledge of rehab expectations and management of the diagnoses are very helpful to the patient and family. I also enjoy seeing patients improve with intentional prescribed exercises and activities, which begin to improve their overall function and increase their independence. 3. What are some of the unique physical, emotional, or spiritual challenges of working in your field PT? Physically, those patients who need extensive hands-on mobility skills are the toughest. My physical strength is often not enough to assist the patient and to facilitate the skill(s) that is to be practiced while maintaining the best safety strategies. Because help is needed, families may assist, which can also help at home to reproduce the activity. When help at home is not available, exercises often need to be changed to make the activity more simplistic and only require one-person assist. Also, those patients with Parkinson’s disease who are following the protocol of LSVT are physically demanding, as I must demonstrate the hour-long group of exercises at a high intensity for the patient to simulate, all while assisting with shaping and modeling the patient for the correct techniques. Emotionally, many patients and families that attend that have been drastically impacted by a significant decline (such as a large stroke or significant decline from a progressive disease) are challenging. Lives have been radically altered and significant home and social changes are required. Tears from my patients and their families (and sometimes me) are frequent, and the need to give my whole self becomes the normal. My goal is to pour out compassion and education to best meet the immediate needs and anticipate the future needs of my patients. Some emotional stress can be induced by reaching out to other members of the healthcare team, which may or may not be already initiated. The many different needs and services a patient may require may take a long time to get approved and that can very frustrating to both the patient/family and to me because it hinders recovery. My time spent in helping a patient recover can be emotionally exhausting. Spiritually, some days are very challenging. At times, I can find myself spiritually drained as I assist my patients and families whose lives have been drastically altered. Daily, I am reminded that sin is ever-present, seeking to destroy us; injuries, sicknesses, and diseases are constant reminders that bad things happen—even to the good. Numerous patients and families I help are in a place of chaos and unexpected, life-changing times. Many come with much hopelessness, despair, depression, and anxiety. Many, also, do not have a personal relationship with the Lord. I value my ability to just stop in the midst of the chaos and offer to pray with the patient for comfort, peace, and guidance to lead toward a path of physical, emotional, and spiritual healing. 4. How does your faith impact your work and how you view your patient interactions? My faith definitely shapes how I view my work and my patients. I recognize that each patient I treat is made by God with value. My faith also informs me that my everyday work is ministry work. So, sharing and practicing my faith, regularly attending church, and participating in the service as part of our church's music program continues to ground me and reminds me of God's goodness and faithfulness which then spills over into my work week. It also helps me to have Christian music playing in the background, because it reminds me that He is present and working no matter where I am. 5. Briefly describe a story in which you really felt like you ministered to a patient. Many stories come to mind when I think about my PT and ministry to my patients. One particular time I felt God leading was in treating a homeless man. Honestly, I do not even remember what his therapy need was, maybe imbalance or gait difficulty. But what I do remember is his brokenness. In asking more specific questions I was able to determine that he spent his nights in a homeless shelter and was on the streets during the day. He came to the clinic each session wearing the same clothing and worn bedroom shoes. We were able to talk through his extreme loneliness, helplessness, and his physical needs for bare necessities. I was able to share the Gospel with him, telling him that he was loved and that someone cares about him. Personally and with family help, I was able to provide him with toiletries, clothing, and shoes. I was also able to give him community resources to continue assisting him and his needs. He was very grateful for my therapy intervention, but also very happy that there was someone who actually saw him, not just another patient with a diagnosis. He will always stand out as a reminder that we all have a story about the journey we are on so we should always remember to love and show great compassion, which can lead someone to Christ! Alyson Welcome to our new subscribers!! And if you haven't joined the conversation on Facebook, then find us @ptsonmission to continue to receive updates, encouragement, and information. Finally, tell a friend if you are benefiting from this site. My guess is many of you, like me, have a heart to use our skill as therapists to serve those around us whether in our clinic, our communities, or around the world. And that is awesome! We should be using all of our talents and abilities to serve those around us. My pastor once said that a life that counts turns much grace from God into much glory for God. And that is true; we all want our lives to count for something. Serving others is a way to give God glory and we do that out of the abundance of grace he has given us. But there can be a hidden temptation to be a hero in our service or missions. Serving others everyday in our clinic, community, or in different countries on mission trips makes us feel good. It gives us a sense of worth, purpose, or like we mentioned above, a realization that our life counts. But if we are not careful we can easily get swept up into pride and begin to think that we are more important than those we are serving. We need to remember that, as Jean Johnson articulates in her book “We Are Not the Hero”, that we are not, in fact, the hero. So if we think of missions as a musical melody (my inner musician is coming out), I would like to suggest a two part harmony we would do well to remember for more beautiful missions and service: Dignity and Sustainability. Let’s start with dignity. Dignity is defined as true honor or worth. That means that the people and patients we interact with in our clinic or on our mission trips, either locally or globally, are not just people in need of help or projects for improvement. They are actual, real people and patients. They are individuals who have inherent worth and dignity because they are made in God’s image. And they have been given gifts and talents by God just like you and me. Circumstances may have changed their life in some way but that doesn’t negate the stated truths above. I constantly need that humble reminder to keep me grounded. So how can we make our missions more dignified? I think one way to foster dignity in service is by including the participants or individuals you are serving in the mission or service project rather than doing and providing everything for them. Maybe they could give an entry fee of a canned good in support of a local food bank. Or maybe you or your team could instruct your local helpers how to do certain service tasks to include them in the project. There is much creativity we can apply but we just need to remember that those we serve have something to give and have talents and abilities that can be utilized. That will maintain dignity. The second part is sustainability. Sustainability is simply the continuation of something after initiation. This idea is also an important component to our service and missions projects. Again in her book “We Are Not the Hero”, Jean Johnson articulates that in our service and missions we need to think about how what we do on day one impacts day 10, day 100, and day 1000. In other words, think long-term. Think sustainable. Think: Are we cultivating independence with those we serve or creating dependence? We may come to the realization that what we are doing is not sustainable and therefore may not be as effective as previously thought. When we serve on a mission, teaching information, training in certain skills, and educating can all lead to more effective and sustainable ministry and also maintain dignity for all involved. If this brief discussion resonates with you, I encourage you to pick up a copy of my book “Rehab the World” and pay close attention to the chapter on teaching and training. That chapter highlights the unique skills specific to physical therapy and rehab specialists and expounds in more detail how those skills can be utilized more effectively and sustainably on the mission field. You can also visit the “Resources” tab of this website for more information and materials for a more harmonious mission and serving ministry. Anyway, I hope you walk away from today’s discussion with a refreshed perspective to think about your service and mission efforts. Maybe you are encouraged to continue. Great! Maybe you realize some things need to change. Excellent! But let’s all learn from this and move forward thinking about dignity and sustainability to continue to advance the kingdom of God. Jason Welcome to our new subscribers!! And if you haven't joined the conversation on Facebook, then find us @ptsonmission to continue to receive updates, encouragement, and information. Finally, tell a friend if you are benefiting from this site. One of the joys of working in a large rehab center with many colleagues is the ability to see different approaches to problems and different, creative interventions that individual therapists use to address patient deficits. I get to observe new exercises or functional tasks, talk about them, and apply them to my own patients. I also get the fun of providing that same sharing mentality to my colleagues when I experiment with different, unique interventions. An added bonus for me is that we also have a neurological specialty rehab gym adjoining my orthopedic/sports medicine space. That means that I get to see unique, evidence based interventions applied to a different patient population altogether. That was never more evident when I happened to walk by the neuro gym one day to observe one of my colleagues working with a patient on the treadmill to help the patient’s walking pattern while simultaneously dropping playing cards on the tread and asking the patient to tell her the number and suite of the card before it was carried off the back end. I found out later that my colleague was using this set up was due to a recent article she read in a journal. The article, linked below, was looking to answer the question if there was better outcomes on several functional outcome measures by combining physical and cognitive exercises in patients with mild cognitive impairment verses just physical exercise. Combing Physical and Cognitive Exercises You can probably guess the results of the study based on my colleagues' treatment. But yes, turns out that combining mental tasks while performing physical exercises boosted outcomes on the Mini-Mental State Exam and also improved overall function. This is valuable information for those of you who work with a neuro population with patients who may have mild cognitive impairment. But I think this article also provides great benefit to those of you who work with the geriatric population in which you would also likely see mild cognitive impairment. So, begin to think about adding mental tasks while doing exercises. This study suggests playing word games while performing step ups, etc. If you work with neuro patients or geriatric patients use this information to help your patients achieve higher outcomes by incorporating what the article terms as “cognicizing.” “Cognicize” away! Jason Welcome to our new subscribers!! And if you haven't joined the conversation on Facebook, then find us @ptsonmission to continue to receive updates, encouragement, and information. Finally, tell a friend if you are benefiting from this site. Today, I am excited to have a long time friend and colleague on the blog to discuss some his thoughts about managing a PT practice. Please welcome Jordan Mellinger to the blog today! I think you will find his perspective encouraging and impactful as he shares some of his success and difficulties since jumping into management. Enjoy! What is the name of and where is the clinic that you work at and manage? I work at and manage the Ortho Sport PT clinic down in Albany, GA. How many people do you manage? I oversee 5 other employees. What are some of the unique challenges that you've had to work through in your role as clinic manager? I have been in management for a few years now and have experienced many successes and challenges. For me, one of the biggest challenges early on was trying to develop rapport within the clinic both with the therapists I managed as well as upper management and physician relationships. I learned coming into an established practice and wanting to make adjustments takes time. I needed to build trust and develop a plan for what changes I thought should take place. I found that some of the things I was passionate about or felt would be best did not fully line up with other therapists or upper management, so navigating those waters at times was difficult. One of the other challenges that comes to mind was learning how to be a manager of a group while still being a busy clinician with a full caseload. As a clinician, I was able to come in and focus my care and thought process almost solely on the patients I was treating each day. As a manager, I needed to learn how to keep that same focus of patient care at the forefront while also multi-tasking the needs of the other staff, dealing with clinic issues that arise during the day, and keeping upper management up to speed on how the PT department was performing. This proved challenging early on because I was not able to shift focus quickly from one area to another. Multi-tasking and being able to make progress on different fronts during the day was crucial for me to start to improve in order to be effective as a manager while still being effective as a clinician with patients. How has your Christian faith helped you work through those challenges? My Christian faith has absolutely helped me work through these challenges. Some of the things that quickly come to mind are learning humility and putting that into practice during the day with my interactions with my staff and upper management. My first response can often be defensive when something I've done or decided is criticized. I have needed to be reminded again and again to be a good listener and take criticism with humility. I have also seen a tremendous benefit of the truth from Proverbs 15 in controlling my words and tongue to ensure I am building others up and being gentle with my responses. Finally, and most importantly, my faith has continued to help me realize that I can not be an effective manager without relying on the Lord to continue to renew me each day. My purpose, my worth, and my focus must remain on Him in order for me to continue to grow and develop as a manager in order to have a positive impact on those around me. How do you create a culture of faith within a diverse workforce and patient population? The biggest attitude I have tried to focus on to create a culture of faith is making sure everyone who comes into our clinic, whether it is staff or patients, knows they are valued and that we care about them. I think in today’s culture being genuine, showing love, and going the extra mile is noticed. Often, the attitude we display towards others will lead our patients to make comments about how the environment in our clinic is different in compared to other clinics. With that difference comes the opportunity to speak as to why that difference is evident. Then, that can open up the door to discuss faith. What are a few key scriptures you rely on and attitudes you display to create that culture? Qualities of an overseer: Titus 1:7-8 - Qualities of an overseer Humility: Philippians 2:3-4 Controlling the Tongue: Proverbs 15:1 Work Ethic: Colossians 3:23 I hope you find these verses helpful to you and your management practices and I hope you are encouraged by some of my testimony in moving into a managerial role. Jordan Welcome to our new subscribers!! And if you haven't joined the conversation on Facebook, then find us @ptsonmission to continue to receive updates, encouragement, and information. Finally, tell a friend if you are benefiting from this site. A new year dawns. Most, if not all of us, are downright ready to be rid of 2020. We look expectantly for this new year to be better than this last and we might begin to think about and make plans for the coming year ahead. You may think that planning, setting new goals, and thinking about the year ahead is futile given what we experienced this past year in which plans were dashed and goals went unmet. Or you may just be sick of making goals because that is something we do everyday for our patients. I understand that sentiment well and commiserate with you! But the goals we write are all for other people and not your personal life. Yet, I believe there is still value in setting some goals for the upcoming year. So, I want to encourage you to set some goals for the 2021 year in four different categories. These are categories that I’ve been thinking about and categories in which I will set some goals. This way, we can encourage each other. A Spiritual Goal. Most of us will likely create and write down some spiritual goals. It could be praying more consistently, reading through the Bible in a year, doing a specific in-depth study, or memorizing a certain number of passages. You would do well to do this! Your personal faith walk will benefit greatly. But, I would encourage you to also make an evangelism goal for all of your time in the clinic with patients. Maybe it’s a goal to pray with four patients over the course of the year (1 patient every quarter.) Or Maybe it’s a goal to share the gospel with 1-2 patients as the Lord leads over the course of the year. If it’s your first time setting a goal like this, start small like the examples. If this is a practice you regularly incorporate then add to it and let’s see what God does was with these goals. A Reading Goal. I didn’t alway used to read a bunch but many years ago I was challenged with a book reading plan and I decided to set a goal of 6 books per year or about 1 book for every 2 months. I found this goal to be very attainable. And the cool thing with this goal is it can be any kind of book! I personally enjoy biographies, christian discipleship books, histories, and leadership books. But there are also good books about physical therapy that give us good food for thought to enhance our practice. If you need a good starting point, I would encourage you to pick up a copy of “Rehab The World.” It’s a short, easy to read book that will not only help you in your daily practice but also get you to think about your work place as a mission field. Point being, there is so much to learn and we need to recapture the love of learning through books. A Professional Goal. Not only would be this a good idea for your career advancement but also for general knowledge of our field and healthcare business writ large. Maybe you could find a PT management course or an introductory to healthcare business class. Maybe you could work out an apprenticeship with management in your facility. But as our field continues to expand and develop it is important to make sure we understand all of the back end work, if you will, of clinic operations, insurance, management, and leadership in the variety of fields in which you work. An Education Goal. This will be easy because we are always needing CEU’s to maintain our licenses. But try to find a course/class that will really impact your practice and make you a better clinician no matter the field of PT in which you work. We always want to be practicing at the highest level for our patients sake. As you think about the year ahead and goal setting, always make sure that your goals are attainable and tailored to you, your clinic setting, and your interests. Happy goal setting! Jason Welcome to our new subscribers!! And if you haven't joined the conversation on Facebook, then find us @ptsonmission to continue to receive updates, encouragement, and information. Finally, tell a friend if you are benefiting from this site. Christmas is in the air. Cookies are baking in the oven. Christmas trees are twinkling with lights and ornaments. A spirit of giving is palpable, and families are gathering together - some in small, nuclear groups and others virtually. It truly is a most wonderful time of the year and for Christ followers it is an even more special time to pause and reflect on the sheer awe and grandeur of the Gospel story. That is what I want to provide this week: an opportunity to reflect, via the Scriptures, on the ultimate gift of Christmas to refresh my heart, your heart, and to renew our passion to spread this good news of great joy to those in our clinic in the days and weeks ahead. Hopeless Darkness “ Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not here.” Isaiah 59:1-2, “...but people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” John 3:19 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience - among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. ...Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ...having no hope and without God in the world.” Ephesians 2:1-4,12 The Promise of Light and Life “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:2,6 “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” John 1:9 “...An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and the shall call his name Immanuel.’” Matthew 1:20-23 The Fulfillment Bringing Joy “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:5,14 “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29 “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” 1 Peter 2:24 “But to all who did receive him [Jesus], who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:12 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together in Christ - by grace you have been saved. Ephesians 2:4-5 Praise be to God for not letting us wallow in darkness forever but making a way of hope and salvation through the shed blood of Jesus, who came into the world on a loving rescue mission! This Christmas, when we think about baby Jesus, let’s proclaim like John the Baptist, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.” There was eternity altering power laying in that manger in the little town of Bethlehem bringing hope to me, to you, to your patients, and to everyone. That is good news of great joy. That alone brings comfort and hope. Do you believe that? Jason Welcome to our new subscribers!! And if you haven't joined the conversation on Facebook, then find us @ptsonmission to continue to receive updates, encouragement, and information. Finally, tell a friend if you are enjoying the content! We’ve often heard that America is a great melting pot. In other words, America is a country with an amalgamation of different people groups, ethnicities, and heritages. This is one of the things that I love about our country. So many people from all over the world have come to this country for a myriad of reasons and because of that we have a diverse citizenry in every city. Every city also has physical therapy clinics. Or, at least clinics close by that serve our country's diverse population. I’ve often been thinking about this reality in the context of mission trips and Covid-19. I mean, let’s be honest, most of us have not been able to travel to different countries around the world to minister and serve on medical mission teams. What are we to do if we have a heart for international missions? What can we do to serve internationally without leaving our city? Discover the melting pot in our own backyard. The opportunities are boundless. I have friends in the Pittsburgh area that are missionaries to the expansive Middle Eastern population that has immigrated and settled in that area. Many of these people would be difficult to engage because of travel and governmental restrictions, but my friends are staying within our national border and literally reaching many Middle Eastern Muslims in their own city as full time missionaries without leaving their city limits. How cool is that! Similarly, we can think about the diverse population that steps into our physical therapy clinics and workplaces. We may not be full time missionaries but we have an incredible opportunity to share the good news of Jesus to the many people who walk through our clinic doors, step into our rehab facilities, or are admitted to our hospitals. It reminds me very much of Jesus’ words in Acts 1:8. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” I know in my own clinic as I began to think about all the different countries from which my patients called home, I was quite surprised. My Jerusalem and Judea were quite diverse! I have treated patients from China, Morocco, Vietnam, India, Columbia, Germany, Spain, Cuba, Mexico, Egypt, Haiti, Turkey, Malaysia, England, and Russia. I have been able to share God’s truth with many of them without ever leaving the office. But I also know that I can leverage this gift of international proximity even more purposefully. So how can we think internationally without leaving locally? Two quick ideas: Search and Learn. Search for information about different people groups that might live in your area and begin to learn about their culture. Find out what ministries in your area might already be serving international citizens and volunteer your time to help and interact with these different people groups. Pray. Pray that God brings some of these international people into your clinic and on your schedule. Use your clinic time to build a relationship with them that could carry over when your time with them in clinic is completed. So, you want to reach the nations? Great! Let’s all start in our own backyard together making the most of every patient encounter. Jason |
Awesome ResourcesThe Gospel at Work Archives
April 2024
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