Tag: Ministry

Meet Dr. Oh!

Posted on by Billy Holbrook

A Doctor’s Testimony

by Dr. Joyce Oh

For whatever reason, when Billy asked me to write about myself for this newsletter, I thought, “That’s easy! Who doesn’t like to talk about themselves?” But I fumbled for content, and while I know everyone has an origin story, it was hard to get the right perspective on mine. Today, the Lord reminded me that I can speak of Him, because He is the author of this life, His are the blessings I’ve received, His is the Spirit that lives in me, and His are the plans that my life follows.

The God of this universe, He decided that I be born into a Korean immigrant family. Sometimes I think of the questions I’ll have for God when we meet face to face.“Why, God, do you make women [or maybe just this woman] subject to our own emotions?”Another more relevant question I’ll have is “Why, God, was I born into a Korean family?”I cannot wait to know the answers. Like so many other immigrant families, it meant that there was a culture of hard work and high expectations. Though the essence of hard work is certainly a Godly principle, it is the enemy’s job to twist all things good into bad. From all that hard work, I’d come to believe this lie: “to be loved, be perfect.” The Lord offered me the first and most potent bout of freedom from this lie**

Through the rigors of residency and life outside of it, God continued to reveal the power of lies just like this that take rampant charge over my mind when it is not set on Christ: be smart, be right, be wealthy, be quick-witted, be wise, be beautiful, be perfect, and you will be loved. Isn’t the enemy so good at his job? Are these not great Godly gifts if used for His glory? But how quickly we make them servant to our own ends!

I learned a truth at Mercy Med through Jeanne, one of our amazingly God-centered counselors, that banishes these lies: you are known, and therefore loved.

Our God is so gracious, so beautifully merciful, so heartbreakingly tender, so endlessly wise, so INFINITE in His goodness that in knowing us, he loved us first while we were yet sinners. His is the love that first reached me, and I am changed because of it.

This revelatory and transformative truth the Lord has entrusted to us to make known to all peoples. He’s placed in me a desire to share and plant this truth in all peoples. Hopefully, one day, I’ll be able to have a conversation with a future brother or sister overseas about the Good News they’ve not yet heard!

Psalm 116: I Love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy.Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath! Death wrapped its ropes around me; the terrors of the grave overtook me. I saw only trouble and sorrow. Then I called on the name of the Lord: “Please, Lord, save me!” How kind the Lord is! How good he is! So merciful, this God of ours! The Lord protects those of childlike faith; I was facing death, and he saved me.Let my soul be at rest again, for the Lord has been good to me.”

Seeds

Posted on by Billy Holbrook

Dr. Grant Scarborough

(pictured above, Dr. Grant Scarborough and Dr. Robert Campbell.)

 

Seeds are pretty simple. You plant and water and then wait. Add a little fertilizer, water a little more and wait. It seems like a lot of waiting.

After a while there’s a shoot from the dirt – then more waiting. My garden is not the best of gardens. Many plants grow up and then bear no fruit. Well that just stinks. I really think that as much money as I spend on my garden – and the little fruit I receive – it would be cheaper to go to the grocery store and buy the entire vegetable section. But don’t tell my wife, she likes the backyard dirt.

Sometimes you get that one plant that completely over produces and it makes it completely worthwhile. One year it was our cherry tomato plant and once it was our cucumbers. Last week I saw some more over production from seeds planted in Augusta, Georgia ten years ago.

In 2007 I moved to Augusta to try and start a clinic with a friend Robert Campbell. We had so little. Many of you know the story of God’s faithfulness, and how God provided for our families and our clinic. It was the biggest step of faith we had ever taken as a family. We planted a small seed called caring for the poor. We prayed, many people watered it. Somehow, it grew.

I was able to go visit it last week. I was overwhelmed. The seed had grown into a tree. I think of the bible story where a very small seed was planted and grew into the largest tree in the garden where many birds came and nested in that tree. I saw a clinic in Augusta, where many of the poor have come and found a home. They found a tree where they were cared for. They found a resting place. They found hope. They found Jesus.

I was even more amazed to see many names on a sign on a wall that made it possible. Many people from Columbus, GA were on the sign. Amazing! People from a different city planted a seed. You need to know that in a different city and in a different garden, the great gardener God grew a beautiful tree. The people in Augusta do not know I am writing this – but I encourage you all to go visit and see the seed that was planted by many from Columbus. See the seed that has grown into a fruitful tree.

In 2011 I moved to Columbus and more seeds were planted. It allowed us to open another clinic called MercyMed of Columbus on January 19, 2012. Exactly five years ago. Today is our five year birthday. I am overwhelmed as a I write about how God blessed MercyMed. I report on this fifth birthday that our success is due to many things and today I stand to give glory where glory is due. After completing an expansion, adding dentistry, hiring a new nurse practitioner, expanding counseling – we stand to give glory first and foremost to the God of Heaven and Earth.

Deuteronomy 8:11-18 says,  

“Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.”

We desire to publicly acknowledge on our fifth birthday, that it is all about Jesus. We want to remember Him and acknowledge – it was not the might of our hand and our power. It was all about God. We will remember and celebrate Jesus first and foremost today. We will NOT forget!

But I also want to thank you. You have planted seeds with us. You have invested in us. We dug some dirt, manipulated the soil, you planted seeds, we all watered and God showed up. Thank you for being a part of what God is doing in Columbus, GA. Thank you for investing in MercyMed, but even more, what God is doing for the poor in this city.

May we, today on our fifth birthday, celebrate Christ. Let’s celebrate Him as the defender of the poor; let’s celebrate Him who is the Great Provider; let’s celebrate Him as the Lover of our Souls; let’s celebrate Him who so kindly and graciously waters the little seeds we planted; let’s celebrate Him who brings forth the sprouts that lead to fruit.

Let’s celebrate – not MercyMed – let’s celebrate Christ!

To God be the glory. Great things He has done!

I Felt It

Posted on by Billy Holbrook

Dr. Grant Scarborough –excerpt from Dr. Scarborough’s book “Awake My Soul”

(Written after moving from Augusta to Columbus to start a new medical clinic)

Yesterday, I finished my work in Augusta to move to Columbus. Can I just say, “bittersweet.” You start a ministry and then leave the ministry to start another. That’s actually not that bittersweet. There is more to ministry than buildings, schedules, and meetings. Ministry is people, real living and breathing people. Real people that hurt, have pain and loss, and need the love of Jesus. Bittersweet! I have left many of my friends in Augusta; Lord provide for them—send another missionary to them to love, sacrifice and care for them.

Jerry Charlie or Charlie Jerry—to be honest, I have never known—has been a patient of mine for a couple of years. He used to be a truck driver, but being in his late 70’s and having some medical problems, he could no longer drive. He still went to work everyday, just to drink some coffee and remember the good ol’ days. He prayed for me the day before I moved to Columbus, but that was not the first time.

One day during our clinic visit, I was really feeling rushed. Trying to hurry him out, he stopped and asked if I could pray him. I felt so guilty that I did not take time to care for all of him. He wanted me to pray when I just wanted to give him some medicines. How blinded I can become some days.  I actually gave him a few things for him to pray for me. I love doing this. People need to know I am broken and need a Savior as much they do. So we prayed together. I will never forget that day. He squeezed my hand and prayed—he got into a rhythm and every new phrase he squeezed tighter—then another phrase and another squeeze.  “We thank you Lord, Amen.” “Did you feel it Dr. Scarborough?” were the next words out of his mouth as he held his finger close to my face. And Yes, I felt it; I was the one blessed. I was so refreshed by his prayer. I was truly blessed. “Thank you Jerry…I mean Charlie,” I mumbled.

I invited him to our clinic Bible study and I remember his first prayer request—“pray for me, I do not have any friends. I live with 3 other guys in a trailer, and I do not get along with any of them. Pray for me. I am lonely.” We prayed for him and the Lord answered. We were to be his friends. He kept coming to Bible Study. It was a sweet time. Bible study is a neat mix of people and backgrounds that come to hear a little about Jesus. I will never forget the time I did a study on Luke and one of my patients stated that Luke was his favorite disciple.

The next week, we discussed a passage in the book of John and my same friend stated, “Dr. Scarborough, I love John the Baptist—therefore, I love the book of John.”

I know John the Baptist did not write the book of John, he was beheaded way before it was written. But I was afraid that my friend would outwit me again, so I was silent. Maybe what I learned in Bible school was wrong. “I love John the Baptist too.”

I digress.

So Jerry or Charlie was there during our interesting conversations. I still was not sure what his name was and everybody in the Bible Study would mumble one name or the other, until one day he put the whole matter to rest, “I am diggin the Jerry!” he said. So from then on, it was always Jerry. Honestly, I was diggin the Jerry also.

So Jerry came to our Bible Study, we went out to dinner, and he came over for dinner as well. My intern and good friend, Will, that led the Bible study with me would go pick him up and just be with him. It was a great picture, a 19-year-old white intern with a late 70-something black man. Will called him up one day and invited him to dinner, “anywhere you want to go Jerry, I am paying.” Jerry asked him if he needed to dress up. My poor intern looked worried because he was poor and obviously Jerry must be thinking of some place nice. And he was, they feasted that night at Ryan’s Steakhouse.

A few months later Will went with Jerry to a revival at his church. Will sang, lifted his hands, and danced all night next to his good friend Jerry. After taking Jerry out to eat a few times, he surprised Will and took him out to eat.

Jerry came over to my house for Easter lunch. It was my family, with all my girls, Will and my widowed next-door neighbor. My next-door neighbor was a very proper and well-off lady in her late 70s, sweet as pie I might add.  Everytime we kids went next door, she gave us ice cream sandwiches.

We always sing after eating our Sunday lunch and this time, Jerry led us in worship.  He sang Amazing Grace as loud as anyone has ever sung in my house before, and Anne, the girls, Will and our neighbor all joined in. The kingdom of God is very beautiful. I cannot help but think that heaven will look a little like Jerry, my neighbor, and my girls singing in unison to our heavenly Father.

When I was close to moving, I had my last clinic appointment with Jerry. We talked and laughed. I am not sure if we discussed medicine at all. He knew I was driving every week to Columbus. He looked at me and made me promise. “Promise me every time before you get in the car and drive, that you pray for traveling mercies. Promise me. I have been a truck driver for years and the Lord has always protected me when I prayed that prayer. The Lord will protect you as well.” Then he prayed, squeezed my hand, got into a rhythm, squeezed tighter, repeated it again before, “Amen, Did you feel it Dr. Scarborough?” Sometimes I forget who the minister is in the room. Did the Lord send me to minister to Jerry or did the Lord send Jerry to minister to me?  I am not sure what the answer is but am grateful to the Lord for my friend .

A week before moving to Columbus, I had a going away party for myself. I invited all my patients to come, and we would cook them dinner, sing some songs, and be together. They could meet my wife and kids. It was so wonderful. Halfway through the night Dale walked up and told me he wanted to pray for my family before the night was over. Dale is a rural white Pentecostal assistant preacher that helps lead revivals throughout the southeast. I am sure he could get pretty loud preaching.  I love him and his wife—you would love Dale and even walk the aisle and come to Jesus again when he preached, if he would just shave that mustache. Sorry, Dale.

I wasn’t sure what to tell Dale of his request to pray when we already had a plan of staff members sending us out in prayer. I was pondering this even more when we had finished singing and I was saying a few words to remind them of Christ’s love. As I was speaking, I saw Ms. Francis Sims. She was an African American lady that led a small congregation. She closed down her church a couple of months ago because of lack of funds. She too had been going to revivals with a different prophet, Prophet Dent. I loved Francis. After every sentence, she would emphatically say, “Amen.” Hold on for one second, I feel myself regressing. One day Francis came in when my ex-dancer, ex-prostitute, ex-madam friend was there who had been dramatically saved from her profession, and who liked to emphatically state “Praise the Lord!” after every sentence. I put them in the same room and simply said, “start talking.” I sat back and laughed as I heard “Amen” and “Praise the Lord” ring out time and time again. What a musical chorus.

Francis asked me to preach at her church a couple of times. What a highlight to my ministry in Augusta: preaching to about 15 people with all my might. I don’t know who spoke more that morning, me or the congregation. I never found that rhythm Jerry so easily finds when he prays. Which reminds me, Jerry was in the audience as well that night at the patient party. So that night was closed not with the staff praying over us, but some of my dear friends, Jerry, Francis, and Dale.

They laid their hands on me—and my wife and girls—and prayed. They prayed for our safety, they thanked God for our ministry, and they prayed for you—Columbus. They prayed God would bless our new ministry; they prayed God would prepare hearts in Columbus to hear the gospel; they prayed Jesus would be glorified. Jerry never got into a rhythm this time. He got choked up pretty early on in the prayer, stopped suddenly and said, “I am too emotional…Lord protect them!” He did not have to say it this time, but I felt it. The entire group felt it.

So the Scarborough family comes to Columbus—sent out to you, sent out from Augusta. Sent not by the mayor, the attorney, nor the banker—but sent out by a Pentecostal preacher, an ex-truck driver, and African American preacher—Dale, Jerry and Francis, my friends.

Lord protect my Augusta friends and provide for them.

Thank you

 

Postscript:

Since writing this, Dale and his wife have come to Columbus and we had dinner at Cracker Barrel. Jerry has come for the weekend, and I had him pray for the family everyday. This time our family felt his prayer.  It has been five years and my intern, Will, still calls his friend, Jerry, every week.