A team of Ukrainians, with the help of Wildwood educators, started a medical missionary school in 1999. Three years later, Our Home added “Lifestyle Center” to its name.
In the first months, the team was excited to have 16 guests come for a 10-day program. Now they welcome an average of 50 patients to each session. Altogether more than 6,000 people from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Moldova, and other countries have been guests at Our Home. Approximately half of these guests were non-Adventists.
The lifestyle center operates according to the principles laid out in the Spirit of Prophecy, emphasizing the importance of changing one’s lifestyle to obey God’s laws in nature and using of natural remedies to combat chronic diseases. Patients often call it “a piece of paradise on earth,” because they appreciate the cheerful and loving atmosphere, which fills everyone and everything—from physicians to janitors, and from morning devotionals to hydrotherapy sessions. The medical missionary school is integral to Our Home’s mission.
The school offers introductory one-month and complete six-month LIGHT courses. Through this instruction, the team has helped more than 1,600 lay people to gain a vision for ministry. The training is done both on the institution’s campus and through field schools in different parts of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus. The medical missionary training program was welcomed by the Church in 2006, and now it is a part of the medical missionary program in the Ukraine Union of Seventh-day Adventist Churches. The project’s goal is to train lay people for medical missionary service inside the church and also for outside work in their communities. The program also calls for lay people to start new institutions like health centers, treatment rooms, and health food stores.
The staff members at Our Home envision an expansion of medical missionary work deeper into the territory of the former USSR. They are committed to the proclamation of the Three Angels’ Messages to the world.
