Conversations at an exhibit
VISITORS TO THE LOMA LINDA EXHIBIT IN ALBUQUERQUE TELL HOW LOMA LINDA UNIVERSITY AND MEDICAL CENTER HAVE IMPACTED THEIR LIVES
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| Proton Treatment Center referral representatives (from left) Stacie Bertella, Hazel McZeal, Cathy Loop, Sabrina Bhasker-Rao, and Lori Floyd often are first to make contact with patients for the Proton Treatment Center. |
Eighteen-year-old Melanie Towar from Grand Ledge, Michigan, met a graduate of Loma Linda University (unknown to Ms. Towar at the time) on a routine canvassing mission in the city of Okemos, Michigan.
Ms. Towar, the daughter of Dan Towar, an ordained pastor in the Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, happened upon the house of the Loma Linda graduate. Ms. Towar was kindly received and the woman was very receptive to the books that Ms. Towar had for sale.
The graduate decided to buy three of the books that Ms. Towar was selling. Instead of writing a check for the total cost of the books, the Loma Linda graduate generously wrote out a check for $20 more than the total.
Ms. Towar, who makes it a practice to pray with all the people she visits, asked to pray with her new friend. Her request was met with an enthusiastic "yes!"
When the two finished praying, the lady revealed that she had been raised a Seventh-day Adventist in the west African country of Ghana. The lady also related that she had been a former literature evangelist in her homeland before coming to Loma Linda University to study medicine.
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| W. Augustus Cheatham, MSW, vice president for public affairs and marketing for Loma Linda University and Medical Center, visits with two new friends at the Loma Linda exhibit during the 50th annual Adventist-laypersons in Services and Industries (ASI) convention held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, last summer. |
The lady was very happy for Ms. Towar's visit and thought it wonderful that people like her had the opportunity to go around and share the gospel.
Ms. Towar invited the woman to church--an invitation which was accepted.
When Richard Willey of Scottsdale, Arizona, was first diagnosed with prostate cancer, it didn't take him long to become aware of his options.
His physician was in favor of treating Mr. Willey's cancer through conventional methods such as surgery, but Mr. Willey was not enthusiastic about that plan.
Mr. Willey's son attended the School of Dentistry at Loma Linda University during the time when the Proton Treatment Center was under construction, and he had updated his father on the progress the Center was making.
In addition, his brother-in-law had become a patient at the Proton Treatment Center soon after it opened, and was successfully treated. After seeing and hearing all this, Mr. Willey decided that Loma Linda was the place to come for the treatment of his cancer.
Mr. Willey is a patient of Leslie T. Yonemoto, MD, assistant professor of radiation medicine, School of Medicine. "Dr. Yonemoto spent an hour and a half with me during his lunch period," Mr. Willey said. "That was a nice thing for him to do."
A self-described "mixer," Mr. Willey likes to strike up conversations with whoever happens to be around him. On one particular visit to Loma Linda, he began talking to a gentleman who was undergoing proton therapy for prostate cancer--as he was.
Mr. Willey asked him what he thought of Loma Linda and the treatment he was receiving. His new friend related a story that Mr. Willey loves to share.
When this particular gentleman--who did not claim any religious affiliation and did not attend church--found out he had cancer, he broke down and cried.
Whenever he talked with his friends about his cancer he would cry. Through some unknown providential measure, he learned about Loma Linda University Medical Center, and he made up his mind to find out more about this facility.
He made a call to the Medical Center and spoke to Cathy Loop, a proton referral representative.
As he began explaining his situation, he again started crying uncontrollably.
Before he could go any further, Cathy told him to take a deep breath and not to exhale until she told him to. When he regained his composure, she asked him if she could pray with him.
"They prayed together right then and there," Mr. Willey said. "The man related to me that from that moment on, a calm came over him that has never gone away."
He told Mr. Willey that if that was the way they treated people at Loma Linda University Medical Center, he had no reason to go anywhere else.
Mr. Willey agrees that the treatment he has received from Dr. Yonemoto, the staff, and the actual proton therapy has been amazing.
It is this type of treatment--combined with the success of proton therapy--that has made Mr. Willey a believer.
Mr. Willey is a strong advocate of the Medical Center proton therapy program, and fervently states "if anyone talks bad about Loma Linda to me, I won't be a happy man."
A grandfather who is an alumnus of the School of Medicine influenced Kim Pichot, a graduate of Broadview Academy in Illinois, to choose to be a missionary to Africa.
"I decided to become a missionary largely through the influence of my grandfather," Mrs. Pichot said. "He graduated from the College of Medical Evangelists [now Loma Linda University] and went as a missionary to South America and later to Africa.
"Of course, my father, growing up in a missionary family, also became a missionary to South America.
"If my grandfather hadn't taken medicine at Loma Linda and become a missionary, our story might be completely different."
Mrs. Pichot and her husband, Marcel, will be going to the west African country of Guinea under the auspices of Adventist Frontier Missions based in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Pichot are currently raising funds for their trip.
In Guinea, they will help establish Seventh-day Adventist churches among the many people as yet unreached by the Adventist Church, and in many cases, yet unreached by Christianity.
Adventist Frontier Missions was founded in 1985 by Clyde and Cathy Morgan, and is supported by voluntary contributions.
A friend of Crystal Carter's mother stopped by the Loma Linda exhibit in New Mexico to share another experience with exhibit staffers.
Crystal entered the School of Medicine last July. On the first weekend after she started classes, Crystal called home to tell her folks how pleased she was to learn that many of her teachers at Loma Linda prayed before they started classes. In addition, they all prayed for students before they began an examination session.
The next day, Crystal's mother shared Crystal's experience with her Sabbath school members in their hometown church in Atlanta, Georgia.
Crystal is a graduate of the State University of West Georgia. She grew up attending public schools--except for her high school years where she took her first two years at a Seventh-day Adventist school in Atlanta, and then went on to Forest Lake Academy in Florida where she graduated.
"Loma Linda University has a completely different atmosphere," Crystal said during an interview in Loma Linda. "It is so nice to be at a university where God is not put down and where my teachers believe in creation."
Even though Crystal applied to several medical schools--as do most medical students--Loma Linda was her first choice.
"I always wanted to attend Loma Linda for my medical education," Crystal explains. "The atmosphere at Loma Linda is totally different than at the state university where I was one of only two Seventh-day Adventists."
Crystal, like many of her classmates, is looking forward to the day when her training will be used in the service of the Lord.
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