August Second Sunday Offering on August 8:

AMOS Health and Hope

By Jamey Moore

Our August Second Sunday offering is dedicated to AMOS Health and Hope. AMOS stands for A Ministry of Sharing Health and Hope and is also named for the Hebrew prophet.  Amos was a farmer who spoke out against the injustices of his time. His message about justice flowing everywhere is still relevant today.

I first heard about AMOS from our guest preacher, Felicia Zamora. The dream for AMOS began in 1967 with the work of Dr. Gustavo Parajón, a physician, medical missionary and American Baptist pastor. Faced with overwhelming need in the poorest rural villages, Dr. Parajón frequently remarked:

“In Nicaragua, a doctor shouldn’t just be a doctor; a doctor must also be a teacher.”

This vision for empowerment gave birth to an integral health care initiative devoted to local leadership development. The heart of Dr. Parajón’s work focused on communities themselves, teaching local people to provide basic primary health care services, thereby dramatically reducing unnecessary illness and death. This focus on strengthening communities through education and preventive care lives on in AMOS today.

Through a community-based model, AMOS trains and empowers health promoters in rural areas to identify and treat common illnesses, right in their own villages. And at their community clinics in vulnerable neighborhoods of Managua, AMOS provides quality primary health care services to people who would otherwise be unable to afford them.

No person should die from a preventable cause. People who live in extremely remote rural areas or in underserved urban neighborhoods deserve the same access to health care as people who live closer to health care facilities or who have greater access to resources. So please give generously to this worthy cause. For more information check out their website: www.amoshealth.org