NEWS FEATURE
Adventists bring “Hope on Wheels” to morning market,
follow-up with visitors
Ansel Oliver, Adventist News Network,
reporting from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
At 7:00 one recent morning a nurse and two church workers got out of a van at a market to set up tables, plastic stools, and two red canopies.
BLOOD PRESSURE CHECK : In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Christina Joseph, a nurse, offers a blood pressure check to a patron of a morning street market. Joseph is part of Hope on Wheels, a mobile medical ministry that serves in markets on behalf of the Adventist Church. The trio, all wearing white polo shirts with red trim, set up their booth not to sell produce, meats, or trinkets like nearby hawkers, but instead to conduct health screenings sponsored by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
This full-time ministry, called Hope on Wheels, operates five days a week to offer basic health assessments and comfort to those who may be experiencing severe health challenges. With obesity on the rise, some are surprised to learn that they may have diabetes.
For not selling, the team does a brisk business. Dozens visit its booth over the next three hours as the team offers tests for blood pressure, glucose, and body mass index. Later they’ll visit the homes of regular visitors to their booth, checking to see if guests have called their doctor about an issue or adjusted their diet as suggested.
This ministry, launched in February, is an ultralocal operation, one that was made possible by, literally, an extraordinary gift. A multimillion-dollar tithe contributed to the Adventist world church in 2007, dubbed “extraordinary tithe,” established funds to ramp up projects worldwide, especially in the 10/40 window, a geographical rectangle in the Eastern Hemisphere between the 10 and 40 northern lines of latitude. It’s estimated that more than 60 percent of the world’s population lives in the region, less than 2 percent of which is Christian.
Local church leaders here in Malaysia’s peninsula, located within the 10/40 window, last year came up with the idea of a mobile medical ministry after hearing about similar initiatives in New York City and Sydney. But while some ministries outfit an entire bus and have patrons come on board, Hope on Wheels, operating out of a van, can get into smaller markets, malls, and schools.
HOPE ON WHEELS : Sunny Tan retrieves equipment from the Hope on Wheels van. The ministry operates in local markets throughout Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.“We’re trying to create awareness of the Seventh-day Adventist Church,” said Leong Fai, president of the Adventist Church’s Peninsular Malaysian Mission, home to about 5,200 Adventists.
The Adventist Church here is little known, even among those familiar with other Protestant denominations. The mission operates in Kuala Lumpur, the federal capital and the nation’s most populous city, with more than 1.6 million people.
Malaysia is an economically strong Southeast Asian nation, a major exporter of energy, palm oil, and computer parts. Its official religion is Islam, which includes about 60 percent of the population. About 20 percent of citizens are Buddhist, and Christians make up less than 10 percent of the population.
“Before Hope on Wheels, many people didn’t know about the Advent-ist Church like they do in Penang,” Fai said of the island 200 miles to the north, home to Penang Adventist Hospital, which owns a bakery. “Adventist” brand bread is found in stores in Kuala Lumpur.
“If [people] know about the Adventist Church, it’s usually because of the bread,” said Sunny Tan, a pastor who serves on the Hope on Wheel’s team. “We’re trying every way we can to reach out to people,” the 30-year-old said.
HEALTH TEST : Ronald Longgou (right) helps a patron of a local morning market in Kuala Lumpur test for body mass index. The former Bible worker is one of three team members of the Hope on Wheels ministry, which offers community health screenings and follow-up visits five days a week.The team will often coordinate with one of a handful of nearby Adventist churches to hold a monthly cooking demonstration. At markets, team members and volunteers will suggest people visit one of the cooking classes to learn how to make more healthful and appealing meals.
Tan said the team has operated here in the Puchong district for two months. They typically minister to a market once a week for three to six months, setting up at different locations five days a week. He said they sometimes encounter gang members extorting market sellers, but they leave his team alone when they learn they are a charity.
When entering a new area, the team admits it’s not above employing some strategy. Tan said they once had a local pastor join them wearing nondescript clothes. Market customers, weary of the sharply dressed crew that can appear like so many direct marketing teams, wondered what they were selling. “They’re not selling anything,” the pastor said to assuage their skepticism. “Step in and get a free health screening.”
“I’ve even had my wife stand around holding our baby and doing the same thing,” Tan admitted.
The team began its planning last September, creating a logo and hiring a designer to detail their van. The inspiration for their name: Pizza Hut’s mobile kitchens.
“They had the popular slogan here, ‘Hot on Wheels,’ so we chose ‘Hope on Wheels’ because that’s what we offer,” said 24-year-old Christina Joseph, the team’s nurse.
Shortly before 8:00 a.m. the third member of the team, Ronald Longgou, was fanning himself with his clipboard, the temperature already 84 degrees Fahrenheit, typical of the humid, tropical air near the equator. That’s when Sharon Pfeiffer, a 54-year-old Malay, came in for her second weekly visit. It’s not uncommon for people to visit the team’s booth up to six weeks in a row.
“I saw this last week, and I liked the setup,” Pfeiffer said. “I was so impressed that I called my friend,” she said, pointing to an older Chinese woman nearby.
Pfeiffer said her family has a history of strokes, and she wants to learn to mitigate the possibility of having one herself.
PRINT THIS PAGE
EMAIL TO A FRIEND
SEND US A COMMENT
