Home
Detroit Medical Clinic Dedicated on Sunday
DETROIT (September 29, 2003) - More than 200 people attended a Sunday afternoon
dedication service for Covenant Community Care (CCC), a medical clinic
located near
Messiah Church in southwest Detroit.
The 502c3 non-profit clinic, which used to house a funeral home, has
handled more than 100 client visits each month since opening its doors June
30, according to Barbara Coslow, who volunteers as a nurse practitioner and
serves as president of CCC's board.
Dr. Kathy Kleinert, director of clinical services and one of the project's
visionaries, served clients through her private practice for three years
before the clinic opened.
"Who would have thought that a place for the dead, a funeral home, would be
a place of healing?" asked Donn Engebretson, executive vice president of he
Evangelical Covenant Church, as he addressed Sunday afternoon's dedication
service audience (he also preached Sunday morning). Using Psalm 126 as his
text, Engebretson observed that "there is something that all of God's
dreams in our lives have in common. They
are God-sized and they seem impossible for us . . . but that which seemed
way too good to be true (the clinic) seems too good not to be true. And
right now, right here, people are receiving care in Jesus' name. The
Kingdom of God has moved into this neighborhood and it will never be the
same."
Other honored guests included Great Lakes Conference Supt. Richard Lucco
and Associate Supt. Larry Sherman; David Dwight, president of Covenant
Ministries of Benevolence (CMB), and Harold Spooner, CMB executive vice
president for outreach ministries.
Covenant Community Care is one of six free clinics that are collaborating
to ease the medical needs in Detroit, Kleinert noted. Operations on the
first floor of the 7,500-square-foot building will address regular health
care needs. The clinic will use the
second floor for dental care services in the near future, as well as a
counseling office and conference room. Funds to make the clinic handicapped
accessible were provided by Southwest Detroit Concerned Citizens, a local
advocacy group. Kleinert expects the clinic will serve many of the
estimated 15,000 people living near Messiah Church who do not have medical
insurance.
Four Covenant congregations have supported the clinic from the start -
Messiah Church, Trinity Church of Livonia, the Evangelical Covenant Church
of Dearborn and Faith Covenant Church in Farmington Hills. A fifth support
partner is First Spanish Baptist Church. More than 200 volunteers were
mentioned in a bulletin commemorating the dedication.
The building was purchased for $165,000 and required $30,000 in renovations
- about $70,000 less than what it would have cost without volunteer help
and material donations,
According to Jim Coslow, CCC treasurer.
Kleinert's dream as a child was to serve in the medical field, sparked no
doubt during an extended hospital stay where she began to consider how she
could help the underserved. After earning her undergraduate degree from
Wayne State University in Detroit, she
earned a doctorate from Michigan State University in nearby Lansing. Many
area hospital and clinic closures have made it more difficult for the poor
to find adequate medical care near Messiah Church, she says, prompting
Kleinert and Messiah's pastor, Bob Hoey, to
commit to the project.
In the fall of 1999, Kleinert shared her vision for a Detroit clinic with
her church. A meeting took place in September 2001 between the current
building's owner and project supporters. Although it would take some time
for the dream to become reality, Kleinert and others believe it has been
worth the wait - the clinic is now open four and a half days per week.
In her remarks, Kleinert thanked her mother, Barbara Portis, for teaching
her to respect others. She thanked other staff and board members who have
done the same for the
underserved in Detroit - staff members include Jody Eidnes, a pharmacy
clerk attending Faith Covenant Church; office manager Dr. Leticia Guerrero,
and security and custodial assistant Angelo Brown of Messiah Church. The
CCC board includes Kleinert, Hoey, the Coslows, Dr. Frederick Nell, Dr.
Brian Jacobson, James Crawford, David Allen, Dr. Ernest Berkas, board vice
president Dr. Virginia McBride of the Dearborn Covenant congregation and
Harold and Bruce Larson of Faith Covenant.
"Parts of this have been easier than I expected," said Kleinert of the long
wait for the
opening of the clinic. "But this has helped me learn about what God's will
is instead of doing what I think is most comfortable. When there has been a
need, God has always seemed to provide. And the circle (of assistance) has
gotten so much wider.
"It's become a great adventure for me and we hope this becomes a prototype
for the
Covenant," Kleinert continued. "But what we're doing really isn't as
important to people's bodies as it is to people's minds . . . a lot of
those I serve see themselves as less in God's eyes. It's my job to convince
them that we are all alike in God's eyes."
"What you're doing here in Detroit sets a model for others to follow," said
Dwight during his remarks at Sunday's afternoon service. "We think this
will be the first of many clinics like this in the Covenant."
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
