More than a receptionist
From a session at the Transform Our World conference
Serena Schule is a receptionist at a medical practice in California. She shares something of her day-to-day work here:
I right now work at a medical practice in the Bay Area that has been dedicated as an Ekklesia. And it's just been an incredible opportunity to work in a secular business place and is transforming the Bay Area, one patient at a time.
Something I've realised is that in the medical fields, people are coming, really looking for hope. And they're people who are usually hurting, and they're looking for a miracle, or they're desperate, or they've tried everything, and just nothing has helped them. So it's just been an incredible opportunity to share God's light in new ways every day.
That mindset has helped me; walking into work each day, or anytime I answer a phone call or an email, just knowing that I am also personally the ekklesia and that God can use me to help change people's lives. So as I drive into work each day, I pray for each of my co-workers, each patient I know we'll have and just for the details of the day to run smoothly.
I'm just so grateful to work in a place where my boss trusts in God and has taught me. He's been teaching me how to notice when someone's hurting, and know how to respond the right way.
I remember one time, a couple months ago, we had a patient come in, and she just started crying while we were helping her because she just was so desperate and she was in so much pain. And she spent years and years and money, trying to fix her problems. And we just thought, "Oh, my goodness, this poor lady is just sharing her heart. She's in so much pain." And so my boss said, "Is it okay if I have my team come in, and we pray for you?" And she said, "Yes." So our whole team came in and we laid hands on her. We started interceding and speaking words of truth and life over her, over her life, because I think she'd heard so many negative messages. And she started crying. And she said, "This has never happened to me before in a medical office or anywhere." It was incredible to get to see that.
And, of course, not all interactions with patients are, as you know, dramatic as that or sometimes we don't see the fruit right away. But I know just planting those seeds of hope can make a really big difference.
I'm sure some or many of you have probably experienced at a doctor's office, sometimes it just feels like a very impersonal experience. You feel like you're just kind of a number or, you know, they see people like you all the all day long, so it doesn't really matter. But that can happen in any business office, at the grocery store, wherever you go. Sometimes it's very impersonal. So something that I've really been asking God to help me do is just to make those relationships, in business experiences just more personal, so that people will know that you care for them.
All of us are God's ekklesia. We can transform whatever environment we're in. And we can transform all these different industries, including the medical industry, to become more loving, and for God's hope to be spread, instead of despair and hopelessness.
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From a session at the Transform Our World conferen, 02/02/2022