For many years, members of Trinity Lutheran Church in Utica and other local churches, led and participated in medical mission trips to Haiti, Brazil and other countries. The desperate need in those countries, combined with their Christian faith, became a call to action to use their skills and talents to serve others. At the same time, a social ministry program called SSS (Supper, Sack Lunch, Shower) was started at Trinity. SSS was designed to help people in the Utica area, providing place of respite to take a shower, have a hot meal and take a lunch to go. In 2010, the medical mission team members began to ask themselves why they weren’t helping people with medical and dental needs in their own community. The folks at SSS became the beginning focus for that assistance. The next several years were spent learning what it would take to start a free medical and dental clinic in the Utica area. Along the way were blessed with a small army of individuals and organizations donating their time, materials, and resources in areas such as planning, construction, administration, dental, and medical know-how. Trinity Community Care opened to patients in December 2013! Christ did not call us to retreat from pain in the world but to enter it. We were not created to just pass the time as we wander through our life on earth. Whether it’s the desperate need in Haiti or the hidden need in our own communities, we were all created with unique talents to lend a hand. We may never know the impact this clinic makes on each life served. We may not know the power of hope that is created by this clinic. And we don’t know if attempting to be the hands and feet of Jesus will strengthen faith. But we do know that these things are possible and that service delivered with uncompromised compassion and unconditional Christian love can create ripples of transformation, one by one.
