The Durant First Baptist Church Medical Mission has been serving the community for 25 years by providing free medical care to those in need.
The clinic first began in the 1980s but closed for a few years when the volunteer physician at that time moved away, according to Retha Mayhew, who is retired from the program.
It reopened in August 1999. “I have to say the main person who wanted this to start again was Gay Cunningham and she had several professional people in her Sunday school class here,” Mayhew said.
Since Mayhew had worked in the first clinic, she was asked to lead it when it reopened.
Multiple churches have helped with the program and there are volunteers community wide.
Pat Metheny is a volunteer at the clinic and she said it is for those who don’t have any assistance for medical care.
“They cannot have Medicaid, Medicare, any assistance, veteran’s assistance, private insurance or any other kind of assistance,” Metheny said. “It’s for those who absolutely cannot see the doctor any other way.”
Services are free and no one gets paid because it’s all on a volunteer basis.
Metheny said the program has the same services some- one would receive from visiting a doctor’s office.
“We do not do emergency services and we have to stress that because people think they can just call and come in or walk in or whatever and we really can’t do that because we’re not here all the time,” Metheny said.
The clinic is open on Monday evenings at Durant First Baptist Church. Metheny said the number of doctors and patients has varied through the years.
“Right now, since COVID, it has slowed down to where we’re open just once or twice a month now and we’re just not even utilizing all of the volunteer help that we have because we don’t have the need for it,” Metheny said.
“I think a lot of them got on Medicaid through that time and I keep hearing that they’re getting off of it and I have gotten several new patients lately. So, I’m kind of wondering if they’re going to bounce back now.”
The Medical Mission also has a pharmacy and Metheny became a pharmacy tech. There have been many pharmacist volunteers through the years and currently it is Dr. Josiah Schomer, Gallipot Pharmacy at Calera, who is the pharmacist in charge.
Dr. David Lovelace is the director of the program and supervising physician.
“We started out with him and two PAs, Jeff Hamblin and Kent Rogers, seeing patients,” Metheny said.
Hamblin eventually moved away and Metheny emphasized that Hamblin and Lovelace have never wavered.
“They have been here since day one and continue to serve faithfully,” Metheny said.
Metheny recalled that when Mayhew stepped down in 2007, she was left to do it all.
“I prayed about whether to stay open or just close the doors,” Metheny said. “I knew that if God wanted the clinic to stay open that he would provide the help I needed. It was just days or a couple of weeks before He did just that.
“Mary Storey and her husband had just moved back here from a teaching career in Alaska. When Mary learned of the need, she quickly volunteered. It was not long thereafter that another of our once a month volunteers told me about another lady who was interested in volunteering. We met and she, Rosemary Brown, also became one of my weekly volunteers. So, for about the last 17 years of its existence, it has been the three of us on a weekly basis and everyone else rotates monthly or even quarterly or on an as-needed basis.”
The medical mission also has an optometry program and Dr. Greg Clay and Dr. Jason Rhynes handle that at the Clay- Rhynes Eye Clinic.
Metheny estimated more than 2,000 people have been to the clinic and she said patients are also talked to about their spiritual needs.
“One important thing that we do is we counsel each new patient,” Metheny said. “When they’re here for the first time, we have a counselor who takes them into a room and visits with them about their salvation and their position with the Lord at the time and kind of tell them why we do what we do. So, that’s one really important thing and then we have prayer requests if they want to or if they want to see a counselor later, we try to provide somebody for them. So, we try to take care of their spiritual needs as well as their physical needs.”
To visit the clinic, call 9248875 and leave a message.
“They can call anytime day or night now and we have a few rules and regulations when they do get an appointment,” Metheny said. “We require them to call the Thursday before and let us know and leave a message confirming that they do plan to to be here the following Monday.”