Page 10 - Faith Community Health 2018 Impact Report

Stories of impact
The past year of FCH in North Texas held many heartwarming stories of success. A health professional had been working
with a patient for several months and had continued to see characteristics of loneliness and isolation. She realized that Faith Community Health was a good fit for the patient and decided to tell her about the services the program offers. After the health professional offered the program, the patient began to cry in relief that someone would simply come to her home and visit for one hour per week. The patient jokingly reported back, after her first visit from her volunteer, that the volunteer had offered to pick her up something from the store and she suggested to the volunteer that it be something from Tiffany’s. The health professional was so happy to finally see the patient joke around and have feelings of positivity in her life. Ultimately, because of Faith Community Health’s efforts, this patient began to feel hope and joy that she desperately needed because someone cared.
Pastor Fernando Rojas shared how grateful he was for Faith Community Health and Commissioner Brooks office. Through FCH and the coalition, Pastor Rojos was made aware of the yearly prostate awareness fair, which he encouraged his father to attend. It was there where Pastor Rojos’ father was tested for prostate cancer and his results came back positive. Thankfully, it was detected early and was treated in the last six months of 2018. He has now he been declared free of prostate cancer! Pastor Rojas shared that he will be taking a group of his church members to this event as they all want to take preventive care of their health.
Ms. Brenda Wilkerson, a volunteer from City On a Hill Church, made a connection with her patient that she described as “God sent.” Her patient had recently experienced great family conflict and lost her brother who suffered from mental illness. As a result, the patient was experiencing difficulty moving forward with any measure of bettering her quality of life. Over the course of their pairing, Ms. Wilkerson has become the patient’s companion and prayer partner. The patient told the Faith Community Health chaplain that she has opened up to her volunteer in a manner that she has never been able to do before. She has made a connection and gained a meaningful friend that she is able to talk about her pain and work on healing with. Faith Community Health is pleased we could help this patient through this time and offer her support.
10 FAITH COMMUNITY HEALTH 2018 IMPACT REPORT