Attleboro SDA church's health ministry leader, Melody Tapia (far right), with guest health presenter, Rico Hill (center), and church members.
With the leadership of local health ministry leader Melody Tapia, the Attleboro SDA church has developed a vibrant and consistent health ministry, including training for church members and outreach to the community.
“My vision is to help our church become health conscious and take it to the Attleboro community,” said Tapia. “Hopefully we can start a blue zone in Attleboro . . . for the sole purpose of helping people to get ready for Jesus’ second coming.”
They started by including a health nugget in the church service--now they call it a health message—to get church members excited about health ministry. The members responded with enthusiasm and were willing to try new health habits. Attleboro health ministry presented the eight health principles represented by the acronym NEWSTART.
In October 2023, they participated in the Move It campaign from the North American Division. Afterwards they shared testimonies how health ministry had changed their lives, both physically and spiritually.
“It started to grow,” said Tapia, “and we started to have a health Sabbath once a month.” Rico Hill, author and host of “From Sickness to Health” on 3ABN, presented “The Great Health Controversy” on January 26-28, 2024.
Tom Dombrowski, Southern New England Conference health ministry coordinator, followed up with another weekend training seminar for the Attleboro church on February 23-24, sharing how the health message is relevant to times that we live in, exposing the needs of the world, and showing how the church has been ordained to meet these needs.
“We had the first cooking class in March, and in April we participated in MindFit,” said Tapia. She shared that people are excited about eating healthy and like to share what new health habits they are forming. “This brings a lot of joy to those of us who are leading health ministries,” added Tapia.
Currently Tapia and the Attleboro church have plans for health ministries through the fall of 2024, with multi-ethnic cooking classes that church members will present and other pre-planned programs such as Neil Nedley’s Depression Recovery.
Church members have also gone door-to-door around the church. “We're planning out the areas where we're going, and so by the end of the year we hopefully will complete all of Attleboro,” said Tapia.
Since Attleboro is a bedroom community of Providence, Dombrowski sees this is as a great way to prepare for the Providence 2026 evangelism focus. “It’s thrilling that local church leadership is getting the vision to build the foundation for evangelism,” Dombrowski said.
Photos are from The Great Health Controversy weekend with Rico Hill, which culminated with a natural remedies--including a natural facial!--demonstration on Sunday.