A Tennessee church is helping community members receive free healthcare thanks to the kindness and compassion of volunteers who have joined the ministry, Doing Unto Others Mobile Missions (DUO). The ministry was founded in 2021 by Samuel LeFave after the local hospital shut down, leaving the rural area of Upper Cumberland without a hospital that is less than an hour’s drive away. LeFave’s mission is to combine his faith and academic interests to meet the needs of others with “people serving people.”
According to Christianity Today, LeFave, “a Christian and recent Tennessee Tech biochemistry graduate, was interested in medical school when he got to know a family in Jamestown and heard about the desperate state of rural health care. His pastor at Life Church in Cookeville, Tennessee, an hour from Jamestown, asked him about setting up a medical program, since LeFave had worked with a free clinic as an undergraduate. LeFave, then 21 years old, dropped his medical school plans in favor of meeting the immediate local problem,” and launched DUO in 2021.
The services offered through DUO includes wellness care, dental care, vision care, food, and haircuts among other services that licensed professionals administer to patients. LeFave is also working on expanding the services provided in the mobile medical unit to include mental health care, and is working with law enforcement to be able to dispatch the unit to non-emergency cases.
According to Christianity Today, “DUO is one of four newly announced winners of grants from church insurer Brotherhood Mutual Insurance, which wants to reward innovative church programs that could be replicated across the country.”
LeFave shared that he has faith that any church can fit a program like this into their budget. He believes that such an outreach program is not only needed by many communities, but there are also many medical professionals who would like an opportunity to give back to help others in need. Through his willingness to help others, LeFave has brought the blessing of health to a community in need, and with that, he has also given them and people across the world, the hope that comes from witnessing God’s love and blessings.