A Story of Good News
Job 29:12-13 “I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist him. The man who was dying blessed me, and I made the widow’s heart to sing.”

I remember at Annual Conference in 2010, that I was excited to hear about a new ministry to bring free prescription drugs to the poor. Many persons I have served in the church have been in a very tight spot regarding prescription costs. This is a need that I feel the church must find creative ways to address.

The Charitable Pharmacy, located in Columbus, Ohio, serves about 450 patients a month with personal interviews with a pharmacy worker and free prescriptions. We have a commissioned United Methodist Missionary, Mariellyn Dunlap, working there, and it is hoped by those involved with this work that this ministry can be duplicated in other parts of Ohio.

Our church has budgeted to give Mariellyn some monetary annual support, and we plan to welcome her to our Mission Fair on March 27. Consequently, I took time to visit there this week. I was given the ‘grand tour’ of the ‘actually quite modest’ facility. I was impressed by the dedication to using every resource and available space to accomplish the mission. Mariellyn is excited about helping to put together a new way of serving the needy. Pharmacist Allan Zaenger spoke to me for awhile to say that he is proud that the clients don’t just get a bottle of pills, but they get an evaluation by a pharmacist, and help with understanding the medicines they are taking. He and Mariellyn are sure that the charitable Pharmacy fills an unmet need in Columbus, where there is almost no other place to get a prescription filled if you don’t have the money to pay for it. They are continuously getting the word out to organizations that can help support this work, and rounding up volunteers, such as the 5th-year pharmacy students to help sort donations of medicines.

I know this is a change from my usual style of blog, but I thought you would like to hear about something that God is doing in our own state, through people who have been open to his call.

In Jesus,

Pastor Harley