Service

In 1896, Sir Albert Cook journeyed to Uganda as a medical missionary. In his lifetime, he founded the oldest hospital in East Africa, trained countless native medical workers, began a midwifery school, and established a treatment center for STDs and sleeping sickness, as well as a school for medical assistants! In an era of discrimination and prejudice against native Africans, British medical missionary Sir Albert Cook stood out as an unusual example of equality and service.

After beginning medical work in Africa, he recognized the desperate need for trained local medical workers and decided to take action. For Cook, missionary work meant recognizing the needs of those around him and doing what he could to serve them.

His actions reflect the words of the apostle James. “If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?” Sharing God’s love often starts with action.

In the United States, the need for food and medical attention might not be as desperate as it is overseas, but people also have emotional needs. Showing others that we care, taking an interest in their lives, and being a difference to them is frequently the best first step of evangelism.

Key Bible Texts

If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. (James 2:15-17 KJV)