Merry Christmas!

Greetings from the Morehouses!

We deeply appreciate all your support and look forward
to serving together with you in the coming year.

Click here to read our holiday letter.

New Vision in 2010

As 2009 comes to a close, we’re anticipating the new plans the Lord has for us to fulfill. This past summer, in response to the growing need at His Branches, we pulled together a development committee that includes Board members, some staff, and others willing to donate their time. We recognize the urgency to establish ourselves on a solid financial base with community support to keep our doors open during these times of deep economic stress. Meeting monthly, the Lord has blessed us with expanded opportunities and relationships with individuals and with local community action groups who can help.

In July we met with the Ad Council of Rochester to “write our vision on a tablet” (Habakkuk 2:2-3) and clarify what we’re called to do. The Strategic Round Table met for 3 hours to generate ideas and identify the challenges we face. With the help of 10 marketing professionals who volunteered their time, we prioritized a lot of great ideas. We learned the importance of website optimization, how to tailor our message, and how to recruit administrative staff that can help us reach our goals. We all came away energized and encouraged. Our upcoming fund raising banquet on May 13th is one of the ideas we are moving on. More to come on that!

Our heart is to reach the people of Rochester for Christ by shining His Love openly through medical and crisis pregnancy care. There are a few groups that are talking with us about opening other crisis pregnancy offices similar to or in conjunction with Embracing Options. We would like to expand in our support of these groups. The spiritual hunger and physical needs are obvious but our resources are limited. Please help us to continue this work of mercy in our community.

Click here to read the December print version of The Grapevine.

EO and Grace Family Medicine

Dr. Morehouse with mom and new arrival!

      

Many of you know that Sandi and others at Embracing Options are busy quietly meeting with young women in crisis (over 200 this year), offering pregnancy tests, counseling regarding abstinence and STDs, and helping the girls find pro-life solutions to their dilemmas. These are complex problems in lives that are mixed up and sometimes appear hopeless. Many come to Christ as the gospel is shared and their lives turn around. What you may not be aware of is that often these girls find a safe place for prenatal care at Grace Family Medicine where Dr. Morehouse goes on to deliver their rescued babies. The young women continue to bring their new children for care at our office. This gives us a wonderful opportunity to continue the care and discipling that was begun upstairs at Embracing Options. What an amazing collaborative effort in His Kingdom! Isn’t God good? We need your help to keep this effort going!

Health reform hits reality

POST, TX - Another morning at the clinic. Far away in Washington, the debate over health-care reform drags on, while here in barren West Texas, Ben Edwards is moving fast. He grabs the chart for his next patient, his ninth of the day, and enters Exam Room 5, where Alma Lopez, 51, waits to see the only doctor in town...

"I'm always behind," Edwards says, summing up what it's like to be the only doctor within a 45-mile radius, and in that simple statement is his worry about what reform will mean:

What will happen in a place like Post, where the uninsured are waiting for a system to see a doctor regularly - and there's only one doctor to see them all?

If all of Post's 3,708 residents had full health coverage, Edwards believes they would flock to his clinic, but his practice is already full with more than 2,000 patients. He has no idea how he would fit in anyone else.

In this working-class outpost in this vast, flat no man's land, the everyday health-care needs of an entire community fall to Edwards. Health-care reform is on its way, and it is up to him to care for everything - every sniffle, ear ache and fever, every anxiety and sleepless night, every bad back and stomach pain and bladder infection.

And the truth is this: Edwards will not have time to treat them all.

Click here to read the full article in yesterday's Washington Post.

Webster Methodist Partnership

Raymond Dutcher, Pastor Lee Carlson and Dr. William Morehouse

Last Sunday, Dr. Bill was invited to the Webster United Methodist "Praise in the Park" worship service. The congregations of, The First UMC of West Webster, North Ontario UMC, UMC of Webster, Union Hill UMC and Walworth UMC, came together to worship the Lord out at Casey Park in Ontario, NY. There were over 100 people gathered under two large tents, followed by a delicious pot-blessing picnic luncheon.

It was a beautiful sunny day in the park. The worship team and choir were just awesome! The joy of the Lord was truly present while everyone joined in worship and prayer with united hearts to give the praise and glory to our Lord Jesus Christ. A pastor or church elder from each church took part in the service. The theme of the day was from John 15:1-8 about the vine and the branches. Pastor Glen Hardman's message was titled "What Kind of Plant Are You?" His closing statement was that many people see the branches before they ever see the Vine (our Lord Jesus). How fitting that Dr. Bill was asked to come and share the ministry of His Branches during their Ministry Moment of the service.

Ray Dutcher opened in prayer and announced that the loose offering was being donated to the work of His Branches. Dr. Bill then shared briefly about his 30 years in the city and how honored he is to see his vision spread into the surrounding suburbs. He was called to the city of Rochester to serve the underserved and share the love of Christ. His Branches has many ways of doing so through medical care, counseling, and pregnancy help with Embracing Options and is looking forward to partnering with the East side folks at the UMC of Webster who are praying to open an Embracing Options satellite within the next year in their Ministry Outreach House. Dr. Bill thanked the gathering for their generous donations and closed in prayer with thanksgiving.

Reported by Sandi Clawson, Embracing Options

EO Open House

Donor Option #2480

Now, more than ever, we need your help as we reach out to serve women and families in need in the Rochester area.

Please designate your United Way gift to His Branches - it’s as easy as 1 2 3…

1. Obtain a 2009 United Way Donor Designation Form from your employer or online by clicking here.
2. Check the last box in Paragraph #3 on your United Way form.
3. Write “His Branches, Inc.” and enter our organization ID number: 2480.

...or donate directly by mail or through our website. Thanks for your support!

Happy New Year!

Greetings from the Morehouses!

We deeply appreciate all your support and look forward
to serving together with you in the coming year.

Click here to read our holiday letter.

Open House a Success!

This morning we had a great turnout of enthusiastic visitors and generous supporters at our Fundraising Open House. Our heartfelt thanks go out to all the staff and volunteers who helped make our event such a success and to our guests for taking precious time during the holiday season to come out and offer your support. We appreciate your involvement and are looking forward to working more closely with all of you in the future as we seek to improve the quality of life of all in our neighborhood.

God bless you!

A thought experiment

Here's an excerpt from a thought-provoking article about health care disparities, written by Dr. Douglas Kamerow (graduate of Rochester's Family Medicine Program) and published in a recent issue of the British Medical Journal, that would be of interest to anyone who heard Dr. Morehouse's talk at the His Branches Open House earlier today:

Our perfectly designed US healthcare system

The interregnum between a presidential election and the inauguration is a time of feverish activity, in which the president elect and his staff decide who will help them govern and what they will try to do first. The press and pundits speculate breathlessly on who will be appointed and what they will do first. As I write this, for example, we have just learnt that the new administration’s secretary of health and human services is likely to be a respected former US senator, Tom Daschle. He has written a book about healthcare reform, which is likely to be his assignment when he starts in January.

I’ve been musing about the United States and how perfectly designed our current healthcare system is. Perfectly designed, of course, as every system is, to achieve exactly the results it gets, as quality improvement guru Don Berwick famously said. In its own way, it is really rather remarkable. Here’s a thought experiment to illustrate what I mean.

Click here to read the whole article.

Fundraising Open House

Open House
at
His Branches

Saturday, December 6th
10:30 am to Noon
340 Arnett Boulevard

Our Open House includes:

• Free Continental Breakfast
• Tours of Our Facility and Risego Businesses Next Door
• Talks about Our Mission and Services
• Booths with Program and Health Information

For 30 years we have provided medical services to anyone who comes through our door. We offer:

• Christ-centered Medical Care for Entire Families
• Sponsorship of Rochester Youth Year Outreach Worker
• Embracing Options Pregnancy Care
• Space for Community Groups
• Medical and Nursing Student Training
• Community Partnerships and Investing

In these economic times, more people require the sliding scale care we offer. Please contact us at 235-9000 to sign up and find out how you can help!

Robach Secures NY Funds

His Branches has just received word from Senator Joseph Robach's office (56th District - Greece, NY) that we will be the recipients of an $18,000 grant from New York State to cover some of the start-up expenses involved in converting Grace Family Medicine into a licensed Community Health Center. We deeply appreciate the support we have been receiving from all sectors of the community through individual donations, corporate gifts, and now State funds earmarked for health care. Please let Senator Robach know that you appreciate his involvement in and support of worthwhile local endeavors like ours.