By Sabrina Miller

Sabrina Miller is a Young Adult Intern with the Rural Response Committee of the Nebraska United Methodist Conference.  She works out of the Center for Rural Affairs office in Lyons, NE.

I had the opportunity to be an intern with the Micah Corps this summer, a 10-week program of the United Methodist Church to give young adults an opportunity to grow in their faith while working for justice in the world (separate from my current internship).  My focus for the summer has been on health care, and having great discussions about this controversial issue in churches across the state. 

After two weeks of intensive learning and preparing at the Center for Rural Affairs, I stepped out into the Elkhorn Valley and Prairie Rivers Districts to share information and listen to stories.  I was armed with pamphlets, fliers, displays, and endless statistics to prove that health care, and rural health care especially is in desperate need of a reformation, and that the church should be on the frontline of the battle. 

The United Methodist church, as well as many other denominations, is strongly supportive or reform, affirming health care as a “basic human right” in our Social Principles.  The church also advocates for a government option to provide for those currently fallen in the crack, and that crack is becoming a chasm. 

The timing couldn’t have been more appropriate as the president pushed for immediate action in Congress, and I pushed for advocacy on behalf of the almost 50 million uninsured in our nation.  The church is relevant!  Stand up and live your faith!  As Jesus healed the sick and God loves every person, it is our part to do the same.  The strong existing ministries of praying and caring for the sick in our communities is a springboard from which we can dive into changing policy that ensures adequate affordable health insurance for every person in this country. 

My bright-eyed and bushy-tailed epic of a failing system and government intervention was greeted with the warmest hospitality and fearful skepticism.  A mindset of criticism and concern is no place to remain frozen in our actions of love.  Fear of government intervention, fear of exclusive policies, doubt about effectiveness, and comfort with one’s own situation made it difficult for people to grasp the desperateness of the situation, a time where 14,000 more people lose their insurance every day. 

Through private conversations, group discussions, professional interviews, sermons, and children’s presentations some opened their hearts, and others stayed in their fear.  Some thought I had a hidden agenda, others received me as a prophet (a prophet unable to prophesy in her own country…Matthew 13:57). 

At the end of our conversations, I always encouraged every person to contact their Congresspeople on this issue, whether or not their opinion aligned with mine, with the church’s, or anyone else’s.  The voices of private insurance companies are being heard loud and clear, and we need to push back as constituents, voters, tax payers and Christians.  But it is also the responsibility of each individual to let that opinion be informed and act out of compassion and hope, not fear.