Tomorrow marks the 15th anniversary of Heritage Family Health. I have a little “extra time” on my hands today as I needed to cancel patients due to intense back muscle spasms from simply bending down to our Yorkipoo Bella last night. Oh, the things that happen without provocation once one is just over 2 years away from 60!
Joshua 4 records the 12 "memorial stones” that Joshua instructed men from each of the 12 tribes of Israel to place on the banks of or in the Jordan (depending on verse 3 or verse 9) following the crossing of the Jordan River into the Promised Land. These stones were memorials (Heb. zikkārôn). This Hebrew word is derived from the Hebrew zāḵār, which is translated male in Genesis 1:27 — “…male and female he created them” (ESV). One can extrapolate these two definitions to accurately state that a male is “one who remembers”! And so, I am remembering today.
It’s true that I have business plans and financials and 10-year projections and org charts and all other sundry internal documents. But that isn’t the point of this article. This article allows me the opportunity to remember and for my readers to hear of God’s faithfulness. Some of this story as well as the rationale behind our “cash-based” practice I discuss in greater detail in Transforming Healthcare Together.
Our story begins several decades ago with a call to medicine. The story of how LuAnne got invited to join me in medical school without a college degree is addressed in chapter 2. I need to restrain my excitement to retell this story, but it happened in the fall of 1997 behind the imposing doors of the Cambridge & Oxford Club in London just in the shadow of Buckingham Palace.
However, the story to Heritage began quite a few years prior to our founding in 2011. I believe the story was written much earlier than that, in fact even before I was born. Isn’t that what these words of David mean?
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
(Psalm 139:16, ESV)
The written is not simply recorded history. It is an active engraving, a sort of “being ordered by writing” definition, not unlike a decree or a prescription. And that’s why remembering this journey always causes us to remember God’s providential faithfulness. Because it really is His story written through us.
You see, Heritage was born from ashes of defeat, a sort of Phoenix rising. LuAnne and I were fired from our previous office when we told them we wanted to strike out on a new path. On Thursday, February 24, 2011, we were escorted from the premises! But what some may have meant for evil, God meant for good! During that time, I kept an extensive journal, and I’ve spent some time today reading and remembering those events, some of which I had forgotten.
But I will never forget the journal entry from Sunday, January 16th (5 weeks prior to being fired). This is poignantly etched in my memory almost like yesterday. I was unable to sleep and so headed to my detached study about 2 AM, awash in doubts and fears about what lay ahead. Here is in part what I wrote.
Since I couldn’t sleep, I told LuAnne that I was driving over to the Rowe [where we now live and practice] property. I did this between about 3:15 and 3:45. I received several significant signs:
First, I had noticed earlier that morning when walking to my study that the moon was obscured behind clouds. About a mile before approaching the Rowe property, I noticed something over my left shoulder. I turned and looked out the window and there in the northern sky was a three-quarter bright moon, un-obscured by any clouds! I turned off my Jeep lights as I pulled in the driveway, parked, and got out—stayed at the property for less than 10 minutes. All the while, the moon remained bright and was shining straight in front of me as I pulled out of the driveway. As I approached Cornwall and Quentin, clouds started to cover the moon again and till I got home, it was completely behind clouds again.
Second, when I exited the Rowe driveway, I turned on the radio (WJTL) and heard the words to a song that said something about “why do we fear when God is near?”
Third, I didn’t like the sound of this song, so I turned over to WDAC (I don’t listen to the radio much) and caught a few minutes of “Songs in the Night.” There was a choir singing “My Jesus, I Love Thee…” I was approaching the Rails to Trails in Cornwall, and I wept, because I knew this venture was only because of LuAnne and our love for Christ.
Then the narrator reflected on the verse, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” Not just difficult, he said, but impossible. And then he prayed that God would increase our faith, even at the expense of testing.
I returned home with peace in my heart, knowing God is leading, and that considering any other alternatives beside the Rowe property would be sinful scrambling.
This second of several prayer drives were pivotal answers to prayer. We sold our property in exactly 49 days (7 weeks) for a profit in a very poor housing climate. We had faithful Christian friends come alongside us and underwrite us financially, because how can you convince a bank that we had 3,000 patients but just had been fired—and now have no money, no job, lots of educational debt, and no solid future?!!
And on August 22, 2011, we opened Heritage Family Health in a fully renovated barn! The local Christian contractors (J E Horst Building & Remodeling) were nothing short of amazing in pulling this off in under 5 months.
And then Covid came about 8 1/2 years later. God gave us the wisdom to see through the fallacy of the narrative very early on. The significant “hate mail” and negative phone calls as well as four “investigations” by the Pennsylvania Department of State due to my public and vocal criticism of the narrative was eclipsed by the hundreds and hundreds of calls which flooded our office looking for an alternative to corporate medicine. And that led to this in 2022 and 2023:
Again, what some may have meant for evil, God meant for good! As an independent practice, we now serve and care for around 15,000 patients. We are grateful for all those individuals and families who entrust their care to us. In addition to Dr. LuAnne and myself, we are blessed with a Christian provider team of 3 nurse practitioners and a physician’s assistant as well as loyal and dedicated team members. We are excited for the next few decades, Lord willing, and will continue to refine our focus and vision. We have some exciting initiatives on the horizon, far beyond the scope of this article!
Our tagline carry-over from our previous office was “modern medicine with an old-fashioned touch.” A few years ago, we internally settled on 3 simple words, which have not yet been “officially” integrated to our logo, but it would look something like:
LuAnne and I view Heritage as God’s gift to us and to our community. While Heritage is our profession and our business, we view it more as mission. We want to be faithful stewards of that trust and mission and give Him all the glory!