THE DOCTOR IS IN

“Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.” (Proverbs 27:2)

That whole “6 degrees of separation” thing says that every person is only 6 people away from anyone else in the world. I’ve written about this before. For instance, my sister used to attend a Bible Study in Boston with Jamie Bush, President George H.W. Bush’s nephew. So that makes me only like 3 people away from both Presidents Bush! Are you familiar with country music singer JoDee Messina? I know her sister Terese Patterson, so I’m only 1-2 people away!

Longtime Assemblies of God constituents will have seen the name Dr. Christina Powell in our “denominational” publications. (Incidentally, the Assemblies of God likes to call itself a “fellowship” rather than a “denomination” but as my friend Pastor Tony Bellarmino of Turlock, Calif. says, about the Assemblies of God, “If it ‘walks like a duck’....” and Tony agrees that it’s a denomination.) Christina Powell is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and is an Assemblies of God minister. She’s often quoted in the Assemblies of God’s weekly magazine, “The Pentecostal Evangel”. In many aspects, she’s very respected as a doctor and ethicist in the Assemblies of God the way Attorney Richard Hammer is respected by our “denomination” for his expertise in Law.

Well, Christina Powell and her husband attended our church, First Assembly of God of Framingham for at least a year in the early 1990s. Our church also featured her as a special guest speaker at a service about 8 years ago. I’ve been trying to touch base with a lot of people who have been connected with First Assembly of God of Framingham over the past 25 years or so to let them know the church has closed. Frankly, Dr. Christina Powell was somebody I’d forgotten about. In this past Sunday’s Pentecostal Evangel magazine, there was a story about the damage done to children in homes where there is a lot of yelling by the parents, AND that a number of parents are yellers but don’t know how to stop this behavior. One expert who was quoted in the article was Dr. Christina Powell. THAT tripped off my memory that I needed to contact her about the church’s closing.

I did find her e-mail address in my ministers’ directory and I shot off an e-mail to her. Wow, was I blessed by the reply I received! She sent me a long and touching e-mail telling me of how much our church had meant to she and her husband. She even remembered songs we sang at the time, and the impact on her which helped encourage her to go forward with Harvard. It turns out she might not be in the Assemblies of God and she might not be “Dr. Christina Powell” if not for the impact of First Assembly of God of Framingham. In a low period in my life, that was a huge affirmation. I’m glad the doctor was in!