Longer, Stronger Living

By Cathy Law

Kamiah Church communications

As Kamiah, Idaho, like the rest of the world, experienced sickness from the pandemic, church members asked one another, “What can we do?" Out of those days of loneliness, isolation, and fear an idea was born.

“Why not share the simple remedies God has given us with our friends and neighbors?” the church members decided. They began to organize “The Immune Boosters Conference.” Members volunteered as prayer warriors, greeters, communication managers, table coaches, public address system staff, presenters, registrars by phone and on site, and above all, kitchen hostess and crew.

Timing obstacles plagued the six-session conference from the start, but despite that, God blessed with 23 community guests attending throughout the conference and up to 56 total crowding into the fellowship hall one evening.

On the “Nutrition” night, the attendees not only heard about considering their food to be their medicine, but they got their hands sticky fixing vegan recipes like “Chick Salad Spread,” and “Chunky Avocado Dip.”

During the “Water” session, Presenter Gwen Dyson, a retired respiratory therapist, referred to an incident from the pages of history when 90 of the staff and students of Hutchinson Seventh-day Adventist Seminary contracted symptoms of the dreaded influenza of 1918 epidemic.* Bed rest was prescribed with a careful diet, and fomentations were applied to the throat, neck, and chest. Drugs were not administered. Health officer of Hutchinson city, Dr. Fred Shephard, later reported that every case recovered without one death. Dyson then demonstrated the procedure to the captivated crowd.

Attendees lingered long after the close of each session, exchanging ideas of simple, effective ways to build the immune system and heal a diseased body.

“Do you people ever get to the end of giving?” a community guest asked one evening as she sipped the soothing flu tea made from citrus, honey, and ginger.

Break-out sessions, such as “Reason for Vegan Cuisine,” “Healing Herb Applications,” and “Gardening in Central Idaho” were presented after the final “Immune Booster Conference” session.

*Northern Union Reaper, Dec. 17, 1918, p.2. Available online at https://www.adventistarchives.org/