‘It was a calling'

2010 Hope Awards | With God at the center of everything it does, Christ Clinic fills a hole in the medical system | Daniel Olasky

James Allen Walker for WORLD

SPOKANE, Wash.—The Bibles sit on a shelf near the front door of the Christ Clinic waiting room. It's a pleasant space, with floor-to-ceiling windows letting in the morning light, four rows of comfy chairs for patients, and a freshly vacuumed carpet. But it's the Bibles that tell you that you aren't in a normal doctor's office: Displayed at eye level, with versions in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Khmer, and Russian, the Bibles are a symbol of Christ Clinic's approach to its mission of providing affordable medical care to the un- or underinsured: God is always at the center.

This is Christ Clinic's new facility, and it still excites the employees and volunteers who staff its front counter and back offices. After a lengthy fundraising campaign, they finally moved out of their old, 1,300-square-foot office tacked onto the back of a local church. Just in time, too: The economic recession has provided them with more patients than even their six gleaming new exam rooms can handle, and then some. Christ Clinic is treating 300 to 500 patients a month, and there is a six-month waiting list for new patients.