A wellness center was recently inaugurated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Chiapas, Mexico. The new facility, Centro de Vida Sana Dr. Filiberto Verduzco Avila, will provide natural remedies and preventative medicine focused on holistic health care for the mind, body, and spirit. Dozens of local and national church administrators, leaders, and members attended the inauguration ceremony in Tuxtla Gutiérrez on December 20, 2021.

“This is a very special moment to inaugurate a center such as this,” said Pastor Ignacio Navarro, president of the church in Chiapas. The center belongs to the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Mexico and the Inter-American Division, he said, and “it’s a missionary space in the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez where the plan of God to restore His creation will be presented and the soon coming of Jesus will be announced.”

Navarro said the wellness center has three particular characteristics: it features the church’s “I Want to Live Healthy” registered trademark, bears the name of Filiberto Verduzco, treasurer for the church in Inter-America, and will be a place to serve anyone in Chiapas and throughout the country. “I Want to Live Healthily” is a registered trademark lifestyle initiative created by the Adventist Church in Inter-America that promotes the eight natural remedies.

Pastor Verduzco, who attended the inauguration, thanked church leaders from the union office and the eight local conferences for the honor. “God is the only one who can bring healing, and there will be many patients with sickness in their soul who will need special attention from the Divine Doctor,” said Verduzco. “My dear brothers and sisters, life is a gift from God, and we should teach the correct habits that can lead to a healthier lifestyle.”

Leaders chose to name it after Verduzco for his inspiring leadership in the fulfillment of the mission, explained Navarro.

Vida Sana Center began construction in 2018 as the church in Chiapas dedicated its missionary initiatives and activities to health for the entire year. The center will be able to care for 100 patients at a time and fully functional as soon as the remaining permits are finalized, church leaders said. The facility features hydrotherapy pools, saunas, a gym, dining room, nine rooms and suites, medical and administrative offices, a chapel, outdoor auditorium, and park. It is the second wellness center recognized by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Mexico. Las Canoas Vida Sana, founded by Dr. Tomás Ramírez, has been operating as a sanatorium for decades in Montemorelos, Nuevo Leon.

Dr. Ramírez, who is retired, was honored for his work as an educator of preventive medicine. He always dreamed of seeing a wellness center in Chiapas. Church leaders unveiled the name of the park that bears his name outside the center.

“In the 1970s, when I graduated from The National Autonomous University of Mexico, I questioned why medicines and antibiotics only cured symptoms but not diseases, and I asked God to show me the way to treat diseases in a more effective and cheaper way,” said Dr. Ramirez. “That’s when God drew me close to the Adventist Church, and I began to treat [diseases] with plants and natural methods. I started my own pharmacy in Tuxtla Gutierrez, where I found so many medicinal plants, but the best finding was the Word of God, and that is what heals.” His son, Dr. Juan Ramírez, who works at Las Canoas Center, will also function as the medical director for the new center in Chiapas.

Pastor Elie Henry, president of the church in Inter-America, toured the center and congratulated the church and its leaders for building such a beautiful center that represents God. “This is a center for all of those who will need not only physical help, but spiritual as well,” said Pastor Henry. “This space will present the message that the Adventist Church cares for the well-being of persons.”

Many church members were so proud to see the completion of the new center.

“God is so great that He has allowed, through the faithfulness of the church, this beautiful facility,” said José Antonio Gómez, a member of the Central Adventist Church in Tuxtla Gutiérrez.

Raúl Pérez Pimentel, a church elder at Xochitlán Adventist Church, said it was admirable and wonderful to tour the new facility. “This is to honor the Lord and benefit so many, and I want to tell my fellow church members that it is so worth being faithful to the Lord.”

“We want each one who visits this center to be surrounded by angels and those who work here to feel that they are an instrument of salvation,” Navarro said.

This article was originally published on the Inter-American Division’s website