Adventist Church Inaugurates Wellness Center in Mexico
Adventist leaders are set to cut the ribbon to inaugurate the wellness center in Tuxtla Gutieérrez, Chiapas, Mexico, on Dec. 20, 2021. From L-R: Pastors David Celis, president of the Southeast Mexican Union; from Inter-American Division, Tomas Torres, vice president, Elie Henry, president, Filiberto Verduzco, treasurer, Ignacio Navarro, president of Chiapas Mexican Union, Jose Dzul, president of Central Mexican Union and Antonio Rosas, accountant of the Inter-Oceanic Mexican Union. [Photo: Juan Carlos Zavala]
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 Gutierrez on Dec. 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.”
Leaders gather for a special inaugural program inside the wellness center and carried live on social media platforms. [Photo: Juan Carlos Zavala]
Pastor Verduzco, who attended the inaugural, thanked church leaders from the union office and from 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.”
Pastor Ignacio Navarro, president of the church in Chiapas, Mexico, addresses the gathering on the importance of the center and its mission to provide physical and spiritual care to everyone who comes into the health facility [Photo: Juan Carlos Zavala]
Vida Sana Center began construction in 2018 as the church in Chiapas dedicated its missionary initiatives and activities on health for the entire year.
The center will be able to care for 100 patients at a time and will be fully functional as soon as 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, an outdoor auditorium, and a park. It is the second wellness center recognized by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Mexico. Las Canoas Vida Sana has been operating as a sanatorium for decades in Montemorelos, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, founded by Dr. Tomás Ramírez.
Dr. Tomas Ramírez (third from left) thanks the leadership of the church for the honor of carrying his name on the new park behind the wellness center. Dr. Ramírez is accompanied by his wife Concepción (left), and sons Dr. Juan Ramírez (second left) and Andrés Ramírez. [Photo: Juan Carlos Zavala]
“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 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,” he said. His son Dr. Juan Ramírez, who works at Las Canoas center, will also function as the medical director for the new center in Chiapas.
View of the park built with the eight stations representing the eight natural remedies part of the church’s “I Want to Live Health” initiative. [Photo: Juan Carlos Zavala]
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.
From L-R: Pastor Elie Henry, president of the church in Inter-America, his wife Ketlie, Pastor Filiberto Verduzco, treasurer of the church in Inter-America and wife Alma, tour the hydrotherapy pools in the wellness center. [Photo: Juan Carlos Zavala]
“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.
View of part of the entrance of the new Centro de Vida Sana Dr. Filiberto Verduzco Avila in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Mexico. [Photo: Juan Carlos Zavala]