A member of South Main Street Baptist Church, Greenwood, was recently honored as the 2007-2008 Family Physician of the Year.
Gary GoforthGary Goforth, director of medical education and family medicine residency program director at Self Regional Healthcare in Greenwood, was presented the award by the South Carolina Academy of Family Physicians. The annual award honors an outstanding family physician who provides patients with compassionate and comprehensive care, and serves as a role model to his or her community and other health professionals.
A deacon, orchestra member, Sunday school teacher and member of numerous church committees at South Main Street, Goforth regularly volunteers at the Greater Greenwood United Ministries Free Medical Clinic, serving as its director.
A frequent medical missions volunteer, Goforth and his wife Kathy are planning to spend a year in Afghanistan, where he will help establish a residency program at a hospital and she will serve as a teacher.
“The beauty of it is that it is in a Christian hospital. It’ll be a remarkable chance to teach Muslims and also introduce them to Christ,” Goforth recently told Erskine Seminary students during two chapel addresses, according to the school’s Web site.
A featured speaker for the Christianity and Public Service portion of the Erskine Lecture Series, Goforth was introduced by seminary president Randall Ruble as a man who “represents the best of a layperson in the church today.”
The retired Army veteran and colonel in the National Guard has participated in more than 30 mission trips to Nigeria, Kenya, Thailand, Ecuador, the Philippines and other countries through Volunteers in Medical Missions since 1991. This year, he served in Sudan, Honduras and Mexico.
“People line up by the hundreds to see the doctors,” Goforth told the seminary students, noting that the VIMM organization has built eight clinics in Honduras.
VIMM efforts have made an impact in a number of ways, Goforth said. Seeing God work throughout the world has included watching team members’ lives being changed, seeing patients accept Jesus as savior, witnessing miraculous healings, and seeing churches established in areas where VIMM teams have held clinics, he said.