Following its inaugural event in Medtrade 2011, the HME Christian Fellowship hosted an industry prayer breakfast at last week’s Medtrade show. This year’s Purposeful Prayer Breakfast event was hosted Oct. 16 and featured Dwight Robertson, author of “You are God’s Plan A” as keynote speaker.
John Shirvinski, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Medical Suppliers told prayer breakfast attendees, “We can’t not pray about legislative issues, because Congress and state legislatures all begin every single session with a prayer. We’re a country that has always prayed.”
Robertson is the founding president and CEO of Kingdom Building Ministries, an evangelical Christian organization that partners with churches, universities and denominations to motivate their members “to make a difference in people’s lives and in God’s kingdom.”
Following Robertson’s keynote speech, members of the audience were called upon to pray on behalf of the industry and its efforts to support the Market Pricing Program and protect patient access to care.
“Some people ask, ‘Why pray?’ and I say, ‘Why not?’” said John Shirvinski, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Medical Suppliers, who addressed the event’s attendees about the importance of prayer when it comes to industry advocacy. “… The Bible tells us, that if anyone is in trouble, we should pray.
“There’s no limit on that,” he added. “It isn’t that we just have to pray for things that we think are holy; it’s about our lives, it’s about who we are, it’s about things that are important to us, whether it’s family, health, our businesses, our employees, or our decisions. We can’t not pray about legislative issues, because Congress and state legislatures all begin every single session with a prayer. We’re a country that has always prayed.”
The HME Christian Fellowship and the prayer breakfast is organized by a volunteer group of HME industry Christian business men and women, as well as all the manufacturers and vendors, patients, and the families that care for them across America. The fellowship’s planning committee consists of:
- Ty Bello, president and founder of Team@Work.
- Georgie Blackburn, vice president of government relations & legislative affairs for Blackburn’s Pharmacy.
- David Bowman, managing member of A&D Health Care.
- Dick Clark, owner of Resp-I-Care.
- Richard Davis, vice president of human resources and customer satisfaction for Barnes Health Care.
- Kevin Gaffney, group show director at Nielsen.
- Tom Inman, president ofVirginia Home Medical.
- Ashley Plauche, director of communications and PR at Lambert’s Health Care.
- Mark Richardson, president of Home MediService.
- John Shirvinski, executive director of PAMS.
- Randy Wolfe, owner and president of Lambert’s Health Care