Alumni Christian Service Award
Recognizes a lifetime of faithful service.

1999 Recipient
David John Spurrier, M.D.

In recognition of your many years of faithful service in Christian Ministry, the Messiah College Alumni Association is pleased to honor you, David John Spurrier, with the 1999 Alumni Christian Service Award. You stand as a shining example of using your God-given gifts to further His Kingdom.

After graduating with a biology degree from Messiah College in 1969, you immediately entered Temple University School of Medicine, pouring yourself into learning the art and science of healing. It would be 11 years before your medical school work was complete, because in the midst of your studies and residencies, you did something that likely gave your medical school peers pause - you took four years to serve the Lord as a medical officer at Macha Hospital in Choma, Zambia, Africa.

Most physicians, upon completing the course of their studies, begin work at a hospital or open up a practice; after all, medical school is long, hard work, and comes at great personal and financial cost. Yet your heart was drawn back to Zambia, and you returned in 1980 for another seven years of service at Macha Hospital, this time as medical officer-in-charge. Even upon your return to the States in 1987, you continued your missions involvement as medical advisor to Brethren in Christ World Missions, a position you hold to this day.

John, you have also administered your medical skills in central Pennsylvania, serving for two years as medical director of the State Correctional Institution in Camp Ell and three years as physician for Messiah College. Throughout those years, you also worked part-time as an emergency department physician at Holy Spirit Hospital, a role you now carry on full time.

Along the way, John, you have served the local community and the Brethren in Christ Church in a variety of roles. A former church board member and chairman of several committees, you also led the 4th and 5th grade boys for seven years in the church club program. Now, at the Dillsburg BIC Church, you serve on the commission for evangelism and world missions, and, along with your wife, Esther, hold the role of deacon. You and Esther also act as missionaries at large for BIC World Missions. Locally, you are a board member at New Hope Ministries, a nonprofit Christian social service agency. You are also chairman of the board of Theological Training in Africa, and vice-chairman of the board of the Macha Malaria Research Institute. And, you're a devoted father as well.

Through your lifetime of bringing healing and hope to a hurting world, you truly demonstrate to both Messiah alumni and current students what Christian service is all about. For that reason, we are pleased to honor you, David John Spurrier, as a worthy recipient of this award.