Repairer of Broken Walls through Christ Centered Community Healthcare

February 14, 2026

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loosen the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? If you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings. Isaiah 58: 6,10, 12.

By Dr. Richard W. Sams II

As healthcare professionals who follow Christ, we are called to give special attention to the disenfranchised, the vulnerable and the poor. We are called to break the yolk of unjust systems of care in our society, where the rich receive high quality healthcare and the poor cannot even see a primary care physician for basic needs due to injustices in our healthcare insurance system.

An example of such an effort is faith-based community health centers. Christian Community Health Fellowship (CCHF), whose motto is living out the Gospel through healthcare among the poor, facilitates the development and sustaining of local faith-based community health centers. One example is Christ Community Health Services (CCHS), a health center in Augusta, Georgia.

CCHS’ mission is to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and to demonstrate His love by providing affordable, quality primary healthcare to the underserved. The center’s vision is to be a part of the redemptive work of Christ to the economically, socially and spiritually impoverished communities of Augusta.

For 19 years, CCHS has provided high quality, primary care to tens of thousands of patients, tending to their physical, emotional and spiritual needs. Over 100 employees including family physicians, internal medicine physicians, nurses, physician assistants, dentists, behavioral health specialists, medical assistants and health care administrators, provided more than 50,000 patient visits across four clinical sites in 2025. Patients are seen regardless of ability to pay or insurance status.

Through the years, I have been a part of many efforts to provide healthcare to the poor. Often, the care provided is limited due to lack of resources such as adequate infrastructure or long-term staffing. As a faith based federally qualified health center, CCHS is eligible for federal grant funding as well as Medicaid and Medicare when available. The leadership works tirelessly through seeking supporters and grants to ensure there is a financial margin for this mission. CCHS strives to provide care that you would hope for your family. Those who work there willingly do not make top salary that they would working for a secular health care facility. They are sacrificial in their personal and professional lives in order to be the incarnational presence of Christ to their patients. In so doing, they become Repairer of the Broken Walls of their patients’ lives.

CCHS and other faith-based community health centers live out the principles of human dignity, solidarity, and subsidiary central to Catholic Social Doctrine. Pope Leo in Dilexi Te declared, “No Christian can regard the poor simply as a societal problem; they are part of our ‘family.’”

Staff at CCHS treat each patient as an image bearer of God, striving to love them as Christ loves them. They embrace their common humanity with the poorest members of the community, praying with and for them. And they are standing in the gap created by unjust systems of care that ignore the plight of the poor in our local community. CCHS works hand in hand with other local ministries to redeem lives in urban Augusta for the glory of God.

Consider finding a faith-based community health center close to you to volunteer, work or donate. In so doing, you too can become a “Repairer of Broken Walls and a Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.”

Dr. Richard W. Sams II is a committee member of CMA’s Catholic Social Teaching on Justice in Medicine. He is a Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia and Medical Director of Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home. He has 39 peer-reviewed publications and is a founding board member of the American College of Family Medicine.