04/30/2026
The history and current status of the Mountain Home Christian Clinic from Danny Ponder, Board Chairman:
While we have just finished celebrating 26 years of serving the people of north central Arkansas, we thought it would be good to update our community on where we have come and where we are currently.
What began as a mission trip to Brazil sponsored by Eastside Baptist Church in 1999, has bloomed into a full faith-based clinic offering medical, dental, optical, pharmacy, mental health counseling along with auxiliary services such as free diapers, a food pantry, medical equipment, and shower and laundry facilities.
Eastside partnered with the First United Methodist Church of Mtn. Home in 2000 serving from three buildings: the Methodist Church, the Health Department, and the Legion Hut. In 2003, we purchased a run down Stitcho Factory, renovated and enlarged it to the current 19,000sf facility on Wade Street that now houses all our services under one roof.
We began with over 100 volunteers from dozens of churches in our community, ranging from medical professionals to office administrators, technicians, computer I.T., kitchen services, runners, spiritual counselors, and custodians just to list a few! We began offering clinics on the first and third Thursday evening of each month, a schedule still in place to date. Later we also began offering some services such as medical visits and pharmacy access during the daytime a few hours in addition to these Thursday evening clinics.
We adjusted our delivery of care model when the ACA went into effect and realized the need for our services was still there. A few years later Covid hit! In 2020, some services were partially shut down or limited to parking lot visits until the worst of the pandemic had passed. During this time we lost the majority of our volunteer base. We then had to open up a few employed positions within the clinic in order to keep services available. Being a nonprofit, and in order to keep the clinic functioning, we have currently had to reduce daytime hours to match our income and overhead. This was decided for sustainability and longevity of the clinic to continue its mission.
The Mountain Home Christian Clinic is a very important part of our community even though many low-income persons have been able to obtain insurance. In many cases, medications are not covered; they have no dental or vision insurance; nor access to affordable mental health services. We continue to provide these services all free of charge in addition to our auxiliary ministries previously listed.
So, we are now needing the community to step up and help us help your neighbors. We need more volunteers, medical and non-medical; we need more generous donations as our expenses continue to rise; and we need your prayers.
God has told us how to love Him by loving our neighbors and this is a wonderful way to express that.
Please call or come by the clinic if you feel inspired to help, we would love to talk more about opportunities with you and give you a tour of the clinic.
