Belinda Lee Groover – Missionary to the ER

Early in the 1970s while Vicki and I were students at Atlanta Christian College, a new student arrived by the name of Belinda Lee. She came to ACC already having graduated as a registered nurse. She was from Tampa, Florida and had plans perhaps to become a medical missionary. I’m fairly confident I had some classes with her (assuming my memory is accurate) and think Vicki did as well.

At the same time – Vicki and I weren’t even dating yet, much less married – ACC hired a new professor by the name of Eddie Groover. He was fresh out of Emmanuel School of Religion (now Emmanuel Christian Seminary) and a refreshing new voice on the campus at ACC. I especially remember his church history, restoration history, and contemporary theology classes. They started me on a journey that continues to this day.

Fast forward a few years and Vicki and I both graduate from ACC and get married later that summer. Eddie and Belinda Groover had become an item on campus. Eddie came down to St. Petersburg with Roy McKinney for our wedding. We go off to graduate school and eventually come back to join the faculty at ACC. By now, Eddie is married to Belinda and we get to renew friendships that began years before. Both Vicki and I remember that on the wedding gift we sent them, we addressed the card “Mr. Groover and Belinda.” Eddie had not quite finished his Ph.D. yet, but because of how we were raised, neither of us felt comfortable saying “Eddie” to a former professor.

I remember lots of stories from that period in our lives. When we moved to Atlanta, Vicki was on a pretty strict regimen of week allergy preventing injections. One of the things that concerned us was finding a doctor’s office where she could go and get the injections (and we could afford). We should not have worried. Belinda was an R.N. and in her ever gracious and giving spirit, volunteered to keep the medicine in their refrigerator on Dodson Drive near the old campus and Vicki could just stop by for the injection each week. 

Those were the days of Wingo’s Steak House on Campbellton Road in Atlanta – not too far from campus. For $1.50, you could get a “small KC steak, baked potato, salad, and desert.” I have no idea how many times the Huxfords, Groovers, and Roy McKinney had dinner at Wingo’s. Even after both families started having children – we would often meet up at Wingo’s for dinner.

Over the years, Eddie would become academic dean at ACC and eventually president. He would serve with distinction in those areas – and at every step of the way, Belinda was by his side. To see Eddie and Belinda together was always a portrait of a loving couple who deeply cared about one another.

But Belinda also had a life of her own. She was, as both of her sons have written about, a great mother and ultimately grandmother. Their home in East Point and later Fayetteville was always a place of welcome and great hospitality.

Remember, though, she was a nurse! So for many, many years, if you went to the emergency room at Clayton General Hospital that is now Southern Regional Medical Center, you might very well see Belinda Groover. During the twenty years I served as minister at First Christian, I visited that emergency room many times. I saw Belinda in action on many of those visits. She was in control, attentive, concerned, empathetic, and just an all-around Jesus-like person to her patients. If you’ve ever been in a large hospital’s emergency room – especially on the weekends – you know what a chaotic place that can be. Belinda maneuvered in that world as well as anyone I’ve ever seen. 

If you read the title I gave this – Missionary to the ER – you understand where I’m going. I am pretty confident I remember hearing the “medical missionary” goal of Belinda early on in our friendship as students. In those days, that meant “going across the pond” somewhere.

But the truth is, in the emergency room at Southern Regional Hospital on the southside of metro-Atlanta, Belinda no doubt met people from dozens and dozens of backgrounds – countries of origin, ethnicities, faith groups, etc. Where else could you be more “missionary” than in an urban ER where every person you meet has deep and serious need?

At Point we constantly talk about taking faith into the workplace. We really believe in the idea of the priesthood of all believers. We believe that no matter what you do to earn a living and pay the bills, you can be Jesus to those you encounter while at work.

Truthfully that wasn’t quite a big a topic in the days that Belinda was a student at ACC as it is now. But equally truthfully she modeled what we are talking about all the time with grace and fruitfulness that is of God and God alone. 

Belinda was, in the best sense of the phrase, an ordinary saint. I am grateful that our paths in life crossed and that I can tell others through this blogsite about a great witness for the kingdom.

Her death early in the morning this past Sunday (2 December) took her away from family and friends and that of course is heartbreaking. But her victory on the other side is cause for all of us to look at and follow her example. As Paul said – adjusted a bit for gender – “imitate Belinda as she imitated Christ.” 

Hopefully there is a Wingo’s in heaven and one day we can all have a “small KC” together again!