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Medical One van that is used in Pinellas County

CLEARWATER — One day, “Dr. Tonya” may be whisking about town in Mobile One. Another day, she may be corralling medical volunteers for a special project. And on yet another, she might be leading an international team to an underdeveloped area of the world.

All of this medical mission work is done through New Frontiers Health Force, a non-profit organization she founded in September 1997 because of her passion for missions.
Dr. Tonya Hawthorne, better known as “Dr. Tonya,” originally attended Southeastern University in 1979 to become a missionary. After earning a mission degree with minors in English and Bible, she decided to study medicine and is now a board-certified osteopathic family physician.

“Combining these two (loves) had been my goal from high school,” she explained. “During my internship and residency, I was able to make several short-term mission trips to Haiti, Nicaragua, Russia and the Dominican Republic. I knew that someday I was going to be working full-time using my medical skills to help people throughout the world. Thus, New Frontiers Health Force was born to touch the nations by offering hope and healing through primary medical care and disaster relief.”

Starting New Frontiers while working full-time in a busy practice in Clearwater was challenging at best, with Hawthorne devoting all of her vacation time to medical mission work. The fast-paced dual career continued for three years until “it became very apparent that it was time for me to make a choice between my medical practice and my calling to care for the nations,” she admitted. “It really wasn’t a choice. This is what I was destined to do with my life.”

Hitting Home
Until a few years ago, the majority of New Frontiers’ work was international. After four hurricanes hit Florida in 2004, she felt challenged to do mission work at home.

“I began to research … and found out about the incredible need here in our country and particularly our community for those who don’t have medical insurance or are underinsured,” she explained. “It’s close to my heart because as a physician, I was unable to afford medical insurance for 10 years. It was only as of December 2007 that I personally was able to obtain medical insurance. I’m one of the lucky ones in that I’m healthy and have resources when I get sick. There are thousands that are absolutely desperate and have nothing.”

So she established Medical One, a mobile healthcare unit, to help the underserved in Pinellas County, working in connection with the Pinellas County Health Department.

“We’ve been building this program slowly over the past year with the van now providing services every second and fourth Saturday of each month at our Clearwater headquarters and the second Wednesday of each month,” she noted.

Focusing on Kenya
A little over a year ago, Hawthorne was in Liberia when she fell into a bush potty, breaking her foot.

“It was two weeks before I was able to get medical attention because I was way out in the bush,” she recalled. “For the next six months, I was in a walking cast and had time to really seek the Lord about our goals. We were coming to the end of our first decade of ministry and I wanted new direction for the work.

“There were three very definitive things that I was directed to do. ‘Fruit that remains’ was one of the three directives. How this translated for me was that we were to begin a project where we did something that had a long-lasting presence in a particular country.”

Recalling her intention at the beginning of medical school to build medical clinics around the world, staff them, and then move on to another needy area of the world, Hawthorne said 10 years of training for that process led up to establishing New Frontiers’ first clinic.
“So when an opportunity came along for me to do an investigational trip to Kenya, I did it … and there is where I discovered our partners and a real need for a clinic with the Masai people,” she explained.

The Silent People
Because New Frontiers could only afford to pay two employees — Hawthorne and a part-time assistant — Hawthorne recruited a regular staff of volunteers to serve in various departments. In total, roughly 70 volunteers, not including those who journey on international teams, man Medical One and Harvest Helpers, routinely serve as supply coordinators or on Medical One’s leadership team, the organization’s board of directors, or as office staff.

At New Frontiers’ recent annual celebration highlighting a decade of ministry, Hawthorne pointed out the organization has sent more than 60 teams to 28 nations, reaching well over 100,000 people with more than 100 volunteers traveling with the international team.
“Then you add in the volunteers who’ve helped us over the past 10 years, which would bring the number to well over 200 volunteers,” she pointed out. “On top of that, we’ve partnered with many different organizations, sent relief to disaster situations, funded projects around the world, given away millions of dollars of supplies and pharmaceuticals, planted churches, supported missionaries, as well as sent out our own teams.”

For the remainder of 2008, New Frontiers’ agenda includes:

• Expanding Medical One by adding another day of the month to the local outreach schedule.
• Sending three teams to Kenya. The first team will work with DOOR Africa, a deaf outreach in Nairobi. The second team will work with partners in Ngoswani on a clinic project. The third team will return to Ngoswani and to Embu, where a medical team to help very poor people has been requested.
• Establishing medical clinics in Calabar, Uganda; Galapagos Island; and the Ukraine.
• Hosting a women’s conference, Beauty for Ashes, where some 200 women will hear about medical, emotional and spiritual issues affecting women.

Hawthorne, who received the President’s Call to Service Award in 2004, remains humble about her contribution to society.
“I’m just someone who’s taken her God-given talents,” she said, “and used them to make a difference in the lives of those who are less fortunate.”

For additional information on New Frontiers, visit www.newfrontiershf.com.


Caption 2: Dr. Tonya working with the Masai in Kenya Medical one Mobile Van.



March 2008

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