Lois Peacock, a member of the Synod’s Commission on Ministerial Growth and Support since 2001, has received the Health Ministries Association’s (HMA) 2006 Wilkerson-Droege Award for “creative leadership, compassionate ministry, and visionary faithfulness to the faith/health movement.” 
Peacock, a retired nurse, is a member of Zion Lutheran Church in San Francisco, where she lives.
The annual award is given in honor of two health-ministry pioneers and early HMA leaders –- Rev. Thomas A. Droege, a Missouri Synod clergyman in Doraville, Ga., and Sister June Wilkerson, a Roman Catholic nun.
HMA, formed in the late 1980s, has about 1,000 members involved in health ministry. Its 15-member board selects the recipient of the Wilkerson-Droege Award from among those nominated by HMA members. It is the association’s only award.
A write-up on the HMA Web site notes that Peacock also “is one of the pioneers of health ministry,” and that she worked with Droege and Wilkerson, the award’s first recipients.
“Health ministry would have come to the West Coast much later than it did, without the vision of Lois and Sister June,” the write-up notes. “Lois planted the seeds for health ministries in congregations throughout Northern California, often traveling 100 miles or more to offer her enthusiasm, guidance, and resources to anyone who was interested. …The Health Ministries Association is pleased to honor this gracious lady who has served as an inspiration to so many of us.”
Posted Aug. 31, 2006
