When Robert and Nettie McReynolds built their spacious new home in Mineola in 1907, they could not have known that their handsome abode would someday host a ministry instrumental to the health and well-being of hundreds of people across Wood County.

Today, the house with the yellow door – the McReynolds House – offers clinic, lab and exam services to about 400 low-income adults annually through the Grace Community Healthcare Ministry, a faith-based, non-profit organization conceived by Barbara Prater, a physician’s assistant who was the sole practitioner at the center through its formative years, according to clinic administrator Pam Palmer.

Grace plays an indispensible role in providing healthcare to uninsured adults in Wood County who are at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty line. It serves adults with an array of medical conditions – conditions such as diabetes or COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).

Some patients “are so bad that when they walk in the door, seeing a doctor is the last thing they can afford,” Palmer said.

For $18, qualified adults can see a doctor, and they can receive a battery of lab work generally for $35-$40. The clinic also works with pharmaceutical companies to get its patients free medication, inhalers and other products.

At times, Grace sees patients fresh out of prison “who have absolutely no money and nowhere to go but who have to stay on their medication,” Palmer said. The largest segment of the uninsured population seen at Grace, however, is women, specifically those between the ages of 46 and 65, Palmer indicated.

Grace Community Healthcare began incorporation as a 501(3)c in 2004-05. Prater, who recognized the need in Wood County, drove the process and modeled Grace after the Bethesda Health Clinic in Tyler. The early years of Grace Community Healthcare were spent in the basement of the First United Methodist Church just across the street on Pacific.

By hook or by crook, Prater equipped the new clinic with medical supplies and devices as well as office furniture. “Practically everything was donated for use,” Palmer said.

In July 2006, the McReynolds House, which had been used previously as a doctor’s office, was purchased and donated to Grace Community Healthcare by an anonymous benefactor. The roomy, high-ceilinged structure has a large reception area, numerous rooms for examinations, administration, and laboratory work.

In 2007, Dr. Mark C. Race came aboard to serve as Grace Community Healthcare’s medical director. Today he is joined by Nurse Practitioners Linda Brazier and Darlene Haggerton. The three are assisted by several licensed nurses. Dr. Loy W. Frazier Jr. serves as lab director.

They are among the 30 or so volunteers who “are the heart of this place” – a place funded completely by private donations, churches, civic organizations and grants, according to Palmer. It exists only through its embrace by the community.

“This place is a lifeline. I like to say there’s a reason the word ‘community’ is in Grace Community Healthcare. We’re run by volunteers in the community, we’re funded by the community, donations come from the community,” Palmer said.

Although it relies on donations, Grace Community Healthcare makes a hefty contribution of its own to Wood County by curtailing hospital emergency room visits by indigent Wood County patients.

“We’re probably saving the county thousands in keeping people out of the emergency room. If you don’t have insurance or someplace like this, you’re going to hit the emergency room” to seek medical care, Palmer noted.

Grace Community Healthcare is governed by an 11-member board that includes medical professionals, an attorney, a druggist, a pastor as well as other community members. It conducts clinics on Thursday and Friday and will schedule lab work by appointment on Wednesday.

Although Grace is fulfilling its mission as a benevolent society, it would someday like to do even more in the medical arena.

“Things are going extremely well for us right now,” Palmer said. “Our goal is to have the place open every day for a longer period of time and have more doctors in here. Where we’re trying to branch out now is to try to get services for our patients that cannot afford to be seen by a specialist.”

Until then, Grace Community Healthcare will do what it can to make life better for people, whether that means offering a low-cost office visit, help with medication or a free pair of crutches.

“We are a benevolent society,” Palmer said. “We’re not an entitlement. But we are benevolent.”