Denovo Ministries-News Clips

The following article appeared in The Fayetteville Observer,(Health Section) June 2, 2003. Reprinted with permission.

The Fayetteville Observer

By Chick Jacobs

Staff writer

God has been concerned with our eating habits since the day He discussed apples with Adam and Eve. So why isn’t physical fitness stressed more in churches? That’s a question that has bothered Fayetteville doctor Gary Robinson for years -- and one he finally decided to answer.

“Churches are excellent when it comes to meeting people’s spiritual needs,” said Robinson. “But the physical? It’s like that’s someone else’s problem. “But the truth is, we are called to serve God with spirit and body. Both are critical, and both should be addressed in church.”

That belief led Robinson and his wife, Pam, to write “Losing Weight From the Inside Out” a self-help manual Pam says combines the “physical and spiritual battles that overweight people face.”

She says the two-book program offers readers -- no matter what their religious belief -- insight into the reasons they may be overweight. “I believe with all my heart that people with a firm spiritual relationshipould find help in it, but even nonbelievers can understand the information,” she said. “No matter what your religious background,” Gary added, “the physical and biological laws are the same.”

Time changed family
The Robinsons were introduced to those laws after moving to Fayetteville from New York to set up a family practice in 1994. Once physically active (“we met in a tai-kwan-do class,” Gary noted) the couple had less time to work out as the practice grew. Then when twin sons Gary and David came along, family time took over fitness time.

“We both started gaining the weight,” Gary said. “It was the sort of thing where in the past I ate a lot, but I exercised a lot. We’d go to Morrison’s cafeteria, and I’d eat one piece of Salisbury steak and tell my wife, ‘I’m sorry honey, I’m still hungry.’ It was fine, because I was burning off the extra calories.

“Then as time went by, I didn’t exercise as much, but still had that double-meat platter. It got to where the lady serving the plates would see me coming and just reach for the double plate.

“The problem is when you eat the same and exercise less, you gain weight. Before long, I was getting bigger, and not in a good sense. Those two meats had become a comfort, not just addressing the needs of my body.”

In working their weights back down, Pam and Gary realized that many others were trapped in the same sort of nutritional shift: food had become more than something to keep the body going.

“It can become a bondage that ruins health,” he said. “that’s what my eating habits were doing to me. It was controlling me, rather than the other way around.”

“God’s will is for us to be healthy in body and spirit” Pam added. “Satan’s job is to do everything he can to derail God’s will. One of the ways he can do that is by making us unhealthy with too much food.”

Like the apple Satan offered in the Garden of Eden? Pam laughed. “More like apple pies. If one piece is good, why not have two?”

The result: according to the American Medical News newsletter, obesity among
American adults has grown from 12 percent in 1991 to more than 20 percent in the year 2000. Much of the weight loss, Robinson said, comes from a lack of knowledge.

“People know that smoking or drinking is bad for them, but many don’t know that overeating will damage their health as well. And they also eat more when stress is in their lives. Overeating and continued stress is a dangerous combination.”

To counter that combo, the Robinsons began designing a two-part system for patients to battle obesity. Calling it the “De Novo” (New You) System, the couple fused biology and the Bible, seeking to improve physical health through education and motivation.

“It’s been a 50-50 proposition,” Gary Robinson said. “One part of it won ’t work without the other. Information by itself won’t turn things around. “And if you want to change, but don’t know how, you can’t change either. It’ s like the bible says in Hosea, Chapter 4, verse 6: “My people are destroyed from a lack of knowledge.”

“But with the motivation and information, the door is unlocked,” Pam said. It’s as much a spiritual battle as physical battle.”

Both are battlefields the Robinsons have seen often. Gary encourages patients to explore the power of prayer as part of their treatment. “Prayer often helps a patient as much as the medical advances of man,” he said. “Together, they are a dynamic combination.”

“Sometimes we need to call on a power higher than our own,” Pam added. “If there’s a problem, people aren’t shy about calling the authorities, firemen or the police. It’s strange they would be hesitant to call the highest authority to help them -- they’re reluctant to call on God.”

One of the Robinsons’ biggest disappointments has been a failing by churches to trealize their role in physical well-being. The problem of obesity needs to be attacked, and it needs to be attacked on levels of spirit and body,’ Greg Robinson said. “Many church people are great when it comes to dealing with spiritual issues, but they neglect the body that God gave us to work His will on earth.

“God is concerned with the body as well as the spirit. Works must be done on this Earth by God’s people, and if their bodies are failing, the work cannot be done. That’s why it’s important for the church to care for physical illness as well as spiritual needs.” The program starts by asking readers to write down how they feel about their
weight and the reasons they want to lose weight.

These become the anchors for motivation. Participants read as much food for the spirit as the body. The program is loaded with positive messages in between dietary information and suggestions for cutting calories. The program mentions the importance of regular aerobic exercise, but doesn’t recommend any specific fitness regimen.

“That would be up to the individual,” Pam Robinson said. “Different people enjoy different things. As long as they’re doing something and following the guidelines in the book, they should see a difference.” And, yes, there is an opportunity to come to God -- a decision the Robinsons say means far more than any weight or health gain.

“A person who isn’t religious or a Christian will still find the information in the books valuable,” Pam said. “It might also get them thinking about what God wants them to do in their world, as well as the next. It’s also written in such a way that teenagers on up can read it.”

On a personal level, the program helped Gary Robinson finally turn away that double-meat platter at the cafeteria. “It felt so good to be able to say, ‘I’ll just have some chicken this time, ” he said. And while their twins get snacks, they also exercise -- often with mom and Dad.

“They love their Dora the Explorer graham crackers,” Pam Robinson said. “But we keep them involved in sports. And we do a lot of healthy things as a family. It’s a ‘Do what I do, not what I say’ life.”

“It just gets back to what I said,” Greg added. “God will honor the effort, when the effort is made.”

The Fayetteville Press

Faith and Medicine Come Together

This article first appeared in The Fayetteville Press

Faith and Medicine Come Together

“When the bathroom scaled topped over 200 pounds each, we knew something had gone drastically wrong. What happened? We were avid exercisers in our 20’s and early 30’s, working out 5-6 days a week. But, after the birth of our twins, and the birth of our new business, exercise for us became a thing of the past. All of a sudden, our plates of food became platters of food. We started hiding food in unusual places, such as the glove compartments of our cars. Potato chips, French fries, and cookies became our regular meals. Rare sweet treats for us became daily indulgences. Everything started to grow—our twins, our business, STRESS, and our weight. Dress sizes went from size 8 to size 18. Pants sizes went from 41 waist to 52 waist, and then it happened. The physical turned into emotional. Depression set in. Oppression set in. Sickness started to wrack our bodies.” There had to be a change.

Dr. Gary and Pam Robinson have a lot to say about obesity, because they have struggled with being overweight since childhood. “I am very well aware of some of the physical problems and especially the emotional struggles that comes with being overweight.” Dr. Robinson said. However, they began to lose weight when they began to employ two principles in combination. The first principle involves an understanding and application of nature’s or biology’s method of weight loss. The second principle involves relying upon the power of God and motivation from the Holy Bible.

As founders and owners of De Novo Family Medical Care, they have noticed that this problem of obesity just didn’t lie with them. Countless of patients have entered their office depressed and saddened and experiencing the same emotional turmoil as they did, wanting to know what to do to lose weight. They have noticed that many of the pain that the patients experienced, such as knee pain and back pain was due to being overweight. In fact, did you know that obesity is a major risk factor in three of the top six leading causes of death in the United States? Did you know that obesity stands as the second leading cause of premature or early death, second only to tobacco? The Robinsons also noticed a frightening lack of basic knowledge about diet, food, nutrition, and exercise amongst their patients. Even simple information appeared to be lacking. Medical doctors, including Dr. Robinson himself, have acknowledged that they have not done a good job in dealing with the problem of overweight and obese patients.

Therefore, Gary and Pam decided to tackle this problem by writing a book, entitled “Faith and Medicine Come Together, Losing Weight From the Inside Out.”.

This two-volume book, which combines the natural with the spiritual, starts by discussing that a person is a tri-partite being, which is a spirit, a soul, and a body. If you notice, many of the weight loss programs and diets on the market only focus on the external—the body. It is the Robinsons’ belief that in order to treat obesity, the problem needs to first be attacked at the level of the mind and the spirit. In the chapter, Losing Weight From The Inside Out, it is discussed how true weight loss begins inwardly and eventually manifests itself outwardly. In other words, there has to be an inner change, before there is an outer change (not only in weight loss, but all areas of a person’s life). The Robinson’s realized that much of their weight gain stemmed from many of the circumstances that were going on in their lives—taking care of twin boys, trying to get a new business to stay afloat—all of which caused stress and emotional burnout. When Gary and Pam began to pray and turn to the Word of God for their problem, spiritual and emotional healing began. “Putting the Word of God into our spirits and minds is critical to life itself,” Robinson said.

The second area of the book is The Motivation. The Robinson’s believe that you must be motivated to reach your goals. This chapter will help a person to become spiritually empowered by reading, memorizing, and meditating on inspiring scriptures taken from the Word of God. The last area of the book, The Information, discusses simple weight management principles in a question and answer format. The questions in the book were derived from the many questions asked by their patients about weight loss throughout their years in practice. The second book is the manual. It is an interactive workbook that begins with a self– analysis survey. This survey will cause a person to look within themselves and locate those areas keeping them from reaching their goals.

Gary and Pam decided that a book of this kind was very needed in their practice and in society as a whole. They believe that the reason why people are not taking better physical care of themselves is because they do not know how. Hosea 4:6 in the Holy Bible says that “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” “We believe that our writing will help to fill much of a person’s knowledge void by giving them, in an easy to understand format, the needed spiritual and biological principles to help them to successfully manage their weight and regain their spiritual as well as their physical health,” Robinson said. The books can be purchased by calling their office at (910) 486-6818, or De Novo Ministries at (910) 425-3587.

Have the Robinson’s reached their goal?

They have lost 30 and 31 pounds respectively, and still counting. Dr. Gary and Pam Robinson wants everyone to know that it is a “daily walk”, and it takes losing the weight on the inside first. Their goal is to take this message across the United States. This, along with their passion for the Word of God, has led them to develop De Novo Ministries, which was birthed out of their practice, De Novo Family Medical Care.

De Novo, which means anew, was taken from the scriptures 2 Corinthians 5:17(KJV) ,”If any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things are past away. Behold all things become new”, and Isaiah 43:19a (KJV), “Behold, I will do a new thing…” De Novo Ministries belief is that faith and medicine coming together will promote true healing. Its mission is to teach people how to put away the old, traditional way of thinking about themselves, about God, and about their health and take on a new attitude by teaching them natural and spiritual principles taken from the Word of God and conventional medicine. It is their expectation that people will experience holistic health (spirit, soul and body) as well as a closer, more intimate relationship with God.

The Robinson’s can be found providing seminars and teachings on the “faith and medicine principle” and other areas that they have struggled with throughout their lives. If you would like Gary and Pam Robinson to give a seminar at your church or organization, please call them at the numbers listed above.

Their goal is to see the hurting uplifted and the enslaved made free by preaching and teaching the Life-giving Word of God. Their pray for all is taken from 3 John 2, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.