Rehoboth Christian Church in Dobbs Ferry is partnering with Open Door Family Medical Centers of Ossining and the Westchester based health coalition, Women Organized Around Wellness (WOW) to offer a series of wellness workshops for local women. The workshops will focus on women’s health issues, particularly preventative health strategies for Latino and African-American women. 

Rehoboth’s Pastor Frieda Smith is enthusiastic about the upcoming workshops and encourages everyone in the community to attend, regardless of their race—though she does acknowledge that health education has been proven most effective when tailored to a specific population.

“People of color have a high incidence of diabetes, hypertension and heart disease primarily due to poor eating habits and the lack of exercise,” she said. “Through the workshops—to be held at the Open Door and the New Hope Institutional Baptist Church in Tarrytown—we hope to bring educational information to the public to minimize the risk factors for these conditions. ”

A Tarrytown native, Smith has served as pastor of Rehoboth since its inception in October, 2004. 

Prior her ecclesiastical career, Smith was a probation officer for 26 years. She felt the calling to serve God in the ministry since childhood and feels that she answered that call in her work long before becoming a pastor.

“For as long as I can remember, I have had compassion for hurting and displaced people,” she said. “Interestingly, it continued throughout my career as a probation officer, for in essence I was ‘ministering’ to people who were lost and encouraging them to believe their lives could be better.”

Smith added that her years spent in the criminal justice system made her “not afraid to minister to people with major issues—an approach she has extended to her work at Rehoboth Church.

In addition to preaching weekly sermons, leading worship and serving the needs of her 125 parishioners, Pastor Smith has authored two books, “How to Successfully Break Out of Jail” and “Eleven Words.”

 “My first book, 'How to Successfully Break Out of Jail,' began as a sermon I preached,” she said.  “In one passage, Simon Peter was locked in jail, but an angel of the Lord led him to freedom.  In looking at our own lives, all of us have areas in which we are imprisoned, confined, or bound.  The book covers nine steps that will lead to freedom from those areas; the final step addresses the issue of recidivism or returning to prison once released.”

“Eleven Words,” she said “was written after [she] spent almost nine months in 2008 delivering sermons on consecutive Sunday mornings based on scripture of phrases within a verse that contained only eleven words.  The book has eleven of these messages; some are inspirational, informational and/or motivational.”

In addition to her books, Pastor Smith also recorded a CD in 2001 singing her ten favorite church hymns.

Asked why she has taken an interest promoting holistic health, Smith said that according to the Bible, “our bodies are the temple or the dwelling place of God…It is important that we care for our bodies, as we will be unavailable for God’s service if our bodies are malfunctioning due to negligence.”

Though Smith suffers from a number of medical conditions, she said that she does not allow them to impede her ability to serve God and the community.

“I am able to fulfill my divinely-ordained assignments because not only do I pray for God’s healing, I participate in the healing process by receiving professional medical care, taking prescribed medication as directed, eating healthier and exercising regularly,” she said. “I know from experience the value of healthy living!” 

The locations, dates and times of the upcoming wellness workshops are as follows:

Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2011 at Open Door, Ossining (Main Street; 3^rd Floor Boardroom)

Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011 at New Hope Institutional Baptist Church, 80 Central Avenue, Tarrytown, NY

Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at Open Door, Ossining (Main Street; 3^rd Floor Boardroom)

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at New Hope Institutional Baptist Church, 80 Central Avenue, Tarrytown, NY

The workshops are from 6  to 7:30 p.m.  A light, healthy meal is served. 

Rehoboth Christian Church Sunday services are offered at the Tabernacle of Prayer, located at 523 Broadway in Dobbs Ferry, NY.  The services begin at 9 a.m. and generally conclude at 10:30 am.  On Wednesday evenings from 6:30– 7:30 p.m. the church holds Bible Study in the chapel of First Presbyterian Church, directly across the street from Ossining High School.