WEN FOSTER DOESN'T THINK OF herself as a mover and a shaker. But that's exactly what she's become. As health czar for the city of Philadelphia, her job is to get people moving and help them shake the habits that lead to poor health.

Five years ago Foster, a longtime member of Philadelphia's Ebenezer Seventh-day Adventist Church, was asked by Mayor John Street to help the City of Brotherly Love get healthy after it was labeled America's fattest city in one national poll. Like any good health professional, Foster assessed the problem, put the city on a diet, and went to work.

Soon the unprecedented move caught the attention of the press. From Oprah and Montel to the Today Show, the New York Times, and CNN, the media came in droves to see what Philadelphia was up to. "We could not have afforded to pay for all the press we got during the first 18 months of this program," Foster notes.

Foster's first initiative was "76 Tons of Fun," a partnership with the city's beloved Philadelphia 76ers basketball team. Together they challenged citizens to lose 76 tons of weight in 76 days. More than 26,000 people participated, eventually surpassing that goal.

Because the mayor designated 2000 as the Year of the Child, Foster hired Melcher Monk, an Adventist educator, to develop a program to teach kids health principles in a creative manner. Monk, who once served as principal for Northeastern Academy in New York and assistant headmaster at Pine Forge Academy in Pennsylvania, created a health component for Traveler's Aid, an after-school program for disadvantaged youth. Kids in the program grow vegetable gardens, learn how to prepare healthful meals, and make whole-grain bread, veggie burgers, and other healthful treats. Foster says the program is now being replicated at schools across the country.

The most successful venture is the Health Journey, which Foster calls "popular and extremely effective." This fictitious travel program takes participants on a health trip to a familiar-sounding city for 10 weeks to help them learn about, and adopt, a new lifestyle. "We've been to Aerobiquerque, New Mexico; Hono-lose-it, Hawaii; Las Veggies, Nevada; Weightville, West Virginia; and Pressureburgh, Pennsylvania, to promote optimum health and tackle the chronic diseases people have, such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity," Foster explains.

The entire program, which Foster credits the Oklahoma-based Lifestyle Centers for America for helping her to create, closely follows the travel theme. Foster has divided the city into 10 districts. Each has several sites--churches, schools, recreation centers, even homes--that serve as "travel agencies" where designated "tour guides" coordinate the program. When interested participants and their "travel buddies" (because "everybody needs someone to help keep them accountable") join the program at a nearby travel agency, they are first assessed for "road readiness." To accomplish this, a medical team conducts a personal wellness profile that includes an assessment of each person's knowledge of health principles, and measurement of blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, body fat, body mass index, and four levels of physical fitness--endurance, flexibility, cardio, and strength.

Once they embark on their health journey, each participant is given a journal to record the experience and a passport to record healthy activities. Every minute of their positive efforts pays off, earning them "frequent mover miles." Eating a serving of fruit or vegetables, drinking water, or attending a vegetarian cooking class taught by nutrition specialists like Johnetta Frazier, an Ebenezer member, also garners points. Thanks to the generous support of organizations around the city, participants cash in points for more than 70 activities around Philadelphia, such as a free workout or pilates class at Bally Total Fitness, Curves, or other participating health clubs. Even restaurants are getting involved, offering discounts on salads or entrées for earned miles.

"We rely on self-reporting," Foster says, "but if they really do it, they see great benefits."

The benefits of these and Foster's other initiatives can be seen all over Philadelphia. "We've seen many health miracles," she says. "Nothing brings me greater joy than when someone approaches me--which happens two to three times a week--to tell me, 'You saved my life!' One woman recently stopped me in the street to tell me that she'd lost 102 pounds because of our programs. I have no idea how many people we've helped or inspired, but when people tell me we've made a difference, that's what I live for."

Journey to Health Ministries
Though she now works in the mayor's office in one of America's largest cities and lives to help her fellow citizens get healthy, Foster's journey to this unique outreach ministry began in another time and place.

When racial tensions became too intense in her childhood home of Louisville, Kentucky, Foster, her parents, and two brothers "fled for our lives" and headed north to Philadelphia, where they joined Ebenezer church. As a talented teen musician, Foster directed the youth chapel choir that included fellow church members DeWitt Williams and Alfred Johnson, now health and adult ministries directors for the North American Division, respectively; Henry Fordham, executive secretary for Allegheny East Conference; Carlos Medley, online editor for the Adventist Review--and her boss, Mayor John Street. Because of her love of music, Foster and her husband, Allen, a concert organist, have collaborated over the years to lead several choirs, including Pine Forge Academy's concert choir, a concert choir at Lincoln University, and Ebenezer's sanctuary choir, which performs Handel's Messiah every year. "Music is my other hat," she notes.

In college Foster wanted to pursue medicine, but since both brothers had chosen the field, she opted for education. After attending Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, and Temple University, she completed her study at Antioch University, and began working on a master's degree in communication. In her early 20s and married with three young children, Foster accepted an opportunity to do Bible work for an evangelism effort conducted by her pastor, Alfred R. Jones, who noticed her interest in soul-winning. After the series, where she helped bring 12 members of Jones's extended family into the church, Foster was invited to work part-time as a Bible instructor in the North Philadelphia area for the Allegheny East Conference. She quickly noticed that most of her contacts had health concerns. "I could see that they needed their health issues dealt with before they could focus on the Bible study," she says. "I realized I had to scratch the itch first."

It started when she visited a mother on welfare who said she had no money to feed her kids. "We went to the kitchen and used what she had--oats, eggs, and nuts--and made burgers," Foster says, noting that the kids ate them up. She also showed the mother the first four food groups from Genesis and began to teach her how to eat right; led her through the five-day smoking cessation program; and took her to George Vandeman's evangelism effort that included cooking classes. In time, the woman began hosting cooking classes in her home with Foster as the teacher. "Soon the entire block was coming to the classes," Foster recalls. "Today the whole family is in the church."

There were many others, and in each case Foster spent months dealing with smoking, drinking, and health problems before engaging the contacts in systematic Bible study. "Health is a natural bridge to the Bible," she says. "I knew they were ready for Bible study when they'd start asking questions such as 'What else have you got?' Before I knew it, I was taking them to church, and they would join. Interestingly, every person I shared health principles with is still in the church, and many are prolific soul winners. The Lord gave us the right message. Even Ellen White says that if we would elevate the moral standard, we must begin by correcting physical habits."

When Foster's employing conference realized the valuable connection between Bible work and health, they sent her to Loma Linda University to pursue a master's degree in public health. While there, she met the world-renowned Nathan Pritikin, an adjunct professor who owned wellness centers that served celebrities in Texas and California. He explained that while in military service, he had developed a chronic illness and began reading Ellen White's writings. He used her principles to turn his health around and challenged the students to begin wellness centers to share the knowledge as he had done. In a private meeting, he encouraged Foster to develop affordable programs for inner-city residents as an extension of her church and its beliefs.

When she returned from California in 1978, Foster was named health ministries director of the Allegheny East Conference and coordinated her first health-conditioning camp at the conference headquarters in Pine Forge, Pennsylvania. She called on friends, family, and colleagues to help her, including conference administrators and staff; Dewitt Williams; corporate executive Donald Blake; many doctors, including Geneva Jackson McCleary, Zeno Charles-Marcel, and her brothers, William and James Winston; Audrey Booker, a nurse; and a nutritionist from Georgia's Wildwood Lifestyle Center. Each year the program, designed to recondition and give people a new start, attracted attendees from all over the United States, Bermuda, Canada, and the Caribbean. It flourished and at its peak boasted 130 attendees in one summer, most of whom were not Adventist. For two weeks every summer, campers lived in cabins, attended lectures on the eight principles of health, exercised, enjoyed three gourmet vegetarian meals daily, and learned money and time management skills. As a result, they lost weight, gained knowledge and strength, and lowered blood pressures and insulin requirements. Foster ran the program every year until 2000, when she accepted the call to serve in Philadelphia. Though she's moved on to a new level of her health ministry, she still visits the health-conditioning camp to inspire attendees to share what they learn with others.

Let Freedom Ring
Foster's creativity and enthusiasm for helping people improve their health are truly inspiring, and there's evidence the messages are resonating with her target audience. The latest research indicates that after four years Philadelphia is no longer number 1 on America's list of fattest cities; it has dropped to number 7.

"I've found my niche," Foster says with grateful confidence. "In every era of the church, God has provided a plan for His people, and He gave us the authentic plan for health reform. It is the major tool in our toolkit for finishing the work, and people would beat a path to our church if they knew we had the answers to health."

After many years of preaching this gospel of health, Foster has captured the attention of celebrities, other cities and countries, and the religious community at large. Celebrities such as singer Patti LaBelle want to partner with her on health initiatives. She's been invited all over the United States, as well as Germany, China, and Japan, to replicate Philadelphia's initiative. Trinity Broadcasting Network has asked her to be part of a special program with Faith for Today that airs this month. She's producing a series of health programs for Three Angels Broadcasting Network and resuming her weekly television program in Philadelphia. And recently the largest and most influential association of clergy in Philadelphia called on her to lead them in a 40-day journey to health that also begins this month.

Next on the agenda, Foster wants to establish a wellness center in Philadelphia. She also wants to move Philadelphians to shake the smoking habit, especially in public places.

"The liberty bell in Philadelphia symbolically rings to commemorate the freedom of our nation," she says. "But now it also rings for freedom from destructive lifestyle patterns as well."

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Celeste Ryan is communication director for the Columbia Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, headquartered in Columbia, Maryland.