Bob Jantz: Healing hearts across continents
SOMETIMES, KEEPING one promise plants the seed for another to bloom. In a small Romanian village around 1999, a young boy didn’t expect much from the visiting missionaries. He had cut his arm on a piece of glass and came to see a missionary doctor for help. The doctor cleaned the wound and promised to return in a few days to check on him. To the boy’s surprise, the doctor returned as promised to change the bandage. Within minutes, about 30 people gathered at the boy’s home, and the doctor turned to his pastor friend and said, “Start preaching.”
The event became one of many impressions to convince the Lebanon man to sacrifice the next 28 years.
A Prickling Heart
Bob Jantz grew up to serve. With a medical degree from Temple University Medical School and residency at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis, the Pennsylvania native took his talents to Lebanon in 1988, where he opened his own private practice in 1993. The clinic provides patient-centered care focusing on wellness and prevention. Patients will find treatments for common illnesses and more complex problems, including diabetes management and hypertension. Conveniently, Jantz also offers minor surgical procedures in the office.
Jantz lives with his wife, Roni, and their two cats, Annie and Sandy. He has two grown children and six grandchildren.
He finds purpose in serving the people of Wilson County. His generosity, however, reaches far beyond county lines, stretching all the way to Romania, where a new world opened to him and continues to shape his journey.
The first trip came in 1998 after hearing a guest pastor, Dr. Pierce Dodson, encourage his congregation to join a mission trip sometime in life. Despite trying, Jantz could not ignore the call to action prickling in his soul.
In June 1998, he found himself with the Romanian-American Mission (RAM) in Bucharest, putting away the fear of leaving the familiarity and safety of his homeland. While riding in a bus toward the city, he surveyed the land and could not help but notice the poverty and dysfunction in the area. He then cried.
“That’s when the Holy Spirit came over me. I was crying, and He just told me, ‘This is your mission place.’ I never had that happen before.”
Two weeks of providing medical assistance and sharing the Gospel came and went, but Jantz’s life and perspective of the world changed forever. Subsequent trips followed.
Medication for the Soul
During the first year, Jantz made a key friend in his driver, Octavian Bozga, who began offering his own Bucharest home to Jantz as a place to stay. Seeking more freedom, Jantz left RAM and started organizing his own visits to Romania around 2002, partnering with Bozga.
Over the years, they bought a building and converted it into Abraham’s Rest, a mission house to host missionaries from around the world. The place later transformed into a day care, producing rent funds that supported Jantz’s mission. They also started a medical clinic in Bucharest named “Clinica Medcross,” which has since closed.
He continually trains Romanian students in medical care, passing down his knowledge to them as they serve as his translators in the field. The doctor offers medical screenings, minor surgeries, medications, hygiene products, and more for the needy while sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
“What I’ve done over the years is use my doctoring skills as a way to attract people to hear the Gospel.”
The doctor prioritized involving his wife in the trips as well. His two children participated during the early years of his mission work. Now, his team helps about 900 people a year.
Some of Jantz’s favorite moments include the day in 2021 when a nurse, her child, and her mother all came to believe in Christ. That same day, the clinic was unusually quiet, most people were staying away after a scam stirred fear and suspicion in the community. However, an hour after a call for prayer back to Joy Church in Tennessee, about 50-60 patients arrived!
None of this work could have occurred if Jantz had allowed fear to overcome him back in 1998 and ignored the voice of his heart. Many people now benefit from the selfless decision.
“Sometimes you have to do it afraid, and that’s what I did.”
Those wishing to support Bob and Roni Jantz’s mission can make checks payable to Medcross Inc., a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization. All donors will receive a letter for tax deduction purposes.
