Here’s our Christmas and 2024 Year Summary. Items covered include: Our family and marriage, medical practice, my writing of books, blogs, a devotional, and magazine columns, our marriage enrichment and personal ministries, and last, but not least, all thanks to the Lord for the incredible 35-year history of a wonderful ministry to health professionals that has literally spread around the world.

Standing: Charles and Kate Ritz, Jennifer and Scott Larimore
Sitting: Katherine, Walt, Barb, and Sarah Larimore

Barb and I are so grateful to the Lord for all He has done in and though us, individually, our marriage, our ministry, and our family. 2024 was an amazing year for us. Here are just a few of the highlights:

Our Family – 

Kate, our oldest, has been married to Charles Ritz since 2013. She’s still at the Focus on the Family Bookstore (and loving it) while Charles is in IT and working at night on his MBA.

Scott, our youngest, has been married to Jennifer since 2005. They live in Atlanta. Scott is Director of Development Events at Emory University and Jennifer is a neurobiologist and professor at Agnes Scott College. Anna Katherine (2008) and Sarah Elisabeth (2009) make grandparenting the coolest and most wonderful job of all!

Our Marriage — Barb and I celebrated our 51st wedding anniversary in November. We’ve been friends since kindergarten where we met as 5 year olds. We’re still best friends 68 years later! She’s the love of my life. More about our marriage ministry below.

Top row: Walt 3rd from left and Barb 4th from left

Medicine – After over 40 year of practice as a family physician, I stopped direct patient care at the end of 2021. I am now refocusing, as opposed to retiring, but for the meantime continue work as a Physician Advisor for a large Worker’s Compensation insurance company. The work has a ton of flexibility and can be done remotely. It allows me to do medical sleuthing as a medical Sherlock Holmes. It’s a real blessing.

Book Writing – I have been blessed to have five books published in the last five years:

• In August 2019, “Fit over 50: Make Simple Choices for a Healthier, Happier You” released (https://amzn.to/3BhYO2r).This is an evidence-based book chock full of evidence-based health tips (and the book is useful for adults of ANY AGE!).

• In October 2020, “Best Medicine: Tales of Humor and Hope from a Small-Town Doctor” released (https://amzn.to/3JhfxFE). This book is a memoire of my early days of practice in Kissimmee, Florida.

• In April 2021, “Natural Medicines: The Truth about the Most Effective Herbs, Vitamins, and Supplements for Common Conditions,” released (https://amzn.to/3oHAVvU). This is an evidence-based books about natural medicines for common conditions.

• In November 2021, the sequel to “Best Medicine,”  titled “The Best Gift: Tales of a Small-Town Doctor Learning Life’s Greatest Lessons” was released (https://amzn.to/3HNBSui).

• Last, but not least, in April 2022, a book I worked on for over 16 years about my father’s heroic exploits and experiences in WWII came out. “At First Light: A True World War II Story of a Hero, His Bravery, and an Amazing Horse” was published by Knox Press and is distributed by Simon & Schuster (https://amzn.to/3Lp0MCw). It has had better reviews and won more awards than any book I’ve written (Non-fiction “Book of the Year,” The Golden Author Award, and the “Book of the Year” in the Genre “True Stories: by the International Page Turner Awards (London); Silver Medalist for “Book of the Year” by the Military Writers Society of America;” a 2023 featured book by The National WWII Museum in New Orleans; and a “Featured Book” at the Louisiana Book Festival in October 2023).

Blog Writing – I’m still blogging a family and health blog here. Most of this next year I’m continuing to add frequent content on what my dad was doing as a teenage war hero in a several-times-a-week WWII blog, “80 Years Ago Today.” You can subscribe to one or both blogs here.

Column Writing – For quite a number of years I’ve been honored to write a bi-monthly column, “Ask Dr. Walt,” for Today’s Christian Living and a quarterly column, “Vaccine News You Can Use,” for the Colorado Academy of Family Physicians journal, Colorado Family Physician. I post each of these columns, after they are published, in my family and health blog.

Devotional Writing — In early 2024, I launched a daily devotional on “The Bible Ap” at “You Version” that is titled “What God has to say about …“. The devotional will only be about what God’s word says about a wide variety of topics. No human opinions … just God’s thoughts. You can get it for free by:

• Go to the YouVersion app,
• Hit the “Discover” button, and
• Enter “Larimore” in the search box.

You can also see it here . Last I checked, there were over 7,000 folks subscribed. My agent is now shopping the book to various publishers.

Marriage Enrichment Ministry – Barb and I have had the privilege of leading a Re-Engage Marriage Enrichment ministry at our church, Academy Christian Church in Colorado Springs,  since 2016. This Spring, we’ll begin our 10th semester directing the ministry. To date, 188 couples have graduated from the course (an 87% graduation rate from the 216 couples enrolled). Twenty-one of those couples, have come back to facilitate small groups for from one to nine semesters. Not until heaven will we know all that God has done in and through the amazing availability and efforts of these incredible teaching couples. And, for Barb and me, It is a real joy for us to minister together. You can learn more about ReEngage here.

Personal Ministry — Barb and I are both involved in individual and group discipleship. Barb also is working with two small groups at church, and in particular, loves a discipleship group with young moms.

Incredible History About a Wonderful Ministry — The astounding growth and spread around the world of a number of evangelistic teaching materials for health professionals in which the Lord graciously allowed me to participate. Here’s a brief history:

• In 1993, I was contacted by and then visited at my family medicine practice in Kissimmee, FL, but the then Christian Medical and Dental Society’s (CMDS) General Director, Hal Habecker, DMin, who had heard from the man who led me to Christ in 1972, Rich McGee, that my partner, John R. Hartman, MD, and I , that we had a thriving medical practice in which we had learned how to incorporate spiritual interventions such as a spiritual history, faith flags, faith stories, praying with and for patients, spiritual consults and referrals. After spending a few days at our practice, Hal invited me to come to Dallas in 1994 for the CMDS National Convention to present a workshop on Spiritual Care in Clinical Practice. He estimated that maybe 25-50 of the 500 attendees would likely be interested.
• In 1994, with overhead acetates in hand (no PowerPoint back then), I went to Dallas for the conference. Hal met me to tell me that his estimate had been way off. Only about 50 of the 500 registrants did NOT want to sign up for the workshop. So, I gave it twice to about 250 health professionals each time.  It received rave reviews. But, in all honesty, John and I had just applied the teachings of Sir Paul Brand, MD, OBE (Fearfully and Wonderfully Made), David  B. Larson, MD, Jim Peterson (Living Proof: Sharing the Gospel Naturally:), and Rebecca Pippert (Out of the Salt Shaker), among others.
• Then, in late 1994, my dear friend, Bill Peel, ThM, DMin (who along with Evangelist Billy Graham are both blood relatives of mine as they BOTh are 9th cousins once removed — how cool is that!), who was the founding director of the Paul Tournierr Institute of CMDS came to Kissimmee for a week, and I put together the first draft of a teaching program for Christian healthcare professionals on how they could bring Jesus to work with them everyday. The initial program was called “The Saline Solution: Sharing Christ in a Busy Practice” was funded, published, and distributed by the Christian Medical and Dental Associations (CMDA) in the U.S., with the incredible support of CMDA’s then leadership, CEO, David Stevens, MD, and COO Gene Rudd, MD.
• Our first trial workshop was at the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly in Mountain Retreat, NC, just outside of Asheville. The conference registration quickly filled, but quite a number of health professionals came to create a standing (or sitting) room only weekend. The atmosphere was electric. The conference was organized and expertly administered by CMDA staff member, Wayne Sander, a huge fan and proponent of the early Saline Solution conferences. In attendance was a (then) young dentist, Bill Griffin (see more about “Griff” below).
• We were off and running. In over five years, Bill and I traveled across the U.S. to teach the materials to tens of thousands of healthcare professionals. At times we were teaching one to two weekend conferences a month to upwards of 500 health professionals. We also traveled to and taught in England, China, and Hungary. What an amazing and exciting five years that was. The conference in Budapest, was organized by an Emergency Department physician from the U.S., Bob Snyder, MD (see more about Bob below). Physicians from Russian, Ukraine, Romania, and Hungary attended. Also in attendance was a (then) young Hungarian family physician, Gábor Györi, MD (see more about Gábor below).

• In 2000, as I was preparing to start a stent as Vice President and Physician in Residence at Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, and Bill, who was co-pastoring a church in Dallas, and was soon to become the founding Executive Director of the Center for Faith and Work at LeTourneau University in Dallas, updated and converted The Saline Solution into a video course, also titled, “The Saline Solution: Sharing Christ in a Busy Practice.” The video course had a new leader and participant guides. It continued to enjoy wide distribution and acceptance not only in the U.S., but in locations around the world.

• While in our new positions, Bill and I published several books and a video curriculum for Christian men and women in the business world:
  • Going Public with Your Faith: Becoming a Spiritual Influence at Work (book)
  • Workplace Grace: Becoming a Spiritual Influence at Work (book)
  • Workplace Grace Participant’s Guide: Becoming a Spiritual Influence at Work (video curriculum)
  • Workplace Grace: Becoming a Spiritual Influence at Work (LeTourneau 120th Birthday Edition)

• At the same time, two friends, Bob Snyder, MD, from the U.S., and Gábor Györi, MD, from Hungary (see above), developed IHS Global with a goal of spreading “The Saline Solution” in an international format around the world. They developed “The Saline Process” and formed the International Saline Partnership with nine other Christian healthcare organizations: Healthcare Christian Fellowship International (HCFI), Nurses Christian Fellowship International (NCFI),  International Christian Medical and Dental Associations (ICMDA), Christian Medical Fellowship – United Kingdom (CMF), Christian Medical and Dental Fellowship of Australia (CMDFA), Evangelical Medical Fellowship of India (EMFI), Health Outreach to the Middle East (HOME), Ukraine Medical Outreach (UMO), and IHS Hungary. The Saline Process has been introduced into 129 countries to over 50,000 healthcare professionals, and is now available as Saline Process Online Training (SPOT).

• In 2014, the course was updated in the U.S. with a new video series with new leader and participant guides and published as “Grace Prescriptions: Learning to Share Your Faith in Your Practice.”

• Then, just a few years ago, CMDA and Dr. Bill Griffin (see above), transformed “The Saline Solution” and “Grace Prescriptions” into a new video resource for health professionals, which along with study guides, is called “Faith Prescriptions.” It was designed to equip healthcare professionals to share the love of Christ with their patients and colleagues. I was especially pleased to see so many “Saline Solution” and “Grace Prescriptions” graduates teaching many of these videos.

• Most recently, CMDA and IHS joined forces to bring the International Saline Process into the U.S. and North America. They co-hosted a Saline Process Witness Training (SPWT) workshop in Louisville, Kentucky on November 6-7, 2024, as a pre-conference before the annual Global Mission Health Conference in Louisville, KY, held at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. It was a rousing success.
• You can hear more about more about the history described above and about the ground-breaking conference in this CMDA podcast, “Saline Process Witness Training.” Drs. Griffin (from CMDA) and Györi (from IHS), along with Mayo gastroenterologist and medical missionary, Dr. Mark Topazian, discuss this exciting partnership and its future goals with CMDA CEO Dr. Mike Chupp.

We hope you and yours have a Christ-centered, warm-memory-creating, family-filled, healthy, and blessed New Year.

© Copyright WLL, INC. 2024.