The Tupelo, Mississippi native graduated from Mississippi College in 1986 then attended the Tulane University School of Medicine, followed by an internship at New Orleans’ Charity Hospital and a dermatology residency at the Mayo Clinic. He then served as a board-certified dermatologist at Mississippi’s Kessler Air Force Base before moving to Birmingham in 1997, where he opened Surgical Dermatology Group with partner Evans Bailey, MD. The practice has offices in Birmingham, Huntsville, Montgomery and Pell City and offers Mohs surgery, a microscopically-influenced procedure with a high cure rate for treating skin cancer.
Harmon’s jitters about that first service trip quickly disappeared. “Once you begin to work in a remote area with nothing but a table and a chair,” he says, “you find that you have more diagnostic and treating skills than you realized.” He and his wife, Sandy, and their daughters, Mary Elizabeth, 17, and Haley, 15, have embarked on similar trips many times since. Focusing solely on what the patient needs—without worrying about insurance or electronic records—is satisfying. It’s what draws most physicians into medicine in the first place, Harmon says, not as a livelihood, “but as a way to make another human being feel better.” Take, for example, the reward of fitting an adult with glasses for the first time. “Instead of a green blur, he sees leaves,” Harmon says. “In a day, you’ve changed somebody’s life forever.”
For Harmon, the “mission” portion of a medical mission trip is perhaps the more fulfilling part. “Evangelism has a negative connotation, unfortunately,” he says. But mission trips provide a way to learn how to share one’s faith naturally. He estimates he’s taken 50 doctors to such locations as Kenya, Southern Sudan, and Peru. Surgical Dermatology Group’s staff and even some of the patients—intrigued by photographs and art from past trips that are used to decorate the offices—have joined teams.
“We encourage doctors to go with their families,” Harmon says, which can run into a $20,000 to $30,000 expense. Leaving their practices is also costly. But, he tells them, “If you will do this as your family vacation rather than snow skiing or going to the Caribbean, your kids, especially, will say that they want to do it again.” Children help with such things as patient registration, telling Bible stories and playing with the local kids.
A few years ago, Harmon connected with e3 Partners, a Dallas-based ministry that focuses on “church planting.” The organization’s goal is to seed churches in Third World regions where Christianity does not flourish. “They brought to the table 15 years of church planting experience,” says Harmon, who serves on the e3 board of directors, “and we brought how to use medical clinics to help plant churches.” The ministry “follows what Jesus modeled for us in preaching, teaching and healing.”
When Surgical Dermatology moved offices, an e3 mission planning space was offered in the new facility. That led to more local connections. Now students from Samford University’s nursing and pharmacy schools and the University of Alabama’s nursing program participate on e3 mission trips. Harmon hopes that ground breaking in March on a larger practice facility will spread the work even more. The building will house the practice’s surgery center and one or two other specialities, as well as a conference center and office space for mission-minded ministries.
In addition, Harmon and his wife are closely involved in Meta Camp. After an e3 official expressed interest in building an Alabama-based missionary training center, the Harmons, along with friends, organized a board, raised $400,000 in a 14-month span, and partnered with Alabama Power to lease 24-acres on Lake Martin. Tornadoes two years ago wiped out the property, so volunteers first cleaned up and salvaged two structures, one a 10,000-square foot building. The building now includes bunk rooms, a commercial kitchen, and meeting space that accommodates 300. The first training session will be held in March.
“This is the kind of thing that only happens when God is at work in multiple people,” Harmon says.
