Salinas couple finds joy in helping those in need.

When Christa Balch got out of college in 1991, she spent the next three years as a missionary in Papua New Guinea, and was inspired by a missionary doctor whose gentle eyes belied workdays that would stretch past 12 hours.

It was then she decided to become a doctor.

But before returning to the states to go to medical school, she spent time volunteering with Mother Theresa’s Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, India. She was touched by how the church would offer bread to the poor and hungry every morning, and lunch later in the day.

“It all revolved around the church, and it was open to everybody,” she says.

She was praying a lot at the time, and was struck by a revelation: She wanted to do something similar back home.

After getting back to the states, she soon met her future husband David. The couple came to Salinas in 2002, and have been performing good deeds locally ever since. Christa, a family practitioner, has worked at multiple medical clinics that offer services for those of great need and little means.

David – an attorney who’s pledged to do 500 hours of pro bono legal work for churches over the next five years – led Catholic youth groups on retreats from 2002-13, including a 2011 trip to World Youth Day, when he took 30 Salinas Valley youth to Spain to give them a chance to see the pope, and to participate in a mass with 1.5 million other Catholics from all over the world.

“On retreats, you see them just blossom, and I love that,” David says.

The couple has adopted five children out of the foster care system, even after tragedy struck: Sebastian, their first adopted child, was killed by a drunk driver in 2009. In the aftermath, they traveled to different churches in the area to have a “healing night” where they would share their story and meditate on forgiveness.

“It was about seeing that reconciliation is possible, that forgiveness is possible, and that healing comes through peace,” David says.

During that time, Christa stopped working, and was volunteering at First United Methodist Church to feed the homeless. When she noticed that a mobile medical clinic meant to offer services to the homeless was often without a doctor, she decided to get back to work. “I thought, maybe God is calling me to do that,” she says.

Christa began working for the mobile clinic at Clinica de Salud and MC Start, serving youth affected by neonatal drug or alcohol issues, and Access Family Health Care, an addiction clinic for adults trying to kick a debilitating habit.

The Balches feel like now is the time to finally act on the vision Christa had so many years ago in Kolkata: opening – or helping to open – a homeless shelter.

“I love working with the homeless,” David says. “I see people created in the image of God that have so much beauty about them that is untapped.”

Those plans will have to wait a bit: The Balch family is headed to Ecuador for a month, where Christa plans to volunteer at a rural medical clinic.