Eleven Thursdays out of the year, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Nogales opens its doors and graciously treats disabled children from Mexico. While this kind of treatment comes from the “spirit of the Lord,” its not the kind you would expect out of the humble church in Nogales, Ariz.

For 34 years, the St. Andrew’s Children’s Clinic has been opening its doors to provide free medical care to some of Mexico’s poorest families with children with physical and neurological disabilities.

The clinic started in 1973 when families from Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, asked an American orthopedist to treat their children for cerebral palsy. It had many homes, but ended up at St. Andrew’s when it grew too big for the orphanage and nun’s bedroom that were used briefly, said the clinic’s co-founder Mark Frankel, who is also an orthopedic surgeon.

Completely run by volunteers, the clinic wouldn’t be what it is today without the donated time, money and services from the volunteers who make the whole operation happen.

Since its beginnings in the ‘70s, the clinic has evolved from just orthopedics to physical therapy, neurology, pediatrics, cardiology, audiology and speech therapy, ophthalmology, and a cleft palette clinic.

The cross border clinic is often called the “Clinic of Love,” and “Clinica de los Niños,” which in Spanish means “children’s clinic.”

The families who visit the clinic are some of Mexico’s poorest, and don’t qualify for their country’s socialized health care program. Each clinic day, the church sends buses down into Mexico to pick up the families early in the morning, and brings them to the church for their appointments. They are able to enter the United States because they receive special one-day visas just for their trip.

When they arrive, volunteers greet them with food, donated clothes, shoes and toys while they wait to see doctors.

Once they are seen, the patients are given prescriptions, fitted for wheelchairs, prosthetics and even given hearing aids, among other treatments.

If a patient needs surgery, like 5-year-old Luis Leña, they are also provided with opportunities to travel to hospitals and receive treatment, all free of charge.

Leña was flown to Spokane, Wash., to see Dr. Glen Baird, an orthopedic surgeon who comes to Nogales, Ariz., from Shriners Hospital for Children.

Bob Phillips, the clinic’s executive director, said the clinic, which is the country’s longest running cross border medical clinic, is practicing “medicine the way it should be,” and described it as a “bridge across the border when everyone else is building walls.”