What is a Chiropractic mission trip like? Here is a summary from five individuals who have had the chance to spread the Chiropractic message abroad. Enjoy!
William Soriano - “Every mission trip has its own character and unique experiences, but there is one experience that comes to mind.
It was on a trip to El Salvador and our host got us into the biggest hospital in the capital. I gave a talk about upper cervical neurology and cancer to a room of about 40 doctors and nurses.
Throughout my talk they had the most blank look on their faces, showing neither approval nor disgust. Fortunately, after I was done they all applauded and got checked and ADJUSTED as needed.
Even better is the fact that they let us check and adjust about 300-400 children with leukemia, you see these doctors were oncologist and we were on the childrens leukemia ward. On that floor, there were about 6 children that were quarantined because of secondary infections as a result of chemotherapy. Initially they would not let us check those kids because they were afraid we would get sick. We told them that was not possible, and after several attempts they agreed on the condition that we wore white lab coats and used hand sanitizer in between patients, (as if this would somehow protect us).
There was one boy who was so ill, he had hard palpable lymph nodes that were so painful, he could not eat right because it hurt him to swallow. His mother explained to us how he wouldn’t play, or hadn’t eaten right for about 30 days, and that nothing the doctors did seemed to help. The boy was ADJUSTED and two days later we were asked to return. Upon checking this child, he was playing, eating right, and the lymph nodes in his neck were no longer palpable and did not hurt. His mother gave us a video testimony that brought our entire team to tears.”
Dr. Arno Burnier - “This is one example out of so many. Seven of us witness a resurrection. A man had been just hit by a passing car and was laying on the ground at the center of a mob of people. We happened to drive by. We stopped. The seven of us stepped out of the van and the crowd parted for us. We checked the man’s pulse and breathing, there was none. He was laying in a pool of blood. We all laid our hands on him, held contacts on his neck. By the time the ambulance came, he was back inside his body, breathing with a pulse and heart beat. The amazing part is was that we were just coming back from a place called Redemption which was the first village were the slaves were given freedom.”
Dr. Peter Lawrence – “The experience that stands out the most for me is that everyone comes away from the trip empowered, excited and energized. One learns to adapt and expect the unexpected because most of the things you usually have control over no longer apply. You don’t look at x-rays, you normally don’t even speak the same language, you are not adjusting in physical circumstances that could help… no drop tables, no high-lows, etc. Nothing except your hands, so one learns to let go and have faith.
I think that’s the biggest thing one gets: faith.”
Dr. Ray Drury – “My first UC mission trip was right after Dr. [Thad} Vuagniaux and I graduated form school and it was a little scary. There were 14 of us, including Dr. [Michael} Kale and his wife, that went to Moldova, a country in the former Soviet Union. I took one group about three hours away; Dr. Vuagniaux took another group and the rest stayed with Dr. Kale. We stayed in people’s houses, we saw patients in churches and we shared one interpreter. The food was horrible, the bathrooms were nothing more than a hole in the ground and we worked our butts off everyday. But the people were so appreciative and we saw so many miracles every day.
About a year later we went on another mission trip to Moldova. This trip had 30 doctors all in the same place. In one week we saw a total of 39,500 patients, 10,000 in one day. It was awesome. In 2007 we took a mission trip to Honduras. Here we worked in the largest hospital in the largest city in Honduras. We had a line of people outside that hospital 3-4 hours before we got there every morning. Medical doctors would bring their patients to us to check them. It truly was like being in a different world. We are planning another mission trip to Nicaragua soon.”
Dr. Tron Malachowski – “From our very first day, we literally had hundreds of people lined up for hours on end. There were so many people, some people arrived at 3-4 am just so they could be seen. The best way I can possibly describe it is like walking into a stadium of about 40,000 people just screaming with all of their eyes on you. And just like ball players, the game was on. There were literally so many people, two lines were wrapped around the hospital about 4 people wide and 50 yards long ALL DAY LONG!!!!
We saw patients that had MS, vertigo, AIDS, Parkinson’s, blindness, etc. etc.
The patient that sticks out in my mind was a boy that at the age of 2, received an expired flu vaccine that turned him into a vegetable. For four years, his parents searched the medical profession for a cure. They obviously never found it. But when they began care with us, he was instructed to stay with us for about 4-6 hours per day where we would check the child every hour. He received several adjustments over the course of a few days. The parents said they saw more improvement with the child in just a few hours than they had in the years they spent in the medical profession. The child began to move, to communicate, and to actually hug his parents. He was never able to do that before.
I could tell many stories but that would take all day. What I can tell you is that we experienced some amazing results. In the end, our team served over 18,000 people between 12 doctors and two students. The trip was life changing for me.”
