{"id":9850,"date":"2021-01-26T07:11:14","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T15:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gkfhf3spiv.wpdns.site\/?p=9850"},"modified":"2024-08-21T05:15:59","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T12:15:59","slug":"the-key-to-life-change-in-medical-missions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/the-key-to-life-change-in-medical-missions\/","title":{"rendered":"The KEY to Life Change in Medical Missions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Medical missions have been around for a long time and have saved many lives. Although there are great things about Medical Missions, we believe that there is a more effective solution to helping communities around the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this post, we will take you through:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The History of Medical Missions<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Pros and Cons of Medical Missions<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Solution to Medical Missions<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>History of MAI\u2019s Medical Missions\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<h2><b> <br class=\"avia-permanent-lb\" \/>When people hear our name, Medical Ambassadors International (or MAI), they assume that we\u2019re a group of doctors, nurses and other health care providers who conduct medical missions around the world. Let us set that record straight!<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MAI did start in the mind of a surgeon, Dr. Raymond Benson, who left a practice in Montana to serve in the highlands of Vietnam. As American involvement in the war wound down, he found himself making a harrowing escape on one of the last departing helicopters out of the country before it fell to the North Vietnamese. Unwilling to walk away from medical missions, he continued to work in Christian medical missions overseas.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Around the turn of the decade of the 1980s, Dr. Benson felt led to establish the mission of Medical Ambassadors. He believed God had called him to create change. He could tell stories like few others and held his audiences entranced as he painted the picture of hapless people throughout the world who were benefiting from the presence of Medical Ambassadors. His rallying cry was, \u201cAbove all else, the world needs Jesus.\u201d Dr. Benson firmly believed that there should be a combination of evangelism as well as medicine in medical missions.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>The Problem We Found in Medical Missions\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>But there was a big problem Dr. Benson saw all over the world: he witnessed the desperation of hundreds of people who walked for hours to reach the medical clinics.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first task in the morning would be to triage the patients, sending home half of the least ill so they would be able to see the remaining patients in time to hold another clinic in another valley. As grateful as the treated patients were, the anger and disappointment of those turned away was high. The exhaustion of impossibly large and incredibly busy clinics left physicians with little time to share the gospel. The heartbreak of receiving weak, feverish babies into the clinic, too late to save, was all too frequent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There were other concerns too. \u201cOur mobile clinics were recycling centers. People came to us for treatment, went back and drank the same water that made them sick, and the next time we came through we were treating the same people for the same problems. The community was not getting healthier,\u201d recalled Terry Dalrymple (director to Southeast Asia), quoting a doctor who had been on several MAI mission trips.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was apparent by then that a different, better strategy was needed \u2013 one that would truly make a definitive difference in the world\u2019s health care.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Without a change to Medical Missions, no matter how many clinics were organized, the result would still be the same as people came back over and over, year after year, with the same health issues as they\u2019d previously suffered. Eventually, it was decided that it would be far more productive, cost effective and beneficial to focus on <\/span><b>prevention<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of illness and disease rather than waiting until after the people were sick \u2013 and perhaps dying.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-9881\" src=\"https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Bibi3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"305\" height=\"406\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Bibi3.jpg 960w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Bibi3-600x800.jpg 600w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Bibi3-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Bibi3-773x1030.jpg 773w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Bibi3-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Bibi3-529x705.jpg 529w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Bibi3-18x24.jpg 18w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Bibi3-27x36.jpg 27w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Bibi3-36x48.jpg 36w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 305px) 100vw, 305px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><b>Pros and Cons of Medical Missions\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are medical missions good? Are they beneficial? Is there perhaps a better way of improving the health of developing communities than sending teams of doctors and nurses over and over for thousands of miles for a week or two?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<h3><b>Pros:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><b>Let\u2019s get this straight up front:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> there is a place for medical teams going to perform life-saving and life-changing surgeries. In many cases, their services are provided for free to those who could never afford treatments otherwise. So, we\u2019re not bashing medical missions. But there are very real issues and dangers that need to be considered, too.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Cons:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Consider the team that takes bags of medications for a variety of conditions. Is that wise? How well do they know the background of the people they give the meds to? Do they know what allergic reactions the person may have? Do they know with high confidence what other medications, if any, the person is taking and how they might interact with the drugs they are about to dispense? Language is often a very real barrier \u2013 how well will the dosing instructions be understood and will they be followed? What kind of post-treatment follow-up with the patients will there be for when the team leaves and goes home? What happens when the drugs brought in from America run out and are no longer available to the person with the illness?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Think about the impact on the local doctors, nurses and pharmacies of teams of Americans coming into their region and giving free treatment and medicines. This deprives the local economy and practitioners of the potential to earn more of a living. Can that create animosity \u2013 even anger \u2013 that could make future work in that location difficult? It costs a lot of money to send teams to remote countries. If that money were used to help train local doctors in new procedures and techniques, such that the local practitioners could be more effective for the long run, would that be a better solution?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We have seen it over and over \u2013 teams go into a village year after year and see the same problems year after year \u2013 never really seeing transformation. Medical Ambassadors started with the concept of doing clinics but saw this lack of transformation first-hand many times and concluded there must be a better way.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>The Solution to Medical Missions: Community Health Evangelism\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>That search for a better way led to the discovery and development of <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/our-approach\/che-in-details\/\"><b>CHE (Community Health Evangelism)<\/b><\/a><b> a process that incorporates physical and spiritual education with a special focus on <\/b><b><i>prevention<\/i><\/b><b> of disease, not <\/b><b><i>treatment<\/i><\/b><b> after the fact.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Prevention is far more economical \u2013 and less painful to the sufferers \u2013 than to have to endure expensive treatments after the disease has taken root in the body. Expensive equipment and buildings aren\u2019t required in a prevention model of health missions. Think of it as something akin to a public health model that focuses on education, not treatment. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And it is very, very effective!<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The lessons that focus on disease prevention draw largely from materials from the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">World Health Organization (WHO)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Centers for Disease Control (CDC)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, putting them into language that anyone can understand and anyone can teach \u2013 even if they\u2019ve had no medical training whatsoever. At the same time, they include spiritual truth to help with evangelism and sharing the gospel.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Results have been staggering: villages have experienced reductions in early childhood mortality and malnutrition of 50% and higher as the result of putting CHE into practice.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-8307 \" src=\"https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/dreamstime_xxl_15154371crop.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"484\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/dreamstime_xxl_15154371crop.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/dreamstime_xxl_15154371crop-600x310.jpg 600w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/dreamstime_xxl_15154371crop-300x155.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/dreamstime_xxl_15154371crop-768x396.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/dreamstime_xxl_15154371crop-705x364.jpg 705w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/dreamstime_xxl_15154371crop-24x12.jpg 24w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/dreamstime_xxl_15154371crop-36x19.jpg 36w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/dreamstime_xxl_15154371crop-48x25.jpg 48w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 484px) 100vw, 484px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Medical missions are nothing new. They\u2019ve been around a long time and will continue to be with us. And that\u2019s good. But we believe we\u2019ve found a better, more effective approach for most of the situations that primary care medical teams might encounter. That solution is <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/our-approach\/che-in-details\/\"><b>Community Health Evangelism<\/b><\/a><b>.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Would you like to know more?<\/p>\n<p>Email us at info@med-amb.org, or <a href=\"https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/contact\/\">fill out the contact form on our website.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-16488 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-5.31.08-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"563\" height=\"444\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-5.31.08-AM.png 794w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-5.31.08-AM-300x237.png 300w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-5.31.08-AM-768x606.png 768w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-5.31.08-AM-705x556.png 705w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-5.31.08-AM-450x355.png 450w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-5.31.08-AM-24x19.png 24w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-5.31.08-AM-36x28.png 36w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-5.31.08-AM-48x38.png 48w, https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-5.31.08-AM-600x473.png 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 563px) 100vw, 563px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/2023-annual-report\/\">Click here to read out 2023 Annual Report\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Medical missions have been around for a long time and have saved many lives. Although there are great things about Medical Missions, we believe that there is a more effective solution to helping communities around the world.\u00a0 In this post, we will take you through: The History of Medical Missions The Pros and Cons of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":9853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-che"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9850"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16525,"href":"https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9850\/revisions\/16525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.reliantcreative.org\/medical-ambasadors\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}