AMEN Australia 2012: Right Arm, Right Approach, Right Now

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Adventist Medical Evangelism Network Australia

Mission Opportunities

1 of the aspects of becoming a doctor for me was the involvement in medical missionary lines.

I must admit, initially when the concept of AMEN Australia came into play, the thing that impressed me the most and that I was most desirous of is to be involved in medical mission rework overseas.

But the opportunity arose for when AIM and Australia came together was having a place, a venue, an avenue for us as medical professionals, dental professionals, health professionals, to come together and find opportunities where we can see, as we came with the feedback in our very quick session that Rob Granger went through, showcasing some opportunities that we can be involved in, both in overseas, but also especially in Australia.

So we've got a couple of showcases that we would like to present with you today.

After this session, we will have each of the presenters at the back of the room, where you can come and find out more information of some of the things that we have available in Australia and some opportunities that we have overseas with some bodies that we've been liaising with.

So I want to hand over the time now to Pastor Paul Rankin.

He's the Chippin Churches Program Director in the South Pacific Division, so I just want to hand the time over to him first.

Paul Rankin I noticed the American speakers have little iPhones.

I wanted to get 1 better, so I got an iPad.

As Nick said, I'm the CHIP and Churches Program Director.

The Guide's taken me on an amazing journey over the last few years.

My experience with CHIP started when I was Health Director for the New Zealand Pacific Union conference.

We got a request for funding from Dr Trevor Hurlow from Hawara, which is in New Plymouth.

If you look at a map of New Zealand, the North Island's got a big bump on the left-hand side, and that big bump is Mount Taranaki or Mount Egmont if you're as old as I am and on the coast there is New Plymouth and if you go from New Plymouth straight up the top of the mountain down the other side you come to a town called Harwera.

Trevor Hurlow was the senior doctor in the Harwera area.

He was also the senior elder for the Harwer church.

They had tried evangelistic campaign after evangelistic campaign and nothing succeeded.

Trevor heard about CHIP at his own expense, came to Australia, did the CHIP training.

I went to the graduation of that CHIP program and I actually took my dad with me.

Dad had been a Seventh-day Adventist minister.

He still is retired, but he retired not long beforehand.

Dad and I drove away and Dad said to me, Paul, he said, that's the most amazing experience I've had in my ministry.

He said, I've never seen such a dynamic interaction between the church and the community, such a positive interaction as I saw that night at CHIP.

Harawira, as I said, has got a town of 350 people.

Trevor said to me just last year, he said, Paul, 5 years ago, if we closed the door of Harawira Church, no 1 would have noticed.

Now 400 people in a town of 8, 000 have done the CHIP program through the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Trevor said to me, there's now no 1 in Hāora that doesn't know someone who's done the CHIP program through the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

I got this email, not from Hāora, from Tauranga.

I have just experienced the most amazing transformation process of my life.

Out of 25, 000 plus Māori in Tauranga, I was the only 1 to register and graduate with pride with increased devotion and commitment to manage my health in a new way.

It is not easy as a Maori, I assure you, going into a place full of non-Maori with my biases and prejudices.

I soon distinguished that atherosclerosis, diabetes, hypertension, cancer, obesity, are no respecter of culture, religion, or creed.

I found the most caring and supportive CHIP family and I am blessed.

I even attended church the Saturday after my graduation.

That was a first to overcome my fear of religion.

The CHIP team were outstanding, led by Dr.

In my life experience of religion, I waited to be pounced on and the hardcore religiosity to come out.

I thought maybe at graduation I will be ambushed.

I found genuine people who cared and were open and embracing and allowed me the privilege of exercising my freedom of choice.

I came to church and met a church family of like mind, like heart, like spirit.

Get this Pastor Rankin, I have volunteered to audition for the children's mid-Christmas program.

The biggest hole in my life has been filled now.

I have found my church family, and that has been a 14-year journey from a life I experienced before.

I am bigger, brighter, and much lighter." And they're the sort of testimonies I get all the time that make it really worthwhile.

An awful lot's happened with CHIP in the last 18 months.

The most significant thing over the last 2 years, the most significant thing is that the CHIP program worldwide is now owned by the South Pacific Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

And Sanitarium has been asked to manage the CHIP program.

Sanitarium in the last 18 months has invested just on $4 million in redeveloping the CHIP program.

I want to go through and just explain that.

The goal is to enlarge the medical missionary work.

The Complete Health Improvement Program, previously called Coronary Heart Improvement Project, is a community-based lifestyle intervention program that emphasizes adlibium whole food plant-based eating pattern.

It takes a whole of health approach, addressing not only dietary aspects but also physical activity, substance use, stress management, positive psychological concepts.

The program also offers the opportunity for building ongoing group support.

1 of the other things that I really wanted to do when I got involved with the CHIP is see whether it made a difference.

And so I embarked on a PhD program looking at the results we had on 5, 000 participants.

We published an article in the American Journal of Cardiology in January, and there's some copies here that you're welcome to take a copy of afterwards.

If you could all reference my article, that'd be great, because it'll improve my academic standing, but that's beside the point.

When we looked at the results from this from over 5, 000 participants, we found that significantly greater than 0.001, reduction of body mass index of 3.2%, systolic blood pressure going down 4.9%, diastolic 5.3%, total cholesterol on average 11% drop in total cholesterol.

13% in LDL cholesterol, 7.7% in triglycerides, and 6.1% in fasting plasma glucose.

What's interesting though is when you stratify those results and look at those in the highest risk categories.

Those in the highest risk categories got the biggest change.

Those with the highest level of cholesterol units, we're working in American cholesterol units here, got almost 20 per cent.

1 of the fallacies is that a vegetarian diet raises triglycerides.

What we found was that those with normal triglycerides, there's a minor increase, but those with elevated triglycerides all get significant reduction in triglycerides.

And fasting plasma glucose have an average of a 20% reduction in those in the highest category.

But what's really interesting is when you look at the numbers, on entry 525 people had a fasting plasma glucose indicative of type 2 diabetes.

30 days later only 301 people had a fasting plasma glucose indicative of type 2 diabetes, showing significant change there.

The American College of Lifestyle Medicine liked the article and they said clinical results, 5, 000 free living cohort in the North American yield some of the most impressive recorded clinical changes in the literature.

The results were achieved by volunteers making the most cost effective model of combating chronic disease.

So we've now got over 20 papers published looking, when I say we, not me, but there's been over 20 papers published looking at the results of CHIP.

Most of those have been from Rockford, where it was professional delivery of CHIP, but we're getting some on the volunteer delivery.

You can see the comparison there between the professional delivery, black is professional delivery and green, blue is the volunteer delivery of the CHIP program.

No significant difference that we can establish between the volunteer delivery and the community based.

A lot of discussion, CHIP is about making choices.

I believe passionately the fundamental principle of Christianity is love, and love in order to exist depends on choice.

CHIP is about presenting people with a choice.

The official CHIP position on tobacco, alcohol, caffeine, meat and dairy is we believe that abstinence produces the best health outcomes.

We promote and advocate less is more, with the ideal being none at all.

Our role is to help people on their journey to better health.

And someone who's having steak and spuds 7 days a week, if they reduce that to 4 days a week, they will see an improvement in their health.

But likewise, as Skip has said, if you want to see disease reversal, then you've got to get people to go right to the very end of that spectrum.

But it's up to people to choose where they go on the spectrum.

And likewise, there's a range right through that.

And if any of you have been to the church lunches that I've been to in Seminare Adventist churches, you'll realize that it's quite possible to be an overactive vegetarian and have a very unhealthy diet.

Mission Opportunities

Transcript

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

AMEN 2008 Plenary Sessions

AMEN 2008: LLU Student Mission Reports

1h

Breakout Sessions C

Community Involvement

59m

Effective Evangelism

Michigan Conference 2020 Cuba Mission Trip

49m

2nd Quarter 2020: How to Interpret Scripture

11- The Bible and Prophecy

1h 35m

ASI 2010 Plenary Meetings

ASI Presents

1h 58m

AMEN 2013: Plenary Sessions

AMEN Short-term Missions

52m

Plenary

Ellen White Finally Exposed

51m

AMEN 2006 Friday Afternoon Breakout Sessions

Mission Possible: Short and Long Term Overseas Opportunities

1h 19m

Extreme Makeover: Pathway to Health Style

2. Makeover Step 1: What is Required

1h

General Sessions

Mission Program

59m

Helping Them See

Management of Thyroid Eye Disease/Global Ophthalmology Update

1h 6m

Who is the Holy Spirit Really and Why You Need Him Right Now ?

52m

Sound Doctrine