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So the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (ANS) -- When chiropractor Dr. Chad Hawk left for a two-week missions trip to Ghana last month, he knew he was called to go. What he didn't know was how fruitful this short visit would be. What Hawk saw was straight out of the New Testament. The crippled were restored, the lame walked, and the blind could see. And yes, the people glorified God for these tremendous healings.

"This was a truly amazing experience," Hawk told a large group gathered  to hear his report from the trip. "There is no way I can ever put it into words."

With songs like Casting Crown's "Who Am I" and Chris Tomlin's "I am a Friend of God" playing in the background, a video followed by a slide show showed the crowd scenes from the trip, including dozens of people walking, running, and jumping for joy following their adjustments.

Much of his time was spent in Winneba, Ghana . . . home to his friend Nana Ghartey, a tribal leader who came to the United States as a missionary in 1998 to fight radical Islam. Over nine days, Hawk adjusted more than 3,000 people -- ranging in age from two-days-old to 105-years-old -- and witnessed incredible miracles.

"There were thirty-six people that I know of who couldn't walk when they came for their adjustment who went home walking," he said. "There were five blind people who received their sight. There were a dozen or more people who were deaf who could hear after their adjustment."

Hawk was quick to point out that the healing came not from him, but from God.

"I just adjust the spine," he said, "and God heals the body."

One man hadn't walked or talked in more than five years. A road grader operator, the man suffered a stroke and fell to the ground, paralyzed on his right side.

"I just adjusted him once and after that he jumped up and down . . . his wife was in complete disbelief," Hawk said. "His stroke no longer controls his life."

"It is a very great miracle," the man said through interpreter Joseph Opoku, a University of Virginia graduate student Hawk met at a Bible study last year. Opoku traveled with Hawk throughout Ghana, teaching the pre-adjustment classes to the thousands of people waiting to be adjusted.

While giving God the glory for the healings, Hawk explained why so many more striking results occur in places like Ghana compared to the United States.

"First of all, they have incredible faith," he noted. "They don't have anything else. They expect to be healed." The other factor is that people in poorer nations suffer from physical and bio-chemical stress while Americans tend to be burdened with more emotional stress.

And while chiropractors in the United States are just one option available to the ill and the injured, the poor in places like Winneba often have no access to medical care. When Hawk stopped adjusting at 1:15 a.m. at one church, there were still 600 people waiting to be helped.

"They were there the next day," he assured the crowd. "We took care of them."

Hawk did no advertising . . . the people got the word out for him. "People were calling the local radio station with testimonies of how they were healed," he said. "The station got so many they stopped playing music and just aired the testimonies."

The stories went on and on . . . a lady with a completely paralyzed arm waving and wanting to go dancing to celebrate; a man with Bell's palsy getting all feeling back on the left side of his face after five years of complete numbness; a woman with no sensation on the right side of her body leaving restored.

Another woman was carried four miles by her husband and sons in order to see Hawk. The hunched over woman hadn't taken a step nor spoken in sixteen years . . . and did both after her adjustment. Her husband, also hunched over since a tree fell on him twenty-four years ago, stood up straight.

And then there was the woman suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure, failing kidneys, and lost vision. After two adjustments, her vision returned. Sent to a medical clinic to be examined, all her tests came back normal.

"Everyone was clapping," Hawk said. "They were excited for everyone who was healed."

While there were many spectacular healings, there were others that weren't as flashy. An infant who suffered from asthma -- "She was wheezing with every breath when she was brought in" -- left perfectly fine after his adjustment, according to Hawk. And a woman with extremely high blood pressure -- 245 over 125 -- had a reading of 145 over 74 following her adjustment.

The suffering of the Ghanaian people touched Hawk's heart. "It got to the point where I couldn't cry any more over there," he said. "I was completely overwhelmed."

Hawk shared the story of a one-hundred-and-five-year-old woman who came from a family of tribal witch doctors. When she was sixteen, she had a vision that a white man would come to help her tribe. She realized that she could no longer follow the traditions of her family and kept waiting and hoping the man would show up . . . and he did last month.

"That's the conviction she had," said Hawk. "That's the fire that was really burning inside her."

But it was the children that touched Hawk most of all. "There were so many children . . . I just wanted to reach out and grab them and bring them home to feed them good food," he said. The kids enjoyed their adjustments, with many getting back in line, hoping to experience this special "treat" again.

And based on his initial visit to Ghana, Hawk, through his ministry -- Epik Mission -- wants to start a residency program for newly-graduated chiropractors to serve the people in Ghana for six months.

"I have to go back and I have to go back on a regular basis," he said, inviting others to join him on a return trip next year. "I guarantee you; it's an experience you will never forget."

Bill Dolack is a freelance writer based in Waynesboro, VA, and the author of two books: Forgotten Foot-Soldiers on the Frontier of Independence (a local history book) and Destiny (a novel).  

Used by permission of Assist News Service www.assistnews.net

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