Epik Missions derived its name from the Greek word Epikouros, which means to assist or help. An Epik Missions outreach team is composed of Chiropractors, Chiropractic students, and laypeople that want to provide their unique form of care to those in desperate need in developing nations around the world. At this time the West African nation of Ghana is the primary country that is being served.
Dr. Chadwick Hawk is the director of Epik Missions and has extensive experience in conducting and coordinating missions in Central America and Africa. For him, serving his patients in his daily practice or in Ghana is a responsibility he feels God has generously placed on his heart. The response of the indigenous people to Chiropractic care has been nothing short of remarkable. On average 10,000 plus people are able to be educated on the chiropractic lifestyle and receive adjustments on each trip with a team of eight to ten members over a ten-day period.
The results are undeniable. Chiropractic works! It works especially well when people are ready for their adjustment and have no preconceptions or distractions when undergoing Chiropractic care. Of course, the members of the team change as well. Most of them would argue that they get back so much more than what they gave.
Have you ever felt a calling? If you have, then you know the impossibility of denying that voice on the inside. If you haven’t, then let me share what that feeling is like from my own experience.
In the spring of 2007 I had reached the point where I could not deny the pull to serve the people of Ghana any longer. For many years I knew what I was to do, but I did not know how to do it. Imagine being an adult that does not know how to swim. You can see people jump in the water and float effortlessly. Children jump in and revel in the cool water without a care in the world. But the unknown and uncertainty paralyze you when you get too wet. You see others swim. You see the motion. You might even understand the hydrodynamics of the act of swimming! But you can’t do it. You wont do it. That is how I felt.
I knew I needed to be wet in Chiropractic mission work. I knew I was called to serve in Ghana. I knew the voice inside me would not quit, reminding me of my call until I answered. I knew that God would continue to put people in my path that would urge me on, even if they had no idea I was considering a trip to Ghana. So yes, I felt my calling.
Maybe you have felt a calling to serve in a way that is uncomfortable for you to even consider logical at this time. Or perhaps you have known exactly what you are to do but you have put it off for years; sometimes intentionally, sometimes by life events.
Maybe the time is right to take action? But action requires energy. Action requires sacrifice. Action means that you will no longer be able to be the same. And you know that once you take action, a part of your soul will be at ease. You will have fulfilled an innate, deep-set plan in your life. You will be running towards part of your life’s destiny.