Every mission hospital that partners with World Medical Mission (WMM) ultimately seeks to integrate care of the body with care of the soul. In this case study, we discovered that WMM firmly believes that fervent prayer lies at the intersection of physical and spiritual healthcare. Therefore, all WMM physicians, clinical officers, nurses, and other medical students—including chaplains—are strongly encouraged to pray for their patients throughout examination rooms and hospital wards. For WMM, prayer is the driving force of integral mission toward transformational development. However, Dr. Allan Sawyer shows us that WMM's greatest challenges in fulfilling transformational development are directly related to sociocultural practices that conflict with the delivery of wholistic healthcare.

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A major problem that Sawyer finds, particularly in West Africa, is that people often seek healthcare from traditional healers first, delaying sufficient care for severe, underlying health conditions, until it is too late for them to be appropriately managed. For example, necrotizing fasciitis—also known as flesh-eating disease—needs to be treated with potent antibiotics and surgical removal immediately upon diagnosis. Delaying treatment, even by a few days, can be the difference between life and death for a patient. As traditional healers apply topical salves and balms to the dead or infected tissues, the infection spreads rapidly, ultimately leaving no chance of recovery for the patient.

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Sawyer has sought to combat these challenges at WMM by urging physicians and other healthcare educators to go beyond their comfort zones in serving impoverished communities. In doing so, he has witnessed how the work of WMM has effected positive change in the lives of people wrestling with the traumatic consequences of such harmful, sociocultural practices. This development work is beautifully captured in the Samaritan's Purse documentary film Healing for Hewa, which follows Sawyer's medical mission journey in the Papua New Guinea jungle. The purpose of his trip was to educate the surrounding communities about a people-focused healthcare program that consisted of lessons on the following elements:

• Personal hygiene (bathing, teeth brushing, menstrual hygiene, childbirth practices, etc.);

• Emergency and fire management services;

• Domestic animal management plans;

• Waste management plans; and

• Spiritual education, to offset animistic practices (e.g., targeting and killing people identified as witches).