Medical Missionary Work in Mexico by Alice M. Swayze, M. D.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 28, 1913

Medical Missionary Work in Mexico

By Alice M. Swayze, M. D.

ALICE M. SWAYZE, M. D.

NEARLY twenty years ago the medical mission was opened in Mexico. From the very beginning many came for treatments. Gradually the influence of the work extended, until for a radius of one hundred miles or more the fame of the mission was made known, and many came to receive the benefits of the treatments; and God blessed their coming by restoring their health.

The work has not at all times been carried on as it should be, but the light has never entirely gone out. We still have a dim candle burning, and are praying that the Lord will send young workers, full of the Spirit, to brighten the light and to water the seed that has been sown.

Through the providence of God, the power of the Roman Catholic Church is being broken, that this people may receive the gospel. The real issue of the present revolution is for liberty from Rome. Now is the time to enter the field. Only one third of the people can read; but the most ignorant are learning, and they are buying a one-cent paper daily, to learn what is going on around them. In the country the priests are even forbidding the people to read a newspaper, because they see that the people are being enlightened and that they cannot hold them. Thus the way is opening for our literature.

I shall relate two experiences. A gentleman was taken sick. A doctor was called, and he at once gave powerful sedatives, but not medicine that is called a remedy. The man's relatives begged me to see him only as a friend. I told them that with a few water treatments he would be well; but I had no nurse to give the treatments. He kept on taking the doctor's medicine, and in one month died, leaving a wife and five children. With proper care, we feel certain his life might have been spared.

A father came to the house and begged me to go to see a child of five years, who had been sick with fever for three weeks. In the evening I went. I had just put the child to bed when the doctor came. He reprimanded me for having given the child a bath, as he said it had pneumonia. But on examination I found that it was suffering from calomel poisoning. In three days its temperature was reduced from one hundred and three degrees to normal. The child is now well, and the mother insists that without the treatments it would have been dead in three days.

Had I the strength to attend them, I could have many such cases; but I can do no more than spend three hours in the treatment-rooms in the morning.

Some of my patients of years ago, among the best families, now ask me about our faith. Only in eternity shall we know the results of this medical mission. Satan has fought hard against it; for this reason we know that the work is of the Lord, and we must not give it up. The priests say, “Do not go to that mission, even if you can get well, as once going will have a lasting influence upon you.”

On account of the equable climate, and the fact that this state is not revolutionary, many people are coming into it. Consequently it is a good place for missionary work.

The Lord told Abraham, “Get thee out of thy country.” It was that he might better serve him. So it is with any one who leaves former associates and surroundings,—the bands are broken that hold him, and he is able to let his light shine clearly for this time. We send the Macedonian cry, “Come over . . . and help us.”