Baptist Health Sciences University students and faculty and Baptist Memorial Health Care providers traveled to Pucallpa, Peru, in April for a medical mission trip. Baptist University’s Director of Faith Integration and Service Chaplain Rusty Woods led the 22 volunteers who provided four days of medical clinics, delivering care to 863 patients and providing 328 pairs of reading glasses.
The medical mission trip emphasized the integration of faith and compassionate service and helped students grow as caregivers and empathetic listeners. The Liquid Legacy, a ministry with a rich history in Peru, provided support for the trip. Students raised funds to pay for half of their cost to attend, and Baptist Memorial Health Care Foundation provided scholarships to cover the remaining costs.
Shannon Davenport and Allyson Smith with Baptist University Nursing faculty volunteered for the trip, along with Richard Keenan, a nurse practitioner with Baptist Medical Group-Collierville General Surgery; Dr. Melissa Pruitt, a physician with Baptist Memorial Hospital-Union County’s Emergency department; and Jordan Bedford, an ICU nurse with Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis and academic tutor for Baptist University.
These faculty members and health care providers mentored students, guiding them in patient care, clinical questioning and decision-making. They worked with students to organize medical supplies and set up three clinics in or near Pucallpa and a fourth clinic near the river’s edge, which required a two-hour boat ride down river through the jungle.
Woods noted that a particularly impactful moment during the trip involved students supporting a grieving mother who had lost two children. While unable to provide medical solutions for her mental health struggles, the students offered emotional support, prayer and connected her to local pastoral care.
“From day one, our health care providers and faculty who joined the trip along with our students dug in to organize medicines, prep blood pressure machines, disinfect supplies and quickly prep makeshift spaces for the arrival of the constant stream of patients seeking vital health care,” Woods said. “They helped students brainstorm questions to ask and how to understand patients’ answers. They also gave students permission to accept limitations when a clear answer to the issue wasn’t present.”
Planning has already started for 2027 medical mission trips.
“Watching students be the healing hands of Jesus is what I loved most about the mission trip,” Woods said.
