Healing Hands - Transcript
The following story was produced in October of 2002. On November 26, 2002 Dr. Andrew Riffey died of a heart attack.
Nebraska ETV would like to
thank Dr. Riffey and his family
for sharing his story with us.
[Narrator]
Omaha chiropractor Dr. Andrew Riffey contends that more and more people are
embracing the notion that there is more to their well-being than simply
popping an arsenal of pills and herbs.
[Dr. Andrew Riffey]
Right over your thyroid here. Okay, hold it right there for me, please.
[Narrator]
For twenty-five years, Dr. Riffey has studied and practiced alternative
healing methods. Some people are skeptical about such practices. But
Riffey is convinced they work because of his personal childhood experience.
[Dr. Andrew Riffey]
I grew up on a farm and I was a very sick child as a youngster and my
parents took me to numerous medical doctors. And then they started taking
the whole family to chiropractors in our area at that time. And I slowly
started getting better and so from that time I've always been intrigued by
chiropractic medicine.
As a chiropractor, I really strive to remove nerve interference, those
affecting the outcome of the body and how the body can respond to the
environmental problems that everybody's getting hit with nowadays.
[Narration]
Dr. Riffey claims he has witnessed many healing miracles through his work
in chiropractic medicine. But the driving force behind his relentless
search for better ways to help the body heal itself was his mother.
[Dr. Andrew Riffey]
My mother had always been sick with rheumatoid arthritis and she'd been
through the medical establishment and she was slowly getting worse. So
every time I found out there was a new technique out there I would hop a
plane and see if it would help my mother.
[Narrator]
The desire to help his ailing mother first led Dr. Riffey to a chiropractic
practice known as the "Home Run Formula". Many chiropractors promote
regimen as a comprehensive way to treat patients, by analyzing toxins in
the body, addressing nutritional needs, making structural adjustment, and
uncovering negative emotional factors. Dr. Riffey goes a step farther,
introducing his own spiritual beliefs and prayer to the equation.
[Dr. Andrew Riffey]
I spent a week in Montana taking negative emotions off my own body and as
soon as that happened I was freed up and I knew God existed. You know it
was just like a big aha happened to me. So I came back to my office and my
secretary was a Christian and she taught me how to pray properly. And as
soon as I felt I understood the principal of prayer, my secretary, my Mom
and me prayed together and right before our eyes my Mom changed physically.
And from that point on I was led to God will be the Center of my life from
now on; he is the pitcher of my life. And that's the way I run my practice
and my life now.
Good morning, Pat. Good morning, Bob.
[Narrator]
In March of 1995 Bob and Pat McLamore came to Dr. Riffey as their last
resort. Pat had sought medical help from a variety of doctors but had
found no relief.
[Dr. Andrew Riffey]
How have you guys been doing today?
[Bob McLamore]
Pretty good.
[Pat McLamore]
We moved to Omaha about eighteen years ago and I started getting stress
from all angles. And I found out I was pregnant and I carried the baby for
about two and a half months. I had a miscarriage. Then I had a nervous
breakdown and it went into chronic fatigue syndrome.
[Dr. Andrew Riffey]
Pat was a very, very sick woman. You know they brought her in basically
and she had to just lay down right away in my office. She couldn't even
sit up and talk to me.
[Pat McLamore]
Struggling with vision problems, heart problems, back problems, a little
bit of everything.
[Dr. Andrew Riffey]
So for a chiropractor I consistently adjusted her spine. We started using
nutrition with her. Maybe up to five-six years was treating Pat this way.
Normally I don't treat a patient that long without response but she had
nowhere else to go.
[Pat McLamore]
Finally Dr. Riffey said to me, he said Pat, there's nothing working. It's
going to be in God's hands.
[Dr. Andrew Riffey]
My daughter and me started praying for her. And I think an answer? how God
answered our prayer for Pat was he led us to a Benny Henn Revival.
[Pat McLamore]
When Dr. Riffey called and said he had been to a Benny Henn Crusade here in
Omaha and he wanted to know if me and my husband Bob would go I said, well
I really can't sit that long in a lawn chair. And then, anywhere I went I
was pushed in a wheelchair and then laid on a lawn chair.
[Dr. Andrew Riffey]
I remember saying it you know. If you was my Mom I'd come and get you with
a stretcher you know. And actually it ended up working that Pat agreed to
go and that was her journey? it is a journey in healing where she went to
Benny Henn and experienced God's presence there. And that started her
healing and that's really where the power of prayer is.
[Benny Henn]
What happened to you, Sweetheart?
[Pat McLamore]
Chronic fatigue syndrome and? I'm well, thank God.
[Benny Henn]
Who’s wheelchair is that?
[Pat McLamore]
The lawnchair? the lawnchair was mine, and the wheelchair.
[Benny Henn]
Is your husband here? Your daughter.
Tell me again what was wrong with you?
[Pat McLamore]
Chronic fatigue syndrome. I had it for eleven and a half years.
[Benny Henn]
What happened this morning?
[Pat McLamore]
I had like goosebumps all over me and one of the guys -- I was running up the
escalator and he said, slow down, I'm tired. And I wanted to climb a
mountain.
[Benny Henn]
Come on, come on, go! Go!
The power of God is all over. I give you praise for the anointing.
[Narrator]
Pastor Benny Henn is an evangelical minister who leads one of the most
prominent and well-known healing ministries in the United States. It was
Dr. Riffey's belief in the power of prayer as a solution to Pat's difficult
chiropractic case that first lead him and continues to bring him to Pastor
Henn's crusades.
Dr. Riffey now travels any chance he gets to take part in a Benny Henn
Ministries Crusade, but he cautions those who may solely look to prayer as
an answer for a quick cure.
[Dr. Andrew Riffey]
Every time I usually pray, you know. Especially when you're praying for
somebody, I feel something happens. Now whether they feel it immediately,
which a lot of times doesn't happen, I think something happens spiritually
for them, you know what I mean? Because I don't think God just all of a
sudden heals somebody.
Now God will help them if they're willing. God will give them the strength
to change their life do you follow me? But God won't say eat and drink and
do what you want all your life and then I'll heal you. No, that's not
going to happen.
[Narrator]
The faithful come from all over the country. Although Pastor Benny Henn
does not profess to heal the sick or cure illness, many believe he has been
divinely chosen as a channel through which healing miracles flow.
[Dr. Andrew Riffey]
Today people are coming in from all over the country, I know they are, to
meet God in a way that you can't meet unless you're in a crusade. And
Benny is blessed with the power of prayer and God all over him. And today
the Holy Spirit will fall on this place and people will be healed.
[Narrator]
Does prayer heal? Pat McLamore asserts that praying for a miraculous touch
from God may be one way to achieve healing. Followers of Pastor Benny
Henn, believe that religious salvation heals. And for Dr. Riffey, it's a
combination of his chiropractic skills, his knowledge of alternative
medicine, and a good dose of faith.
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