The mission trips are just one of many of the outreach programs MSU students are involved in.

The book was released in January. Geelhoed has staged several book signing events in the region, the most recent of which was held Thursday in the Secchia Center of MSU's College of Human Medicine in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Third year medical student Josh VanderWall and friend of Geelhoed arranged for the professor to speak at both MSU and Calvin College on the topic of his latest book and subsequently their experience on the trips.

VanderWall, who has gone on two mission trips with Geelhoed, said the days at the clinic require a lot of work in order to make use of the daylight in regions where electricity is a luxury.

"It changes how you see where the world is at," VanderWall said. "You know that your main goal is to do as much as you can with the time that you have."

VanderWall said he was jarred by the difference between the monuments and examples of architectural achievement we see in America and the brick huts he was met with upon arrival to a mission location.

Trips to third-world areas are run through a nonprofit organization called Mission To Heal, or M2H. The program headed by Geelhoed was started in recent years, following half a century of work in the same field.

The goal of M2H, which is mirrored in Geelhoed's book, is for volunteers in the program to "work themselves out of a job," Geelhoed said.

"This is not trivial, nobody comes back and says 'nice trip,'" Geelhoed said. "I am outside of my comfort zone, that’s where I live and that’s where learning is most intense."

The organization is heavily learning oriented and has the goal of teaching students from MSU and other universities how to operate under difficult conditions and be professional in the context of another culture.

Geelhoed and the healthcare-oriented students who enter the program travel to areas such as Ghana, West Africa and the Central African Republic with the intention of offering medical assistance and training in the form of a clinic. They perform surgical operations and provide care to people in the surrounding area with ailments ranging from a cancerous growth to aches and pains.

While helping patients, a large goal of each mission is to enhance training and increase what those populations can do on their own, VanderWall said.

Danger, although existent, is not imminent and every person who ventures on a mission comes back unscathed.

Most striking about their mission trips is the reaction they have received, Geelhoed said. Patients they've treated and trained in medical practices have returned the favor any way they can.

"Generosity is not the first thing we expect from someone in need," Geelhoed said. "The yield has been a hundred fold in (our) direction."

It is another ideal that Geelhoed hopes to emulate through his book and the experience his students gain. The ripples are reciprocated and the people are always welcoming, regardless of their situation, he said.