Here\'s our post-journey update:
We\'ve been home for a couple weeks now, and I\'ve been praying about the what to share from such a packed, life-transforming trip. Again, I\'m so sorry I didn\'t post updates during our trip, as we ended up being on the road quite a bit. It was an unforgettable trip. This ended up being a very long update. Feel free to read it in bits! Thank you for your interest in our family\'s first mission trip and for your much-appreciated prayers!
Sat June 18
We arrived safely in Guatemala after a 3-hour flight. Dietrich, the administrator/manager of Medical Missions Ministries picked us up. On the way to the ministry center in San Cristobal, he was eager to share of the miraculous way that God had provided for the ministry and his family personally over the years, including during COVID. His joyful, childlike faith and spirit was a breath of fresh air all week.
We arrived at the MINISTRY CENTER of Medical Missions Ministries. It was a large facility that could host around 50 people, but we had the place to ourselves and our good friends, the Tai family, who came with us. We were actually the 2nd group (I thought the first) to come since COVID. We were blessed with hot showers, ping pong/fooz ball for the kids, laundry machines, comfortable beds, plentiful snacks, and an incredibly good dinner cooked for us each night by Brenda, the ministry house manager. It was so nice to decompress here each night.
Sun June 19
We went to a church in Antigua that supports the ministry, but due to a bad mudslide blocking one major highway and a large sinkhole in another highway, the traffic was horrendous. A normally 1 hour trip took 3-4 hours each way, but Dietrich stoically navigated through it all and never complained. When we got back to the ministry center, we were warmly welcomed by Dr. Herman Alb, the founder of the ministry and main doctor, who had just returned from a trip
Mon June 20
From now on, we\'d experience one of the main highlights of the trip: MORNING DEVOTIONALS led by Herman. Each day he\'d share from God\'s Word from a very personal, vulnerable place, intertwined with testimonies of how God nurtured his faith and clarified his calling to serve the poor of his country through medical care, food, and prayer that sometimes even led to miraculous healing. We were challenged and inspired to share with those we met in the clinics how Jesus came to save us, pray according to the promises in God\'s Word, be willing to work with others in the Body of Christ, get our hands dirty to serve others, and be ready to answer God\'s call to serve Him no matter how young or old or limited we think we are. Even the kids said these devotionals were a highlight of the week. One of the Tai kids, Erin, who is very quiet and shy, would go upstairs after these devotionals and sometimes cry because she was so moved.
Medical Missions Ministries partners with 150 local churches, where they hold medical clinics. Most are in rural, poor areas of Guatemala. Pastors often tell each other about these clinics and invite the ministry to come, which helps them provide a vital service for the people in their communities. I learned that in Guatemala, there is no government health insurance and very little access to medical care for the poor. In addition, medicines are often unaffordable as most people live on $1-5 a day. So you can imagine how valuable these clinics are, as they provide access to 3 local doctors. Besides Herman, who started the ministry 38 years ago, there\'s Hector and Mario, who\'ve worked with him about 20 years. In addition, the clinics provide access to a dentist (dental care is not usually affordable at all), free meds, and a children\'s ministry. While they\'re waiting for their meds to be filled, they also receive spiritual support at sharing stations. Here our team members partnered with interpreters to ask patients how we could pray for them and shared the message of the gospel, that God so loved the world that He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins and He rose again; through faith in Him and no works of our own, we have forgiveness and eternal life. Our interpreters were young people who were so mature spiritually and had great compassion for their people. It was a delight working w/them.
For our FIRST CLINIC in Chimaltenango, this was the first time the ministry worked with this church. We arrived there after the first off many very windy, bumpy, 3 to 4-hour car rides all week, during which my very motion-sick Elizabeth miraculously never once threw up in the car. The church was a simple and clean facility, and I learned that it was a little closer to the city and in a little better financial situation than many others they worked with. Because of the mudslide, we were very late, and Herman asked for 2 members of our team to see patients, though normally only 1 of our docs would be needed. There were 4 health care providers on our team, though a couple of us were rusty: my husband Sung (neurointerventionalist), Eva (pediatric nurse practitioner), Eric (pediatrics-trained doc who has worked w/the CDC the past 18 yr), and myself (a pediatrician who\'s been on sabbatical for 5 yr). As I started seeing patients, to my surprise, it all seemed to come back right away. Thankfully, I saw mostly young kids and their moms and learned that no matter how poor these moms were and though they were of a different culture, many of the concerns were the same as the patients I\'ve seen in the US: they worry when their kids are not growing and having poor appetites, cold symptoms, tummy aches, headaches, etc. However, many of their problems, unlike in the US, were from lack of clean water and poor nutrition. The younger kids (Erin and Samuel Tai and Elizabeth) worked w/the children\'s ministry director doing activities w/the local kids. I was proud of them and especially Elizabeth and how she didn\'t complain about the very rustic bathroom. We knew the church was giving us their best and we appreciated it. Joshua worked in the sharing station with an interpreter.
Herman saw patients next to me and prayed for a patient with significant shoulder pain, another with neck pain (both likely from hard manual work for years), and a teenager with hand deformities from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). Herman had a sense to also ask them about people who have hurt them or issues of unforgiveness in their lives, then gently shared with them how Jesus had forgiven us on the cross, and all these women were deeply moved to tears. The women with shoulder and neck pain experienced complete relief from their pain after he prayed, and the young woman with JRA had a release from the pressure in her deformed hands. I asked Herman how common it was to see dramatic healings such as this, and he said this was fairly common amongst his patients (maybe 10% and on most trips). Why this emphasis on miraculous healing? I don\'t know, but I believe that sometimes God uses miracles that relieve suffering in places where the gospel is breaking new ground and to show proof that He is real. Herman had challenged me to pray for one patient I initially had seen, and I realized that I had much to grow in my faith in the God who can do anything.
We met Sung and Caleb at the ministry center later that night, as they arrived safely from Caleb\'s lacrosse tournament in Colorado. It was good for the whole family to be together again.
Tuesday June 21
SECOND CLINIC: This time we went to Sumpango in the mountains, where many of the clinics were usually held. When we got there, my heart broke as I saw a community built around a large garbage dump and people sifting through it. When we got to the church, we quickly set up our clinic. As we\'d find in the churches the rest of the week, there wasn\'t space for much of a children\'s ministry, since our team was small, so the churches we visited were small too. However, our kids were put to work in the pharmacy, as runners, and triage workers. Also, they all got to participate in the sharing station, which I\'ll talk about later. They\'d only need one health care provider from our team per day from now on to see patients, and so Sung was up. He ended up seeing just a handful of neurology patients, and it turned out I had to help out for most of the clinic to see the young children. We would end up tag-teaming the next day too, when I\'d come across an adult patient with issues he could more easily address. At home Sung normally works with highly specialized equipment to treat very complicated neurointerventional issues, but he admitted that it was very humbling trying to treat patients in this setting. They often had issues related to dirty water, poor nutrition, overworking in the fields, and sometimes serious health issues that could not be easily treated due to finances and limited availability. For instance, if someone was diagnosed with or suspected to have cancer, the government hospital in town (which would be expensive to get to and would be their only option) would provide a free exam and surgery. Most would also need chemo or radiation, but a single treatment would be $5,000 US dollars. So as you can see, a diagnosis like cancer or other serious condition is not treatable for most.
Though I expected only to be minimally working this week, I ended up seeing patients on most days and experienced a growing love and eagerness to do so, to my surprise. Giving these moms some tools and knowledge to help their children survive and grow was very fulfilling for me, when it seemed I had lost the desire to work in my field many years ago. However, I soon realized that the ministry lacked some essential medicines and began asking several staff members about their supply. I learned that it has become extremely difficult to get meds into Guatemala due to the government confiscating most of it at customs. Nevertheless, I felt a growing desire to try to help and began making a list of needed meds with Herman\'s input. I\'m sure this list could get big and began praying for the Lord to provide miraculously, as He has for so many years for this ministry.
Wed June 22
THIRD CLINIC: This time we\'d go to Aldea Chuiquel, and close to our destination we passed fields of different crops. I asked Dietrich about sources of nutrition for these families, as I had seen young patients who were not growing well. He said that even if they grew vegetables and sometimes had animals for milk, they had to sell most of it to survive. During the pandemic, the ministry and its associated church, Vida Real, delivered about 5,000 food bags to poor communities per month. When they started giving out the first food bags to the village we were going to that day, Dietrich said one dad began to cry when he received his, as his family had only been eating tortillas and Fritos chips 3x/day. Dietrich reported that people experienced God\'s miraculous provision with those food bags, which were filled with items like black beans and rice. Each bag would only feed a small family, but people would start giving some to their relatives and friends in need, and somehow the bag would not run out before the next delivery in 1 month. This was an answer to prayer, as the ministry staff had prayed that God would multiply the food.
On this day, one of my patients was an older teenaged girl, whom I initially referred to Sung but who then waited for hours to circle back to us, as she was too embarrassed to talk to the male providers for other issues. My wonderful young interpreter that day, Smedley, was almost the same age as her and will enter nursing school in the fall in the US. I believe that God provided a safe space for our patient to share her several female concerns. Smedley and I felt led to counsel her concerning sensitive issues about her health and safety. We are not sure what will happen to her but are praying for God to intervene and save her.
Dietrich had told me that though there were black beans growing in the fields around that village, the people could eat very little and had to sell most of them. He had specifically told the pastor of this church to not make any food for us, and we had packed lunch, but guess what was waiting for us at lunchtime? Two huge vats of black beans and rice! I was kind of horrified, so I told my kids to eat just enough to be polite, which we were advised to do to not offend them. It was delicious, but they did as they were told. However, I forgot to tell the Tai kids, and they went back for 2nds and 3rds. This apparently made the pastor\'s wife so happy! Apparently, a few years ago her husband had a dramatic encounter with God that moved him to start this church. He and his wife worked full-time for the church but did not draw a salary and trusted God to provide for their needs. So even though they had so little, and black beans were such a precious protein source, they wanted to show their appreciation for this clinic by cooking us their best food. And like all people who cook for people, it gave them great joy to see people going for 2nds and 3rds. This was a valuable lesson for me about the dignity of all people, no matter what their socioeconomic level.
Elizabeth did tell me something heartbreaking during lunch that day. When she was carrying her plate of black beans and rice to the sanctuary, she passed by a boy her size and his 3 younger siblings. One of the little ones whimpered as they saw our team walking past them with plates of food, and so he was covering their eyes. As soon as I heard this, I grabbed a hot dog our team had packed and tried to find them but couldn\'t. Later I was relieved to see that many children were being fed with the leftovers from the church\'s feast. We realized that hunger was a real problem in these communities.
Thurs June 23
FOURTH CLINIC: Here in Aldea Morelia, I finally worked in the sharing station the whole time. It was slow at first, and the family seeing Dr. Hector right next to us had a little girl that kept on looking at us. Erin was w/me initially, and while we waited, she ended up snacking a little. Something in the little girl\'s eyes told me she was hungry, and so after our experience the previous day, I asked if we could hand out snacks to the children, as we always brought a lot for our long car rides. Herman challenged us not to give out of guilt but only if the Holy Spirit prompted us to, and he said to be willing to give out all that we had. We decided to go ahead, and as our kids gave out snacks, we saw more kids and families coming, which made me think that maybe I had made a mistake. Yet when the family w/the little girl who stared at us came to our sharing station, I realized how much these nutrient-dense snacks were probably needed by this family. The grandma had pins sticking out of her forearm after surgery for a bad fall. She was in intense pain but was not allowed to see the surgeon at the government hospital again for 1 month, which would be unheard of in the US. Her daughter was at home and also was recovering from surgery with pins in her leg after a bad car accident. Like seemingly most of these poor, rural families, there was no man in the house, as so many were alcoholics. This village was actually near a temple to the \"god of the drunks,\" which people worshipped by pouring alcohol all over their bodies. They often mixed this religion with Catholicism, but in this church, we actually met some very strong Christian women, including this grandma. Her family was struggling to survive, with 2 small grandchildren and a 15-year-old grandson, who was the only one making money as a bricklayer. But when we asked how we could pray for her, she responded as so many others our team met this week. She asked us to pray for others and not herself: for her daughter\'s healing and for her husband to come back to the Lord. Eva had been in the sharing station all week, and she said a highlight of the trip was meeting so many strong women of faith like this. Their situations were often desperate and they were raising kids and grandkids on their own in extreme poverty, and yet they did not wallow in self pity and their hope was firmly rooted in God and His promises.
That day, Elizabeth was in a sharing station for the first time. Her prayer for one family was very sweet, and it was so good for the kids to learn that they can pray for others, no matter how young they were. Eleven-year-old Samuel Tai had noticed a few boys his age coming to check out the clinic, and he is so good at welcoming other kids. When one of them did a \"karate kid motion\" to him, he playfully did it back, and the boy brought more friends, who seemed to be there more for the snacks. However, one of them came to Caleb\'s sharing station and actually prayed to accept Christ with the interpreter. Caleb shared other stories from that day: very few men came to these clinics as so many were absent from home, but one who came that day had admitted he had fallen away from God years ago after becoming an alcoholic and leaving his wife. He was with our interpreter Jose, who like his brother Antu, was in his early 20s but had been working with the ministry for 10 years. These young men were able to get the people to share deeply from their lives, give them wise advice, and pray for them with such compassion. Caleb saw Jose gently encourage this man, and he accepted Christ as his savior. Another patient they saw was a very old woman with a myriad of illnesses and severe pain throughout her body, in addition to a sky-high blood sugar, which the clinic was not equipped to treat unfortunately. Yet she had such a strong faith that the Lord would help and provide for her. Caleb also met the pastor of the church, who let everyone else be seen by the doctors first. He was sick with likely cancerous tumors visible in his torso. Both Caleb and Joshua, who had each been in the sharing station twice that week, were very moved by the people they met who were struggling to survive in such poverty, but who selflessly did not ask for prayer not for themselves, but for others.
Joshua is interested in medicine and shadowed me and Sung in clinic one day. He was often also our camera guy, taking video footage for our church, which will hopefully encourage people to start again serving in mission trips. He decided right after we came back home that he wanted to fundraise for the ministry and help them get needed medicines. He plans to work on it this year, with God\'s help.
Fri June 24
MARKET DAY / TEAM DINNER: Instead of going to the city of Antigua, we elected to go to a simpler market in nearby Guatemala City, due to the bad traffic. I rode with Dr. Hector for the first time and had heard he had been entertaining whomever he had drove during the week with his jokes and humor. He ended up sharing about how he and his wife, a physician who teaches in a medical school, had experienced great hardship with a sick baby and financial stress early in their marriage. They were on the brink of divorce, but when they came to know the Lord, God saved their marriage and now they lead a year-long, intensive pre-marital counseling for couples in their church and from several different countries online. Apparently all 3 doctors did things like this during the pandemic, when they could no longer conduct medical clinics. Herman, Hector, and Mario each took a group of pastors from the churches that normally hosted medical clinics and began MENTORING AND PRAYING FOR THESE 150 PASTORS. Herman also started an online prayer ministry, which many of these pastors participated in, and they\'ve been praying for an hour 3x/day throughout the pandemic.
Hector kindly shared with us that he and his staff felt especially close to our team and said that with our similar cultural values, it made them feel like we were old-time friends. We, too, felt like the ministry staff had become close friends to us in such a short time.
The previous day, we had been asked by Herman\'s daughter Ilse if we could cook Asian food with them, as apparently she and Brenda were avid fans of this kind of cuisine. So despite my doubts that we could find the ingredients and pull it off, we were able to collect enough items from a little Korean grocery and several markets and began cooking an \"Asian feast,\" in Eva\'s words. Eva and Eric made Chinese dumplings from scratch and an almond tofu dessert, while I had several hard-working helpers to make a variation of bulgogi (Korean BBQ), bok choy and cucumber kimchi, kong namul (bean sprouts), Korean chicken curry, a veggie platter with Korean spicy dip, and daeng jang soup (soybean paste stew). Also, Brenda and Ilse cooked a tasty Guatemalan appetizer dish. Though we were expecting about 25 people, only half were able to come due to a recent COVID diagnosis or exposure, but we were able to prepare several to-go plates, including for Herman and his wife, who were now quarantined due to COVID. (By the way, despite close exposure to several people who ended up becoming symptomatic and positive for COVID, our team all remained without symptoms and tested negative for COVID after we returned.) The dinner turned out pretty good, and it was a wonderful experience cooking together and enjoying each other\'s culture through food.
Sat June 25
We packed up and left for the airport, and I got to ride with Dr. Mario for the first time. He is on the more reserved side, but with my minimal Spanish and with his pretty good understanding of English, we had a great conversation about how he came to know the Lord 20 years ago through Herman, the other ministry staff, and his wife\'s prayers. His wife works as an oncologist at a government hospital. He, along with Hector and Herman, were such humble men of great faith. Our team very much admired these doctors who had given up lucrative and comfortable careers in order to follow God\'s call to serve the poor for many years.
That day, we left parts of our hearts in Guatemala, and we all decided that we definitely wanted our families to return next summer. We realized that of all the mission trips we\'ve gone on before we had kids, this was probably the most impactful. This was because of how close we became with the staff and how we got to work alongside an established ministry of locals who had long relationships with their community. Also, the stories of God\'s miraculous provision and morning devotionals greatly fed our faith and our spirits each day. We are committed to pray for the patients we met and for Medical Missions Ministries, and we look forward to working with them again soon. It was perhaps the best experience we\'ve ever had as a family. During the pandemic, generous donors kept the ministry afloat, which enabled them to not have to fire any of their 13 staff members. But normally they do rely a good deal upon teams coming from the US for much of their support. If any of you has an interest in serving with this wonderful ministry in Guatemala (with kids probably at least age 9-10), please feel free to ask us about it. You do not need any medical background, as most teams do not, as there are many ways to serve with them.
We didn\'t get to take a ton of pictures, we realized at the end of the trip. It didn\'t seem appropriate to do so at times, plus it was busier than expected with the traffic. I\'ll post a few in the next update right after this and will aim to take more next time!
SUMMARY OF PRAISE AND PRAYER REQUESTS:
- Praise God: that no one got sick - either from any GI illnesses or COVID! This was the first time that I have not gotten a significant GI illness after traveling to a developing country. We thank God for safety while we were traveling and a deeply impactful trip for our 2 families.
- Please pray:
For Medical Missions Ministries: for God\'s provision of finances and medicines they need; for the Lord\'s encouragement, wisdom, and perseverance
For the rural churches they serve: in the midst of great hardship, please pray for God\'s miraculous provision and great faith
We thank you all so much for your support and prayers, and thank you for the chance to share about our unforgettable journey to Guatemala!
Linda, on behalf of Sung, Joshua, Caleb and Elizabeth
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