Thank you so much for visiting my blog! It means more to me than you’ll ever know. For a little update… I’ve been sick for the past 10 days with a stomach bug and an atypical pneumonia. Thankfully, we’re currently back in Antigua, Guatemala for a little rest and to gear up for our ministry in El Salvador starting tomorrow (Monday). Today I am feeling so much better and I even got to watch my church live online this morning! I got to worship with them and even took communion using some grape Gatorade I had nearby. J God is good!
My team is coupled up with another team for March. We’ll be in La Libertad, El Salvador ministering to orphans and doing some clean up on the beach as well as ministry in a nursing home. Old people! I can’t wait! Now, here’s an update of our ministry last month…
On February 14, I had the best Valentine’s Day of my life.
In Santa Cruz de Quitche, Guatemala, we worked with two wonderful missionaries, Irv and Sally York, (Erv is an American and Sally is Puerto Rican). Irv and Sally work for Agape in Action, a medical missions organization working to serve the indigenous Mayan population in the Quitche, Guatemala area who would otherwise go without medical care.
For the month, our entire squad camped out on the same compound at a hospital in Santa Cruz de Quitche. Since our squad (43 people) did ministry together this month we got to rotate each week helping out different ministries. During our first week, my team was in charge of helping out at Santa Elena hospital, which involved helping fold hundreds of gauze and bandages by hand and visiting/praying over the patients.
Later in the week, Sally let myself and several other people on my squad with medical backgrounds go with her to one of her clinics where she serves the indigenous Mayan population. She treats them as a doctor and provides them with medications they need, bandages, counseling regarding personal hygiene, and she even has an ultrasound machine. No matter what she provides her patients during the visit, she charges only 60 cents. Wow.
Here was the best part… while we were out with Sally, she took us by a rehab clinic also located nearby in Chichicastenango called “El Centro de Asistencia Fisiomotriz” (Center for Physical Therapy), which happens to be nicer than any rehab center I’ve ever worked in the United States. There we met Jennifer Hoines, an extraordinary lady and an American missionary working as a physical therapist. When she told us they needed a speech therapist, I was so happy to volunteer! My heart was so glad to know God was going to use my education again to help others in month two! Jennifer said they didn’t have any adults for me to work with at that time, so all the clients were children… and when I was in school I always said I didn’t want to work with children… God has a sense of humor. J
On February 14, myself and two of my lovely squadmates with backgrounds in physical therapy (Heidi Aguirre and Heather Bearden) got to spend the day serving several beautiful children with various disabilities. This was a dream come true! Ever since I was in my Speech Therapy 101 class in college I have dreamed of getting to go abroad to serve those with speech and language disorders who cannot help themselves. Right after I finally graduated, I immediately went online to apply to go on a medical missions trip with Operation Smile…. they told me I didn’t have the experience I needed to do the trip. I was absolutely disappointed. Just a few years later on the World Race, I found myself in Guatemala living my dream!
I was a little nervous to go help at the clinic because I hadn’t provided speech/language therapy for children in over 4 years, but I knew it wasn’t a coincidence these children needed help with speech and I happened to be a speech therapist. I felt that even if I didn’t have much speech advice, I knew God was going to show His love through me. So, I went to an internet café and brushed up on some speech therapy info for children with motor disabilities and it’s amazing what happened… as I got to sit in each of the physical therapy sessions with the children, information from college just started flowing back to me. I felt God working through me to help / provide encouragement for the children. I hope I was able to help the other therapists with the info I gave them. I had so much fun. I also got to spend a little time working with this little girl… she was so cute!
Another girl I observed was truly inspiring. She’s 19 years-old and has cerebral palsy. You could tell movement is extremely difficult for her. Doing the simplest of tasks (sitting up, crawling, reaching out her hand) caused her to sweat, but she didn’t give up, not for a second. She is such a special girl!
I couldn’t have asked for a better V-day than spending it helping people who cannot help themselves. I am blessed to be a blessing.
Oh, and the cherry on top of the whole day was a surprise dinner and evening of entertainment provided for the ladies by the men on our squad. They told us to get all dressed up and get ready for dinner. The guys made us chicken fettuccine alfredo, brownies, and entertained us with a talent show. They also gave each of us a long-stemmed rose and a valentine. How sweet!
