Global Outreach Website

Jun 25

Our first three clinics were in rural Guatemalan villages.  As Cindy mentioned, the entire team stayed in a church fellowship hall.  Except for the bathrooms, the church was a fine place to stay.  The water supply was only available for a short time--perhaps an hour--each day.  Therefore during that hour we filled bucket after bucket with water and stored it in large barrels.  The main reason we needed the water store was to flush the toilets.  We had four toilet stalls, and three were functional.  (The fourth was very stinkily non-functional.)  In order to flush the toilet, one needed to fill the tank of the toilet with a bucket of water.  The bathroom floors were always covered in funky water, so I tried not to allow my skirt hem to hit the floor.  We were required to wear long skirts for the clinics, so it was difficult to keep the skirt out of the water.  There was mold growing on the wall of the bathroom, but no one except me seemed concerned about it.  I thought we needed a mold intervention, but it didn't happen.

Besides the bathrooms, being in the villages was a delight.  The people welcomed us eagerly at the clinics as well as in out in the community.  Especially the kids were friendly towards us and some followed team members as they went about their duties.  The warm smiles of the children were encouraging.

We had three doctors, 23 team members, and about 8+ translators working with us.  Churches advertised our free medical clinic and in each case a long line awaited us when we arrived.  We quickly set up three doctor stations, six to eight counseling stations, and a pharmacy.  We also set up a waiting area if needed, but in the villages the people simply stood in a line reaching out the door and into the front yard of the church.  Usually volunteers from the church assisted us in managing the waiting line.  In most cases we set up games outside for the young children as their parents waited and were seen in the clinic.  Our team includes numerous kids and teens and they did a wonderful job running games and face painting, etc. with the village children.  We all took turns in counseling stations, running medications, working in the pharmacy, prayer walking, and in the eye clinic.

The doctors would see the patients, and then send them to a counseling station.  Awaiting them in the station would be one or more of our team members and a translator.  A runner would collect the prescriptions and take them to the pharmacy as we counseled the patient.  As we awaited the prescriptions to be filled, we asked the patient how we could pray for them and told them the reason for our hope--a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  I counseled 17 villagers in three village clinics and all reported that they were Christians.  They eagerly accepted our offer to pray for them and shared their medical, physical, relational, and emotional needs with us.  In my station, several were moved to tears during prayer time.  It was wonderful to meet with my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Tracy