Buenas Noches!! We successfully completed our first day of clinics here in Antigua, and wow was it humbling. The nursing/pharmacy students had the privilege of caring for around 50 students at a local school on a coffee plantation here in town. We set up a pop-up clinic that assisted a Guatemalan doctor providing physicals and basic health screenings for children and their mothers. Although today might not have gone according to our “perfect” schedule, we used today as a learning experience to remind ourselves that God’s perfect plan does not always align with our ideal plan. As a team, we learned that even though our treatment plans may have felt insufficient to the need we were trying to fulfill at the time, our love was sufficient and the Lord’s presence was there. A team member, while providing care, saw this first hand. She was observing a student who was young and just appeared sad and scared. She noticed that the student had been looking at her stethoscope with curiosity so she went and asked if the student would like to listen to her heart. The second the student began to listen her whole demeanor began to change. Her face lit up and she said “Corizone boom boom”. She continued to listen to other body sounds smiling the entire way. Through this encounter, it became apparent that healing is not only physical, it is more so emotional and spiritual, and although we do not have the resources to heal every single medical issue, we do have the capacity to show love and heal spiritually and that is in some cases even more valuable than fixing a physical issue.

At the same time, the physical therapy and occupational therapy team was over at the school for disabled children called Keramion. We started off getting to learn a lot about the school and the teachers that are devoting their lives to help these children. This staff was incredible and so welcoming of the team. Everyone was greeted with a big hug and a such a genuine smile! Griselda, the founder of the school, was so open in telling us her testimony and all she’s gone through to make Keramion an awesome environment for these kids to learn and grow. After meeting the kids, the team split up according to their specific needs and evaluated each child to assess where they are in their development. The staff members were very grateful for ideas that the mission team had given them on past trips and we’re hoping to give them more suggestions to continue the progress they are already making! While a lot of our day consisted of evaluating and utilizing what we have learned in school, a great portion of the day involved playing, interacting, and loving on the kids. A definite highlight of the day was coming back from lunch to everyone singing, dancing, and praising Jesus. We had so much fun brainstorming games for the kids to play that will also help their therapy progress!  After all the thanks we received, we couldn’t help but feel equally blessed by the staff and kids of Keramion and we are so excited to go back on Thursday!

Adios from Guatemala!

Kendall & Macey from PT (in the picture below), Kristin (not pictured) & Brooke ( back row right in the picture above) from nursing