I am not a poet, so I’m taking a bit of a risk when I assert that Faith In Practice is like a diamond in that it has many discreetly different but tightly interconnected facets. One of those facets is relationships. I’m talking about the relationships that bring together people from many states and even countries to work toward a single purpose in service to the people of Guatemala. I’m considering the relationships that draw other volunteers into the FIP community. I’m also thinking of the relationships that form between team members who before serving together, never knew one another. There are many more forms of relationships that make up Faith In Practice, but the last one I’ll mention are the relationships that form between the North American volunteers and the Guatemalans with, and whom we serve.
In 2016 or 2017, my wife and I first met Edgar and his wife in Hilario Galindo (HG), the same hospital in southwestern Guatemala near the town of Retaluleu (more commonly known as “Reu”) where our team is working this week. Edgar and his wife, Clara, came from their very modest “shack”, located some 30 minutes up in the mountains, to help our FIP team give the hospital a badly needed paint job. During those three or four days, we weren’t able to get to know Edgar and Clara very well, but we did learn of their story, and why they were helping FIP paint the hospital (among many other things).
Telling the story in detail would fill a chapter in a book, but I’ll just say that their young daughter (of 3 or 4 years) went missing years before we met Edgar. I don’t recall if she had been kidnapped or not, but she was nowhere to be found for roughly 48 hours, during which time, Edgar promised the Lord that if He saw fit to reunite them with their daughter, he would dedicate the rest of his life in service to God. Shortly thereafter, the police located their daughter and returned her to Edgar’s family.
Some years later, Edgar needed medical care (I don’t recall the details) that he received in Reu from Faith In Practice at Hilario Galindo. He was so moved by the quality and loving nature of the care he received that he decided to ask FIP how he and his wife could join the mission. He knew then that he had found *the* way to fulfill his commitment made to the Lord years earlier.
From those fateful moments and during the ensuing years, Edgar and Clara became more and more active with FIP missions, primarily helping to publicize and organize FIP village mission events in and around the Reu area. Because the village missions serve as an important mechanism for referring surgical candidates into one of the two surgical hospitals where FIP operates (Las Obras in Antigua and HG in Reu), Edgar and his wife began to travel to Antigua with the many FIP patients under their charge where he eventually met Ron (and me) in separate encounters. It was only a few short years later that Ron was able to get to know Edgar a bit better.
Once each year, FIP ran (and may still run; I’m just not sure) a week-long medicine counting “mission”, joined by American and Guatemalan volunteers. As it turned out, Edgar brought with him several high school students interested in medicine to one of the counting “parties”, the very one in which Ron participated. It was there that Ron and Edgar found themselves working side by side counting pills where, speaking through a translator, they became friends. They exchanged contact and social media information so they could stay in touch after the Americans returned home. Then COVID happened.
In so many ways, COVID made it difficult to interact with friends and loved ones, especially in person. It was even more difficult for international friends. To complicate matters even more, many Central Americans were forbidden from leaving their homes and/or “departamentos” (the equivalent to our states in the US) for weeks at a time, making it difficult to go to work, or acquire basic necessities, like food. Ron learned of the circumstances through Edgar and his family leveraging social media, and through the same, he was also able to collaborate with Guatemalan in-country organizations to help provide funds for the delivery of food to some of the “stranded” communities, including Edgar and his family. Edgar shared some of the photos which I’m including in this blog.
If COVID weren’t challenging enough, Edgar would experience yet another setback. Sometime in 2022, Edgar experienced what we understand was a bad fall (perhaps in a construction-related accident) in which he broke his left femur in two pieces (see the included picture of Edgar while convalescing). Consequently, we didn’t know whether Edgar would be able to make it to the hospital this week so we could see him. When Ron texted him to ask if he was going to be able to make it to Hilario Galindo, Edgar replied that he’d come by on Tuesday. We were all-the-more surprised when he appeared at the wheelchair clinic on Monday afternoon, awkwardly ambulating on a pair of crutches. After talking briefly, Edgar said he would return Tuesday morning to see us, and to seek some physical therapy assistance from our wheelchair mobility team.
On Tuesday morning, we arrived at the hospital a few minutes after 7:00 am where Edgar was patiently waiting for us. He couldn’t bring his wife (who is suffering from an ailment that makes it difficult for her to leave home), but he brought his son, Edgar, Junior. You can see Edgar, his son, Ron, and Alex, one of our trusty interpreters, in one of the pictures accompanying this blog entry.
Much like the many long-term relationships that have formed in the FIP “universe”, the relationship that Ron has formed with Edgar and his family is one that will undoubtedly continue for many years into the future as their inter-woven journeys unfold. Please pray for Edgar and his family, along with the many other FIP Guatemalan volunteers who give so much from the very little they have on behalf of their Guatemalan “paisanos” in so much need.
-Kathy Cameron
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