Faith In Practice Blog October 2024
Day 1 Set-Up
For over 20 years Dr. Phil and Linda Johnson have been leading eager medical and non-medical professionals on Faith in Practice (FIP) medical mission teams to Guatemala. Team members are excited to share their gifts as they serve and care for the amazing people of Guatemala. This team, known as Johnson II, is setting up its four-day medical clinic in the village of Cuyotenango. A local church has blessed us with the use of its campus to hold our clinic. The temperature was in the low 90’s with high humidity, but those from Houston were used to it as we began transforming the church sanctuary into a medical facility with multiple exam rooms.
Many on this team have traveled with FIP and the Johnson’s in the past, but there are some for whom this is their very first experience with medical missions and FIP. First timers always give fresh perspectives as they anticipate and experience the very first day. Dr. Meera Subash is one of the newcomers on the team. Dr. Subash is a rheumatologist with U.T. Health in Houston, who shares her thoughts on her first medical mission experience. “I was first drawn to Faith In Practice for its steadfast mission in providing comprehensive care for some of those in greatest need in Guatemala. The camaraderie I have experienced thus far is incredible! Everyone has been welcoming and excited to have a first-timer along. I approach our first full clinic day with a mix of anxiety and excitement. As a health care provider in the US, we take so much for granted — so much data is at our fingertips within an instant of opening the Electronic Health Record. In Guatemala, my usual toolkit as a clinician is limited to my line of questioning, a few diagnostic tests, and a thorough physical exam. I look forward to helping partner with the village residents on their journeys to health and healing. The healthcare system here has its own challenges and I’m glad there are organizations like FIP that have found their call to action.”
Dr. Subash is an amazing lady for whom we are overjoyed having as part of the team! We can’t wait to see how she and the rest of the team are led to care, support and love on the people of this amazing village.
Day 2 – First Day of Clinic
Today was the first day of clinic in the wonderful village of Cuyotenango. The first day of any clinic is always a little hectic as the team works at understanding the flow of patients and getting a handle on treating patients without their usual tools at their fingertips. This year has been a little extra hectic as Faith In Practice has introduced electronic medical records. This is a wonderful addition to the continuum of care for each patient, but it takes a little training and understanding how it works to make the day run more smoothly.
The team was able to see and care for a multitude of people today! Each patient was given the full attention, care and love of our care teams. Medical needs varied from pediatrics, to OBGYN, to general medicine and orthopedics. Villagers were also seen for mobility issues and fitted for new wheelchairs or walkers.
These clinics can’t happen without the extraordinary assistance of local villagers who assist FIP in finding and initially screening perspective patients, recruiting and training all the Red Hat volunteers, and just making sure everything runs smoothly for our team. The person in charge of our site has a special connection to FIP, and Dr. Phil Johnson. Phil tells her story. “We were welcomed to Cuyotenango, Guatemala to set up our village medical clinic for the coming week by Dinora Alfaro and her husband, Antonio Garcia, who were both Faith in Practice local volunteers. They had assembled a group of 25 other volunteers to help. Dinora took me aside and told me she first learned about Faith in Practice as a patient 8 years ago. She told me that I had referred her for surgery on her neck to remove some tumors. I don’t remember this, but she did. I also found out that her mother, Rita Ofelia Garcia Guerra, had died 6 weeks before our arrival. She was a Faith in Practice volunteer as well and one of her wishes was that the volunteers could prepare and serve us lunch. We had a delicious lunch of vegetable beef soup, rice and tortillas. What a blessing to connect with Dinora and her husband and to realize that sometimes it is the little things that we are called to do that make the most impact on others.”
Even when we don’t expect it God connects us in special ways. We all look forward to seeing what God has instore for us tomorrow and how we can all connect to each other through the gift of caring.
Day 3 – Tuesday
Our second day of clinic ran much smoother, as expected. Everyone was figuring out the system much better today and we began seeing patients almost immediately as the waiting room filled with patients and their families. Every year Faith In Practice (FIP) sends over 40 medical teams to Guatemala to provide medical care for individuals, but this care and healing goes way beyond the individual patient. The numbers FIP reports after every clinic just touch the surface of the actual number of those who are healed by this life changing mission. Many patients are cared for and supported by family and friends. This support system has also gone through their loved ones pain and suffering, so when their loved one is referred for surgery to repair a hip that was broken months ago, or a wheelchair is given to a person who has had to be carried everywhere in a weak chase chair, they too are receiving life changing care that often goes unnoticed and uncounted. I wish you could experience the joy many of these family members express when they know there is hope.
The only way we have to share this joy is through the photographs we take and the stories we tell. One of those stories is of a man who was in an accident that broke his hip over eight months ago. Doctors told him that he could have surgery, but it would have to be scheduled over four months in the future. When the man went back for the surgery, he was told they couldn’t help him. This man couldn’t work, and he could barely walk, family members had to assist him to just get around his home. The gentleman had lost hope of ever being able to support his family and move about without assistance. That was until he came to our FIP clinic. Doctor Mark examined him and gave him the life-changing news that he is being referred for a hip replacement when the next surgical teams comes. Tears of joy welled up in the man as he now saw a future where he could walk freely on his own.
As visibly focused as FIP is on medical issues, they also find importance in the spiritual care of patients and their families. Today I was blessed to witness that spiritual care and support as team Chaplain Reverend Cheryl took time to paint with a young girl who had recently lost her mother. Their time together didn’t need words because love needed no words. The girl’s grandmother was extremely thankful for the special time Cheryl spent with her granddaughter as she knew that just for a short time her little girl wasn’t thinking about the pain of loss.
After today’s clinic we will be able to see the number of patients cared for, but the number and impact goes far beyond any countable statistic. An impact that puts the “Faith” in Faith In Practice.
Day 4 – Wednesday
Today has been another full day seeing hundreds of patients come through our Faith In Practice (FIP) clinic. Probably the most visible impact at an FIP village clinic are those seen at the mobility assistance area. Mobility patients will make their way to an FIP clinic however they can get here. Some patients will have old and worn out wheelchairs, others will come with handmade crutches, some will come on make shift or old gurneys, while others will be carried by their family members. The evaluation and care each patient receives can be life changing.
Dr. Tom, one of our physical therapists, encountered one such patient. Tom shares this story of his experience. “Our day was filled with a huge group that made one (me) inspired by how our patients deal with physical deficits. One man suffered a stroke about 19 years ago and his sons had been carrying him within the house for that entire time. The simple issuance of a wheelchair helped the entire family, and most importantly had the patient smiling while he left as he discovered a new found freedom that allowed him to be semi-independent”
Freedom to move on our own can often be taken for granted by many of us, but for those who have been mobility challenged from birth, or from work or automobile accidents, the ability to move on their own can often seem like an unreachable dream. Take for instance Ceasar. Ceasar has many health issues which include herniated disks in his back. Ceasar hasn’t been able to sit up, much less walk for 2 years. Today he was wheeled to our clinic on an old rusty gurney by his family member. Ceasar told us that he had lost all hope of ever being able to get up from that gurney, that was until a friend of his told him about Faith In Practice and how helpful they were to him. Ceasar quickly found out how to get a referral to where the next clinic was going to be held. Cuyotanango was that clinic! As Ceasar spoke to our doctors about his condition they weren’t sure a wheelchair was going to work for Ceasar. His hope began to slightly fade until he spoke to Dr. Tom. Dr. Tom knew this was going to be a challenging case but he was determined to help Ceasar realize his hopes and dreams of being able to get off the gurney. After a long conversation and delicate maneuvering of Ceasar, the hope and dream of sitting upright again was realized. Because of his condition, Ceasar will only be able to sit up for short periods of time until he can build strength in his back to be able to sit up for longer durations. Ceasar and his team were all thumbs up as they headed home with a new wheelchair provided by FIP partner, Free Wheelchair Mission. Once again, these chairs allow many of the patients to experience a new found freedom and semi-independence.
Day 5 – Thursday
Everyday Faith In Practice Day (FIP) is started in the same way, with scripture and prayer. We gather early in the morning to ask God’s blessing upon us and those whom we’ll encounter. This time, and God’s watchful care and guidance is an extremely important part of our work. We need this time to center us on our purpose and to prepare us for all that we will face in the clinic.
Today we were met with the joyful sounds of children playing on the church playground and the usual sights of families supporting their ill loved one. This was such a wonderful welcome for our last day of clinic. We needed that joy today as we had a few difficult health conditions right away that required the patients to be taken to the hospital. We continue to see patients with severe mobility issues arriving with hopes they will be able to find some type of assistance with a new wheelchair. One of those patients was Oscar and his family. Oscar was born 4 months early and has severe health and physical issues. Oscar’s mother has had to carry her 18 year-old son everywhere they’ve needed to take him because the wheelchair they had for him was old and too small. Today, a new wheelchair gave Oscar some new found comfort, and his mother a brighter smile because she knew her son wasn’t going to have to rely on her back to move him from place to place.
We also met Alice, a woman who had struggled with diabetes for years. She had to be carried to the clinic today in a chair because she had one of her legs amputated due to complications with her diabetes. Dr. Tom worked with her and fitted her with a new wheelchair that will give relief to her family and joy to her.
Faith In Practice is able to provide these wheelchairs at no cost thanks to a partnership with Free Wheelchair Mission. These life-changing wheelchairs come to us unassembled, and it takes a team of busy hands to assemble over 100 wheelchairs during our time in Cuyotenango. Our team pours their blood, sweat and tears into these chairs and they are thankful when they get a little help from unexpected hands. One of our mobility team members, David, tells the story of one such encounter. “Often as the mobility team assembles wheelchairs, we peak the curiosity of young men and boys who come by to observe the construction in progress. Yesterday, we had a special visitor who was afflicted with Downs syndrome. He was less reserved than most of our curious visitors. He came ready to work. And work he did! Ed, our master wheelchair assembler, patiently explained how to execute one of the assembly processes and quickly our spectator was transformed to an active wheelchair assembler! There were smiles all around. A beautiful example of God at work in Guatemala!!”
Our clinic in Cuyotenango is now complete after seeing over 1,115 patients, referring 379 to our surgery clinics, providing 110 wheelchairs , 19 walkers 17 canes and 4 pediatric wheelchairs, and the VIAA clinic was able to identify and treat 4 patients with cervical cancer. We now head back to Antigua tomorrow and eventually home to the States. God has shown us some amazing people who have taught us about hope, commitment, perseverance and love. We will all shed a tear as we load our bus and wave good-bye to these blessed people of God as our lives have been changed by each and every smile.
-Andy Gans, Team Blogger
