This is my third trip. It is my wife Jenny’s eighth.
There are 34 members on our team. The states of Tennessee, Texas, California and Florida are represented. In addition to Jenny and me, Jillian Ehrhardt and Maggie Holland have joined us from Bartow, FL.
This is Jillian’s third trip. Her first as an RN. She came as a student nurse three years ago. She credits the hands-on experience she received here on her earlier trips as giving her advantages as she completed nursing school and entered the working world.
Maggie is here as an interpreter. She started taking Spanish in eighth grade and has kept working on it through college. In anticipation of making the trip here, she did an independent study of the nation. Her colleagues tell me she’s doing an excellent job.
Jenny is working both pre-op and post-op. She also has a couple of nursing students she has taken under her wing.
Sunday is called “triage” day. The doctors meet with all the people who have been referred for surgery and assess them as candidates for surgery. If they pass muster, they get scheduled for surgery between now and Thursday.
It’s a long day for patients and the families who come along with them. There is no schedule but for them to come at 7 a.m. and wait their turn.
It reminds me about the man who waited by the Pool of Bethesda for years for someone to help him into the water when it churned so he could be healed.
The difference here is that God has sent the healers. Every person was assessed. Many surgeries are to follow. Healing is on the way for many who thought the day may never come. For us in America, we expect prompt remedies. For these impoverished in Guatemala, it is a miracle.
