I Was Blind

Every month we host a week of surgery at Hospital Ezell. The specialties vary from month to month. Last month was General Ophthalmology and Optometry, and this month Ocuploplastic surgery. Eye disease and blindness are common here in Guatemala. Cataracts, glaucoma, cornea lesions, skin cancers, lacrimal duct obstructions, ptosis are just things we see every day in our general clinics.  Given the complexity of the eye and vision itself, it is a blessing from heaven, a miracle really that we have the ability to help many of these patients regain or preserve their sight. 

Patients at the front of the line waiting to be seen by the eye surgery team.

Dr. Harvey and Tami getting patient ready for anesthesia.

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. Romans 1:20

Dr. Truong doing post-op care

My sweet patient after surgery.

Glamour patches!

Dr. Truong at work.

Kemmel and Matthew with the guys working on equipment issues.

Like all surgery, there is a level of skill required by the specialist and also instrumentation and material needed to accomplish the diagnosis and treatment. We are so thankful for the volunteers who come to offer their time and skills every year. Many return every year and bring supplies and even their own staff with them.  And we are also grateful beyond words for people back home who give generously in the form of money donations to be able to purchase the equipment needed for these surgeries. These faithful servants not only give generously on a regular basis, they allow us to direct the funds to our specific needs. One such piece of equipment is a new Nd:YAG laser. With this laser, we can treat lesions like "secondary cataracts" or some forms of glaucoma that we used to have to refer to the Capital, thus saving time and frustration for our patients at an affordable price. 

Dr. Waldrop using our new laser.

Dr. Dossey having a turn at the YAG laser.

The Lord is good to let us participate in the healing ministry and miracles he performs here at Hospital Ezell. To God be the glory! 

“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. John 14:12

Catching Up

What's going on in Guatemala, you ask? Here's a rundown of the last couple of months!

Medical Evangelism Training

Our summer interns joined us a couple of weeks ago. They are enthusiastic and love the Lord. The students spent a week in language school with Centro Bilingue Amerindia in Quetzaltenango with our sweet friends Hugo Rosales and Elbia Rodas. They got to study 4 hours a day and have some tourist activities with their teachers in the afternoons. Then we had Medical Evangelism orientation weekend with classes on language and cultural learning, Animist, Western and Christian worldviews and Ethnomedical and Biomedical approaches to healing. Now they are in the throes of hands-on learning in the mission field, joining us in clinics, church activities, community health teaching and living with host families. Please pray for their time here.

"Esterling" and "Mateo" honing their vital sign skills.

Sterling Ross, Easton Faulkner, Maria Cua and Angie Wagle

Maria and Angie "all dressed up and their hair combed" as they say around here.

U.S. Medical and Surgical Teams

We have had several teams join us for mobile medical and surgical brigades. We visited some new areas in the Highlands in addition to our normal local communities. The drives were long and beautiful and the days were tiring, but provided some very needed services and exposure to the love of God. A church member from one of the communities served came to my clinic last week, excited about several home visits they were making from contacts they made at the medical brigade from Oklahoma Christian University. I was encouraged to hear this and know the OCU team will be too!

Iglesia de Cristo Chijtinimit

Enjoying working under the pine trees

Oklahoma Christian Univ. team enjoying a tourist day.

Landon getting patients ready.

Hiking to clinic in Chijtinimit

Surgery teams have gone well, providing General surgery, Gyn, Ophthalmology, Plastics, ENT procedures to hundreds of patients so far. We are grateful for the doctors and nurses and other visitors who make it possible to offer affordable surgery to our patients.

Dr. Wyatt and Dr. Doak on a tough gyn case.--photo by Nurse Shawn

Nurse Katie Ritter in PACU

Dr. Gross's team getting things done!

Lindsey Powell and Dr. Gross hamming it up.

Professional Staff Development

We are still down a full time doctor at the Ezell site which affects the number of patients we see in mobile clinics as well as those referred for surgery.  This year our medical school student on scholarship is graduating. David Riquiac just finished his thesis this month, which allows him to apply for a graduation date and start his licensing process. Be praying for this process so we can get him set up in clinics at Ezell to serve more communities. 

We also have a new hospital director, nurse Darling Ayerdis who was promoted after years of service and experience at Hospital Ezell. She has exceptional people and organizational skills in addition to clinical skills. She is also working on her English to help with communication between U.S. and Guatemalan staff during surgical week. We are excited to see how she leads the clinical staff there. 

Nurse Darling Ayerdis in the blue scrubs helping keep our equipment well maintained.

Evangelism

Our evangelism teams have been working to make new contacts with patients and start evangelism and discipleship classes with the ABC sponsorship kids and their families. In March we lost our longtime friend and brother and lead evangelist at Hospital Ezell, Baldemar Ruiz. This left a big hole in our team. But we are looking at ways to restructure our evangelism and counseling program in the next months. Here are some great shots of work in the area.

New sister Karla being baptized in Montellano by Kevin.

Jose, Cesar and Gaspar meeting with families on their trip in the North of Quiche

Hermano Gaspar checking blood pressures on a home visit.

Cesar, Gaspar, Jose and Wilder scouting out new areas to evangelize.

Milton helping with a baptism in Santa Lucia

Changing of the Guard

We will be saying "see you later" to  Sheri Kretschmar soon. Sheri has decided to officially retire from Health Talents after 20 years, which means her work as hospital/nursing director for Ezell come to an end. We will miss her calming spirit and love for people, but we do hope to see her in the future here in Guatemala, in other volunteer capacities and visits. Here are some fun pics of Sheri from way back!

Sheri and Katie seeing patients in a mobile clinic.

Sheri and Dr. Ruben Romano and me.

Sheri and MET student Phillip aka "Dirty Felipe" and Juan putting on a skit about hand washing for the school kids

We also say "see you later" to Susan Mellor and Brother Dave as Susan officially retires from Health Talents this month. We will miss their bubbly, encouraging presence with teams and wise counsel. But we know God has good things in store for them!

Some quality people right there!

We will miss you guys!

New Year Changes

Happy New Year! I love January and the reset it gives us like choosing a new Bible reading plan and making new health goals. This month we also moved to a different house after 20 years in the same place. We will miss the old one, but look forward to living on a different side of town. It's a faster walk to market so that will be easier. 

Hospital Ezell

We are in our first week of surgery teams this week. General and GYN surgery is up and going. It's a big team of 48 Americans, plus Guatemalan staff but most are repeat visitors and already into the swing of things. We frequently remind each other, "have you prayed about it?" when things get complicated. God is faithful to guide us and provide. Be praying for a good week, safe surgery and many lives touched by God's healing. 

Surgery list for today

Post op recovery

Clinica Caris and Ezell

We have been back at community and central clinics for a week now. Things are going well and we are seeing lots of respiratory infections. We were informed by the Ministry of Health that there is a Measles outbreak an hour from our Hospital Ezell. The 5 cases were all at church activity of over 2000 people in mid December.  All of our staff will be getting vaccine boosters sometime this week by the health department.

Staff waiting for measles shots

Health department nurses vaccinating our staff.

One of our clinic patients came in for routine diabetic check and we were talking about healthy habits. She mentioned that she is reading her bible and knows how to read in Kiche! She has an old, out of print Kiche bible that the original translators gave out at her church when she was young. They taught everyone how to read and she still uses hers. She offered to teach me sometime. I might take her up on it!

John 3:16 in K'iche

Here in Guatemala we have a high incidence of cervical cancer still. We are working with another organization, Faith in Practice to offer more screening tests by training nurses to work in our mobile clinics. Two more of our nurses were trained--Berta and Ada. And Faith in Practice provided the training and certification and gifted us a thermo-coagulator for treating low grade precancerous lesions at the time of diagnosis. We are excited to have a way to decrease the number of patients lost to follow-up and hopefully the number of cancer patients.

Our Director of Nursing, Darling Ayerdis receiving a thermo-coagulator for our clinic.

School Days

Our ABC and Scholarship kids are back to school soon. They are excited to get started. Jose one of our evangelists was asked to lead a youth group activity in Chuguxa. It was on the topic of Generosity. Be praying for these young people to draw closer to God and choose to walk with Christ.

Youth group outing, Guatemala style!

The Race Marked Out For Us

We just wrapped up our time visiting our supporting U.S. congregations and family. As introverts we always look at this time as potentially exhausting socially. But we are continually amazed at how God uses our brothers and sisters in Christ, our friends and family, to encourage us and inspire us to do more and be more Christ-like. We are also humbled that they would continue to provide for us and generously plan for future support. The theme of Missions Sunday at Eastside Church of Christ this year was from 

Hebrews 12:1-3: Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

This year we completed 20 years on the mission field with Health Talents International. It certainly doesn't feel like that long, until we look in the mirror haha! But we look back and can see how God has moved and let us work in this mission to bring compassionate health care to the poor and underserved communities of rural Guatemala and share with them the transforming Good News of  New Life in Jesus.  He has provided financial and human resources through loving churches and individuals in the U.S. and Guatemala to make this mission possible. 

Sometimes it is good to look back at how God has provided in the past to remind ourselves that he will provide for the future needs of this mission and his servants.  We recall how the the mission grew from a few mobile community clinics to a network of regional clinics and surgery center, church leadership development, a child sponsorship program to encourage education and spiritual formation, scholarships to provide local professionals for the mission's future, an early childhood nutrition program to address chronic malnutrition, pastoral counseling and Christian psychologists to address marriage and family dysfunction and addiction. All of these ministries have have contributed to the growth and maturity of the local churches which has been the vision all along. 

Our roles in this mission have  changed over the years, and we are directing more energies toward staff development for future leadership. We pray that God continue to guide us in this mission and provide opportunities to share Jesus with our patients and their families. We ask the Lord to provide for this work and help us to be good steward of his resourses. 

We are thankful for  Eastside Church of Christ in Colorado Springs and Meadowbrook Church of Christ in Flowood, MS for their faithful and generous support and counsel. 

As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17

Medical Evangelism Training Program 2025

This is our 20th year to host MET interns with Health Talents International. The program was started in 1989 and was held in Honduras with Dr. Robert Clark at Predisan Clinic. Kemmel  was one of the first students involved that year. The following year, the program was divided into a Honduras team and a Guatemalan team. Kemmel helped lead the Guatemalan team, and I got to join that group. Of course that is how we met and the rest is history!

Our interns come from various Christian and State universities. We focus on evangelism in  health care, and cross-cultural ministry.  This year we had three great students join us. Ryan Shonk, Evette Corwin and Caleb Wagner did a great job getting to know their host families and communities and assiting in clinic and home visits. We had some good cultural activities come up as well, like special worship/thanksgiving services, a funeral, a wedding, a birthday party. Overall we hope they came away with some intercultural communication skills and a stronger desire to serve the Lord with their skills and training. 

A day at Clinica Caris

Evette doing water filter teaching in the homes.

Caleb pitching in at church.

Good times in rainy season!

Ryan's Chicacao family--Jayro and Lidia

Evette and host mom Juana in Paxot II.

Being tourists at the Chichicastenango lookout.

Ryan's Chichicastenango family--Cesy, Maria, Tomas and Wilder

Church at Montellano