Buenos días desde Guatemala!
On Saturday, March 14th, 2026, 25 dedicated volunteers arrived in Antigua to start their devoted service. They are representing Texas, Nebraska, California, Oregon, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Washington, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Georgia. A few brand new and many veterans. All one mission to serve the people of Guatemala.
Sunday morning we started our day off right with a devotion by one of our team leaders and surgeons, Dr. Bucky Farrow. The devotion for our week is keeping God’s love and gratitude close to our hearts throughout this trip.
Once we arrived at the Obras hospital, the operating room and PACU teams, including nurse practitioners, nurses, surgical techs, anesthesia providers, and pharmacist, began unpacking their personal tools they brought from home and setting up their spaces to make a comfortable environment for the week. The patients had an initial check-in with the team’s urologist, gynecologist/urologist, gynecologist/oncologist, and general surgeons and then they visited the anesthesia providers to get guidance and support leading up to their surgeries. This all could not have been done without the help of our wonderful translators.
In total the providers triaged 120 patients, giving them the opportunity for a better quality of life. Even with 120 patients seen, the physicians had to make the decision they never wanted to make coming to Antigua. Their schedules filled, so patients had to be turned away. We hope in the upcoming years that more volunteers will reach out to Faith In Practice so this will not happen and everyone that had been waiting for months or even years won’t be turned away.
We look forward to the rest of the week and hope everyone enjoys following along!
Tori Schenkelberg
Team blogger/photographer, Farrow Surgery 896
Grant Andersen
Team photographer, Farrow Surgery 896
