We came from WA, IL, FL, NV, CA, MN, MO, TX and Canada! We came with different backgrounds, skills, experiences and knowledge of Guatemala! Different we came but we were quickly becoming ONE. Perhaps it started at the airport where we first recognized our new teammates sporting their FIP team shirts. It surely grew as we broke bread together at our hotel in Guatemala, introductions were made, and orientation began. How could it not deepen as we drove 6+ hours into the town of Puerto Barrios, unloaded the trucks and set up our clinics! But it was when we gathered to pray with our Guatemalan brothers and sisters who would be side by side with us serving this week, that it happened! We became ONE!
There’s a refrain that has been running through my thoughts, a simple chorus I learned as a child in Sunday School. Father, make us one, Father, make us one. That the world may know Thou has sent Thy Son; Father, make us one. Faith in Practice was formed in response to God’s call to provide medical care to the poor in Guatemala. Each year more than 2,500 volunteers provide health care to more than 17,000 through an integrated and coordinated network of care.
Founded in 1994, imagine the number of lives touched, lives changed through the work of FIP! But for me (who loves to think BIG!) it comes back to that number of ONE. The power of that number ONE. One teen with Cerebral Palsy being carried in by a weary parent…now leaves in a new wheelchair, tears turned into laughter! One woman who will be screened for cervical cancer, and because of early detection of abnormalities, and on the spot treatment, she will not become a Guatemalan statistic that says she is 8 times more likely to die from this disease than a woman in the US. Instead, she will now live to see her family grow old. You will learn in the days to come the many stories that will come out of each medical clinic. Pediatrics, OB/Gyn, VIA, General Medicine, Orthopedics, Mobility, Mental Health, Pharmacy and Referrals (those who will be placed in the hands of an upcoming surgery team). But rest assured that In addition to the ONE…that one story each volunteer will carry home with them and tell over and over again….we also celebrate the many. Because the ONE becomes a ripple that sweeps with a force through communities and countries, homes, churches and practices, changing everyone it touches.
What a privilege it is to be ONE, but one of MANY, who shout YES to God’s call to serve!
Julie Eberly, Volunteer and Blogger
