Sunday Blog
We welcome you, dear reader, to our team. Faith In Practice Team #893, led by Katie Stempel NP and Dr. Ross Martini MD and composed of over forty medical professionals and a handful of medical professional allies will work hand-in-hand with the dedicated team at Las Obras in Antigua, Guatemala to provide life-changing medical treatment to patients. Las Obras provides these services at little to no cost for the families, and together with Faith In Practice coordinates travel and lodging for pre and post-care for many who otherwise may have limited access to healthcare.
If you’ve followed our daily blog before, you’ll have a greater understanding of the mission—if you’re new to our blog, settle in, get comfortable, and we’ll get you up to speed.
Here in 2026, our team is a blend of dedicated Faith In Practice volunteers and folks who are serving for the first time. We all arrived in Guatemala on Friday, greeted warmly by Surgery Program Coordinator Maria Jose Tager and a handful of Guatemala-based Faith In Practice volunteers. After a gentle evening in Guatemala City, our team traveled by bus early Saturday morning to Antigua: home of Las Obras Sociales del Santo Hermano Pedro. It’s here, a fully formed modern medical center; sanctuary, safe space, historic grounds—where our team will serve with Las Obras staff and doctors and medical professionals from Guatemala City.
Our team stepped off the buses and we found our way inside Hotel Quintas de Las Flores, a historic 17th century site converted into a family hotel. Four hundred years ago, this hotel served as lush public baths. As we walk through the floral gardens we’re greeted by the sounds of songbirds, as we walk by the ancient fountains we look up to see the impossibly tall fertile hills and volcanoes that surround us, and we convene in the open-air dining hall as our spiritual leader and team chaplain Emily Guimaraes welcomes us all.
“We have multiple jobs coming up in the next several days. So far, our job is to travel safely; to get to know one another; to build our community of care. Some of you have been part of this team for many years; some are joining for the first time. I invite you to be integral to a supportive and mutually nurturing community, which will soon come to include our patients and local staff. Travel changes us. We learn new things when we venture out into the world. We must find a balance between growth and rest; between what is private and what is communal; between giving and receiving.” [Team Worship Bulletin, Guimaraes]
Guimaraes invites us to reflect on a passage from Isaiah 43:18-19: “Do not call to mind the former things; or ponder things of the past. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
With a generously light schedule, our team spends the morning and early afternoon exploring Antigua. This city brings people from across the country and the Americas to celebrate Lent, with beautiful processions that parade through the cobblestone streets. We commune once more in the early evening at Las Flores and break out into small groups to discuss the week ahead and all enjoy an early dinner and prepare for Sunday—Triage Day—the busiest day of the trip.
Triage Day brings all of the patients, their families, and Faith In Practice community volunteers to Las Obras to meet our team. Surgeons, anesthesiologists, and nurses interface with each patient with the help of Guatemala-based volunteers and our dedicated team interpreters (special shout-out to our interpreters Liz Giannone, Shannon Lawler, Julie Dani, and Otis Wortley—have spent the last several years volunteering with FIP and who have dedicated their time studying medical-level Spanish).
As patients are guided through the organized system of intake, other team members organize supplies brought from home and from the Faith In Practice warehouses in-country. Triage Day is also important for setting up the pre-op, post-op, and operating rooms—of which we are running a record eight this year.
Each Faith In Practice team comes with different skills and specialties and our group brings with us a team specializing in general surgery, gynecological surgery, and thyroid surgery. Dr. Patrick Worth, Dr. Karen Zink, Dr. Heather Zorour, and Dr. Andy Kramer will take on the majority of general surgery cases. Dr. Ty Ericksen will run the GYN room and Dr. Kelvin Yu will continue to lead and teach Guatemala-based medical professionals specialized thyroid surgery. We’re grateful to collaborate once more with Dr. Jorge Mendez and his team of Guatemala-based medical professionals will run two additional rooms, making it possible for us to nearly double our case load from last year.
At night, we gathered for dinner and to discuss the days ahead. “Thank you for the whole effort today,” Dr. Mendez told the team, “we saw two hundred patients—it was a huge number of patients and we were able to schedule 176. Enjoy the work, and God bless you for the effort you’re providing.”
Emily Guimaraes, who had dedicated the day to meeting and praying with our patients and their families, closed the evening by sharing that each and every patient she spoke with expressed sincere gratitude.
“Our patients are grateful for you,” she said, “and praying for you.”
I’ll end this day’s blog with an excerpt from Guimaraes’ beautifully crafted Team Worship Bulletin:
It’s time to set to work. Let’s close by giving thanks.
For this beautiful country, and for the new perspective we receive on our own beautiful country.
For the hospitality we are receiving, and the hospitality we are extending.
For the many gifts we bring: for medicines and equipment and skills and open hearts;
For the resilience of our patients, many of whom have waited a long time or traveled a long distance;
For our families both at home and here with us, and their love and support;
For all the resources which support our mission, for many years of donors and staff and infrastructure.
Giver of life and love, bless us as we begin our mission together. Open our eyes to the beauty of the new. Grant us both wisdom and devotion in our common life, that we may offer to one another a strength in need, a counselor in perplexity, a comfort in sorrow, and a companion in joy. Fill our hearts with gratitude for the innumerable blessings we encounter. Knit our wills together in one purpose, offering ourselves in humility and love.
Amen.
