After all of the hard work and time put into planning, the date for our departure is fast approaching: Saturday May 22nd ! Our plane will take off at 2:00 pm from the Pittsburgh Airport and after a layover in Texas, we will arrive in Guatemala City that evening. Planning for this trip started over a year ago. We just want to thank everyone who has contributed to make it possible, including the generous donations and prayer support from both here and in Guatemala.
Most recently, we had one last group meeting to get on the same page about itinerary details as well as to discuss the plan and task assignments for our clinic days. Our team is made up of eight talented women, each with different skills. We have experienced trip leaders, interpreters, nurses, social workers, and school employees…even an excellent doctor has been participating to share his advice from experience with regular clinics in Guatemala. It is an amazing group needless to say.
Sunday was our packing day where we brought together several hundred items, including kids games, medical equipment, and hygiene supplies (to name a few). We spent a couple hours sorting, recording inventory, packing, and weighing suitcases to make sure we could actually bring everything with us! We are maxed out on space for supplies – which is what we hoped for and are absolutely excited to have gathered/received so much to bring down with us. We’ll just say that our bags are exactly 50 lbs each; it was quite interesting to get it to that magic number without going over…considering a tablet of stickers apparently weighs 2 lbs according to the scale?
For those of you who are hearing about our outreach for the first time, we are taking a short term cross-cultural medical mission trip to Chichicastenango, Guatemala. Chichi is a beautiful city in the highlands of central Guatemala. Amy and Rachel have this great Central America connection thanks to their missionary experience. Also, the team leaders have been a part of many past medical trips to Chichi, which makes it even more applicable. We will be working through local churches in Chichi to reach the surrounding rural populations to provide women/children’s health clinics.
We are continuing to finalize our supply list and packing arrangements and welcome your prayers as we prepare to leave and throughout our outreach. Everything/anything you contributed to the trip will go towards these wonderful Guatemalan residents. Any extra supplies will be left in the hands of the local medical clinic in Chichi to prolong our 10 day contribution.
Continue to check back on our blog. We will be updating it periodically and will post images to include you in the experience as much as possible!
The Guatemala team members are: Becky Balog, Becky Gates, Kimmy Gaudreau, Amy Kendrick, Lynn Rodden, Jessica Rodden, Rachel Vasey and Becky Vasey.
