Medical Mission Teams Treat Children in Costa Rica, Guatemala

Isabelle “Izzy” Gutierrez '23, who was a senior nursing major at that time, was one of those guests. This was Izzy's first mission trip, and she said she could never have imagined what she would see and learn on this trip. The experience was “eye-opening,” seeing how different the lifestyles are in this third-world country.

“The people in Costa Rica were living in some of the worst conditions I’ve ever seen, but they’re also one of the happiest populations on Earth because they put their whole faith in God that He will pro­vide for them. And He does!” Izzy said. “I think God wanted me to go on this mission trip to show me just how powerful faith can be. It was truly a learning experience about my faith.”

MEDICAL MISSION TRIPS

Each summer, the UMHB Global Outreach team sends students, alumni and staff members on several domestic and international mission trips. In 2022, two medical trips took students to Costa Rica and Guatemala. Working with One More Child, a Christian-focused charity, the medical teams were mainly students in the nursing, pre-med and physical therapy programs, with nurse practitioner Caroline Stanley ‘12 serving as lead provider on the Guatemala trip. Once each team arrived at their destinations, they set up make­shift clinics to help more than 150 children at each location with physical exams, first-aid treatment, and dental education.

“Medical mission opportunities are important to our students practicing medicine because they get hands-on experience to what they’re learning in the classroom, while at the same time, showing oth­ers they’re valued and loved by God,” said Global Outreach Director Tiffany Horton. “They get to see what happens when basic needs are not met and the value that comes with health education.”

For many of the students, it was their first mission experience and a life-changing opportunity.

“It has been a joy to send students around the world and have them come back with contagious joy and passion for their future careers,” Tiffany said. “It reminds us why opportunities for exploring one’s calling are so important.”

MEDICAL MISSION TRIPS

When HollyAnn Wells '22 arrived in Guatemala, she traveled with her group to the Ministry Center in the heart of a small city where they set up a make­shift clinic with four stations for taking histories, getting vitals, providing educa­tion and performing exams. The exam room had an old table and nothing else, but they saw almost 200 children in four days, and each family received a month’s worth of food as they left.

“I was overwhelmed the first day,” said HollyAnn, who graduated with a doctorate in physical ther­apy. “There are so many things over there that these kids don’t get that we just blow off — like shoes! Many of the kids we saw had wounds and rashes on their feet from not wearing shoes or shoes that don’t fit very well.”

As a physical therapy student, she said she learned a lot about wound care, and with the help of some tweezers and scissors, she and the other students helped clean out dirt-filled cuts from the children’s feet.

HANDS AND FEET OF JESUS

“We literally washed their feet,” she said. “I remem­ber seeing the relief on one little boy’s face when his feet were clean. It was so odd to him. You could see the relief in his face when we cleaned out a bad cut. These people don’t have access to clean drinking wa­ter, let alone wound care.”

Foot lacerations were only one of the shocking ailments they treated, though.

“One of my classmates, Jenny, and I got a bug out of a kid’s ear,” she said. “We also saw a lot of rashes, including a 2-year-old with a full-body rash. We gave her a bath, and she felt so much better after that.”

When HollyAnn tells people about the mission trip, she often gets asked, “Why go on mission trips in other countries instead of helping here?”

“One of the reasons I love international missions is because it reminds me that the world does not stop where my world stops,” she said. “It’s a humbling experience, but it also reminds me that there’s so much more that God has created and put out there for us where we can be impactful — even with small trips like this.”