On Saturday we visited the Land of Hope, a Ministry near a dump community, at the municipal landfill for Escuintla, Guatemala.Our partners there have only six full-time staff, but they serve 80 people who live on their property. In addition, the nearby community of San Gabriel, has about 1500 residents. The landfill itself supports about 100 people, who Mine the dump for anything they can eat, use, or sell.
We set up a dental and medical clinic for the residents at Land of Hope: 26 teeth were pulled, some of which had been infected and decayed to the point of causing chronic pain in the patients for more than a year. In the medical clinic, approximately 20 people were seen by a doctor, who was able to diagnose and treat a wide variety of conditions, ranging from having trouble breathing, to pneumonia. While we were there, a young boy nearby had severely cut his finger needing several stitches, and she was able to treat him..
In addition to the clinic, A team prepared and served soup for the community. Many of our team spent time playing with the kids, and getting to know them just a little bit through love and broken Spanish. Other tasks were completed as well, one of our team members prepared and gave a Devotion to a group having Bible Study in the church, and several of our young strong guys help shovel gravel, shoulder to shoulder with the workers at Land of Hope.
If you have visited the Land of Hope before, you know what I mean when I say that there’s a feeling of desperation in the air. But one of the things that several of us noticed with repeat visit, is that level of desperation is different now! There are more people around, in general, and they are doing more things. The community is involved, they’re serving themselves. It’s still hard to describe the level of need that does exist, but we saw fewer cases of desperate malnutrition, and there is a feeling of permanence with the level of success that the ministry is having in the community!
The team is faring well, God is definitely at work in our hearts. everyone is healthy, energetic, and ready for whatever we are given for this day. Please continue to pray for our team, as we venture out to other regions, with different needs, in the next few days.
