An experience unlike any other!  It is commonly said that mission trips change the way you view your life upon return to the United States. It can sometimes be hard to imagine how others actually live,  when the most accurate description exposed to us is via movies. The opportunity to experience it first hand was very overwhelming. We Concordia students took to chance to embrace how blessed we are after visiting different houses of people who live throughout the Lake Amatitlan community. The most breath-taking visit was with a woman, Dona Lupe, who was receiving a new vented stove for her home. It was given by voluteers from a Lutheran church in California. Remember, the word "home" is not what you would imagine it to be. Sheets of metal put together with a metal roof held down by cinder blocks is not my idea of a "home." However, for 18 years, this was the woman's home. She was currently prepping all her food on a giant rock slab that went about waist-hig...

The dynamic team below is hosting us -- transporting us, feeding & housing us, teaching us and protecting us -- while we're in El Salitre, a poor community on the shore of Lake Amatitlan, approx 80 km from Guatemala City. We stay in dorm rooms above the church "La Santa Cruz", actually a converted lakeside home donated by a well-to-do family when the lake became polluted and less than desirable for water sports & tourism. Lis provides delicious, safe meals for us with help from a few church women. Elry is a M.D. and Lutheran pastor who gave up a successful career teaching medicine at the university in G.C. in order to begin a mission outreach in this poor community. Five days a week Elry and Lis have organized activities for the youth. Saturday is "Kids' Club" from 2 - 7; Sunday afternoon is worship, followed by catechism. Three other days, children come for tutoring, catechism, and to learn to play the recorder (flute). The days always end wit...

Shortly after sipping on the best coffee in the world (i.e. Guatemalan coffee), we read a devotional about allowing God to renew our minds. And so it was. On this first day of clinical practicum, our minds were exposed to multiple and unique learning opportunities in a place least expected. We worked alongside the healthcare staff at a public health clinic in a village up the mountain from Lake Amatitlan. The seven nursing students were placed in different areas of this small clinic: the consultation room (which was staffed by a pediatrician), the immunization & family planning area and the medication dispensary area. It was amazing to see the level of organization of the clinic staff members given the few resources that they had. We struggled the most with learning how to read a mercury thermometer – turned it left and right, up and down until we saw that silver lining. We also learned that blood pressure would only be checked for patients 14-years of age and older as the clinic...