Day Four | Guatemala 2026
Day Four: Tuesday, March 24, 2026 ⎸ Surgery Day 2
Team Hope in Motion (Team HIM) is one of 40 teams that serve in village clinics and 2 hospitals for Faith In Practice in Guatemala. Each team HIM member raises $3,000 from generous donors like you to support their trip expenses and help support the ongoing mission of Faith In Practice (FIP). We feel called to partner here to provide hope and healing to the poor in Guatemala with orthopedic disease.
Today’s devotion topic: God’s lavish care and provision to his people. John 21:1-14. The risen Christ appears on the beach after his disciples/fishermen have gone the entire night without catching a single fish. Jesus suggests the fishermen try their net on the other side of the boat. To their astonishment, fish are overflowing the net. Next, Luke 15. A Father welcomes back his wayward son with undeserved grace, mercy, and compassion. Our questions to ponder: “What type of love is this? What is our Father God’s posture toward us?”
Time for work: We enjoyed another beautiful, cool-temperature walk to the hospital, even as we dodged moto and car traffic crossing the cobblestone streets. First, physician rounds were stop number one at the hospital. Smiles, photos, and grateful words were enjoyed by each surgeon as they visited their patients. Each large Salas was filled with the men in 1 and the women in 2 additional rooms. Frosted Flakes and Fruit Loops were on the menu, and the first question was always, “Can I go home today?” (Even Albertina, who hasn’t walked in 2 years, until yesterday!)
Our Physical Therapy (PT) team is extraordinary. They love these beautiful, peaceful, happy & long-suffering people. The PT team gets to know each patient’s unique needs to prepare them for their home recovery.
Pharmacy Spotlight:
Our team has one incredible pharmacist who provides medicines for pre-op, intra-op, post-op (PACU), and meds for home. When you add up 6 operating rooms, approximately 30 patients per day, times 4 days, things get complicated. Even more remarkable is the fact that once we started on Monday, these different needs overlap and are occurring simultaneously. The key…teamwork.
Our Team:
Each part of the team is learning as we go. Some are orchestrating the big picture and troubleshooting the snags to help make the integral parts connect. Others are more detailed in their role, knowing exactly when and where parts, people, or treatment are needed. Nothing happens without all the parts moving synchronously together. Above all, this team enjoys its work. They do not get paid to be here. Each person gives up a week of their life to come and serve. Each comes for different reasons. But the most visible characteristic displayed in each one is their love for the people they help. All of these folks are the best of the best specializing in one particular role: anesthesiologist, surgeon, scrub nurse, Zimmer - Biomet implant specialist, PACU nurse, circulating nurse, physical therapist, pre-op nurse, pharmacist, ‘surgical parts sterilizer and organizer’ (official name unavailable due to the multiple roles, amount of work and vast importance involved in this role) parts engineer, and willing volunteers to complete the team. These folks are just plain special.
Patient Stories:
Blessings and Gratitude. Our patients are blessings to us. We marvel at their calm patience. Some of them have lived lives with great difficulty for many years. These procedures will change them, their families, and their communities.
Abel traveled with his son for 2 days to get to Antigua for his knee replacement. For 10 years, he has suffered with great pain. Yesterday, he received a new right knee. This morning, he walked out of the hospital for his 2-day trip home in hopes of getting back on his tractor at his farm.
Alejandro, our 28-year-old hip patient from Monday, also went home today. We discovered her grandmother, who had been by her side yesterday after surgery, had been cooking all day so the family could celebrate her homecoming.
In Sala 05, a large room on the patient floor, a group of women smiled and spoke to each other after meeting this morning in the pre-op area before their surgeries. Each in their own bed, they were laughing and sharing toiletry supplies, announcing, “We are already family.”
There are so many more stories. We are blessed and grateful.
Departing note. Fuego, the most active of the volcanoes, gave us a show tonight just before dinner, erupting with red molten lava in the distance.
God is good.
—
Julie Berend
If you’d like to join us in providing the life-giving gift of mobility for those in desperate need, please click below to donate today.
