From Shawnda:

Day 4 is in the books.  This week has been amazing!  I love getting to know the new team members and seeing the families that we have worked with for the last several years.  Every trip brings new challenges and new rewards.  Today we worked a little shorthanded due to illness.  It was awesome to see this team come together to make it work and care for these people. They still felt loved and we were able to meet their needs.  One lady came in today and was only scheduled for a dental procedure.  In triage we did a depression screening on her and found that she scored as high as you can which means she is in crisis.  This team came together and got her in to see one of our counselors and a physician to help her start her down the road of healing.  In the process she saw the love of God and found his salvation.  It would have been easy on such a busy day just to have her go to the dentist and let her leave, but we worked hard to fit her into all the services that she needed including dental.  This is why I come and why I continue to come time after time.

From Heather:

This trip has been so excitinb because we have so many dental supplies, two working dental chairs, and we’re able to do so much more than we have in the past. I feel like I say that every time, but it’s true! This ministry just keeps growing. This year, we’ve been able to do many composite fillings to restore teeth and smiles and that has been really fun to get to do.

We had a young adult patient come in on Saturday who needed 3 extractions. When he walked in, he had his hood pulled up and over his face and didn’t want to make eye contact with anyone. We extracted his 3 teeth and asked him to come back today so that we could fix his front teeth as they were decayed. It was so good to see him return with a smile today, no hood, and eager to be seen. We remembered him and welcomed him into the dental room and were able to restore his front teeth… his smile is brand new! That was fun to see and that’s what makes it worth it. (This post sponsored by UltraDent)

My kids have been to Guatemala before, but now they’re older and it has been neat to see them enjoy Guatemala in their own way and with more independence, getting to go out with the compassion team. They’re able to use their hands to help people in the community and interact and play with kids at the outreach too.

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