Maranatha Chapel is a small church from the outside with a huge heart for missions on the inside. Their impact worldwide is evident through the number of missionaries and projects they support around the world as well as the diverse cultures that make up the church. El Faro is truly honored to be able to host them each February as we team together to provide medical care to the villages around El Faro. This year was their eighth consecutive year doing this medical trip, but as always, it was unique in many different ways. Fifty people from the states traveled to Guatemala where they teamed up with an additional fifty Guatemalan volunteers, doctors, and missionaries to stay at El Faro as a base and go out into different villages to set up medical clinics. The clinics are set up as the following:
-Patients line up to be seen by a nurse in triage who marks down what medical needs they have to designate which doctor to go to.
-After triage, each patient will pass through a tent to receive both vitamins and a parasite pill. Many patients going through triage show a concern for their children who have worms, so this is a important tent to help ease the parents concerns. -Next the patients are led to the doctor they were assigned to according to their needs. This year we had an amazing group of doctors including dentists, general medicine, pediatrics, optometry, and dermatology. -After visiting with their doctor, the patients drop off their prescription at the pharmacy and are sent to the spiritual clinic while their prescription gets filled. -At the spiritual clinic each person and family has a chance to receive prayer and learn more about God. It is a beautiful opportunity for people also to talk about their personal problems with people they can trust and who care for them.
The beauty salon is a place where women and children go in to get not only to receive a lice treatment, but also a chance to get pampered. Each person get their hair washed, the lice treatment, their nails done, and then once the lice treatment is washed out, they get their hair down complete with ribbons, bows, and flowers. 
We also have a photo session where families are able to take a photo together and then take the printed photo home. For many this is the only photo that they have of themselves and we have seen how people go home to hang them in thieir houses. 
The construction team is always working hard throughout the day and this year the brought smiles to many of the children of the villages. The team constructed two full swing sets and fixed things at the schools. Another very important place is the children’s ministry tent. There are always a multitude of kids that while their parents get seen get very antsy. The children’s tent is always full of songs, laughter, story telling, and lots of other activities to keep the children busy and having a good time. 
The first day we traveled to a village that we went to the year before. Creek Chino. It is a forgotten village as it is located next to a very popular tourist site, Livingston. There is much poverty and a huge need for medical attention and we knew that we needed to return. The second day we took on a challenge to actually set up a medical clinic in the large town of Livingston, only accessible by water. This was a challenge because being such a large tourist attraction there are lots of people and they only have one small medical clinic that is very limited in what they can treat and provide. We set up clinic in a public boys school and at the end of that day we had seen a total of 800 people. The third day we traveled to the village of San Miguelito and we ended the medical trip like always with a clinic at El Faro. In just four days we saw a total of 2300 people, the most we have been able to see in one medical trip. We are so thankful for all of the doctors and volunteers who took time off to help those who are sometimes forgotten in Guatemala. Lives were not only changed physically, but also eternally.
To see more pictures, please click HERE
To see the video from the team, please click HERE
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