Wendy Maldonado has been our official dentist at El Faro for the past two years. After completing her internship for med school, she decided to return as a full-time missionary and be in charge of dental outreaches.

The vision that she has for the dental clinic and outreaches is to serve God through the abilities, profession, and time that the odontologists have with the purpose of reflecting the care that God has for each person through a good free dental treatment in villages that don’t have access to this service and taking every opportunity to share the love of God to the patients.

On a daily basis in the clinic on the grounds at El Faro Wendy attends to six to seven patients of all ages from different parts of Izabal with some even walking more than two hours under the sun. The advantage of the dental clinic is that Wendy has more time to talk slowly with the patients and pray for them.

This year alone Wendy has led dental outreaches in 10 different villages (with some repeated) for a total of 615 patients. For these medical outreaches she has had the help of 12 dentists who gladly donate their time and abilities to this project as well as Guatemalans and foreign helpers who although aren’t dentist, help in cleaning the dental instruments or serve as dental assistants.

“We want to reflect the love of God wherever he might take us”

Wendy chooses villages that do not have access to a dentist where people in the greatest of pain have to travel long distances with only a Tylenol to ease their pain. It is for those people who don’t have the means that Wendy sets up clinic and performs cleanings, extractions, and fillings. Educating the people so that they value their teeth and learn to care for them instead of having them extracted is a huge goal.

Two months ago Wendy led a dental outreach in a village called ‘Lagunita’. Wendy and her team traveled one hour and a half up river in a boat where they ended up having to carry their equipment to a school where they would be working for two days. This medical outreach was special because during their lunch time the dentist were separated into groups of two and went to different houses of the villagers who had a meal prepared for them. Wendy was assigned a house that could only be reach by taking a very small wooden canoe with wooden oars where you couldn’t make too much movement or else the canoe would tip.

When they arrived at the houses they had the opportunity to share with the patients they had attended to. Wendy was repeatedly thanked because her patients had been in constant pain for so long. They were able to talk over meals and the dentists would leave praying over the houses and the families.

“It’s amazing to see what God does in the medical outreaches and in the form in which he uses us and taking us places we would never imagine. God is blessing many people in the villages but undoubtedly it is us who end up being blessed to be part of this project.”

If you would like to read more about Wendy and how you can support the dental program, click HERE