Keiper reflects on memorable mission trip
Men's Volleyball student-athlete Brett Keiper reflects and writes about his mission trip to Guatemala over Winterim.
Having the opportunity to go on a medical mission trip to a foreign country was an amazing experience. Some of my friends from CUW and I had the privilege of traveling to Guatemala with a team from St. Paul/Immanuel Lutheran Church in Steven's Point. Personally, this was my third trip to Guatemala. I had the opportunity of going on the same trip last winter and I also went back last spring to teach English in a few of the local Lutheran schools. This year we had a team of 14 amazing people which consisted of doctors, nurses, physical therapists, a pharmacist and a construction crew. Once we arrived in Guatemala, five local translators and a dentist joined our team.
We stayed in the city of Zacapa, but traveled to a small village called San Pablo where we ran our clinic and VBS (Vacation Bible School) for three days. San Pablo is a village of poverty and a lot of the people are considered to be poor. Many people and families came to our clinic to be treated by our wonderful team of doctors, nurses, dentist and pharmacist. In the clinic, was a nurse, physical therapist and even a dental assistant. As a nurse, I took patients' vitals, height/weight, blood pressure and blood sugar (thanks to some of my professors for teaching me these skills in class). As a physical therapist, I was able to provide patients with muscular stretches or even a tennis ball to roll out their muscles. Being able to help out the local dentist while he pulled out teeth was a great experience that I will never forget! Maybe God is calling me to be a dentist!
When the clinic slowed down and there weren't many people to tend to, I got to sneak away and play with the local kids. While most of our team was running the clinic, a couple people from our team joined some of the local construction workers and helped build a house for a deserving family in need. Once the house was finished, we held a beautiful house dedication ceremony for the family.
Each afternoon a couple people from our team ran VBS for the local children. We had a story from Jesus' life, arts/crafts and then a snack to end the session. The kids were full of energy and absolutely loved it all, but at times they were out of control, to say the least.
While in Zacapa, our good friend Carlos provided us with delicious Guatemalan food for most of our meals. For every meal we had hot, homemade tortillas that were prepared by some of the local women. Since we aren't native our bodies weren't used to some of the food and water, so we had to be careful with some of the food that we consumed.
Our last couple of days were spent exploring and relaxing. While walking around in Antigua we went to a market, walked through a beautiful church and visited a giant cross on a hill that overlooked the city. One night I witnessed a volcano spitting lava out of the top. The highlight of the trip was on our second to last day, we went Zip lining through the canyons in Antigua! That was my first time ever zip lining, so I was pretty pumped to be able to do that.
This trip to Guatemala was nothing short of amazing. It was truly a blessing and a privilege to have been able to go on this trip. Through God's help our team was able to accomplish amazing things by helping the people of San Pablo. Not only did we help them, but they also helped us in more ways than we recognize.
