My Medical Mission Trip Experience!

My Medical Mission Trip Experience!

By: Morgan Sweere Treece

As a first-year medical student, my year was full of new things; marriage, curriculum, schedule, friends, and even city.  But after significant prayer time, I knew God was telling me that it was His will for six other medical students and me to travel to Huehuetenango, Guatemala. The preparation for our trip was time-consuming as we had weekly meetings,  where we planned parts of our trip such as flights, fundraising, medical clinic skills, Bible stories, cultural education, and evangelism. 

One of the preparations was to write our testimony.  As I sat in the library writing it down, I was overcome with emotion trying to find the right words to convey the most important decision of my life.  As I reflected on what I should write and questioned how my struggles can help others when they have such bigger struggles, God spoke.   He told me that I was not the focus of my testimony, neither were my struggles.  He was.  Jesus was the answer as he died for my sins, just as he did theirs.  I chose my words carefully as I did not want anything to be lost in translation.  I wanted to ensure the steps of salvation were understood by all that God led me to speak to.  

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Fundraising was another obstacle the devil tried.  How was I going to come up with the money for this trip? Medical school is so expensive and I applied for scholarships, but they were few and far between.  Another student introduced me to letter fundraising.  I sent out letters to loved ones informing them about my upcoming trip and asked for their support through prayer and financial means if God so led.  The response was overwhelming! 

However, as our trip came closer, I was still a little short.   It was exam week and my worries about my exam and finances became another obstacle.  God gave me the verse, Matthew 17:20.  “He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”  I knew God had sent me this reminder.  A day before the trip, a relative sent the exact amount I needed to fully fund my trip!    

Our last exam was late afternoon, so we traveled into the night to reach Houston where we had booked our flight.  The other students and I became friends on that drive.   Our flight to Guatemala City was short, but the next day we headed by car for seven hours to Huehuetenango. On our first day in clinic, I was able to work on evangelism for the first time, and nine people were saved that day!  Our translator, Venicio, was very helpful and encouraging to me as I began talking.  He translated into Spanish and then into Mom, the native language. As we drove up the beautiful mountain towards Todos Santos each day, we could see for miles, even to the Mexican border.  I was reminded of the verse I had read earlier Matthew 17:20. This verse talks about having a mustard seed of faith and being able to move mountains.  I knew God was talking to me about moving obstacles so these people here could hear about Him. 

Through the days we got to work at every station:  evangelism, prayer, glasses, pharmacy, and doctor.  The glasses station was my favorite as I watched elderly patients getting to truly see God’s world for the first time.  It was amazing to me how resilient the people were—to have worked their entire life with vision problems as well as the obstacles they have to overcome daily.  I enjoyed the doctor and pharmacy stations.  This trip seemed to only confirm that God led me to be a doctor as I worked with parasite infections, musculoskeletal pain, and stomach problems.  I even got to give my first shot, which was so exciting for me!  I ended up giving several more and even taught others how to give shots. 

One night we taught a Bible Story about the shepherd and the sheep to the children.   Part of the activity was coloring a sheep and gluing cotton balls on them.  We had also blown up 300 white balloons and drawn sheep faces on them.  This was for a game where the children pretended to be shepherds and they had to “catch” their sheep by sitting on the balloons to pop them.  The children were so excited but many wanted to keep their balloon rather than popping them.  The children’s smiling faces and the joy they found in this simple game of learning about God’s love made the trip for me!  

On our last day, we visited the local Mayan Ruins, the National Hospital, and a private hospital.  It was sad to see the contrasts between the two hospitals.  The National Hospital was very poor and had patients squished together with no privacy.  Medical care and services were financially based so if a family could not afford it, then loved ones did not get the care they needed.  One four-room ER saw over 300 patients daily.  The private hospital was too expensive for most but it was immensely nicer.  The resources and services were similar to the U.S. Unfortunately, they reported that almost no babies were born in their hospital and they only saw 25 patients daily due to the lower socioeconomic status of the population. 

Despite knowing care is still so desperately needed, God blessed us on this trip as we had helped so many and people were saved!  Overall, the experience was invaluable to me. I grew in my relationship with God, and my skills as a Christian, and as a medical student.  

Morgan Sweere Treece is a twenty-two-year-old wife and first-year medical student at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.  Valuing education, skills, and knowledge, Mrs. Sweere Treece works constantly to advocate and solve problems within her community especially within underserved populations.  Morgan likes to participate in numerous activities such as reading, wakeboarding, and training her therapy dog.  Morgan has a commitment to the compassionate and ethical care of all individuals, while understanding the challenges of disparities and society.  

She can be reached on social media via Facebook or Instagram. 

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