Medical Clinics and Healthcare

Introduction

A major attribute of our Lord’s work on this earth was and is healing. Following our Lord, Paradise Bound has ministered to over 100,000 people thus far. Many of them attended to through one of our Mobile Medical Clinics operated in remote, difficult to reach villages with no healthcare and thus no hope for the ill or injured. Others have been attended to at our Permanent Clinic operated out of our mission base near Chimaltenango.

Mobile Medical Clinics and Outreaches

Our mission teams assist in our Mobile Medical Clinics and attend to hundreds of patients in each village. These villages are very remote and largely untouched by the outside world. We have a fleet of 4x4 passenger vans that carry us safely to and from these difficult to reach villages. The team members assist us in evaluating patients and filling prescriptions. Due to the sheer number of patients and great need, most receive a quick exam, but if determined to have a more critical illness are given much further attention (see the Patient Care page for more). Those on a mission team without medical experience are utilized as support and to build relationships among the villagers.

Ultimately, our Mobile Medical Clinics are utilized by our Lord to not only save these precious people physically, but also spiritually. Once all the patients are attended to, we begin our Gospel presentation through the Jesus Film DVD, team song and testimony, sharing of God’s Word by our Guatemalan pastor. We then invite community members to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, praying over those who accept Him as Savior and gifting those who do accept Christ a Bible or New Testament. This is true holistic healing in our Lord Jesus Christ!

Permanent Medical Clinic

Our permanent clinic, operated at our mission base near Chimaltenango, is open Monday through Thursday. Fridays are set aside for transporting patients to other facilities to receive exams, treatments, and/or operations that we are not capable of at our clinic.

Our permanent clinic is in its infancy and thus does not have the capabilities we desire. One great need is a Lab-In-A-Suitcase, which will give PBM permanent and mobile lab capacity. Patients walk many miles to reach our clinic and are amazed at the treatment and healing we can offer; it's not because of a great and fully equipped facility, but because our Lord is at the heart of everything we do and are. To learn more about the Lab-In-A-Suitcase and our other clinic needs, see the Medicine and Medical Supplies page in our Get Involved section.

Dental Care

2012 will usher Paradise Bound into dental work as we form our very first dental team. This team will work out of our new mission base near Chimaltenango and serve the nearly 800 families living within walking distance of our facility. This team will also go remote, and attend to two difficult to reach villages during their stay. The Gospel will be shared and Almighty God will be glorified as this team is sure to bring many smiles! To learn more about or join our Dental Team, please email Dan Smith at dan@paradisebound.org.

The Future

Though we are involved with Healing the Children (Grand Rapids, Michigan) and able to bring some of our critical pediatric patients to the U.S. for treatment, a tremendous amount of time (months of paperwork) and resources of Paradise Bound are spent with every patient we send to the U.S. Plus, non-pediatric patients present an even greater challenge. Reflect for a moment: A medical team coming to Guatemala, not to care for only one patient but hundreds over the course of a week.

In our ten year vision, we dream of a small hospital and surgical center where short term teams of medical professionals from the U.S. and other countries can attend to our growing list of critical patients discovered in the remote villages during our mobile clinics and outreaches. With so many medical professionals in the U.S. with a deep longing to serve our Lord in this capacity, and the needs of our patients so vast, it is only a matter of time before the two collide in our Lord’s sovereignty and this vision becomes a reality.