Scotts on a Mission

One of the main things I helped with during last year's mission was the distribution of reading glasses. I'm not talking about prescription eyeglasses - I'm talking about the cheap plastic kind of things you find on the rack near the cash register at Walgreens. Because these are simple reading glasses, they really only benefit  older folks (usually age 35+) whose eyes have started to get "tired". They are basically just magnifying glasses in frames. We packed one large suitcase full of them, in both women's and men's designs. We had over 800 pairs in total, and they were completely gone by the last day of clinic. Although none of us were optometrists, testing for the correct strength of reading glasses is an easy operation, and we would walk each patient through an eye chart without the glasses, then try progressively stronger pairs until the optimum strength had been reached. One of the unexpected challenges occurred early on, when I realized ...

Our mission trip is run by Helping Hands Medical Missions in Texas. The primary mission is deliver health care in a manner consistent with the gospels and Catholic social teaching. Every day we are there, we set up a temporary clinic, host around 300 patients, then tear it all down in the evening. About half of the missionaries are medical professionals, and the rest of us help with all the clinic logistics. A few years back, our mission group realized that, in addition to reactive healthcare, there was an urgent need for clean drinking water among the patients we were seeing. Some people we spoke to were traveling three miles or more each morning to collect water from rivers or streams, then carrying it all the way back home - often across mountainous terrain. Since El Salvador is so small and densely populated, the surface water is terribly polluted with chemicals and infectious materials. Even in cases where there is a municipal well, the well is often turned on for only a f...

GoFundMe - El Salvador Medical Mission Trip 2019

Our 2019 trip to El Salvador is only four weeks away! In the spirit of "better late than never," I've created a GoFundMe page (my first ever!) so we can raise some cash for medical supplies and water filters. Here it is:  GoFundMe - El Salvador Medical Mission Trip 2019 Please help out if you can, and pass the link along to anyone else who might be interested! Here's little Salvadoran scenery to keep you going until next time. I'm looking forward to seeing those volcanoes again!

Elizabeth and I are once again headed south to El Salvador! Here's Elizabeth hamming it up with some new friends. Apparently, last year's mission wasn't enough to dissuade us from going again, even after being broken down on the side of the road for hours on end... We're both looking forward to the hot weather and the smiling faces. Just look at those smiling faces! And plantains and beans for breakfast, of course. We're honored to be able to go back again and help provide medical care, basic necessities and household water filters to the folks we meet. Our trip dates are March 15th through the 23rd. Stay tuned for updates as we prepare for the journey!