December 07, 2018 |
Recently, my family and I had the pleasure of returning to Guatemala to a little village named Setzimaaj. This village has been the site of the Lipscomb medical missions for the past several years, but this was the first time for our family to visit this particular village. Magda Sherman had coordinated with our wonderful sewing ministry at Otter Creek to have some maternity gowns made for the women who labor in the hospital of a nearby town, so she and I set out to deliver them on our way out of Setzimaaj. When we arrived, my eyes were opened to why so many women in Guatemala would prefer to stay home to deliver their babies than to go to the hospital. The hallways were dark and dirty, and the maternity ward consisted of a series of old beds lining the walls of a single room. This room is where the women labor together until the final moments before delivery. There are no husbands massaging the backs of their wives, no windows overlooking a cheerful courtyard, no labor coaches cheering these women on; just beds lining the walls of an unfriendly, dimly lit, and dirty room. When the women come into the hospital to have their babies, they are asked to take a shower, but until we delivered the gowns, the only option was for them to put back on their dirty clothes after the shower. Now, thanks to the sewing ministry, they will have a clean and cheerfully colored gown to wear as they usher a new life into the world. We cannot easily change the dirty floors or the unfriendly atmosphere of the hospital there, but the gowns that our sewing ministry provided will most-certainly provide a warm feeling for the soon-to-be moms who will wear them. Even the simple act of sewing a maternity gown for someone in a distant land can be a light to the one who wears it as she prepares to welcome her newborn into her arms.
“Do your little bit of good wherever you are; it is those little bits of good put altogether that overwhelm the world.”
-Desmond Tutu