Join us on a mission team!
If you would like to join us on a mission team or get more information about our organization, just fill out the contact form below. If you have already decided on a particular trip, please fill out the mission team application attached. information about our projects and what you will need on our trips are included. Read comments from previous trip members below. We look forward to serving with you!
You can also contact us through email at info@sewhope.org or write to us at:
SewHope
P.O. Box 12522
Toledo, Ohio 43606
If you would like instead to financially support our work, please go to the "donate now" page. Thank you!!
You can also contact us through email at info@sewhope.org or write to us at:
SewHope
P.O. Box 12522
Toledo, Ohio 43606
If you would like instead to financially support our work, please go to the "donate now" page. Thank you!!
| Mission team information and application |
| Volunteer agreement |
Mission Teams to Guatemala
As part of our long-term mission, SewHope sponsors 6-8 mission trips each year. While we have special needs for medical personnel, teachers, engineers and Spanish interpreters, the most important person we need is someone who has a true desire to learn about the great disparities in our world with a heart to make a difference. We believe that it is only in following the greatest command of Jesus to "love each other as we would love ourselves" that we can heal the brokeness in ourselves and in the world. Here are some of the personal stories of people who have come on our trips:
"This mission trip was definitely a valuable experience for me. I learned a great deal about medicine and people. The trip helped to inspire me to want to do more to improve global health, but at the same time introduced new complexities of missionary medicine. I think that beginning to gain some understanding of the complicated issues and the barriers to health care in Guatemala was an incredibly valuable part of the trip, and the questions that the trip raised will hopefully help me to better care for people in the future."
"Yes, it’s hard to say exactly how it has changed my life at this point, for it’s hard to know yet which changes in my life will be lasting and profound. I think I’ll be starting my medical school clinical rotations with a little different perspective on health care—hopefully having a better sense of the bigger picture. It has helped sustain my motivation to continue learning Spanish (and encouraging others to learn Spanish!) I think I’ll feel more compelled to pray for my patients, having seen the power of prayer in Guatemala. I hope to better be able to facilitate healing in my patients. Most of all, I hope the change in my life has been growth toward something a little more Christ-like."
"I didn’t really know what poverty was before this trip, and still afterwards I’m not exactly sure. While not having water or food or health care is certainly something lamentable, I think poverty encompasses more than just the insufficient fulfillment of certain physical need. When considering poverty to be something good that is missing in a person’s life, the absence of something which sustains life and allows for a more fulfilling experience of living, most everybody is impoverished in some way. Maybe this trip has sealed in my mind the idea that poverty isn’t so much not having money or things, but rather not having something that is good and life-giving, be that medicine or family, water or community, hope or energy, redemptive suffering or the gratitude and praise when a pain is relieved, food or God. When we try to ease poverty, either that of others or our own empty parts, we may risk trading one poverty for another. So maybe I have a better sense that all the different ways in which a person can be poor must be considered before trying to change things, to try to minimize the tragedy that can come as an unintended consequence of greater wealth."
"How do we, as sinners, encourage others, also sinners, to live in a way more holy, more responsible than ourselves? When we see the scarcity of resources, we naturally wish that people use them as responsibly as possible, because we care about the people and want to see their lives healthier, more joyful, full of meaningful relationships. We as outsiders see a bigger picture, and I think we may want people to sacrifice more of themselves for the sake of their community than we typically are willing to sacrifice for the sake of our own. It’s easy to critique from the outside. Because we know that one individual from the outside can’t make all of the problems go away, that constructive change comes from within a community through the power of God. So it can be really frustrating for an individual. Maybe part of the answer for how the individual addresses poverty is that the individual must come to terms with the fact that any beneficial change is not going to come from that individual…God may work through that individual, but it’s not really about the individual efforts. Relying on God for the strength and wisdom to address poverty and suffering is essential."
"This trip reinforced the idea that directly caring for people’s medical needs is important, but educating other health providers may be even more important. I think it could be very important to use our knowledge and skill to help teach health providers who wish to learn more about patient care from us. The individual can only do so much to relieve poverty and suffering, but working with other individuals, learning from others and teaching others, may lead to something bigger."
"It was hard not to feel valued with such a loving, encouraging group of people!"
"I think belief and faith in God is a very helpful component in these trips, although I believe that God can still use in some capacity people who do not believe, and perhaps use this sort of experience to strengthen the faith. Belief and faith in God certainly empowers a person with a greater capacity for love than the individual would otherwise have, and that is something really helpful on a mission team. But is it absolutely necessary? I don’t know."
"I felt the presence of God in many of the moments that we spent with each other and with patients. The healing brought about by God, through surgery and medicine, was amazing. While I felt God’s presence more during the times of prayer with patients and each other, as well as in the moments when things seemed to come together in powerfully good ways, I know He was with us even in the harder moments, the sadder moments, the frustrating moments."
In sooo many ways this trip opened my eyes to the needs in Guatemala and helped me to also imagine the needs in the rest of the world. I definitely want to continue in medical missionary work through medical school in and my career as a physician. Of course, I now look at what I have with a greater appreciation. I think the biggest change of all is in how priviledged I feel to be a medical student… and how I will use the knowledge and skills that I gain to serve others. "
"So after this week, I see us clearly doing all that we said at the beginning – working with the people to help them realize their own dreams through a better school, reasonable health care, opportunities for work, good nutrition, basic sanitation and most importantly, knowing that there is a loving God who brings others to us in our time of need."
"The absolute highlight of the trip was the incredibly warm reception we received by the villagers of Pueblo Nuevo who were so suspicious of us just 2 years ago. The woman who could barely smile 2 years ago now came running up to hug me! She and her family made dinner for our whole group! While they are so grateful to our organization for blessing their community with improvements in sanitation, health, clean water and education, we are even more grateful for the opportunities they have given us to see God through them."
"This mission trip was definitely a valuable experience for me. I learned a great deal about medicine and people. The trip helped to inspire me to want to do more to improve global health, but at the same time introduced new complexities of missionary medicine. I think that beginning to gain some understanding of the complicated issues and the barriers to health care in Guatemala was an incredibly valuable part of the trip, and the questions that the trip raised will hopefully help me to better care for people in the future."
"Yes, it’s hard to say exactly how it has changed my life at this point, for it’s hard to know yet which changes in my life will be lasting and profound. I think I’ll be starting my medical school clinical rotations with a little different perspective on health care—hopefully having a better sense of the bigger picture. It has helped sustain my motivation to continue learning Spanish (and encouraging others to learn Spanish!) I think I’ll feel more compelled to pray for my patients, having seen the power of prayer in Guatemala. I hope to better be able to facilitate healing in my patients. Most of all, I hope the change in my life has been growth toward something a little more Christ-like."
"I didn’t really know what poverty was before this trip, and still afterwards I’m not exactly sure. While not having water or food or health care is certainly something lamentable, I think poverty encompasses more than just the insufficient fulfillment of certain physical need. When considering poverty to be something good that is missing in a person’s life, the absence of something which sustains life and allows for a more fulfilling experience of living, most everybody is impoverished in some way. Maybe this trip has sealed in my mind the idea that poverty isn’t so much not having money or things, but rather not having something that is good and life-giving, be that medicine or family, water or community, hope or energy, redemptive suffering or the gratitude and praise when a pain is relieved, food or God. When we try to ease poverty, either that of others or our own empty parts, we may risk trading one poverty for another. So maybe I have a better sense that all the different ways in which a person can be poor must be considered before trying to change things, to try to minimize the tragedy that can come as an unintended consequence of greater wealth."
"How do we, as sinners, encourage others, also sinners, to live in a way more holy, more responsible than ourselves? When we see the scarcity of resources, we naturally wish that people use them as responsibly as possible, because we care about the people and want to see their lives healthier, more joyful, full of meaningful relationships. We as outsiders see a bigger picture, and I think we may want people to sacrifice more of themselves for the sake of their community than we typically are willing to sacrifice for the sake of our own. It’s easy to critique from the outside. Because we know that one individual from the outside can’t make all of the problems go away, that constructive change comes from within a community through the power of God. So it can be really frustrating for an individual. Maybe part of the answer for how the individual addresses poverty is that the individual must come to terms with the fact that any beneficial change is not going to come from that individual…God may work through that individual, but it’s not really about the individual efforts. Relying on God for the strength and wisdom to address poverty and suffering is essential."
"This trip reinforced the idea that directly caring for people’s medical needs is important, but educating other health providers may be even more important. I think it could be very important to use our knowledge and skill to help teach health providers who wish to learn more about patient care from us. The individual can only do so much to relieve poverty and suffering, but working with other individuals, learning from others and teaching others, may lead to something bigger."
"It was hard not to feel valued with such a loving, encouraging group of people!"
"I think belief and faith in God is a very helpful component in these trips, although I believe that God can still use in some capacity people who do not believe, and perhaps use this sort of experience to strengthen the faith. Belief and faith in God certainly empowers a person with a greater capacity for love than the individual would otherwise have, and that is something really helpful on a mission team. But is it absolutely necessary? I don’t know."
"I felt the presence of God in many of the moments that we spent with each other and with patients. The healing brought about by God, through surgery and medicine, was amazing. While I felt God’s presence more during the times of prayer with patients and each other, as well as in the moments when things seemed to come together in powerfully good ways, I know He was with us even in the harder moments, the sadder moments, the frustrating moments."
In sooo many ways this trip opened my eyes to the needs in Guatemala and helped me to also imagine the needs in the rest of the world. I definitely want to continue in medical missionary work through medical school in and my career as a physician. Of course, I now look at what I have with a greater appreciation. I think the biggest change of all is in how priviledged I feel to be a medical student… and how I will use the knowledge and skills that I gain to serve others. "
"So after this week, I see us clearly doing all that we said at the beginning – working with the people to help them realize their own dreams through a better school, reasonable health care, opportunities for work, good nutrition, basic sanitation and most importantly, knowing that there is a loving God who brings others to us in our time of need."
"The absolute highlight of the trip was the incredibly warm reception we received by the villagers of Pueblo Nuevo who were so suspicious of us just 2 years ago. The woman who could barely smile 2 years ago now came running up to hug me! She and her family made dinner for our whole group! While they are so grateful to our organization for blessing their community with improvements in sanitation, health, clean water and education, we are even more grateful for the opportunities they have given us to see God through them."
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