Medical missions couple pays visit to Viña

SOLOLÁ — After several months of trying to get together, talking by phone and reading each other’s blogs, I finally got to meet Matt Bell, his wife, Dr. Heidi Bell, and their son, Isaac, here at Viña Studios on Wednesday morning.

The Bells have been serving in medical missions here in Guatemala for two years through a Texas-based ministry called Agape In Action. Dr. Bell is a specialist with pregnancies and gynecology. Matt is a musician and studio technician, assisting Heidi in the ministry. Their one-year-old boy, Isaac, is a Guatemalan citizen, as he was born here.

I came across their interesting blog a few months ago. More than 400 blog entries describe their lives, ministry and a few of the more interesting medical cases they come across. They met online in 2004, married the next year and followed God’s lead to Guatemala in 2006. Heidi works at several medical clinics, including at least one in a very remote area that cannot be reached by horse or by car.

A very talented pilot, Dwayne Ficker (pictured here with his family), flies them down into the rain forest town of Zona Reyna, where villagers clear a short runway with machetes — sometimes finishing the work just steps ahead of the plane, running to get out of the way. The runway clearance is only 8-feet wider than the plane’s wings, and the pilot gets just one shot at the runway. If he misses, that’s it. He cannot pull up and circle around again because he has to slow down so much to land on a hillside that he doesn’t have the velocity to circle around for a second attempt.

After serving two years in Guatemala, the Bells will return to the United States at the end of the month. I happened to notice a recent blog entry and photos, which described Matt visiting an area not far from here to record a church’s worship team. Until then, I didn’t know Matt is a musician, playing violin and trumpet. So, I called him, telling him about Viña and our recording studios. It was great to have them here for a visit. Although Matt said he wished he would have known about us sooner, at least we got to meet before they left. Perhaps in their future visits to Guatemala, we can meet again.

While they were here, we borrowed their voices for a demo video of our Deditos finger-puppets, which we’re dubbing into English. We hope to present the promotional video to a U.S. audience, inviting partners to help support this new series. We’ve found Guatemalan children are often ignored by churches and lack discipleship materials to develop a Christian worldview. So if you happen to see the video, you’ll be able to hear Dr. Heidi Bell’s voice as “Dahlia,” a servant to Pharoah’s daughter, who fetches Moses out of the water, and Matt Bell as one of the neighbors who ridicules Noah as he builds the ark. The day before, I got to play the part of an angry Pharoah, ordering Hebrew midwives to kill the baby boys born to Hebrews. Wow! That was a lot of fun!

Matt and Heidi have been continuing a work begun by Dr. Jim Street and his wife Kathleen, assisting people like Dwayne and Leslie Ficker, who serve poor Guatemalans in a remote area and John and Sharon Harvey, who began ASELSI, a Bible institute and health clinic outside of Chichicastenango. The Fickers have taken in some children such as Martina, a disabled girl whose parents abandoned her tied to a bed; Martina was severely burned when she suffered a seizure and fell into a cooking fire.

As the Bells depart Guatemala, they hope to find a replacement. One had been found, but it fell through. If you’re interested or know a committed Christian doctor who desires to serve Jesus Christ in medical missions, check out this website about Agape In Action, which describes the position and provides contact information.

Medical problems are common and accepted as part of life here in Guatemala. In some ways, it seems like it’s not too different from the time of Christ. Sometimes I wish I were a doctor and could do something about all the needs I see. Virtually every time I walk through the market in Sololá, I see people with obvious medical problems — feet turned the wrong way, eyes going different directions, large goiters on the neck — many of which probably would have been fixed in America during the people’s childhood.

In speaking with my friend Wilma Hull, a former missionary jungle nurse in Peru, about any possible replacements for the Bells, she noted that the best long-term solution would be for God to raise up national Guatemalans to serve their own people. This indeed makes a lot of sense. A group that sponsors the Bells is now training Paul and Lindsey Argueta, a young Guatemalan couple, to serve in medicine. Please pray God would raise up more people who would share God’s heart and passion to minister to poor Guatemalans.