Harpers Ferry nurse Summer Garin will depart later this month for year-long medical mission in Honduras


Summer Garin will be working with World Gospel Outreach in the capital city of Honduras for the upcoming year, offering health services ranging from basic blood pressure checks to helping people with things such as prenatal care and diabetes. Garin, a resident of Harpers Ferry, is pictured above during a week she spent doing missionary medical work earlier this summer. She says that time confirmed her decision to dedicate a year of her life to working with the less fortunate. Submitted photo.

by Kelli Boylen

Spending a year away from home working with the poor would seem a little daunting to some, but Summer Garin of Harpers Ferry is looking forward to the opportunity.
Garin, a 2006 graduate of Waukon High School, earned her first nursing degree in 2009 and she earned her BSN in May of 2015. She says she became a nurse because she simply “wanted to help.”
Garin has been experiencing a strengthening of faith in her life, and she feels called to do missionary work. She staring researching how to get involved with missionary medical work and a friend told her about World Gospel Outreach. The more she learned about the organization, the more she felt like it was a good fit for her and what she wanted to accomplish.
World Gospel Outreach (WGO) exists to serve the poor, provide for displaced or abandoned children in Honduras, and to provide opportunities for North American churches to experience the joy that comes through serving. WGO provides services in Tegucigalpa, which is the capital city of Honduras and home to more than one million people. Honduras is one of the poorest countries in Central America; more than half of the residents in the capital city live in poverty.
“I have always heard God has a sense of humor and now I understand… asking a girl who has spent most of her life in a town of 300 to serve in a town of a million,” Garin said.
Every year, more than 50,000 Hondurans have their medical and dental needs met by medical and non-medical volunteers who make up the Medical-Evangelism brigades of World Gospel Outreach. Garin is very excited about working with a faith-based organization. WGO provides medical, optical and dental care in free clinics held in various churches in the city, which they refer to as medical-evangelism brigades. Participants also learn about Jesus as part of their day at the clinic. WGO cares for abandoned, orphaned and other displaced children, and they help pour cement floors into homes with dirt floors.
Another simple thing that WGO offers is hair washing. Many poor families have very limited access to clean water and many have head lice. WGO team members wash their hair with medicated shampoo and then comb and style their hair. It is a simple way for the child to feel cared for.
Before making the final commitment to serve the poor in Tegucigalpa for a full year, Garin traveled there for a week in June of this year. She said the week there “absolutely confirmed” her decision to go there as a nurse for 12 months.
She admits that, at first, that June trip was very overwhelming. “That first night I was so overwhelmed by all that I saw, all the people we saw and all that they needed, I couldn’t stop crying,” she said. “It was very life changing.”
During her week she didn’t just experience the medical stations at the free clinics, she experienced it all. Working through a translator, she began to notice that every person she interacted with said something similar at the end of their time together. She asked the interpreter what they were saying and she was humbled to learn every person was blessing her and her family for what she was able to do for them.
She described her work in the medical station similar to what would be found at any free clinic, assessing and doing what they could for everything from diabetes to blood pressure and prenatal care. There were also a number of cases of mosquito borne illnesses.
During her week in Tegucigalpa she spent as much time as she could with the current nurse, learning about what to expect. “This feels like such a calling from God,” she said. “I am ready for whatever He has in store for me.” She is also hoping to improve her very rudimentary Spanish during her time in Honduras.
Garin also says she feels very blessed to be at the stage of her life that she is able to take a year off and help the people who need it so much. She will be departing at the end of September.
Although World Gospel Outreach is a 501 3(c) not for profit that accepts donations, that money is used to keep the clinic functioning. Missionaries raise their own funds to cover their travel and lodging expenses. Garin is in the process of raising $15,000 to cover her year of missionary work. Those interested in supporting her work can go to http://www.wgoreach.org/ and select “donate.” On the next webpage choose “support our missionaries” and select Summer Garin. Donors can give a one-time or monthly donation. Donations are tax-deductible.
She will be holding a bake and rummage sale Friday, September 11 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Farmers and Merchant Savings Bank community room in Waukon. Monetary donations will also be accepted.
Although monetary donations are needed, Garin said, “The first and most important way I am asking for your help is through prayer. I want to be the hands and feet of Jesus and I need the power of prayer to care for His people.”