Passion to Serve Over the


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“There’s no clean water available to the village. The water filters can solve many of their illnesses, but having a clinic would address even more.”


— Erik Unruh, senior


would become the 2009-10 Passion to Serve project — students raising $50,000 for materials to build a health clinic in Patanatic, Guatemala. The village of 900 families had been visited several times by Heart to Heart International and MNU student Nursing Teams, conducting health assessments and building water filtra- tion systems.


At


Students like Erik Unruh saw how little it took (in American terms) to make a difference in villagers’ lives.


the beginning of the 2009-10 year Vice President for community formation and University Chaplain Randy Beckum cast the vision that


“They simply need clean water,” says Unruh, a 2010 nursing


graduate who has been active in missions to Patanatic over the years. “The lake is contaminated. There’s no clean water avail- able to the village.”


“What if” becomes “We did it!” as students surpass their $50,000 goal to help a village in Guatemala


He has seen first-hand the health prob-


lems of the villagers, and knows that substantial help is a priority.


“The water filters can solve many of their illnesses,” he says, “but having a health clinic would address even more.”


So Unruh and other students suggest- ed a partnership with Heart to Heart’s


WASH Initiative — a program seeking clean water; improved sanitation; personal hygiene instruction; education; and treat- ment of water-related diseases.


The students dreamed of taking their servant leadership focus beyond a one-time “help” project to a long-term initia- tive with immediate benefits to the area’s residents. The emerging dream became providing this village with its own clinic. Conversations with Jorge Coromac, Heart to Heart’s project coordinator and a Guatemala native, began the process, and the scope of the initiative was clear: $50,000 would be needed for materials to build the structure, even with the village donating most of the labor.


At the time it seemed improbable, if not impossible. In the midst of a great recession, could “poor” college kids and their friends give $50,000 to people they didn’t know more than 1,700 miles away? But the vision captured hearts and inspired faculty, staff and the Olathe community to get involved.


Eighteen mission trip participants from MNU and Rotary International pose with Heart to Heart International Project Coordinator, Jorge Coromac (far left, front), at the clinic being built with funds raised by students.


4 | Accent magazine | Summer 2010


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