The redemptive narrative in the Lighthouse Medical Missions

Dr. Bill Wright wasn't impressed by the numbers.

After setting a one-day record for patients seen, Lighthouse Medical Missions almost equaled it on Thursday with 720 in Coban, Guatemala. At a celebratory dinner, the state hospital director thanked the team for helping offset the crushing load of 100,000 patients yearly they see.

But the only number that mattered to Dr. Wright was the number one. One life changed.

At a time when all volunteers were in a flurry to alleviate daily sicknesses, post top numbers and take care of line that stretched down the block outside the Bible institute where the clinic was staged, the team leader waxed eloquent about slowing down, taking time to pray with each patient and fixing lifelong ailments.

That's because Dr. Wright was not always the shining light of altruism that he is today. There was a time when he was a heavy drinker, who punctuated his successful family practice with liquor and drug use.

“I was at a point where I really didn't care about my life. I'd go to work and I'd go home and I'd drink or use drugs or whatever,” Dr. Wright said. “I had hoped that the different things I'd done would satisfy my life, they would satisfy this thing inside. But nothing ever worked.”

The change came, he said, through a conversion to Christianity 35 years ago.

“Jesus lifted this burden off of my heart,” he said. “That's when I got saved. God came into my life and really changed me.”

What sort of person goes on clinic trips to the uncomfortable – sometimes dangerous – hinterlands of the Earth? There are do-gooders, adventurers and charity promoters. And there are ex-drug users. One team member in Coban share how she tried to commit suicide nine times in her former life.

No, Lighthouse Medical Missions isn't comprised exclusively of upstanding benevolent people with irreproachable resumes and an earnest concern about conditions around the world. A significant number live lives that fit more the redemption narrative.

Maybe it's natural they wish to bring more than mere medicine.

Guatemala is a nation plagued by alcoholism; virtually every corner store doubles as a cantina. The nation consistently tops United Nations' lists for the most violent. Drug traffickers have wracked chaos.

The story of poverty is deeper than Marx's narrative. The household afflicted by alcoholism is also a household of malnutrition, sickness and lack because the habit takes money away from family needs.

The wounds are more profound than a belly busted by parasites.

“Alcohol is a particularly destructive way to try to fill the void in our hearts,” Dr. Wright said. “The way that changes is a change in the person. Christ changes people so that they don't need those things. He fills that desire in our heart with the true love of God so that we don't need all those external things like alcohol."

They're taking care of many lives for short-term emergencies. They hope that with the love they show, they'll take care of at least a few lives for long-term problems.

Pictured: Dr. Bill Wright and his daughter Kara in Coban, Guatemala.