DBF staffers continue global efforts

Salisbury, Md. — Josh Taylor, P.E. and Jay Bilbrough of Davis, Bowen & Friedel, Inc. (DBF) joined Team Guatemala: Hope Rising once again for the humanitarian aid group’s annual January mission trip to Guatemala. The team’s primary purpose is to organize annual, and often semi-annual, short-term mission trips to Hope of Life, an established Christian mission that has provided aid for more than 25 years to one of the most impoverished regions in Guatemala.

Team Guatemala’s principle service project this year involved traveling to Llano Verde, a town approximately 70 miles northeast of Guatemala City, where they focused on much-needed renovations at the senior center — Oasis de Eden. Working alongside 27 other team members, Taylor and Bilbrough successfully converted three of the center’s rooms into two nurses’ stations and a critical care room.

During their eight-day mission, Bilbrough and Taylor also assisted the team in a wide range of other tasks which included:

• Laying stone pavers, as well as transporting and mixing concrete, for the main road which passes through the village of Llano Verde.
• Transporting several thousand concrete blocks up a mountainside to a construction site for a building that will eventually house the families of those seeking treatment at St. Luke’s Hospital.
• Distributing nearly 300 bags of food and nutrients, along with more than several hundred pairs of shoes, to the hamlet of El Jurgallon.
• Distributing shoes to the elderly residents of Oasis de Eden.
• Sponsoring and participating in the multiple rescues of malnourished children who had been neglected by their families or caregivers.
• Providing food for a village located next to a landfill.
• Creating a fun, colorful mural on the Village of Hope’s block wall.

“The staff at Hope of Life believes in and lives by the motto ‘When one life is changed, a world is changed,’” stated Bilbrough. “To witness that kind of positive change to someone’s world firsthand was truly a gift, and, in that experience, my world was ultimately changed, too.”

As with their past missions to Guatemala, the DBF family has supported the efforts of Taylor and Bilbrough by participating in fundraisers, contributing funds and material goods, and offering prayers.

To learn more about Hope of Life, visit www.hopeoflifeintl.org. To assist Team Guatemala with their goals, visit them at www.facebook.com/teamguat.