We’ve Got Baggage

By Carrie Saathoff

And we are off! Our small group of five steering committee members arrived safely in Guatemala Monday – with 11 suitcases! For this trip, we are not traveling light by any means, thanks to a generous donation by Mustang Expediting, a warehousing and logistics company located in Aston, PA. Kara Francis, a member of Westminster Presbyterian (Wilmington, DE), connected us to an amazing opportunity to procure a mountain of brand new medical supplies and N-95 masks. (There is still a pile in my basement and more to come!) Kara and I have been meeting in the church parking lot the past several Sundays to transfer car loads of supplies. My daughter said it felt akin to a drug deal.

Here is the backstory: In January 2025, Prospect Medical Holdings (PMH), which controlled Crozer Health facilities in Delaware County, PA, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and shuttered several hospitals and healthcare facilities in Delaware County. Mustang Expediting was storing over 900 pallets of medical supplies and equipment destined for Crozer Health facilities; these were also abandoned by PMH. Mustang decided to repurpose the materials by making them available to local and overseas organizations with populations that could benefit from the supplies. 

So lucky us! Kara said the items packed in our suitcases account for like 0.000001% of what is available from the warehouse. We are extremely grateful to Mustang Expediting for sharing these much-needed supplies with our partners in Guatemala. We plan to stock up on as much as we can to take down on future trips. (If anyone has large suitcases to donate, let me know!)

During the week, we will share photos of where and to whom we deliver these supplies. To give you perspective, typically we pay $20 for each 10-pack of N-95 masks for our friends at AJPU who make the fuel-efficient stoves. I’m guessing we have crammed over $1,000 worth of those masks in single suitcase – which should last them a good while! A HUGE thank you to Mustang Expediting for this generous gift. It is very much appreciated by our partners in Guatemala who either don’t have the funds or access to buy good-quality items, or who have to pay 2-3 times the amount to purchase them in Guatemala.

Once we hauled the suitcases through customs and got them to the hotel, the rest of the day was pretty low-key. Tomorrow we will visit CEDEPCA in the morning and then get on the road out to Xela for the rest of the week.

Please keep all travelers in your prayers this week!

• Cathy Higgins – Westminster (Wilmington)
• Gloria Kilby – West Nottingham Presbyterian Church
• Carrie Saathoff – Westminster (Wilmington)
• Bruce Shumway – Trinity Presbyterian Church
• Carol Shumway – Trinity Presbyterian Church