Global Health Spotlight on Extraordinary Healthcare Volunteers: Cynthia Neal, PMHNP-BC 

Cynthia Neal was a mental health nurse practitioner and a member of the Chicago Church of Christ when her life dramatically changed. Her best friend Shayne Purdue heard HOPE worldwide ’s Walter Kotkowski speak at a church service in 2011, making an impassioned plea for medical providers to serve internationally, and she knew Cynthia had to help. Cynthia and Tom had become Christians as young adults and were already busy in their ministry and raising their two girls. But Cynthia couldn’t ignore the call to go to Guatemala, becoming the first mental health provider to serve during a Brigade. She packed up with Shayne and made the first of many trips to serve as a therapist for people who had suffered from severe mental and emotional trauma in remote and impoverished regions of Guatemala.

Cynthia shares about her first Brigade experience with awe and gratitude. “The first morning the clinic opened, over a hundred people lined up, waiting to be seen. In Guatemala the traumatic experiences that our brothers and sisters have experienced--not to mention the general population--are horrifying and humbling. In one Brigade, I will hear more stories of trauma than I will in an entire year of private practice.” Since her first life-changing visit, Cynthia has since made seven additional trips to Guatemala. To better serve those in need, she pursued additional training in a very specific technique of reprocessing therapy called Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), which is an effective and efficient way to help people process their traumatic memories. Her daughters Megan and Emma began to accompany her to serve while they were teens.

When the Volcán Fuego erupted in 2018, Cynthia coordinated a team of professionals to address the traumas experienced by those displaced, establishing a groundbreaking mental health pipeline in Guatemala. Several counselors have been going every six months since that time to help. One patient’s experience touched Cynthia’s heart deeply. “A woman had been raped at gunpoint a month before the Brigade’s arrival,” she remembers. “This incident damaged her marriage. But through reprocessing, the woman was transformed from someone crippled by guilt and shame to a woman of strength and conviction.”

Cynthia’s heart has been forever changed by her Brigade service. “I have to admit that one perk to going is that my heart will be softened. I can cast off worldliness, materialism and entitlement, and allow my heart to be changed by my Guatemalan brothers and sisters and the opportunity to serve. Seeing the strength and resilience of those we care for makes me so grateful and proud to call them family. It inspires me to work harder, give more, and allow God to use my gifts in whatever way he sees fit.”

Cynthia’s work in Guatemala inspired her daughter Emma, who now coordinates children’s programs there. “I cannot express how important I think it is to take your children with you to serve,” Cynthia reflects. “I know that my daughters’ hearts of compassion and humility were in part formed because of the experiences they have had there. When I read my Bible, I am inspired by the incredible stories of Jesus’ healing touch. When I go and serve, I feel like I am touching the hem of his garment. His power to passionately love and compassionately serve moves through me to the people I serve.”

Are you interested in using your time, talents and training as a healthcare professional to meet needs all over the world with HOPE worldwide ?

To learn more visit hopeww.org/volunteer-opportunities.