Former BPC student serves in medical mission to Belize

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Former Brewton-Parker student Mandy Davenport poses with children at one of International Servants Feeding Programs in Belize.

MOUNT VERNON — Leaf-cutting ants, a jaguar skull, tarantulas, oh my!

Those are just a few of the more unusual sights former Brewton-Parker College student Mandy C. Davenport, a Montgomery County native, saw on a four-day medical and dental mission trip to Belize in June.

Eclipsing the extraordinary experience of seeing these South American jungle creatures, however, was witnessing about 170 children accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior during this mission trip.

“We saw over 1,000 patients in the medical clinic and the dentist pulled hundreds of teeth, but most importantly about 170 children confessed Jesus Christ as their savior this week,” said Davenport in an email update to her mother, Deborah Conner, BPC Circulation Assistant.

Davenport, a pharmacist, traveled to Belize through International Servants, a volunteer organization that sets up one day medical and dental clinics in the remote jungle village areas where they have church plants.

International Servants also ministers through Bible schools and a feeding program for the children, and some team members provide construction needs. This is Davenport’s second visit to these remote jungles through International Servants. Her first trip was in 2006.

“I want to continue to give to the needy here,” said Davenport. “Most of the people we consider to live in poverty in America pale in comparison to what these people consider a normal life. What [some] consider poverty, they would consider riches.”

Davenport attended BPC from 1996-98, then transferred to the University of Georgia to complete her doctor of pharmacy degree. She and her husband, Terrill, are both members of Eastern Heights Baptist Church in Statesboro.

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Mandy Davenport holds the skull of a jaguar killed by a Belizean pastor near his hut.

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One of the jungle huts Davenport served in on a medical mission trip this summer.