Partnership Is at the Heart of Our Mission.

Every community has strengths. Every community also has needs. Mission Connections exists to help connect those strengths with the people, skills, and resources needed to address locally identified priorities.

Our story began in 2010, when co-founders Stephen Patrick, MD and José Gomez met while serving with a medical mission team in Guatemala. Both brought meaningful experience to the partnership. By 2014, Dr. Patrick had gained experience working with international medical mission organizations, and José—who had personally experienced the impact of volunteer medical care as a former surgical patient—had gained extensive experience working with nonprofit organizations in Guatemala.

Their work together led to the informal formation of Mission Connections in 2014. In 2015, Mission Connections hosted its first volunteer team—a surgical team from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Since then, the organization has grown into a network of medical, surgical, educational, church, and community-development teams working in close partnership with Guatemalan healthcare professionals and community leaders.

In 2026, Mission Connections was officially incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in order to better serve the people and mission teams it serves.