Hello Brothers & Sisters in Christ!

I wanted to send you an update from the Philippines. I am here from September 29 through November 5^th and then I will be returning to Honduras. I will be updating throughout my trip here so keep checking the site. I am receiving medical training for missionaries from an organization called Mercy In Action. My first two weeks is the Compassion Ministries Training and the last three weeks of class I will be taking the Intensive Midwifery Training. Here is a look at what has happened so far:

 September 29-October 1: I left out of Tegucigalpa, Honduras early in the morning and I knew I would be spending a lot of time flying. I flew to San Salvador, Los Angeles, Guam, and then I arrived in the Philippines. About 20 hours of flight time and many hours waiting in different airports, I arrived in Manila, Philippines. It was 5:30 a.m. and my ride wasn’t scheduled until 9 a.m. I found a nice bench and started reading a book I had brought. I hadn’t slept much during the flights so jet lag was slowly creeping in. I forced myself to stay awake so I could look for the contact, Ian, who had said he would be picking me up. Close to 10 a.m., Ian arrived with his daughter Irey and we loaded up in a van. We traveled to another airport, just about 10 minutes away to pick up another student, Cristina from Boston. We headed out of the city of Manila and began our journey to the island of Mindoro.

 We needed to take a boat from the island on Luzon where Manila is located to the island of Mindoro. We had bought tickets for a small boat for this travel, but when we arrived the sea was very rough and we talked about taking a bigger boat. A small boat tried to dock in front of us waiting on the dock and it dipped up and down and the passengers couldn’t get off. They tried to lay the walkway from the boat to the port, but a man nearly fell overboard and the walkway slipped off and fell into the sea. We bought tickets for the bigger boat. The director of the school, Mrs. Vicki had an incident with a boat ride this past December and her boat sank. Mr. Scott, Mrs. Vicki’s husband, was traveling with us and he decided to buy us tickets for the bigger, more stable boat, although it would take much more time to get to where we needed. We boarded and although I tried my best to stay awake, I dozed throughout the ride. We made it to Mindoro without incident and we had a 2 hour drive to the school. Cristina and I would be roommates for the next few weeks and class would start in the morning.

 October 2-8: This was our first week of class. We began receiving instruction on topics that included fever, swelling, malnutrition, importance of breastfeeding, and different diseases of third world countries. We also had a lot of hands on practice drawing blood, giving injections, starting IV’s, and stitching different wounds. Our classes were in the morning and afternoon and in the evenings, we watched United Nation videos of different problems throughout the world and also had time of worship together. One evening, we had worship on the beach and I walked down to the ocean and let the waves slide across my toes. A breeze was coming from behind and it just seemed to lift me up. I stood and prayed to God for His awesome ability to bring me around the world to see a new place and to learn new things to help the people in Honduras.

 We spent one day this week on outreach to a village. This village is where one of their contacts, Pastor Ernie grew up. We also spent one day at the maternity clinic at White Beach doing check-ups on expecting mothers and I had the opportunity to do a prenatal exam on a baby that was born earlier that day. I had been waiting to be paged for the delivery, but the lady had dilated faster than expected and had her baby while I was in my class. After my class, I was able to be with the newborn baby and do her newborn exam which I hadn’t learned how to do yet. One of the midwives showed me what to so and I found out the mother has named her child Abegail.

 On Sunday, we visited Pastor Ernie’s church and we were invited to give testimonies about how God has worked in our lives. I went to the front and gave my testimony of how God opened the door for me attend this school in the Philippines and how He provided for me along the way through a scholarship and through other brothers and sisters in Christ.

 October 9-12 Highlights:We did a two day outreach to a Mangyan village. This people group here in the Philippines lives in the mountains and is quite secluded. It is said this people group is one of the outcasts groups in this culture. I wasn’t sure what this experience would bring, but I prayed God to show me what He sees in these people and let these people see in us Christ’s love for all the different tribes in the world, including their tribe. We arrived at the start of the trail with our packs ready to spend the night out and we headed out. I knew we were headed to new territory when I saw two young boys just off the paths in cloths that covered their essentials and in their hands were homemade bows and arrows. They were deeply tanned and muscular and I could only imagine what their people might have passed on through the years about hunting and living out in the mountains. I waved, but they just looked back with their dark eyes and watched me hike on down the trail. The hiking was easy and we arrived about an hour later to the Mangyan village. We had Pastor Ernie traveling with us as well other people from the Philippines that could speak English and Tagalog. The Mangyan people speak their own dialect, but they understand Tagalog also. We were given a two-story hut  and we unloaded our supplies. Our contacts led us down to the river to cool off from the hike. Most of the children scattered when we got to the river and one boy washing clothes left the river to get in the brush because he was scared. We got in the water with many eyes watching us, some I knew we couldn’t see, but they were watching every movement we made. Soon, some children returned to the river just a short distance from us. The boy in the bush returned to washing his family’s clothes. I watched him from afar and then slowly made it to where he was at. I took his soap and started washing the shirt and then the boy took off again, scared. It was frustrating to be in the position again where I couldn’t communicate. It reminded me of when I had begun my travels to Honduras and I was trying to make it through without even being able to say: “My name is…” in Spanish. Very frustrating! We made it back to rest and that evening we just spent time in the village doing a medical clinic. The people were very cooperative and open to receiving care. We had 100 patients sign up to be seen and we saw the first 50. That night was a sleepless one for me. It rained and through the thatched roof, drips came through and strategically found my face and other exposed areas. The next day we saw the remaining patients plus an additional 50. We spent a lot of time educating the people on breastfeeding, hygiene, re-hydration, and other important areas that can really impact their lives. We also provided medicines to people, including a child that sounded as if he had pneumonia and several children that had infected wounds. That afternoon, it was time to leave and I decided to ride the cart back with the supplies. I couldn’t pass this up because the cart was pulled by a water-buffalo and this animal is used like mules are used in Honduras to help with carrying load and working the land. This experience to the Mangyan village was a neat one to me. I thanked God for showing me to yet another group of people He created and I am praying for these people to see Christ through us and other people who may go there again one day to serve them.

 October 12: We had our first class on childbirth. We were close to finishing the class and we were role-playing a birth. I was the mother coming to see a health care provider for help with my baby and it was close to time to deliver. My classmates Cristina and Sam began asking questions and preparing for my baby to come. Just then, our teacher and real-life Midwife, got a page that a lady was at the clinic close to delivering a real baby. We put down our books and headed out to the clinic at White Beach just a few minutes away. We arrived just in time and we all got in different positions. I helped with vitals and got at the head of the bed. Mrs. Vicki, Cristina, and another midwife Amanda, got at the end of the bed. Sam got in the corner of the room just in case the mother felt uncomfortable with a male in the room. The contractions came at intervals and the mother took them well. It was time and the water broke. The baby made different turns and then came through the birth canal in one big rush once the head came through. Sam even got to see the birth from where he was at and I made it around to see also. It was God’s miracle! We took care of the mother while she delivered the placenta and we encouraged her to begin breastfeeding. We gave her time alone with her new baby and then returned for the newborn exam later. I asked if her child had a name, but the mother wanted to wait to give her child an actual name. Some cultures wait to name their children at birth because the infant mortality rate is high here and many babies die soon after birth. We prayed with the mother and left the clinic with a local midwife to continue her care.