On October 4th we left to Tabuk, Kalinga Apayao for a friend’s wedding. We pulled our kids out of school for a few days as Richard was a groomsman and we wanted them to experience life in the northern tribal areas. We had a wonderful time together visiting old friends and making new ones.
The 10 hour bus trip was eventful as it often can be in the Philippines. On the way to Tabuk, in the evening, all of the sudden we heard a bang on the bus window toward the back and the sound of shattering glass. We looked back to see that one of the side windows was completely gone. Someone had sling shot rocks at the bus! You have to understand the buses race through tiny towns and don’t stop for much except for food and washroom break [CR (comfort room)as they call it here]. Even so, the bus driver glanced back and continued driving! Half an hour later, the driver stopped, filled the hole in the window with a big piece of cardboard, and swept up the glass. We were thankful to not be sitting in that area! Later, we encountered an accident where a whole truckful of fish had toppled over and there were live fish all over the road! Residents from the area were running down the highway with armfuls of flopping fish!
We arrived early Thursday morning in Tabuk at our friend’s house. They dropped us off at the motel that we had booked for three nights. The place was comfortable, basic, and run by a Christian cooperative! To stay there and eat was around $20 a day! The wedding was on the Saturday, so we had a great time reconnecting with friends and with preparations.
It was a great wedding and an honor to be part of! The youth that Chris and Cathee disciple did tribal dancing right after the ceremony. After the wedding we had a feast at the church with lots of food and fellowship. Three pigs had been slaughtered as people had come from all the surrounding But But villages. Later, the party continued with tribal dancing at Chris and Cathee’s house.
The following day we left for Pakak, a But But resettlement village. Both Jocelyn and Richard had been here once before, Richard with the medic team and Jocelyn doing dental work. It was great to be there together again and see our friends! We stayed in the mission house the community has built. Our kids were the first caucasian kids that stayed in the village and drew lots of attention… We loved seeing our kids just running and playing around with these kids, seemingly oblivious to the language barrier!
We stayed three days! During which we did not go hungry… Everyday we were invited into houses to eat and drink Kalinga coffee. On Canadian thanksgiving we happened to be invited to three houses for supper. At the first house we had peanut coffee, rice with ground peanuts and some beans. The second house provided massive bowls of sticky rice, which we thought was supper but was apparently just a “snack”. After that, out came the fish and frogs..yes frogs! At first we were a little concerned…Having never before consumed amphibians. As we dove in, so did our kids… Both Danieke and Marijke ate frog, Matthijs on the other hand did not…but chowed down on 2 huge bowls of sticky rice. Marijke grabbed the whole frog head and took it down, impressive! Danieke ate the frog’s body and after she also showed us a fisheye and ate it. Truly mk’s or what! (We were chickens and took only the frog legs!) Actually frog tastes much like chicken. After frogs for our entrée, we had one more stop, the pastor’s house again! Here we ate more rice, chicken, green beans and of course more coffee. Felt like a progressive dinner But But style! We rolled back to our Nipa hut that night, crawled under our mosquito nets and felt blessed to experience tribal family life and But But hospitality! Upon our return to Manila, Richard had 3 days to prepare to leave for a medic team outreach on Palawan.
Palawan Medical Outreach ‘Mission Possible’
October 13th-24th
Finally, after a few months of organizing this outreach we were finally off! I had connected with a YWAM base in early August on Palawan and they welcomed us back with amazing hospitality! We had heard of great health needs in the tribal areas. The people in the lowlands consider the mountain people outcasts… truly the ‘least of these’.
Thank you to all who prayed for our team as we reached out to tribal people in Palawan.
On October 13th at 7.00 pm we left by ferry from Manila Bay with our team of 6 people to the island of Palawan. After the first12 hours we entered the Port of Coron on the Northern tip of Palawan. This was just a short stop and we continued to the Port of Puerto Princessa for another 12 hours, so our total time at sea was 24 hours!
We arrived on October 14th at about 7.00 pm and were picked up by Kuya Mar and Kuya Art from the YWAM base. We settled in for the night after reconnecting and hearing the exciting things God is doing there! We went to church in town the next morning. On Monday morning we left to Quezon province, Rizal, Randsang on an 8 hour bus ride. We arrived in the dark, but the base had a few solar panels to light our path! We made introductions, set up sleeping arrangements including mosquito nets, and had supper. Later at night we went down the path to bathe in the creek and wash some clothes. Girls first guys later. Later in the week, met up with a scorpion on the path to the creek!
The plan for the next day was health and evangelical outreach at the local high school. In the morning we registered our names at the local government [Baranguay], so they knew who we were and what we were doing. After we went for a nice swim in the ocean, back to the base for lunch and finished getting ready for the outreach. We began the outreach with a couple of fun games to break the ice and continued with health teachings covering basic things like, sanitation, nutrition, malaria, diarrhea and basic support for the sick. We made it really fun, did some skits and included the audience by making 2 teams to come up with answers for our health questions. After this a young guy stood up and asked, why would we come all the way there and do the work we do? The simple answer is, because God cares for them, we do too and we demonstrate that by what we do. After this we sang a few worship songs, danced and had a great time. After Bradley and Joshua shared their testimonies it was my turn. One of the songs we sing is, ‘The Lord Is Gracious and Compassionate’ taken straight from Psalm 103. So I shared my testimony and incorporate Psalm 103. How wonderful to share of the grace of God, the forgiveness of sins and how God redeemed me from the pit. After this time I invited people to come forward for whatever reason, needing prayer for anything in their lives or wanting to know Jesus! Many responded! What an amazing God who calls us all in different ways.
The next day we took inventory of our medical supplies, spent time with the YWAM staff sharing, worshipping and praying together. We also did medical checkups for the tribal DTS students and staff at the base. They had been praying for a team to come, and God answered with us. Humbling. I took care of Pastor Lumihay from a tribe named Taout Batu a cave dwelling people group. He has had eye problems for more then 2 years. I put some eye drops in which was very painful for him and then we prayed for God to heal him.
The next morning when I saw him, he had a big smile on his face and his eye problem almost completely gone, Praise God! We had some free time in afternoon so walked back to the beach. On our return home, huge bats fly over us. What a sight! In the evening we made our last preparations to get ready for next outreach in a tribe called ‘Summoro’. In the am we hiked for one hour to a village where we meet a pastor who is also a painter. He uses this gift to teach youth how to paint. A few days later he brought our team 3 paintings as gift.
In Summoro we see about 65 people. Wherever we go there are always a few very ill people but for the most part we see just basic problems, most of which can be prevented by drinking more water and eating healthier food. However, when there is not always clean water to drink and at times only rice and cassava to eat, it’s hard to know how to help! In most places we do health teachings, and include in checkups whatever we can recommend to our patients. One thing that is very different and common in several of the tribes is that girls marry at the very young of 12 or 13. Obviously this results in pregnancy in a body that itself is not fully developed, increasing many risks for mother and child during pregnancy and at delivery. Education is key in preventing this.
The following day we left for the tribal area ‘Balin Balin’ It was a great hike through tropical forests and streams. We have a guide to take us up there and to help us with translating. We often needed 2 translators, one from English to Tagalog and then another from Tagalog to Palawano! Even though YWAM had announced our coming and the outreach for the next day, people were gathering around already! So we decided that we would start doing check ups right after lunch. We saw 60 people! That night we slept under a roof that was being fixed when we arrived, with no walls, in the middle of the village. Well observed! (We did not sleep too much with the hens right next to us and interesting noises in the village) Early in the morning people were lining up to see us. We got up, had breakfast and started our outreach at 7.00 AM. This day we treated 200 people, prayed with them and several accepted Jesus as personal savior, mainly through Ate Ria from YWAM! God is amazing… Also pastor Lumihay from Taout Batu gave his personal testimony… he comes from the cave dwellers where the people are extremely shy, and there he was down from his village 2 hours hike away speaking in front of all these people. Some of the tribal people don’t want to come down the mountain but rather die up there. They are not immunized, don’t know how old they are, and have no birth record and registration of them at all! Some parents have still not named their children because of the high mortality rate.
The frustrating part of this place is that most of the people are malnourished. Three months of the year they eat rice and the rest of the time eat root crops like cassava and some sweet potato. There is little access to protein of any kind. Fish are too far away and with little money, can buy only a few eggs, and not much for green leafy vegetables. What really needs to happen is a long term community development plan by the village incorporating agriculture to make positive changes for these people. One baby I see is 15 months old and only 6 kilos, (13 pounds)… way below a healthy weight. She has the typical big head and small bony body. There are also many signs of malaria, which is rampant in the area. We took precautions with anti malarial meds.
We treat villagers from 7 am till 7 pm, have supper and then hike out through the jungle in the dark back to our base.
Anyhow I could continue writing one story after another but will stop for you now! During our time on Palawan we saw around 1500 people. On October 25th I flew back to Manila to be with the family and spend the school break with them. I went back to Palawan on Nov 1st and returned to Manila on Nov 14th.
While Richard was gone, Jocelyn was manning the fort in Manila with a few births thrown in! The births were in a squat area in Quezon City and we now have three healthy boys, and great moms! I had a lot of help from two great Filipina women who came to help at home so Jocelyn could attend births.
Jocelyn also had the amazing opportunity to work at a medical dental outreach in partnership with a church in Cavite with Eva Fast. They saw 264 patients in one day! Wow…God provided them with help, medicines and amazing volunteers. Jocelyn loved the assessments and history taking and diagnosing…She learned a lot from Eva!
Last weekend, a women’s outreach Jocelyn had organized finally took place! Eight midwives provided a weekend of “Women’s Wellness” and taught nutrition, breast cancer and cervical cancer prevention, breast self exam, stress relief and spiritual care in the same church in Cavite. It was a great weekend and on Saturday were able to provide all 34 women with free Pap smear tests including the lab processing fee. This is an amazing way to reach women here as the testing is very expensive for most of the women who came. About 95% had never had a Pap test before. With one of the women Jocelyn checked, she was unable to perform the test. When she couldn’t do it, she disclosed that she had had abdominal pain and was bleeding, Jocelyn palpated a HUGE uterine mass the size of a volleyball. She looked 5 months pregnant but wasn’t. She had been living under such fear that it paralyzed her from going to get it checked with an MD. Eva, Gerlene and Jocelyn prayed with her and encouraged her to go the following day. She has 7 children and the oldest is 12. Please pray for her…We believe she will go to have it checked but will need God’s provision financially to have surgery.
Eva and Jocelyn continue with Gerlene and Cecille, our Filipina midwife friends, to offer free prenatal classes and care for women in the squatter area behind our church. We have four women who have delivered already and 4 who have yet to deliver. It seems as though the word is out and more women may come. We are also providing prenatal care in Pinky Ann, another squat area in Quezon City, where there are many pregnant women without care. We are providing midwifery services to women and they birth in their own homes. God is using this ministry to draw women and their families to Him!
The kids are well and enjoying school, friends and the count down til Christmas…a LONG countdown, considering the season began in September and all has been decorated since then! Recently, Danieke and Marijke celebrated United Nations Day and we enjoyed taking part in Danieke’s swearing in as a Filipina Girl Scout!
We love you all, thanks for praying that God will continue what He wants to do in us and through us…for His glory. Love, Richard, Jocelyn, Danieke, Marijke and Matthijs
