Hello to all of you from the Jelsmas in Manila. First of all for those that did not see the thank you note from us on the Cedar Grove website; thank you so much for the packages that were send our way. Often we think of you especially when we drink a good old Tim Hortons [I forgot how many pounds] that was send by you. We felled so blessed and encouraged by you all. Besides that we are amazed at your personal support and of course the direct support from Cedar Grove. You our support team, make it possible for us to serve the poor, and to learn so many things, we are very grateful to you all!
On April 21st Marijke’s fifth birthday, at 6.00am in the morning I got a call from Jocelyn saying that the bags are packed and that we are going on a little outing for three nights with our family. Jocelyn was on night shift that night. We had talked about getting out of the city with our family at some point but were not able to make plans. But, Jocelyn did and really surprised me with going to Puerto Galera on Mindoro Island. Our driver picked us up at 7.30am as Jocelyn came of shift and of we went. It was a good 2 1/2 hours drive to Batangas where we got a boat to Puerto Galera. It was a mad house arriving in Batangas. So many people try to grab your bags so they earn a few pesos. Also they try to sell you tickets for the ferry. To us was recommended to buy the tickets inside the main building, so that is what we did. We just wanted to gather our thoughts as to where and what we needed to do but it was so noisy and people kept bothering us. I stayed with the kids and Jocelyn went to get tickets. About 30 minutes later we took of in this boat to a different world. About 1 hour and 15 minutes later arrived in the village of Muelle. From there we took a tricycab with the whole family. Matthijs sat right in front of the driver, he loves that!! Halve an hour later we were dropped of at supposedly our little resort at the beach. There was no record of us coming but apparently we were booked into a residential place. The person in charge that had expected us brought us to this house. My first impression was, oh my goodness what is this?? Is this going to be our relaxing family weekend away? The sewage canal was running outside the kitchen, holes in the sheets, then there was the cat inside, ants everywhere, mosquito’s already got me [ok, maybe not]. The man of the house came by a few minutes later to bring us a plug in insect repellent thing. Anyways my head was a little downcast thinking at the start of this romantic get-away. A little later we did get it all packed up again and went back to the place we were first dropped of. They did have a room for one night, so we stayed there for the night. What relieve that we got his place. The rest of the day stayed at the resort and had fun playing in the water. Jocelyn and the kids had never been at a tropical beach, this was the first time for them. We also had to figure out where to stay the next two nights. The next day we went to a place where the snorkeling is really good. This was definitely the highlight for all of us. All of us had a change to have tropical fish eat out of our hands. Nemo was around to the excitement of the kids, also other characters from that movie. Also during this time we visited the Mangyan tribes. Jocelyn went into the Three Sisters clinic and had opportunity to see the clinic and meet the nuns. One of the nuns took us to the tribe to see how they live, what the needs are and what the nuns have done. This tribe is very primitive and is lacking some basic necessities. The Mangyan people account for about 10% or 100.000 of the population of Mindoro Island.
They were driven into the jungle when the Spanish came.
April 29th 2006 Already, at 8.00am it was so hot in our house that sweat drops were on our foreheads, especially on Matthijs.
April 30th Saying goodbye’s again really sucks. The other Canadian Family that was here the Woods, left today back to Winnipeg. We got to know them really well. Our kids played lots with theirs and we went out with them as well. People come and go; new people arrive in May and June, and still others are leaving. Also the medic team will be in town for two weeks doing outreaches.
May 5th Marijke was sad thinking about the Woods and saying that she is missing Asher. Matthijs was sitting there too and said, I am not sad I said goodbye!! That sounded so funny.
Life here continues to be a life of extremes. There is so much wealth and so much poverty. Two days ago we saw a little boy trying to sell his little flower strings. He was maybe three, and already learned how to beg to put up the saddest face trying to convince people. Wherever we go we are faced with poverty. At our home often beggars, either children or adults come to our door. We sometimes give them, clean water, crackers, fruit, and vitamins whatever we have. Not all the time though as this can get out of control very quickly as we have experienced before. They also take our recycling so they can earn a few pesos.
May 6thWe went to Laguna with the medic team. In Jan the team here went too a program called IFL. This is an orphanage, school and self sustainable agriculture program. We just went to reconnect with the people and the week after they did a health teaching. I might go here in the fall if schedule permits with the new team to go through the program.
May 7th I started to use this different deodorant but my skin is getting irritated from it. Very soon after, weird looking puss filled blister are appearing. We are looking in our books and internet to try to diagnose what this is. Others are concerned it may be shingles so our whole family is not allowed to the clinic or church. Shingles can cause great complications for pregnant woman and baby. A doctor that is just here for a few weeks from the States has a look and can not rule out shingles. We continue looking and diagnose it as impetigo, as this comes closest to all the symptoms. So, I took antibiotics orally and also antibiotic cream. It took a few days before it all cleared up. Thankfully it was not shingles, it would have been much more painful, and isolation long….possible long vacation!!
May 9th Medic outreach in Welfareville. We treated about 90 people this day. I was able to go as our home help is working out very good so. We have someone now to stay with the kids. This week I also took two teams of medics through Welfareville to show them around and connect with people. They had not been there yet as most of their time was spent in the mountains.
May 12th we had five Filipino kids over at our house for the afternoon. It was nice to have these kids over. We played go fish and they ran around. I also wanted to share some scripture with them about who Jesus is, what He has done for them, and how much He loves them. I had asked Jhun [a Filipino watchman at the clinic] to translate to make sure they understood. After sharing I asked if anyone had a question. One of the girls asked why Jesus had to die on the cross.
May 15th Jocelyn and I went out on a date. One of the things we did is getting a haircut. Normally I pay 50 pesos, but this place was 250 pesos, so five times the amount but still only 5 bucks. For us this is very little but for people here it is a lot. When I walked the babysitter back that evening we came across several people sleeping in alleys. This is a very common sight. We never seem to be able to escape the touch of poverty.
May 17th This morning we said goodbye to the medic team. They are finished now with their commitment and go onto other things. Some have plans to return to the Philippines long term, others don’t yet know or go elsewhere.
Somewhere in here we were surprised by an unexpected visit from Connie Mumford from our home church in Surrey. She showed up at the door while I was in Quizon at a feeding program. It was wonderful to see her. I took Connie through Welfareville and visited the family that I have reached out to for the last 2 months. God really used this time. I always pray with the family after doing checkup. This time I did as well. We thanked God that the kids are completely healed from the scabies. They had received a bible in Tagalog three weeks prior to this and found out that the mom had been reading it every day. Connie asked a few questions in Tagalog and soon the mom indicated that she wanted to give her life to Christ. It was a beautiful time. I shared some words as well, while Connie interpreted. We led her to Jesus that day. What a great time and privilege it was to be part of that and that God used Connie to reach out to her own people while being here.
June 10th It has been three weeks now since I wrote last in this journal. Things have been very busy here. Jocelyn became an intern a few weeks ago so has added some more responsibilities. Besides that there have been a lot of births in a short time so not much sleep for Jocelyn’s team and other teams also. During this time we also moved to a different house down the street. A little bigger but the same price, can’t beat that! Then there were other added things in our schedule, like the Fiesta that the girls participated in and having to get organized to get the girls registered for Montosori School. Neat less to say we were really burned out. The schedule continues to be very hectic but we seem to be dealing with it a bit better. This far Jocelyn has attended 48 births and out of that has caught 22 babies.
I just finished reading ‘Wild at Heart’ This came at a time I really needed to read a book like that to focus on myself as I felled like I was losing myself in the midst of it all. God is good and He is shaping us through all this.
Now I am reading ‘The Heavenly Man’. This is the remarkable true story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun. So far it is shocking, challenging, encouraging and amazing.
Love to hear from you, drop us a line!!
Greetings from Richard and the Family.
Family Ice Cream
