A Life Lost

“I have no right to question God. I know that His plan and will is perfect, and in all things God works for the good of those who love Him”

“Even in my sorrow and grief, I stand firm on the promises of God, that he fills me with the strength and peace I need to carry on, the kind that can only come from Him.

These are the amazing words that the mother spoke the morning after she had lost her baby.  I went over to see her early in the morning, and sat with her for a while, talking, listening; giving her the time she needed to talk about what had happened.

I was called just before midnight to observe a delivery over in the clinic. Second baby...progressed quickly...no problems...excellent I thought.  Within half an hour a beautiful boy was born, but as soon as I saw him I had a knot in my stomach...something wasn’t right.  As he was on his mother’s chest being dried with towels I noticed a couple of abnormalities in his appearance. His parents were overwhelmed with happiness at his arrival, and thanked God that he was born.  He made some efforts to cry, but I could see that he was struggling and still very pale.  I took him over to the counter with another midwife and listened to his weak heart rate and we started to resuscitate.  As we were working on him we noticed further abnormalities that indicated a syndrome of some sort- I didn’t know which.  We spent half an hour trying to resuscitate him, his heart rate sometimes rapid, sometimes very slow, but after half an hour I heard the last.  His struggle had ended, but the parents’ had just begun.  There was nothing I could do...I was completely helpless.  He was clothed and cwtched in a lovely blue blanket and I took him over to the mother and offered her to hold him. I stayed with her as she did so; broken hearted she cried and prayed over her son.  Once the family had returned into the room I left them to have time with him alone.

I visited her early the next morning and we spoke for a while.  She was amazing.  She praised God with her words, thanking Him even in her time of suffering.  Her faith was beautifully shining through her even through tears of grief. She even spoke kind words to me, encouraging, thankful and appreciative words.  As sad as the situation was, it was a privilege to be a part of it and to care for such an amazing faith filled family.

 "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,  who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.  For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.  If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer."  2 Corinthians 1:3-6

Medical Mission; Mindoro

It was awesome to be a part of the Medical Mission that took place at the base in Mindoro.  We had 3 doctors and 4 dentists (from Norway and the Philippines) who volunteered their time and skills to help the people of Mindoro.  Medical and dental care comes with a price here in the Philippines, so many people can't afford to see a dentist or doctor; they just struggle on despite being in severe pain or having some sort of illness.

Over 400 people came to the base and received free consultation with a doctor and dentist and had treatment there and then.  Many, many...many teeth were extracted by the dentists and the doctors were able to diagnose and treat many illnesses that the children and adults had.







We also had a pharmacy station providing the patients with the medication they needed...all for free! What a great way to bless them!

This was such a success and was truly appreciated by the people of Mindoro, we went to a nearby prison and did the same there. Over a hundred inmates felt the love of God through the service the medical team freely gave them.  They felt no judgement, no condemnation, no feeling of being belittled that day; just felt blessed and cared for.




We walked from one village to another in Mindoro after visiting the 
prison.  The villagers wanted copies of the bible...so that's what we gave. We gave each of the 40 families a Tagalog bible, and they were so grateful. These people have realised that in their despair, it's only in the Word of God and a relationship with Him that peace, hope and joy lies.  We wanted to bless them in their situation, so as well as giving the best thing we could; The Bible, we also gave all the children tooth brushes and tooth paste, clean clothes and multivitamins.  We saw one boy who had been walking through the jungle and cut his leg on a branch 3 months ago.  The wound was really infected, and had been for the past 3 months.  Of course, lack of money meant that he could not see a doctor.  The doctor from the medical team was with us and was able to see the wound, so we cleaned it, dressed it and gave him a course of antibiotics to treat the infection.  It was quite amazing- in the little medication we brought with us 'just in case'; we had the exact antibiotics and amount that he needed!

Family Camp and a Mass Wedding...!

During my week in Mindoro I was involved in a family camp that was going on at the base.  Two social workers employed by MWBPI spent weeks going around villages in the area interviewing families, and offered some of the poorest families to come to a camp held at the base.  70 families; over 400 people got involved and spent 3 days at the Centre, learning what the bible teaches about marriage and parenthood so that families would be strengthened. They also had seminars and activities on how to build strong and healthy communities.  There was a mixture of Tagalog and Katatubo people at the Camp.

I led one of the small discussion groups with one of the Philippino pastors every morning after the main seminar to talk about what had just been shared and to pray together.

One afternoon everyone was split into 4 groups, and the groups rotated around 4 different stations; soap making, dental care, hygiene workshop and arts and crafts.  I led the hygiene workshop together with 2 nursing students from Norway.  We taught the importance of hand washing, washing clothes and cleaning the skin.  As I've explained in a previous blog post, many of the natives live in very poor and basic conditions so hygiene is a very strange concept for them.  During the camp we found many using water from the toilet to wash and drink because they didn't know what it was for.  Just teaching basic cleanliness will hopefully prevent a lot of sicknesses.  We had buckets of water lined up in a row and gave the parents the opportunity to bath their children, then we gave them new and clean clothes. There were smiles all round! Most of the children had head lice, and many of them had huge distended stomachs because of intestinal worms.  We tried our best to help them but we knew as soon as they would go home they would just return.

The following day the three of us taught basic First Aid to the campers- concentrating on CPR, wound care, burns and choking.
In the afternoon it was time for the campers to go home, but before leaving they were all given a certificate acknowledging that they attended the camp. Many of the campers have never been in education, they can't read and write and definitely never had a certificate before.  Seeing the smiles on their faces as they received the certificate was amazing, and even though some held it up side down, the pride shone through in their faces.

All of the campers were given a bible, and those who were illiterate had an MP3 player that had the bible on it so that they could listened to the word of God.  Over 40 people made the decision to receive Jesus into their lives during the camp :)





It was also amazing to see a mass wedding taking place at the base in Mindoro.  In many of the communities on the island a marriage is more of an agreement between both families allowing the couple to be together.  Getting married is too expensive for many people here, so if both families agree, then the couple are counted as being married.  Many of them however desire to be legally married so MWB arrange a day for them to come to the base and get married! Around 20 couples got married that day :)

The Iselin Centre; Mindoro

As I explained in my last update, the story behind The Iselin Center deserves a full post.

Ministries Without Borders Philippines Inc. was established by Noralv and Tone Askeland, from Norway, eight years ago when they felt the call from God to work among the poor and needy in the country. 
Noralv's niece Iselin Østerholt had visited the Philippines and seen the work that MWB were doing there. She was particularly touched by the work in Mindoro-seeing how the new center reached out to the poor, especially the indigenous people. She was planning on returning to the Philippines to work, but a month before her trip she sadly died in a terrible accident whilst walking in the mountains with her father. Her parents Kari and Lars Martin Østerholt wanted to honour her wish of helping the poor in Mindoro, so at her funeral they explained that any money donated would go towards the work in Mindoro she had so wanted to be a part of. As a result the Health Center was financed and given the name Iselin Center in her memory.

                                                             
 The center is used as a birth clinic, medical center, health information and a dental office to people who have no money to pay for such services. 
Her parents continue to help the work in Mindoro-financially and practically. She is a dentist and he has a master in business administration, and they come to the Philippines for two weeks every year along with some friends and volunteer their services in many of the projects.

 It was great to meet them and spend the past to weeks working alongside them-seeing their strength that can only be from God, and the passion they have for the ongoing work here in the Philippines. 


 
 


 Two of the women helped to give birth to their babies in the Iselin Center.









                                                                         
 

Mindoro- An overview.

What amazing work MWB are doing in Mindoro! I still can't quite get my head around all the projects that are going on to help the poor and needy and share with them the love of Jesus...It's just incredible! In this blog post I'll give you an overview of the work in Mindoro, then I'll write about some of the projects in detail during the next week.

Mindoro is one of the islands in the Philippines-the seventh largest island and one of the least developed places. It's situated just south of the island Luzon which is where I'm based in Cavite.  As well as being home to many Tagalog people, parts of Mindoro is the almost exclusive domain of the native Katatubo, also known as Mangyans. The Mangyan comprise eight linguistically similar tribes spread along the island's mountainous ground. They live a very basic life- most of them uneducated, and make their living from agriculture in one way or another. 

This is one of the villages. Some of the villages are lucky enough to have water supply-most however are not, so hygiene is not a word in their vocabulary. When asked about where their toilets are, they just give a shy laugh and point to the ground around them.  MWB are reaching out in many ways to both the Tagalog people and the Mangyan tribes in many different ways e.g giving farming equipment, building water systems and toilets, educational programs, emergency relief aid if there is a flood/fire in villages, medical support etc etc etc. I'll give some details another time!

I've been to Mindoro twice during my time here, and plan to go back at the end of the month.  Ministries Without Borders Phil. Inc. established a Community Development Center and Training Campus around 4 years ago.  On the campus (see the picture to the right) there is a Bible School. The students stay for 9 months to be trained and equipped to become missionaries, so that the Gospel is shared with the lost and reaches all nations.  

The small building on the right side of the picture is a school for children with special needs.  Often these children are deprived of education and ignored by the government and often their families, but MWB are working with the government to provide full time education to many children with disabilities and educational needs. 

The building you see in the center of the picture is called The Iselin Center. The story behind the Iselin Center is one of great sorrow and sadness, but has brought tremendous blessing to many of the poor people in Mindoro. The story deserves a blog post to itself, so you'll have to wait for that one! In short the Iselin Center is a health center; providing maternity, medical and dental care.  
 
The building in the left of the picture is a Livelihood Center.  Women from numerous villages on Mindoro come to the Center and are trained in livelihood skills.  They are taught how sew, make jewellery and soap. They develop new skills as well as being able to sell their products so that they have a source of income.

Scattered around these buildings at the base are cabins to accommodate the workers/ volunteers there.

That is just a glimpse into the Center and the work that MWB are doing in Mindoro.  But through all the different programs established there lives are being transformed, restored and hope is given to those who knew of only trials and despair.

Gems amongst the junk.

This is the view that faces you as you walk towards the dump site.  Mountains of waste and rubbish as far as the eye can see, and trucks filled to the brim going back and forth during the day making these mountains grow.  As we arrived the site, a garbage truck was following us ready to relieve it's load and out of nowhere came men and children running toward the truck rummaging through the garbage.  We carried on walking; over the mounds of waste and passed the cows that were grazing (on what I don't know!) and camouflaged into the rubbish I saw shanty houses scattered around. I came to realize that this was not just a dump site but it was home to hundreds of people.

Over a hundred families live here. Each family with between 1 and 8 children.  They have built their houses out of whatever they have been able to get their hands on; sticks, plastic, fabric, tires and wood.  The men and children will organize the garbage by material- separating plastic from the glass etc and put them in massive bags ready to be sold. This is their source of income. The women will collect all the electrical equipment and cut the wires to either try and sell them or use them to illegally connect to any electrical source they can find.

Some of the children who live here are able to go to the nearby school.  The parents have to pay for their children's education, and because the families here are so poor they send one child to school for maybe 1 year, then another child from the family the next year.  The older children cares for and looks after the younger siblings once they can walk so that the parents can try and work to get money.  MWB sponsors many of the children living here in the dump site.  This means that the children receive all the equipment they will need to go to school- backpack, books, pencils, ruler, pens and uniform; allowing them to enjoy full high school education.

Twice a week the children have a visit from some of the workers/volunteers from MWB. Around 80 children come to the hall that MWB have built in partnership with the government and there they hear the word of God, they sing songs, play games, have a lot of fun and have food to eat. It's great being a part of this project :)