Updates from Philippines outreach Fall 2006

In the fall of 2006 I spent 4 months in the Philippines leading a medic team through Mercy in Action. Here are some of my favorite stories from that outreach.

"Home" again Wednesday, January 24, 2007, 12:06 PM I get confused about where home is anymore. But I must admit I'm thrilled to be an American. Every time I go through customs, show my U.S. passport, and receive a "Welcome home Miss Boyd" I feel undeservedly blessed. Updates will get more infrequent for a while. I'm looking forward to returning to my friends and work at Saint Alphonsus in Boise. And yes, I'm looking forward to that first paycheck! My stomach always gets a big fluttery before my first day back (almost like being a new employee, but everyone expects me to already know what's going on). I'm hoping to plan short term trips around the world later this year. This will involve teaching basic medical skills to missionaries who are already on the field. The details don't exist yet, so I'll keep you posted. THANK YOU for your prayers and letters. Please continue to pray for me and let me know how I can be praying for you.

On the beach with Mom and Dad Friday, December 15, 2006, 8:02 PM Mom and Dad arrived safely Wednesday night. We're having a great time on the beach in Puerto Galera. They got to hear stories from the students during our debriefing time yesterday. Now the students are on their way to Manila to fly home and I'm enjoying having no responsibilities!

This outreach comes to a close Sunday, December 10, 2006, 7:24 AM I'm sure there are things I should tell you about our last few clinics and our day off on Saturday. I'm with one of the medic students (Bradley) in this picture was (taken at the waterfalls we played in Saturday).  But all I can think about is picking up my parents from the airport in Manila Tuesday night! I'm currently in a van driving down a very bumnpy dirt road on our way back to Butuan. We'll get on a boat tonight and relax for a few days as it takes us back to Manila. From there we'll go back to Puerto Galera for a week of debriefing before the students fly home. Hard to believe this outreach is almost over!

I love village outreaches Saturday, December 04, 2006, 10:46 PM We went about 2 hours up into the mountains this weekend to do healthcare ministry in a village. Leaders from the Bislig church have started several bible studies there and they plan to build a church in January. This clinic started slowly. Villagers weren't quite sure what to make of the white people. But we handed out stickers to some of the braver children and started doing some skits based on bible stories. Soon we'd drawn quite the crowd. About 20 minutes after we started the clinic a young boy fell from a guava tree. When the villagers brought him to us he was still bleeding from a huge gash on his forehead. Janet cleaned and bandaged it well enough to get him to the hospital in town, where they put in stitches. It is exciting to know that this boy will not have infection in this wound and will not have a scar on his face because we were able to help him get care quickly. When we go to rural places people always seem excited to learn whatever information we will teach them. Julie gave her nutrition demonstration after lunch. She uses foods that are readily available in each village to show people how to make balanced, affordable meals. I love seeing how excited elderly men get as they guess the category of each food. At the end of the day Bradley (all 6 foot 4 inches of him) started a game of basketball. Before we knew it the captain of the village and other village leaders had joined the game.

They that wait on the Lord... Wednesday, December 29, 2006 6:25 AM "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord... will not grow tired or weary. ...Even youth grow tired and weary ...But they that wait on the Lord will renew their strength..." (from Isaiah 40). God is completely spoiling us in Bislig. We have great housing and are being fed delicious, familiar food at every meal. Pastor Gil and his wife Juvy operate a bakeshop, so we have a steady supply of fresh bread and baked goods. This is a picture of breakfast (yes, chocolate cake and mangos for breakfast) with Pastor Gil. Our first day here our hosts took us to the city hall for a "courtesy call." I've never been so openly welcomed by the local government. The city council voted on the spot to pass a resolution welcoming us to Bislig. The vice mayor decided to host a huge party for us that night at the nicest restaurant in town. Health workers in each area come to each of our clinics to help us take vital signs and explain medications. You can tell we are reaching the end of our outreach. Students are feeling homesick. It gets harder each day to hold another busy clinic. But God is propping us up with lots of help and easy living situations.

Whew... I'm tired. Saturday, November 25, 2006, 6:14 PM We just finished our last clinic with this church. It was our 9th clinic in 11 days. God did some amazing things this week. We prayed with patients to accept Christ, we saw God heal people in front of us, and we prayed with and gave medicine to over 1,000 people. This picture was taken at the end of today's clinic with the volunteers who helped us. I took about an hour out from today's clinic to talk on Pastor Lorenzo's Christian television show. He rents one hour from the (only) local television station and shares the word of God every morning. His tiny church cannot afford to do this but God keeps quietly providing money for this ministry. We discussed God's desire to heal the whole person - body and spirit. One more crazy experience to add to my list. The picture is in the photo album. Did I mention I love my life?

Thanksgiving Surprise Thursday, November 23, 2006, 10:03 PM I conspired with Katie and Josh to create a surprise Thanksgiving celebration for our teams. One of the hosts for the team Josh is leading organized the cooking. I'm still not sure where our Filippino friends found a Butterball turkey, but they created an amazing, very American Thanksgiving meal. Josh found us a secluded, air conditioned room with music. Katie and I filled it  with flowers, white lights, linen table cloths, and candles. It ended up being a beautiful evening spent with great friends - a close second to being home with our families. A pumpkin pie even appeared, a delightful surprise for all of us! The students were completely surprised and had a great time. There are more pictures in the photo album.

I'm on the radio!?! Monday, November 20, 2006, 5:04 PM Yikes! It has been a busy week. Really, really busy. My team got off the boat in Mindanao at 6am on Wednesday and before the day was over we'd seen almost 100 patients and preached at a worship service. Thursday we taught an 8 hour seminar on basic healthcare. Friday we visited elementary school classrooms, gave deworming medication to almost 200 kids, then held a clinic all afternoon. After another busy clinic on Saturday I was really looking forward to our Sunday "day of rest." In the end Sunday consisted of being a guest speaker on a Christian radio program (hosted by the pastor we are working with), preaching for church, running a program for children in the afternoon, and teaching at a youth service that night! It was almost a relief to just run a clinic today. If you think this schedule sounds crazy, you should have seen the original schedule planned for us by our hosts! Please pray for wisdom as I limit the number of patients we see each day and find ways to give my team rest.

Baking cookies with orphans Monday, November 13, 2006, 4:53 PM What do you get when you combine a big bag of chocolate chips, 42 orphans who rarely get sweets, and a digital camera? I'm not sure but we had a whole lot of fun! A care package from my mom just arrived and it included a huge bag of chocolate chips. I decided these kids needed to experience fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies (and I needed to make cookies because we have a western-style oven this week). I expected them to enjoy eating them, but I didn't expect their enthusiastic response to the process of making them! Measuring flour, mixing dough, scooping dough onto cookies sheets, watching the oven intently to make sure no cookies escape... everyone got involved and we had a great time. I've put more pictures in the photo album. We've now finished our four weeks in Bohol. Tomorrow we'll travel to Mindanao where we'll work with churches for one month. Once again I'm not sure about internet availability there. Be patient if no updates appear for a while.

Tagbalaran & Arms of Love Tuesday, November 07, 2006, 08:00 AM I'm posting several updates today, including a map of the Philippines so you can see where we are! (See Philippines Map on the menu bar). My team is currently in Tagbalaran, the largest city on the island of Bohol. Our past 3 weeks were spent in a very rural place (see CPG Island update). It was sad to leave our new friends on CPG Island, but I must admit we are excited to return to the city for a week. This picture was taken from the top of a hill on CPG island. Our home for the week is Arms of Love, an orphanage run by the Vineyard Church. The orphanage property is BEAUTIFUL with grass and tiled floors and running water... even internet! It feels quite luxurious. Our friends Felipe, Kerrin, Teal, and Katie (Children in Crisis students) are also here this week, so we are having a fun reunion.  Today we'll start working with the Tagbalaran Vineyard Church to do health outreaches in the city.

CPG Island Sunday, October 22, 2006, 10:00 PM The Bohol team has split in half and I'm leading a team of 5 medic students (Hayley, James, Julie, Esther, and Steve). We just finished our first week of ministry on CPG Island. CPG (named for President Carlos P. Garcia) is a tiny island just off the NE corner of Bohol. The island in the background of this picture is CPG. We are spending three weeks here, working with a different church on the island each week. This first week I've been climbing a little mountain at 6:30am each morning to get cell phone reception. From there I can see the whole island. It feels like we will  interact with almost every person on this island by the end of our three weeks. This week we held two clinics and saw about 200 patients. We also had a great day of health teachings and a few days of programs for children. We are working hard but that is why we are here!

Health Teachings Wednesday, October 18, 2006, 9:06 PM Today was REALLY fun. We invited mothers and village health workers to come for a day of health teachings. My team did a great job of teaching basic nutrition, assessment of cold and cough, treatment of diarrhea, breastfeeding benefits, etc. We had funny skits and hands-on demonstrations and lots of interaction thanks to some great interpreters. A day like this is especially rewarding because I feel like this will benefit the village in the long run. One of the mothers asked me if it was ok to tell her neighbor the information we had just told her. Of course! That's the point! We are leaving a booklet of information translated into the local language at the church so mothers can come here and refer to it if they have health questions in the future. This picture shows Steve teaching about a balanced diet using local foods.

Bohol Team Sunday, October 15, 2006, 5:27 AM These are the medics on the two Bohol teams. From left to right, back row: Coran, Hailey, Abby, Esther, James, Leanna, Rose, Ian. Front row: Joyce, Julie, Steve, Jeremy G, Jen, Irie. We received a warm reception here in Bohol and are excited to get to work!

Cruising to Bohol Saturday, October 14, 2006, 10:16 AM My team and I are currently on a SuperFerry bound for the island of Bohol. It is beautiful and peaceful to be out on the ocean for a few days. We have clean, air-conditioned cabins and are served three meals (of primarily rice) each day. I'm getting lots of rest and spending some time catching up on correspondence. This past week was busy. I returned from Tabuk Sunday night and hiked into a tribe with my team early Monday morning. Monday night my co-leader started getting really sick and was in bed with a fever for the next few days. Tuesday night one of the students had an attack of unstable angina (almost a heart attack) so I spent a lot of time helping him get all the tests he needed and setting him up for some time of rest in Manila. In the midst of all this our team had outreaches and rotations in Puerto Galera and I organized 10 boxes of medications and wound care supplies. Josh (who is now on antibiotics and doing well) is on his way to Palawan with a team of students. I'm leading a team to Bohol. Coran is leading another team to different places in Bohol. After one month we'll all meet up in Cebu to travel south for another month of outreaches. I'm relieved to be done with packing boxes, done with coordinating buses and vans and boats, and done with packing. Now we're on the boat and getting some much needed rest before launching into ministry on the island of Bohol.

Mayan Tribes of Mindoro Tuesday, October 10, 2006, 9:53 PM Yesterday I was finally able to go with a team to one of the Mayan villages! The Mayan people live in the mountains near Mercy in Action's main base in Puerto Galera. Island culture treats them as poor minorities and they are looked down upon. Near our community house I see many Mayan people - short, malnourished men, women and children dressed in worn-out, paper thin clothing that no longer comes clean, usually doing hard manual labor along the side of the road. Every time I see a family like this my heart hurts. It is a good feeling to be able to go to their villages and homes and offer love and medicine and prayer. I pray that over time the cycle of poverty and discrimination that oppresses these people will be lifted.

Wedding! Sunday, October 08, 2006, 6:53 AM My friends Chris Mapes and Cathee Pulis got married in Tabuk this weekend. Cathee is Filipino and Chris is American. Both worked with Mercy in Action while I was in Tabuk this spring. I spent about 18 hours traveling there and 18 hours traveling back, but it was worth the trip. Most of my Tabuk friends were at the wedding. The wedding was a beautiful combination of a Filipino church wedding and traditional But But wedding celebration. After the vows were exchanged guests were treated to a feast of pork and rice. There was lots of Kalinga dancing and traditional singing and laughter and fun. I'm really glad I went. I took some pictures of the wedding guests squatting at the back of the church to eat their meal (probably the only meat they will eat this month) and one picture of a little boy (one of many) running around the aisles without pants on. In one picture I'm dancing the ladies' part in a traditional Kalinga dance. There were American missionaries and But But tribal chiefs, Filipino doctors and and Filipino rice farmers, all dancing together and having a great time.

Our first tribe outreach Friday, October 06, 2006, 9:00 AM Half of our team just returned from hiking into two mountain tribes here on Mindoro. They came back telling stories of sleeping with spiders (big ones!), bandaging machete cuts and kerosene burns, hiking many hours uphill and dispensing lots of medications and prayers. We have two more outreaches like this scheduled for next week.

Typhoon! Saturday, September 30, 2006, 8:11PM I'm sorry I don't have any great typhoon pictures. I borrowed this one from a weather website. This week's typhoon was the biggest to hit Manila in over 10 years. We are no longer in Manila (we're on an island just south of Luzon) and didn't see the worst of the storm. But it did absolutely POUR rain for days on end. Many feet of water flooded the roads and power is out for a while. But the islanders took it all in stride, fired up their generators, pulled out their umbrellas, and kept going on about life. I was even able to find internet access on Friday. This weekend I'm back in Manila. Half of the team came back with me for one last outreach with the Manila Vineyard Church. The ocean was pretty rough when we came over yesterday, but the storm is gone. It must have been a huge mess here last week. Trees are piled beside the roads and power is slowly being restored. I'm sitting in a coffee shop powered by generator power today. So much for coming to the big city to get away from the challenges of island life. Our outreach today went well. I discovered  a huge container of multiple vitamins that will expire soon, so we were able to offer a few weeks' worth to all of the children. It is always easier to hold a medical outreach when no one has to go away empty handed. The Manila Vineyard is building a presence in the poor neighborhood we were in today, and hopefully today's outreach will help build that.

Rough Missionary Life Tuesday, September 26, 2006, 7:21 PM Life as a missionary is rough, but someone has to live it. Most of you know Mercy in Action has moved its headquarters to the Philippines. This week we moved out of our buildings in Manila and into new properties on the island of Mindoro (large island just south of Luzon). The medics are rotating through clinics and outreaches here in Puerto Galera for the next few weeks. There are tribes here who receive no medical care and we are excited to hike in and serve them. The bonus? Puerto Galera has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. I've been busy with team logistics and only had a few glimpses of the beach so far, but I'm hoping to have a good quiet time there tomorrow morning.

Manila Medic Outreaches Thursday, September 21, 2006, 7:35 AM This week we are doing medic outreaches (basic medical clinics) in poor neighborhoods on the outskirts of Manila. We took half of the medic students on a outreach Monday and the other half went yesterday (Wednesday). This was their first time running a clinic, seeing patients, taking vitals, cleaning wounds, handing out medications, giving advice, and praying with people. They were really busy days. We saw over 100 patients each day and had to turn away many more. The medic students jumped in and did a great job. Yesterday's outreach was in a poor slum. One of our taller medics, Bradley, could stand in the middle and touch both walls of the building we used for check-ups - I put a picture of it in the photo album. We ended up setting up the pharmacy outside in the waiting area - you can see a picture here of Bradley and Steve filling prescriptions in the middle of crowds of people.  The second patient I saw yesterday was an elderly woman complaining of fatigue and overall aches and pains. She lives a hard life, works hard, and has good reason to be tired and have aches and pains. I prayed with her for a while about her concerns for her family, and gave her some vitamins and ibuprofen. When she learned she was getting vitamins (something that is always in short supply) she gave me a huge hug and grin. She started to leave, then came back again for another big hug and a few more "Salamat po"s (thank you's). Sometimes the huge amount of need gets overwhelming - then I get a big hug from a grandmother and remember that I AM making a difference, one person at a time.

Playing with Orphans Sunday, September 17, 2006, 6:00PM We just finished a week at IFL (Institute for Foundational Learning), a school/orphanage/farm about an hour from Manila. What a blast! I was there last January for a week. When I walked in on Saturday I was amazed that kids remembered my name and came running to greet me. We played with kids, taught in the school, and worked in the gardens. We prayed and sang and worshipped. We bandaged up cuts and scrapes, ate delicious food, slept in hot dorm rooms, showered with cold buckets of water, and pulled snails from the rice fields. It was a great way for the Mercy in Action students to immerse themselves in Filipino culture. We had a hard time leaving today. I'm uploading more pictures from the week to the photo album.

Off to the Philippines again! September 5, 2006, 8:25 PM I just boarded an airplane with 15 other Mercy in Action students and staff bound for San Francisco, then Hong Kong, then Manila (about 24 total travel time). The ticket agent was a little overwhelmed by our 32 bags (the majority of them are full of medical supplies, all weigh about 70 pounds). When we got on the plane, the pilot announced "sorry for the delay folks, the ground crew here in Boise got a little overwhelmed." Please pray that all our bags and supplies make it safely to Manila! This picture is of some of last year's midwife students meeting this year's medic students in Manila.

Summer classes in Boise September 1, 2006  8:00 PM Today was the last day of course work in Boise for this year's Mercy in Action students. Forty-two students went through the mission schools this summer. I worked about 20 hours each week this summer and spent almost all my other waking hours helping to organize and teach in the schools. I had lots of fun, worked with really wonderful people, and wore myself out. I'm looking forward to next week's long plane ride back to the Philippines just because I'll be able to get some rest! This is a picture of some of the medic students making a make-shift backboard during their wilderness first responder course.