Weekend of Ministry at Mercy

Home visit with the help of our translator Vijoreen

Between Saturday and Sunday, our time has been very eventful.  We are steadily blessed with the opportunity for home visits. Katelyn and I (Savannah) were able to visit a new patient named Mylene as well as a follow up with Flora Mae. We were able to share a devotion about the prodigal son followed by a gospel presentation with these ladies, and in the case of Flora Mae, many of her neighbors.  It was a great area to share the Gospel! What an opportunity to do a Bible study in such an area, an area where it is desperately needed! 

Sunday morning, we got ready to go to a church we were invited to attend.  As Emily and I stood by the door and Katelyn finished up in the room, we were startled by a loud buzzer.  We quickly recognized that this was the buzzer that the midwives on shift ring if there is an emergency in the birthroom.  When the buzzer is rung, everyone available must come help.  We quickly ran down the stairs to the birthroom to help in any way that we could.  When we ran in, we soon saw that a baby girl that was just born was completely blue and was not breathing.  The umbilical cord was extremely unhealthy.  The mom wasn’t exactly in the best condition either.  Being there helping, we glanced over at the mother and noticed the mom gave us a little wave.  Katelyn and I quickly realized it was Mylene!!  We had just been to her house the day before for Bible study!  We quickly made our way closer to her.  Katelyn grabbed her hand and I squatted down to talk to her and rub her hair.  She was crying, and we wiped her tears.  

It was no coincidence that we had not left for church yet and that we were in that cubicle.  Her bantay (companion) was not there, and she had no one to calm her or just be with her.  Katelyn and I were able to be her bantays!  She was so relieved and happy that we were there.  We stayed with her for quite a while, and when she and Baby Sophia Mae were stable, we went back upstairs.  We had missed our church service, but God had given us an incredible opportunity to further show His love.  

New friends at a new church

After sitting upstairs for a while, we remembered that one of our translators had mentioned her church had an English service that started after 12.  We texted her, and sure enough, we made it to a Korean church service right down the road.  We finished up the day at our Ms’ house for dinner.  It was her birthday today!  We enjoyed their presence and getting to talk to them about all that had happened this week.  We were further encouraged to pray for big things to happen these last two weeks we are here!  


Pray for us fervently and all the other NT teams to pour all we have into our time left in our areas!

Love,
Emily, Katelyn, and Savannah

Neighborhood visits

Vacation Time!

This past Thursday through Sunday we enjoyed our team vacation! We began by enjoying a delicious breakfast at the Jennings Thursday before they drove us to nearby Eden Nature Park, where we would enjoy two days of cool mountain air. They was much to see and do at this secluded park, such as zip-lining, riding “sky bikes,” swimming, hiking, and of course enjoying some good food.

Our team with Kuya Jess

To celebrate America’s Independence Day on Saturday, we were invited to the Jennings for a time of food and fellowship with several missionary families. It was an all-American spread including hotdogs and hamburgers with all the fixings, plus a variety of desserts. It was special to watch all the missionary kids play while we enjoyed sitting and hearing their parents’ stories from life on the mission field.

Our final day of vacation on Sunday proved to be a very busy and exciting day.  After attending an early church service, the 3 of us plus Kuya Jess & another missionary student who recently arrived, Talon, set off for a day of fun on nearby Samal Island. Once loading the “minicab” onto a ferry and crossing the bay from Davao to Samal, our first stop was the beautiful Hagimit Falls. Basically it was a series of countless, light blue waterfalls. It was so much fun jumping from the waterfalls into the water holes below. And quite a workout between climbing over the many rocks and battling the water currents! From the waterfalls we went to see a massive tree, called the “Spirit Tree.” We all agreed we’ve never seen such a gigantic tree trunk in our lives! As we made our way back to the ferry we stopped at a gorgeous overlook for a view of the ocean, and also stopped for a visit where the Filipino AOT training takes place. After our day full of adventure, we were thankful to be welcomed back to Davao with a delicious dinner by Ate Wendy. We were so thankful for these few days to have some fun, relax, and see more of this beautiful place. Now to finish our final 3 weeks here at Mercy strong, making the most of every opportunity for our Lord!    

Thanks again for all your love, prayers and support!

Love,
Emily, Savannah and Katelyn

Ministry and Babies!

What an incredible past few weeks these have been! Our time here at Mercy is flying by. Sadly, one of our teammates, Kristen, had to leave us on June 25th after receiving word her father had passed away. Please keep her in your prayers as she grieves with and ministers to her family.

By this point we are able to do more duties around the clinic, such as charting births, conducting well mother/baby exams, and assisting with prenatal exams.  The clinic is a blessing in itself.  We sing worship with and lead devotion for all of the prenatal patients Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.

For about thirty minutes, these women are immersed in the love of the Lord.  We have recently been explaining God’s plan, our sin, His solution, the commitment we make in Him, how we grow with Him, and the assurance of salvation.  We are able to pass out tracts to prenatal patients as well.  We pray over the women as they leave pre-natals, and we pray over every mama and baby that comes through the birth room.

Savannah teaching health lesson

We continue to do home visits to patients on Saturdays. It has been a joy to get to know them better while doing Bible studies with them and their families and friends. Saturdays are spent traveling to the patient’s homes, where we are greeted with smiles as we settle into their homes to begin. We go in two teams with our wonderful translators, Jael, Vi and Cha! We then begin with a short story usually a parable that reflects God’s grace and love He has for each of them, then we ask questions and explain the gospel. We end the home visit with a prayer and always ask for any and all prayer request they may have. Some of the people are very interested in hearing God’s word and want to know more about Him, yet some are still less responsive than others. We look forward to following up with the patients in the weeks to come!

Pray for the families that we've shared with on Saturdays. Pray that the seeds which have been planted will continue to grow.

Love,
Emily, Savannah and Katelyn

Mercy Midwives Update

New baby check up

It's hard to believe our team has been serving at Mercy Maternity Center for 2 weeks now. Our day shave been full of serving in different aspects of the clinic: helping in the birth room, assisting with & even beginning to conduct mother/baby checks on our own, leading devotion & heath teachings for the patients, & wherever else we are needed! It's been such a joy to build relationships with the staff while sowing God's love to mothers & babies.