Tuli Tuesday!

Tuli... or circumcisions have been going great!

We have had around 100 boys be circumcised and we still have some more to go!

Almost everyone has had the opportunity to do tuli or assist someone in tuli. The teams are led by registered Filipino nurses who have been trained in community heathcare also.  Everyone has had a great time serving these boys both physically and spiritually.

Casiklan tuli day

Last Tuesday team Lawan-Lawan and Casiklan got to go to an area in between their villages and tag-team on some tuli procedures.

Katie of the Casiklan team dubbed it "Tuli Tuesday" and was super excited to work on these kids.

The usual amount of boys in a day can estimate from 6 to 20 and can be extremely exhausting for the teams.

Lawan-Lawan Tuli day

With them working so hard they have to take caution with their blood sugar, because when it gets to low you shake more. This can be dangerous when you are doing the procedure. So, as a pre-cautionary measure, the team takes frequent breaks and has numerous snacks as they work.

Subait tuli day

We pray that these days have a strong influence on the lives of the patients both physically and spiritually, as well as having an impact on the families of the young.

It's the final stretch!

Here we are in the final week here in the Philippines. This will be one of the most difficult weeks yet.

Some are ready to go, while others wish this was just the beginning and they could stay longer. The teams know they are all on their final week, and are prepared to do all they can to glorify God in this last week.

The Devil knows he only has this last week to do all he can to hinder our ministry. He is prepared to pull out all the stops to keep us from doing God's will. He has already begun his final attack.

Talking to his family online in the hospital

On the Filter team, one of the members, Andrew, became sick Saturday morning with some stomach problems. He was taken to the hospital and had to stay over night to be monitored. The members of his team, as well as the Habitat team and myself visited him. He was prayed for numerous times by his visitors. Sunday he was able to leave the hospital and return to his team to finish the present race God has set before him.

So as you can see the enemy has some tricks up his sleeves, but we have God on our side so we WILL NOT be defeated. Pray for the teams as we finish out. Pray that we will continue to lean on God and not let the enemy get a foothold in our lives. This is the part where your job is most important in our ministry. Your prayer is needed, Don't let up now. Pray Continuously. 

Healthcare's Story Time

Hi, I'm Jarett, the Agusan media guy

(^ Not Me ^)

I have been privileged to travel to 6 teams (healthcare is split into 4) and I have loved every minute of it!

(^ Me ^)

The advantage of my job compared to the teams is the fact that I get to see all the different villages and places that the teams work. I posted pictures of the places, yes, but you really can't capture the beauty of these areas with a small video camera. You really can't grasp the events I tell through text and pictures, or someone talking to the camera as you could through being there to see them.

Now I have tried to help you imagine these things as best as I could, but with out physically being there to see with your own two eyes. You won't fully grasp how amazing this ministry has been in the team's lives as well as the people we come in contact with.

I have been able to get to know each member of each team I work with and see his or her true heart for sharing the gospel. I have gotten to be in every one of the inside jokes, I have gotten to hear all the stories of the ministries. 

My View on posting days

I get to join each team's ministry as they went out to share the gospel. I get to minister here just as much as I get to minister back home through the blogs. I get to join with the teams as they have team times.

When I join any team I never feel like a tag-on to the team, or and outsider just observing them. When I'm with a team it's like I am part of the team!

I get the opportunity to travel alone some times. So I get time to myself, I get time to blend in with the culture. When I travel with a team we gather lots of attention it's like a white blob in the crowd of Filipinos.  

I get to use my talents, my hobby, and my school major to serve God! I honestly think I have the best job and I'm truly blessed that God has given me the opportunity to do this!

-Jarett

[There I posted pictures of myself, happy Mom :) ]

Baptism... Healthcare team style

Visitors from Davao City

The Healthcare team had the privilege of having some people visit them this week. A midwife and 4 midwifery students from Davao and Krysten joined us.

There were 4 American midwifery students and one Filipina midwife. The arrived Monday and spit up. Sylvette (the translator and former Filipino NT member), Sarah, and Makayla went to Casiklan for the first few days. The other girls, Jordan and Abigail, joined the supervisors and me in Tinucoran and then on to Subiat. Two of the American girls have been in Davao for 2 years and have picked up Cebuano and can speak it well, which was very helpful during our time of ministry. The other two are here from June to the end of August.

Krysten, the daughter of the couple who direct Nehemiah Teams, joined the Subiat team for "Tuli days." She is a junior in high school and is looking into becoming a nurse.  The team really enjoyed having her join for the week.

On the second day of "Tuli," the rest of the midwives joined the team in Subiat. It was great to have so many people in one place. Everyone got to get to know one another, get each other’s stories and were able to encourage each other in their own ministry work. 

We wish they all could have stayed longer but they could not as they had to get back to their duties at Mercy Maternity Clinic in Davao City. We will keep them in our prayers as they will for us.

Lifestyles of Subiat and Tinucoran

Last week I explained the living arrangements of the Lawan Lawan team and Casiklan team. This week I bring to you the lifestyles of Subiat team and Tinucoran team, our all girl teams. Enjoy.

Both Teams are across the river from MJ, which is where our "base camp" is setup. So to get across the river we take these little paddleboats. It's a nice change from all the rough riding we have become so use to from the bikes, jeepneys and Hubble hubbles.

Unfortunately that doesn't last long and the next transportation is a Hubble 2x. To get to Tinucoran from the river lodge you would take a right when the road splits, and for Subiat you take a left. The travels for both teams are the same. It just depends on the direction you go.

Tinucoran Team:                                          Subiat Team:

          Team leader- Kayla                             Team Leader- Brittany

Heather                                                   Shelby

Lissa                                                       Hailey

 Angela                                                     Amanda

Translators:                                                  Translators:

Belle                                                            Jemil

    Arlin                                                  Cheryl "Bing"

The Tinucoran team is blessed to be living in a host home.

The family has their own water filter in their kitchen. So the team has the privilege to use their filter. Since the team is in the home they have a CR (comfort room, meaning bathroom) in the house, but the CR has no light and the water in the house shuts off at 7:30 every night. So before that time the family and team are sure to fill their cans with water for anyone needing to use the CR.

Most of the team sleeps on their sleeping pads in the living room under their mosquito nets while Kayla has her hammock tied up under the porch. 

In the back of the house they have a small area for cooking on an open fire. They have amazingly figured out a way to make pancakes on an open fire. They may not look as pretty but they tasted great!

The Subiat team is smack dab in the middle of the village! The team stays in the clinic, which is the smallest clinic of the teams. The porch of the clinic is as big as the clinic. Half of the girls stay in hammocks on the porch while the other half stays in the room on their pads.

For drinking water they fill their container at the villages filter across the road. Since it is so heavy the team has used their American girl charm to get a man from the village to bring it back to the clinic for them, but while me and the supervisors were their they just got us to.

They have a small CR that is in the clinic with running water. So they can bathe in the CR instead of going to the water source and bathing in public.

This team is extremely organized! The team has a bathing schedule, where they have their turn to use the CR to in the morning. The team has a basic schedule written and posted on the door of the clinic. Since the team is all girls they have taken that advantage and "girlied" up the clinic with little things around the Clinic.

I hope you all have enjoyed getting a look into the lives of teams. Please continue to keep these teams in your prayers. Pray for safe travel this week as we go on our short vacation.

My daily life...

I’m sitting in a hammock in the middle of the Philippines.  Surrounding me are coconut trees and mountains.  A cool breeze is gently blowing, a subtle warning of the coming rain shower disguised as a break from the humidity.  Just a short walk down the road are Filipino families in bamboo houses, some on stilts, others wide open.  The way of life is so simple here, though it can be a struggle.  There is no looming pressure of the future, just the necessities of the present.  In America, people are so concerned with keeping track of time and never wasting it.  But here… Here I lose sense of the days of the week.  If it were not for my watch, I would hardly know the date.  I wake when the sun rises and sleep when I finish washing my dishes from supper.

Never in my life have a I thought of living like this.  We “shower” in stalls with a faucet and a bucket filled with water.  You take a scoop and pour it on yourself, so as not to waste it.  It is always cold.  But, it is the one time of the day that you can be anything other than hot.  Laundry is washed by hand and hung to dry out in the hot, tropical sun in hopes that they are done before the daily rain comes in.

Rain here is different.  It is a given, but you also always know when it is coming.  The sky is bright blue, and the sun is beating down.  In the distance, rain clouds loom like a warning to put away anything you want to remain dry.  Dry is a relative term here, anyway.

Living here makes me realize how much we take for granted.  We don’t *need* air conditioning, washing machines, or even refrigerators to live happily.  We don’t need to own vehicles or expect even fast transportation.  Most of the time we walk a few kilometers to other barangays (villages) instead of paying for a ride.  Though, on market days, we ride to the city on top of Jeepneys (sort of like a bus) because it is cooler than riding for an hour inside.

I have come to appreciate so many small things which so many of us just expect.  A cold drink.  A bucket of water to bathe with (not hard to get, it’s just so humid here, you want to bathe all the time—-though in some places, it might be hard to get).  Dry clothes.  Peanut butter with rice.  A breeze.  Music (I’ve no iPod or similar device).  Iced coffee (a surprise from this morning).

I wish I had more words to describe what it is like to live here.

-Amanda

It's a Lifestyle

The healthcare team has split into their 4 groups and has been working in their separate villages. Their life styles are all different from how they get water, how they get to the villages, how they sleep, bath, use the CRs (comfort rooms (Restrooms)), etc.

So I decide to attempt to describe the living arrangements of each team. As of now I have only visited the Lawan 2x, pronounced Lawan Lawan, team and the Casiklan team. I will post a blog for the other teams in the future.

Lawan-Lawan team:                               Casiklan team:

Team leader- Liz                                    Team leader- Etienne 

Sam                                                       Hannah 

Megan                                                   Katie 

Translators:                                           Jilian 

Jael                                                       Translator:

Vonn                                                     Balong

Both teams' villages are in the mountains, to get to Casiklan they have to take this thing called jeepney up the mountain. Some of the path up is very rough.

The Casiklan team has a nice health clinic to work in, it has it's own running water, and they have a filter on the porch to get clean water for drinking. The clinic has its on CR that is flushed by a bucket of water and can also be used for their bucket baths. They cook on the fire in the back of the clinic and have a rice cooker for their rice.

They sleep up in an upstairs area of the building next door or in the clinic. The upstairs area is really nice for hammocks but can get cold some times.

Where they sleep

view from clinic

The kids of the village are constantly at the clinic while the team is there. They will watch in the windows while the team is cooking, eating, talking, relaxing or helping patients. They will hang out on the porch and try and talk to the teams at almost all hours of the day. Which is fun until the team is trying to get something done and they have kids in the windows calling their names over and over. The ladies on the team said that some of the kids even call them princesses.

The Lawan 2x team has it pretty hard. They are farther up the mountain than Casiklan. So they get off there with the other team, but then they grab these bikes called a "Hubble Hubble" which take them the rest of the way up to their village. The Hubble 2x can be filled with 6 or 7 people.

For their water they have to walk down the road and down the mountainside into the valley where there is water coming from the spring. They fill their jugs and buckets there and have to carry them back up the mountain and down the road to the clinic. In the valley is also where they bath in the open and wash their clothes in buckets. To filter their water they have a small pump that filters they have to pump to filter the water from what thing into their drinking container. For cooking they have a small wooden house across they road that they can cook on open fires.

Water-hole is circled

For CR use they have an area behind the house that is simply a whole in the ground with some tarp around the area for coverage. For sleeping the team sleeps in the Clinic or in a hammock on the porch.

house across the street (and if you look close the CR is just to the bottom-left corner of the house)

the clinic

It’s very quiet there sometimes because it is a smaller village than the others.

Side note: this what happens when the neighbors chicken gets curious and wanders on your porch. It gets fly trapped.

Both teams seem to be adjusting well to their lifestyles. It just amazes me how different people can live from just that far away. As for the other team I hope to get a post for their living arrangement by next week. Keep us in your Prayers. Romans 5:3