Day 9 – Highlights of Trece Martires and Best ever Halo Halo

As we enjoy a delicious hotel breakfast, we reflected on what each person would consider as the highlight of the mission trip at Trece Martires. 

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Carrie

Carrie was working with her translator Chardaina at the pharmacy table and managed all 477 patients beautifully.  More importantly, Kim and Carrie have been sponsoring Chardaina since the medical mission last year and it was heart-warming to see how she has grown and turned into a mature, reliable and responsible youth at the age of 16.  She wrote a very touching letter thanking and sharing with Carrie what she was doing in the last year.  It is really inspiring for Carrie to receive such great appreciation and that Chardaina’s faith in Christ has been growing.  It is a privilege for Kim and Carrie to be able to help Chardaina to fulfil her dream of having a good education and overcoming poverty.

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Cheryl

Cheryl was assisting Kim with a 12-year-old girl who has two teeth that grew in very awkward places and made her look like a vampire.  She has been teased at school and she desperately wish for them to be removed.  Kim helped to achieve her wish and the patient and her mother were extremely grateful.

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Van

Van has tried to preserve a number of teeth by doing filling.  However, patients have to understand that there is an element of risk involved as the tooth can become infected and then it will have to be extracted.  Van explained this to each patient for whom he does filling.  As predicted, one such patient developed infection and was fortunate to be able to return for extraction.  However, it would be a different story if his tooth becomes infected after we leave….

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Leander  

 

Leander treated a young man with good oral hygiene but still managed to have a number of decay teeth that would eventually destroy these teeth.  Leander decided to fill all the decay and there were 6 of them, which she took an hour to do but the effect was well worth the effort. Patient and his mother were absolutely appreciative of Leander’s effort.

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Leo

Leo saw a number of patients with hearing loss.   He found the underlying cause was having blocked ears from too much wax.  He was able to remove the wax and the relief was instantaneous as the patients could hear again.

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Kim

Kim has a patient from the chronic disease group and she has an infected molar tooth that was very difficult to remove.  It took him sometime to remove it but the result was instant release from severe pain.

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Betty

For me, it was a 3-year-old girl who presented with daily ‘fainting’ episodes.  She was involved in a tricycle versus taxi accident at 6 months of age during which time she was thrown out of the tricycle.  She has a depressed skull fracture and it was likely that she has developed seizures.  A CT brain confirmed that she has structural abnormality and we were able to start her on medication in an attempt to control these attacks.  The family would not be able to afford the investigation nor the medication and it was great to be able to help out this young girl and her family.

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Though each team member has different memories regarding the mission, we have fulfilled our task as an united team and complimented one another with our gifts. 

We spent the day visiting San Agustin Church and Fort Santiago, learnt about Augustine and the history of the Philippines.  It was really great to see how Augustine preached the gospel to the European and North African continents and helped to form over 500 community of priests and provided biblical teachings. 

In our devotion, we learnt about the importance of controlling our tongue from the book of James and how it can cause significant damage to our relationship with family and friends and work colleagues. 

At the end of the evening, we enjoy a meal with the best ever Halo Halo.

Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing.  My brothers and sisters, this should not be.  (James 3:10)

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Betty

 

Day 8

We woke this morning to a day of rest and reflected on what had been achieved  at Trece Martires. After completing our 6 clinics the medical team had treated  291 patients and the dental team 186 patients with 430 extractions and 54 fillings in total. Once again god has provided us with his love and wisdom to treat these people who repeatedly expressed their gratitude to all the members of our team.
Our day of rest,well it depends on your definition of the word “rest” saw us exploring one of Manila’s largest shopping malls,Greenbelt which had 5 connecting complexes with a huge selection of shops and eateries. Lunch was the first stop, we chose a restaurant serving local filipino dishes.
It was lovely to walk outside amongst the tropical gardens where we found an outside chapel,organic garden and playground. I think we all really appreciated a day that didn’t  revolve around a time schedule. The day finished with us studying James 2:14-26 about Faith and Deeds.  As a  believer,God has prepared good deeds for us to do  and it is up to us to respond to His call.

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Cheryl Dixon

Day 3

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After breakfast this morning we set off to attend Sunday service. Betty had intended for us to attend Sunday service at the same church we worshiped at when we were here last year. It was only when we arrived that we all realise that we were at the wrong church. As we listened to the sermon we were all gob smacked and it was only then that we realise what had happened earlier was not a mistake but in fact a divine intervention. God had planned for us to attend this church to listen to the sermon to encourage, equip and remind us before we start our mission tomorrow.

The sermon today was from Acts 15:36 – 16:40 on the “Great Commission Realities” (GCR). Pastor David Crim listed 7 GCR realities, of which he expand  on the first 2 today.

The first one is on the reality of teamwork.
We must remember that God is the framework of our mission, God the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit , the Trinity. He is the one that created our team and mobilised our team for mission. For our
team to be successful our team requires a shared vision, mutual trust and forgiveness as trust and forgiveness works together to build teamwork. We should show kindness, humility, faithfulness and great patience. Teamwork also requires us to have discernment,  so as to keep us from making cultural mistakes. We also need to forsake our cultural biases.
Pastor David quoted an African saying:
” If you want to go fast, go alone.
   If you want to go far go together ” , which sums up the importance of teamwork.

The second reality is on God’s leadership. We need to learn to say ‘no’, saying no for the sake of the greater yes. God’s leadership involves the Holy Spirit. Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit to teach us and guide us, so we need to listen. God will reveal His plan to us when it’s appropriate and He will not leave us in the dark, which is very comforting.

God’s timing is impeccable. We have come away from the service today knowing that He is there for us. The sermon today not only serves as an encouragement but also a reassurance to us, it energise us to go out and serve Him and bring glory to His name.

As we are starting our mission tomorrow and will be traveling south to Trece, please pray for journey mercies, protection and wisdom.


International Baptist Church of Manila

Kim

Day 2 Mission Trip

Day 2 mission trip 17/9/16
It was a day of celebration and reflection, for Bukang Liwayway turn 20 this year.  It was started in 1996 by Dr Patrick Hobbs, a missionary who has the vision to start this holistic ministry in the slums of Philippines to help the poor to break through the cycle of poverty as well as to help them to come to know the Lord Jesus.
Pastor Fred shared a powerful message about the unfinished task of the Great Commission.  It has been 2000 years since Jesus came, yet there are still 40% of the world (3 billion) not reached by the gospel.  He shared that if every church in the Philippines plant a church in the local community, the 30% of the unreached communities in the Philippines would be reached.  Bukang Liwayway has a 20-year plan to reach 2036 families by 2036.  The unfinished task is to be fulfilled by us, the great potential lies within each of us to share this great responsibility.
Pastor Fred was one of the first students sponsored by the Bukang Liwayway scholarship program.  As I reflected on Pastor Fred, whom I met two years ago, when he was at a low point of his ministry, his widower mother was desperately ill with aplastic anaemia, yet an unbeliever.  He was financially ruined because of the medical bills and was deeply saddened by his mother’s refusal to come to faith.  Yet God did not disappoint him.  During our first medical mission, a final call to submit to the Lord was accepted by his mother, she became a believer of the Lord Jesus.  Today, pastor Fred is a different person, full of passion and vitality, wanting to take Bukang Liwayway to the next stage of faith development.  As Hudson Taylor says, “God uses men who are weak and feeble to lean on Him.”  “There are three stages in every great work of God: first it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.”  Bukang Liwayway has come a long way with 800 people coming together from 6 different slum areas as one body, celebrating its 20th birthday.  One particular group came from an island Calapan.  They took the midnight slow ferry for 3 hours, then bus and arrived at 6 am in order to join the birthday celebration and avoid paying for accommodation.  Such commitment puts us to shame!  We met up with many familiar faces and enjoy catching up with their latest news.  We also got to know some new ones, like Beth Larson, a missionary doctor from the US, another mission team from Malaysia.  We even managed a corridor medical consultation!
As I reflected on today’s message, how many people do not yet know Jesus in our own community?  What is our role in bringing them into God’s kingdom?  We don’t know what part we would play in God’s grand plan.  The important thing is to seek to serve in his kingdom and God will reveal what He has in store for us.  It would be such a privilege to be able to bring people to faith through love.
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love (Gal 5:6).
By Betty

Day 1 Mission Blog

Welcome to day one of our mission trip. After an early start to the day we arrived at the Sydney airport safely with many thanks to Edward Yu who dropped Carrie,Kim,Van,Leander  and myself at the departure terminal. With plenty of time up our sleeves or so we thought we proceeded to clear security only for Van to be selected(randomly so we were told) for the full body scan. We were then held up while his bag was xrayed a few times for what they thought was a pair of scissors and actually there was a pair in one of the many pockets of his backpack that he forgot to remove from his last fishing trip. After all that we managed to board the plane and arrive safely in Manila. The traffic didn’t disappoint with it taking us over an hour to travel the 7 km to our hotel where Betty was waiting for us and making arrangements for the following day. As we checked into our rooms we noticed one of our pieces of hand luggage was missing. Trying to remember where it had been left, a couple of phone calls were made by the hotel receptionist while we prayed. We were amazed that we had located it in the lost and found at the airport. How amazing it is, that some honest person picked up the luggage and reported it. We felt blessed and protected by His Almighty power.

The Prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. (James 5:16) Jesus has clothed us with the garment of righteousness.

By Cheryl

Final day

Today marks our final day at Nakhon Si Thammarat. Our team was once again dispersed into three smaller groups to attend different churches (Full Gospel Church, Pak Panang Church and Bethlehem Church).

We said our final goodbyes to the Thailand team before heading to Hatyai to spend the final night in Thailand.

By Angel

18 Dec English Day Camp

A few of us went really early in the morning to the English excursion with year 11 high schoolers. They were no different to the teenagers back in Australia. They like pop music, disco dancing, into beauty and chatting in their small groups. I tried to make conversations with one of the small groups.

Please pray for the students to open their hearts when they have opportunities to hear the gospel.

A Chinese teacher 劉㙯 from the school came to chat to me. She has her practical in this school. She was so happy that I could speak Chinese with her.
I invited her to come to the Christmas celebrations on the 24th Dec at 6:00 pm.

Please pray that she will come to the Christmas celebrations.

By Tracy