The CMF Headquarters where we have been staying since arriving 3 days ago is
a busy thoroughfare. Some faces have become familiar to us now, those who
are partaking in other short term missions, such as the Kiwi group which is
the first team from New Zealand ever to be involved with Bukang Liwayway!
Then there are always new people to greet, such as Helga from Germany, who
has been a missionary here since the 1980’s. She will come with us tomorrow
and be one of our interpreters in Trece Martires where we will start our
first clinical session. We also met Pastor Fred and his wife Mimi. Pastor
Fred is the Director of Bukang Liwayway and our first impression of him is
that he is so young and yet very capable, a man who clearly loves the Lord
and possesses a natural warm personality filled with passion for helping the
needy. He was also very grateful that we can partner with them for this
work.
Our morning session was spent attending the OMF Orientation. Sally who works
for OMF as the coordinator provided us with an informative presentation to
serve as an introduction to the Filipino’s way of life and also about their
culture. A light hearted summary of their history is depicted in this
description: Philippines spent “300 years in the convent” ( the Spanish
conquest brought Catholicism into the country) and “50 years in Hollywood”
(American colonisation). Other cultural topics discussed included a brief
language lesson in Tagalog, popular Filipino dishes that we should
try….including balut, a Filipino delicacy sold as street food that is not
for the faint hearted ( boiled chicken embryos still inside the egg; bones,
feathers and all!) One bemused attendee queried, “why do people eat this?”
And the quick reply was, “because it is yummy!” We also learnt about body
language that is unique to the Filipino culture, such as raising one’s
eyebrows several times means ‘hello’, or pointing to something or someone by
using one’s lips! There are so many choices when it comes to public
transport….although none of them are efficient according to our standards
because the roads are just so congested. These include the tricycle which is
motorised, pedicab which is attached to a bicycle, the very popular jeepney
(perhaps where the saying ‘packed like sardines’ originated from…) and the
usual bus and taxi.
This was followed by a group prayer meeting, which started with some
singing, followed by a devotional led by Pastor Dan on Isaiah 46:1-9 who
talked about our one true and living God as opposed to the many false Gods
of the Babylonians and how privileged we are to be shown His grace and
mercy, and to be able to show God’s love to others in our different ways
through our individual gifts from God. Pastor Fred then involved us to
participate in one to one and small group sessions in a clockwork manner to
learn about each other’s backgrounds, our personal goals in life , to pray
for our personal needs, for our mission, our personal work and for our
countries. This certainly gave me a sense of how great our God is in working
in our lives with such a multitude of different issues and yet He answers
all our prayers!
After lunch, we attended the Bukang Liwayway Orientation which was given by
Mimi. She grew up in one of the slum areas called Welfareville, was
sponsored for her high school and University education. She gave us an
insight of the variety of work this mission group is involved with as they
seek to provide Christian ministry to six slum areas. This work includes
spiritual discipleship (in the form of men’s groups and house churches),
financial (livelihood and sponsorship), intellectual (seminars and
conferences for leadership training), social (camps, team building and small
groups in schools and colleges) and physical ( health assistance and medical
and dental mission).
In the early evening we attended the OMF prayer meeting. The New Zealand
team was put in charge of leading us in singing and our faithful team leader
Betty gave a short talk on the reasons why we are involved with this short
term mission: It is a privilege to be in partnership with fellow Filipino
Christians to serve our God, who oversees the global church. We have an
immediate bond with the members here as we try our best to pursue this
common purpose.Through this trip we will widen our own personal worldview
and develop a deeper understanding for mission by first hand experience. The
rest of the meeting was spent praying for each other in small groups.
We are now finishing off our final packing and we plan to leave for Trece
very early tomorrow morning as it will involve 2 vans to carry us and our
equipment on a 3 hour journey. We are so looking forward to our first
clinical session!
Thank God for – our safe travels so far.
– providing us with so much encouragement through the Christians we have met.
– for bringing our team of 7 together for the first time.
Please pray for – minimal delays in tomorrow’s road trip from unpredictable traffic.
– a smooth and efficient set up of medical and dental equipment, sterilisation table and pharmaceutical table.
– ideal weather for working on a basketball court.
– that the people treated there will see God’s love through us and that treatment provided will be beneficial.
A day of rest and preparations for the team here at OMF headquarters in Manila. We got up early to check on our instruments, equipment and medications. We have stocked approximately 50-60 different medications to provide to patients, and had to ensure we knew the exact quantities of each to allow planning of the prescription to patients.
The team also met Apple and Melanie from Bukang Liwayway, who traveled to OMF headquarters to discuss the logistics of how the clinics should be run. Both Apple and Melanie are trained nurses who will be assisting the team in the clinics. By the end of the planning session we had detailed schematic drawings of where the doctors and dentists will be working, the instrument sterilisation process and medication dispensing will occur!
After the meeting the team headed towards the city for some last minute shopping for the remaining materials and equipment. Perhaps the most memorable part of this shopping trip was the actual transportation to the city – the team experienced a 30 minute trip in a Jeepney, which is the Filipinos’ most commonly form of transport (see photo). For 11 pesos (or approximately AUD $0.30) each, this was indeed a unique experience. On the way back we counted 30 passengers crammed inside, and with no seatbelts when the driver was averaging 80-100 km/hr weaving through typical Manila traffic congestion, most of us were praying constantly for a safe trip on the way home!
The rest of the day involved more last minute preparations by the team. One special mention must go to Van, one of our dentists, who came up with an ingenious idea of how to tackle the issue of needing headrests for our patients. This is of particular importance to keep our patients’ heads stable to allow safe teeth extraction and ear cleaning. Van literally took a pair of pliers and some wire to make a ‘headrest’ that clips onto the chair (see photo). Fantastic!
Today is our personal Philippine culture day. The beautiful day dawned sunny under the cloud of haze and after meeting OMF workers, Sally, Phil and Rachel and their families, we set off with a group of NZ youngsters to Union church, a multi-denominational church in downtown Manila. The hour plus bucking bus ride was thankfully air conditioned . The subsequent 3km walk to the church wasn’t !! However it provided a great opportunity to “meet n greet” the Kiwis doing a gap year at Carey Baptist College. Unfortunately we missed the first half of the service but arrived in time for the sermon based on Revelation 2: 8-11 by Pastor Charlie Pridmore. Addressed to the church in Smyrna who inspite of their persecution, poverty n suffering were rich! Encouraged to be faithful to the end they will receive life as their ” victor’s crown”. We were challenged to consider what we would do if we had to choose between our faith or death at the hands of our persecutor.
“Whoever has ears, let them hear what the spirit says to the churches.The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death”. Rev 2:11
After a refreshing morning tea, we set off for the shopping mall where lunch was to be had. After another 3km walk by the scenic route ( I’m sure we passed those cafes before ) we surrendered ourselves to the blissful cool air n delectable delights of the food court. Personally, I just couldn’t go past the full suckling pig that beckoned at one outlet!! ?Cheryl on the other hand, having perused all that was on offer decided to give in to her McDonald’s craving!! Her reason : to provide quality control and we are glad to hear that McDonald in the Philippines met the international standard. She did try however the suckling pig skin n a mouthful of Asian style soy milk. Score: one hit n one miss.
It’s amazing the sheer number of people that can be queuing up at the same time at the checkout of the supermarket. There were 40 checkouts n the average wait was around half an hour at each one!
Next on our cultural experiences was the Ayala museum. Apart from housing famous Philippino artists, there are 50+ dioramas that depict the history of the Philippines from caveman time through to independence . Did you know that the Spanish actually sold the Philippines to USA for $20 million?!!
God answers prayers. Kim n I met an old friend just outside the museum, someone whom we hadn’t had the time to contact – God simply made it happen. Thank you Lord!
We have arrived at Manila! Got through customs who had a brief look at our “goods”, ventured into a coupon taxi and immersed into the typical Manila traffic. Thanks to the skilled driver, we survived many close encounters with other vehicles and took 2 hours to get through 19 km traffic. It was Leo’s GPS, not the taxi driver (he doesn’t have one) and the OMF instructions that got us to the OMF’s headquarter, an unmarked building located on a busy 16 lanes highway. There are already so many things to thank God for.
Give thanks to The Lord for He protects all those who love Him.
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9 NIV)
Well, it is amazing. After all the anticipation and concern about getting through customs with our new and used medical and dental equipment. The custom officer simply told us to keep our equipment inside our check in luggage and not to place them in the hand luggage. Just in case Kim will use the extraction forceps to pull out someone’s teeth on board I suppose. No charge, no inspection, no stamp!
We are now sitting in the departure area, reminiscing how one year ago we did not even know half of the team members but God has brought us together and He will be with us on this trip wherever we go. Our future is secure in the Lord.
Dear friends
Would you please join us in prayer as we head to the Philippines to share the good news of Jesus with the Filipino people. Regular updates will be made available here.
thank you
