Medical Clinic

Thank you to all of you who were faithfully praying for our medical outreach yesterday. It went really well, and it was obvious that God was at work. First, let me introduce the team that made it possible. The Christian Light Foundation provided the Filipino medical and dental staff, and they brought over a team of 18 volunteers from the States who assisted them with the medical/dental as well as helping with other things for the clinic. Countless volunteers from local churches helped with all the logistics - from registration to food preparation. The clinic was held on the compound of a Korean missionary lady, and then of course there was us. Quite the diverse team - it was amazing the to see the unity that God granted!

In the pic below, Steve is speaking to the staff 1st thing in the morning. You can also see some local volunteers helping with registration and some of the stateside volunteers helping with presenting the Gospel and counseling with people as well as providing VBS for the kids while their parents were busy.

Here is another pic that shows the medical/dental team at work. Dr. Donna (top left) did all the medical evaluations. Then there was a surgical team, a dental team, and a team working in the pharmacy handing out meds.
We arranged 3 jeepneys (local transportation) to bring in the different Agta villages from all over the area. Jeepneys piled high with people arrived throughout the morning. Unfortunately, I was not able to get a pic of any of the ones that were really loaded down.
Dr. Donna saw more than 400 patients in just one day (!!!) - the highest number in their 2 week trip. She had actually been sick for a few days, and they had had to quit early the day before to allow her to rest. She was still not feeling very well, but she pushed through and did an amazing job. The surgical team completed 28 circumcisions as well as 10 minor surgeries. I have not yet gotten the numbers from the dental team, but they were just as busy as everyone else all day.
This was one of the "minor" surgeries. The man in the pics below had a large cyst in his back that they removed under local anesthesia. It ended up being very "stuck" though, and it took them nearly 2 hours to dig it out! Below you can see them working as well as Steve and a local pastor praying for success. The cyst ended up being the size of a large tomato.
While all the adults were doing fun things like being operated on, the kids were involved in VBS and just running around having fun. Our kids came up for a couple of hours to join in the fun.
Since the Agta are so incredibly poor, we were advised that if we did not provide food, they would not come because their need to find food for the day would supercede any need for medical attention. So we had the job of feeding 500 people. At the last minute, as the groups kept pouring in, we actually upped the number to 1000 and threw in some more food; but I have no idea how many actually ate.
Here are some pics of the massive job. Some local church volunteers were an amazing help as they did the majority of the work. On the top left, you can see him adding rice into the biggest rice pot I have ever seen. You like the lid they made in the picture next to it? Those are banana leaves! The "ulam" (whatever you eat with your rice) was a mixture of jackfruit, cut up fish (heads and all), ginger and tomatoes. Didn't look very appetizing to us, but it was a hit for everyone! Then we loaded the pots and pans (or buckets as the case may be) into our truck and brought them up the steep, bumpy hill to the site (did I mention I think we need to wash out the bed of our truck - pretty smelly back there!). We then passed the job off to someone else for organizing how to distribute the food. What they came up with was definitely different than what we would have done, but it worked. They just dumped the food out on 2 long tables, and then everyone pressed in to get some food. Thankfully, we ended up with more than enough, and everyone seemed happy with it.It was unbelievable how many babies were there! Babies, babies everywhere. And Agta babies have got to be some of the cutest in the world - here are some pics to prove it. :)
Our main hope for the day was to develop relationships with the Agta and make some contacts that will allow us to come into the villages to teach. That went amazingly well; it was such a God thing. We received many personal invites to peoples' homes, and several were saying we needed to come to their village 1st, before the others! We praise God for the way He blessed our time yesterday and allowed us to develop so many promising friendships - thanks for praying with us!
The biggest glitch of the day came as a result of the jeepneys we mentioned. A local pastor, in an attempt to be helpful, said that he would be the one to arrange it since he could get a better price than us white people - which is probably true. However, then he passed it off to an assistant who did not seem to understand what was needed. We had constant headaches with the transportation issue, culminating when the head driver went to the pastor and said they were all done - so the pastor paid him. However, there was actually still 2 groups that had been left behind; and the jeepneys would not come back now that they had been paid already. It is a long, complicated story, but they ended up waiting about 4 hours until well after dark. We waited with them, and they could tell we were doing all we could to get them home as quickly as possible. They were understandably upset about the situation (one old lady still had to walk several miles in the dark once she got dropped off - which ended up being after 9 pm!), but they were not upset with us, which was amazing. God really worked in that situation, and we really think that our relationships with those 2 groups are even better than with the others because of it. Here is a pic of Steve with the chieftain of one of the villages that got left behind. Please continue to pray for us as we begin to reach out to the Agta. This was essentially the "kick-off" for our ministry, and it went really well, but that just means that there is TONS of work to do now, following up and furthering those relationships so we can begin teaching.
Please pray as well as we are exhausted right now. Between Tuesday and Wednesday alone, Steve put in 32 hours of work. He left before the kids are up and came home long after they are in bed. I was with him all day yesterday. Today he left again before the kids were up to wrap up some details from yesterday and attend a clinic 1 1/2 hours away where there are supposed to be several Agta as well. Please pray for continued health and strength during this busy time.