Dear Friends and Family,
I'm sitting in a small house in the Philippines, listening to the sounds of the toko lizard somewhere on the kitchen ceiling, and thinking that this letter is long, long, overdue.
So, please forgive me if you haven't heard from me for a while, and have no idea what I'm up too….sometimes I don't know that myself. =) Or, forgive me if you've already heard all of this.....
There is a lot to tell, for those of you who I haven't spoken to in a while, but this will be the shorter version. =) I do plan to continue to send out update letters more frequently, as long as our internet service allows it. =) We are really blessed to have wireless internet at the house, but often times it is down as much as it is up.
Almost four weeks ago now, I made the move back to the Philippines, to continue working with Mercy In Action, who I've been involved with, as a student and staff member for three years. The ministry itself went through a whole lot of transition this summer…and the biggest thing that came from that was that we decided to move our entire headquarters to the Philippines! This is going to help us by bringing the ministry all to one location, and let us continue to regroup, and reach out.
One reason that this change came about, was that in late June, the Department of Health for the city that we were working in in Metro Manila, came to the clinic there and issued us a "cease and desist" order, telling us that we had violated a sanitary permit, and would not be allowed to deliver any more babies there, until that was taken care of. That was a shock to all of us, and it led to three months of many hours of deliberation and prayer for favor. We hired a Christian Filipino lawyer to help us figure out all of the legal things here in the Philippines, our staff here spent many hours talking with people, filling out paperwork, and basically doing all we could to meet the requirements they gave us. The bottom line, is that those charges were trumped up, and the Department of Health admitted it, but it was also an issue of money, and they did not like that our free clinic was taking patients away from their paying ones.
While all this was happening, we were running a school in Boise, which was going great. We had 17 midwife students, 16 mission medic students, and 5 students in a new school dealing with issues of children in crisis, which Katie is involved in. We had condensed the class also, to run in three months, what we normally did in 4 ½, but it was still a whole lot of fun, and a really great school. The students were all amazing; I lived in a house with 12 of the midwife students, and of course, there was never a dull moment. All of the mission medic students and children in crisis students are in the Philippines now, doing their clinic outreach, and we are hearing great reports from them. The first group of new midwife students is planning to come in January.
So, knowing that our clinic here was closed weighed pretty heavy on us all, and Scott and Vicki, the directors, made the decision to move to the Philippines to do whatever it took to get it reopened. As that happened, the decision was also made to move the whole ministry here, and I was very happy to come along. I had been thinking about it, and praying, in the back of my mind, that I would be able to come, not really thinking that I would….=)
When I arrived, the rest of the students and staff had been here for three weeks, and they had had to make the hard decision, that we were not going to be able to reopen our Manila clinic, despite everything we had done, and meeting all of the requirements that were asked of us. It was very, very hard on all of the staff and students who had been working here already, hard to leave the moms in the squatter area we know need our services, moms we'd made friends with, and gotten to know. As hard as it is, we have to believe that God has a plan for it…that His will is in place, and we can pray that the plans of man will not prosper. It is hard to know that so much of why we had to leave was because of politics and money, and it is the poor who suffer because of it.
We are now headquartered on the next island south of Manila…Oriental Mindoro, in a community on the beach, Puerto Galera…that we used to come to for vacations. =) It's a tough life. =) Yes, the beach is a five minute walk away…but of course it is a bit rural when you're used to living in Manila, where practically everything you are used to is available. On the plus side, you don't have the pollution and traffic of Manila…everything here is beautiful and green. The reason we moved here is because we have gotten to know a Christian Filipino doctor, Dr. Francis, who has a couple of walk-in clinics here, and he has an incredible heart to reach out to his people, and wants to work with us.
We are still working on new clinical sites for our midwife students. We're also blessed to know a missionary couple who run a free birth center in the city of Antipolo, on the outskirts of Manila, and they have agreed to let our students come and learn to catch babies there. We hope to be able to also set up a small birth center here in Puerto Galera, in a room of one of the clinics, as well as working with the local midwives.
I have been able to rent a little apartment, just up the road from the house that Scott and Vicki are renting here, and a couple of other houses that our staff and students are living in. It's a tiny little place…has a room downstairs with a bathroom, and tiny kitchen, and a bedroom upstairs. It's brand new though, and it's up the side of a hill, so from the balcony on the second floor, we can see the ocean. =) I have attached a picture of the stairs up, and the view from the balcony.
I am going to continue to work as an administrator for the school, mostly for midwifery students, and also work to answer emails and correspond with people, as well as be a clinical midwifery supervisor and preceptor, when the opportunity comes. In Boise I was a midwifery instructor, as well as teaching some of the other classes we had, which I loved.
I am really glad to be here…and while I miss Boise in the fall, a whole lot, when I think about it, I know: that there is no other place I would rather be than here, right now. =)
If you've made it to the end of this letter…thanks!
I have decided to start a blog…because it's the "in" thing to do =), and because I did realize that it's a great way to keep people updated more regularly, and you can check back on it when ever you feel like it! I will also post pictures there of the adventures I know I will have, so you can look at those if you'd like. I will also be sending out updates though, as often as I can.
The address to my blog is www.adventures-afar.blogspot
Check it out! =) I haven't posted much besides this letter yet.
I am planning to be in the Philippines for at least a year, possibly longer. Thanks for sharing this journey with me!
Much love,
