Clarity

This walk of faith is not always easy for me. I like to know what’s going on. I’d like to know the future. Or at least that’s what I always think when we’re in the midst of some big decision…

Realistically I know that I really don’t want to know the future. I truly believe that our all-knowing, loving God protects us from things in the future until we are ready for them. Like a loving parent who gradually allows a child more and more freedom to explore the world, God holds us back sometimes until He knows we can handle it.

For quite a while Rusty and I have been praying for clarity in a particular situation. I don’t know what I thought the outcome would be, I guess I had not really thought through all the potential options. I was so focused to getting clarity, knowing what it was that we were supposed to do next, that I didn’t even think about how that might look when it finally happened.

I have a bit of a tendency to worry and “over think” things. I must regularly give this over to Jesus, especially in the last 20 years. It’s been a life-long part of my sin nature, as I clearly remember my Mom admonishing my tendency to worry about everything as a child. She used to say, “You’re gonna have a heart attack by the time you are 30!”  Thankfully she was wrong… but no doubt in large part to the healing and restorative power of the Holy Spirit in my life.  I know that He is working in me because I am not who I used to be!

Living a Christian life of faith and reliance on God might seem like a cool adventure to some, but others are frustrated by the lack of control over their own lives and circumstances. To be honest, I have found myself in both camps. Especially when there is a life changing decision on the table, I want to get impatient and have answers. The Old Testament tells a story of sweet old woman named Sarah, who was so godly that God had promised to make her the mother of his chosen people, a great nation. Her reaction to God’s promise was to laugh out loud and her impatience with God’s time line caused her to take matters into her own hands. The world is still reeling from her bad decision… a reminder to me of the eternal consequences of not waiting on God!

I am learning, albeit slowly, that waiting on God works every time. It’s the waiting part that is so hard. The enemy whispers lies that you’ve missed the answer or that God is not going to come to your rescue or that you made this mess yourself… so you had better clean it up. It’s easy to forget that God loves us and pursues us with a love and a faithfulness we cannot even comprehend. That’s why reading His Word is so important while we pray and wait for God’s time and God’s answer. I have found that He will answer, in His time, which is perfect for me, whether it felt like it or not during the wait.

Watching God work in our family has been an amazing adventure. When He opens doors for us, it is so exciting to follow His lead, knowing that we are safely in the will of our loving Heavenly Father. Often things don’t make sense on a human level, which can be a challenge for our teens who are still young in their faith or for unsaved friends and family who find our ways very strange indeed. Following Jesus wholeheartedly brings a supernatural peace, even in those situations that don’t make sense humanly.

Today I would like to encourage you to stay strong if you are praying for answers, wisdom or clarity. Remember you are not alone, the path of faith you are walking is narrow and sometimes rocky, but there are many who have walked this way before. Don’t lose hope, Jesus will answer and His answer is ALWAYS worth the wait! And the “peace that passes understanding” will flood your soul…

Philippians 4:7

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Path into the Ati village.
Photo credit Carrie Russell

Perspective

Today was another busy day full of ministry. Like many days, it was full of surprises and “divine” appointments. Most of what happened today was not “good” but it was good to be here to be God’s hands to the suffering. 

It started out with what seemed like a bad decision with transportation, that enabled me to be in the right place at the right time, as our dear friend Janet had another attack of pain and shortness of breath. I met them in the road, as they were making their way to the hospital. Though I was already late for meeting another Ati woman to take her to have her foot wound cleaned, I immediately jumped in the back of the trike to the local hospital. 

The staff, already familiar with Janet’s grave condition, gave her immediate attention and oxygen. Quickly the doctor looked over her new medication list and the notes from Janet’s new cardiologist. Her face was compassionate and serious as she told me they would do what they could to make her comfortable– ease her chest pain and supplement her with oxygen. The doctor asked about the age of Janet’s youngest child (3) and her face was solemn as she told me that these episodes will continue, getting more frequent, as Janet’s condition declines.

At about the same time, our trike driver appeared at the door, with Evelyn, the woman with the foot wound. I asked them to wait a minute, and told Janet and Junior, her husband, that I needed to take another patient to the main hospital in Caticlan. I prayed with them, kissed her forehead and headed out to my next “job.”  

As we drove the 3 km to town, I thought of the implications of the doctor’s words. Of a young mother getting weaker and weaker… Of a husband watching the mother of his children slip away… Of five sweet kids who will need to be more independent  and take care of each other and their mother and home as the weeks and months progress.

The visit to Baptist hospital was fairly uneventful. There were five Ati patients hospitalized, but three of them were in the process of being discharged to go home. Our special little baby Amy, is there again… Another bout of diarrhea and dehydration for the world’s tiniest one year old. The doctor wanted to switch her to distilled water for her formula preparation, so I located a source for that and brought them a jug back to the hospital.

After a quick stop at home to prep for the feeding at Carla, grab him quick bite to eat and pull together food to take back to the folks in the hospital, I found myself sitting in Janet’s hospital room. She feebly ate about four bites of rice and laid back down In pain. As I watched her rapid and painful breathing, I thought about the wonderful priviIege I have to be here to hold her hand. 

I have lead a life of privilege. Janet’s condition was caused by an untreated strep infection that destroyed her heart valves. Poverty created her situation and continues to cause her suffering. 

 

I am thankful that Janet is not only a friend, but more importantly a sister in Christ. I am thankful that I have had excellent health care, affordably available to me throughout my life. I am thankful that we have always had enough to eat, a house with electricity, running water and modern conveniences. Janet has never had any of those things. I am thankful I have not had to make hard choices about my children’s futures or even whether or not I had the resources to care for them, like some of our Ati friends have had to wrestle with.

It was a good day, even though some “not so good” things happened. I pray that my help is a blessing to those in need, because I love to serve them and the perspective their lives bring to mine, is worth more than I could ever express or hope to repay.

March…

The “Elbow Twins”
a pair of matching broken elbows, Giging age 5 and Eljon age 4

Jared’s 12th birthday was a party in Carla Ati village… complete with cake and a Filipino birthday favorite, pancit!

Do the Next Thing…

Ever been weary? I can think of nothing more tiresome than waiting. Patience has never been my lead virtue, in fact, I have prayed for years for more patience. I used to tell people that every time I got serious about praying to be more patient, the Lord sent another baby to our family! Then He sent us to the Philippines…

Patience is required on a whole new level while learning to adapt and thrive in an Asian culture. At first it’s odd, then it’s irritating, but soon it becomes comical and you learn to laugh at yourself and your “Western” need for things to be “just so.”

I think in any culture waiting at a hospital requires the maximum amount of patience. I am in awe of the amount of patience the patients and their families must have here to survive a hospitalization. Our family has only been visiting, not living there 24/7 and we get weary. We were so excited on Wednesday Eljon was able to finally come home!

Then Wednesday evening we got a text after dinner. A mother in Carla village had been taken to the hospital with a possible heart attack. Rusty was in the shower, having spent all day in Kalibo helping two Ati families negotiate release from the hospital. The paperwork at the hospital is often overwhelming. We’ve been blessed to be able to help them navigate the process, but paperwork often requires and even greater measure of patience! Carrie volunteered to come to the hospital with me to support the family in crisis.

After some mis-communication about which hospital she was taken to and some confusion about which mother was ill, Carrie and I arrived at the small local hospital/clinic to discover the patient is Janet, the 30 year old Ati woman who’s been suffering from congestive heart failure for months!

Immediately I texted our friend, Kim, who’s primary ministry is to preventative and maintenance medical care among the Ati people. Kim has a truck (which proved very needed!) and has been taking Janet to the doctor every two weeks as the local doctor has been managing Janet’s very serious condition. As soon as Kim arrived we headed out to pick up an IV medication that was needed, but not in stock in the hospital.

We left Janet, her husband and sister at the local hospital around 9 pm. We asked the doctor and nurses to let us know if anything changed with Janet overnight. The local doctor planned to keep her on 24 hr observation, and if her condition did not improve, transport her to the regional hospital where she could been seen by specialists. Around 11 pm, Kim got a text that they were transporting Janet by ambulance immediately. I was already asleep at that point and didn’t hear the phone.

I woke at my normal 5:30 am and spent the first half hour in prayer. I was really struggling with our going home in May, and was praying that God would help me understand why we needed to leave the field so soon. At about 6:15 Carrie came into our room to say that Janet’s husband and best friend, Elsie were here and asking if we could help them get to Kalibo to be with Janet. I quickly showered, dressed and dodged out the door and we were in the van on our way to Kalibo by 7 am!

The van ride to Kalibo is about 1 hr and 45 mins. It’s a good time to pray and think and often I bring a sermon along to listen to. Since today’s trip was a little quickly planned, I spent some time asking our Boracay team to pray for Janet and let Kim know that I was on my way to Kalibo.

Having told Kim the evening before of my weariness with the hospital at Kalibo, Kim replied,

“Are you sure? I know you are sick of Kalibo”

“Yes,” I said, “I am happy to do it for Him.”

It was then that I heard the “still, small voice…”

“You are happy to sacrifice your personal comfort and preference to serve Me here, but yet you complain about My sending you home.”

Wow. I am not sure why we call it the “still, small voice” because It always hits me with the most powerful stuff!

As I considered the matter at hand, I realized that just like following the call to serve in the Philippines with obedience, this next phase required me to be obedient as well. I might not understand the timing. I might not want to go home. I might not be ready to leave the ministry I love. But it was clear, this is His timing, His will for the next phase of our lives and ministry. Then I felt Him say,

“Please trust me. Yes, you are doing things here that you can’t do at home. Trust me that I have things for you to do at home, that you can’t do here.”

I’d like to say this was a magical turning point for me. I wish I could say that I don’t still wish we could stay longer or that things had worked out differently during this first term. I am a slow learner….  remember, I prayed for patience so many times that I have ten children! But I do believe it was the first step in my acceptance of God’s will for my life.

You would think by now I would have this figured out. I can clearly recall many times in my Christian walk where I knew what I needed to do to obey, yet fought it. It’s never pretty… the only peace we can truly have is when we “trust and obey.”  I have loved Elisabeth Elliot’s quiet, wise ministry to women for years. I used to love to listen to her radio program and her confident teaching of simple obedience. When women would present her with seemingly impossible situations, she would often encourage them to stop looking at the BIG picture and simply obey God by doing “the next thing.”  Just one small step of obedience, and then another, and another. God doesn’t ask us to go from where we are to where He wants to take us all in one big jump, usually. But when we take that step of faith and “do the next thing” we find ourselves acting in obedience to His word and His will for our lives.

So what is it for you? What is God asking you to trust Him with that you are resisting? Won’t you join me in the journey of faith that steps out to do the hard things in obedience to Jesus?

Photo by the super talented, beautiful servant of Jesus, Carrie Russell who I am blessed to call “daughter”

Trust and Obey

One of my all-time favorite hymns is “Trust and Obey.” I can remember being a young mother with four babies demanding my every moment, facing the financial challenges of a young family with lots of mouths to feed.  I would often rock the “babies” to sleep singing the priceless words of this song, more to comfort myself than my sleepy children. As the children grew and more babies came, the words of this hymn carried me through days of doubting my call to home educate this ever expanding brood, learning the challenges of teens while still dealing with toddlers (and pregnancy!) and eventually launching our son out into the world.

I guess I still have little ones… Mark and Matthew posing, sort of, at our home in Balusbos

When we began to pray about a cross-cultural ministry in the Philippines, it was again the stanzas of the old hymn that prodded us on to obedience when the circumstances seemed so unlikely. After all, it DID seem crazy to think that God would be calling a family with nine children to move half way around the world to serve Him. Assurance after assurance came as we trusted that God had our best interests at heart and obeyed the call to follow Jesus.

There were nights of uncertainty in the first six months of living here when I would listen to the old hymns for comfort to fall asleep. Spiritual attack is real. Discouragement is rampant. Did we have what it takes to “Trust and Obey?”

Last fall we relocated our family and changed churches to Malay Gospel Baptist Church that is pastored by our ministry partner Pastor Peter Abalario. Not only does this congregation share an acronym with our sending church, Martinsburg Grace Brethren Church (both are MGBC!), but the church family shares my love of the old hymns, but with a special twist… same tune, but words in Tagalog!

I can not help but marvel at the ways God weaves the threads of my life together, for my good and for my peace. A sweet, calm assurance falls over my soul when Pastor Peter instructs us to turn to page 23, “When the Roll is Called up Yonder.” This is the tune that my great-grandfather used to hum to me as a small child, when he would rock me in that squeaky old rocking chair. Or when we sing “Standing on the Promises” and I recall that despite the challenges, the discouragements and darts of the enemy, I have more than a firm foundation to stand on, I have nothing short of the promises of the all faith, all true, changeless God of the universe!

Standing on the promises that cannot fail,

When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,

By the living Word of God I shall prevail,

Standing on the promises of God.

It was the fourth stanza of “Trust and Obey” that offered me the most encouragement in the days prior to coming to the Philippines.

Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet.
Or we’ll walk by His side in the way.
What He says we will do, where He sends we will go;
Never fear, only trust and obey.

But today, I find the powerful truth of verse 2 to bless my heart the most:

Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share,
But our toil He doth richly repay;
Not a grief or a loss, not a frown or a cross,
But is blessed if we trust and obey.

This is just a shadow of the ways God is working in our lives, shaping us to be more like Him and guiding us to follow Him as He calls.  It’s an exciting, crazy, fun, adventure that’s for sure. If you are a Christ-follower, He is calling you to an amazing ministry too. It may not be half way around the world, it may be just right around the corner. The blessings you’ll experience in this life are worth the sacrifice, but even more than that God promises eternal rewards for those that faithfully serve Him. So the question is, “What is Jesus asking you to do?”

 Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey!

Count Your Blessings…

Nobody likes to be in the hospital. No matter where you live in the world, its hard to be sick or injured and be away from the comforts of home. It taxes your family and it often plays havoc with your finances. But there is nothing quite like being hospitalized if you are a poor Filipino.

The regional hospital is a “free, public” hospital in the city of Kalibo. It’s not completely free and and the public part comes from the fact that it is government financed. It is the cheapest option if you need medical care.

Since the first of the year we’ve had two Ati patients to the surgical complex. Both were orthopedic surgeries, one to pin a broken foot bone and the other is a 4 yr old child with a bad fracture of the elbow that will need surgically set. I wish I could just show you picture, but my compassion for the suffering and privacy of the people in the ward will not allow me to capture the image. So you will have to deal with the “1000 words” version…

The surgery complex is a two large open rooms. The larger of the two has 14 beds, the smaller one has 12 beds and there is a 12 X 12 space that is a “semi-private” room with three beds. There are five tables in the large room and the patient’s families are given a few plastic or wooden chairs to share. The rooms are open, without any privacy curtains or partitions or screens. There are wires in the ceiling from where seven ceiling fans were installed once upon a time. There are three window exhaust fans or spaces for them, but none of them work. In the afternoon, as the concrete building heats up from the hot Philippine sun, temperatures in the room climb to the 90s.  Some patients have small table top fans (if you have a fan, can get a table and your bed is near an outlet) but most patients are fanned by loved ones.

The care of the patient is left primarily to the family. On average, each patient has three caregivers, making the full room, even fuller. After multiple visits to the surgical ward, I realized one other serious inconvenience… privacy for changing or using a bed pan or urinal. There are no curtains and the ward is co-ed. Family members must hold up blankets and change or assist their loved one, the best they can. I guess overall it isn’t a big deal, everyone in the ward is in the same boat so to speak. Like many of the inconveniences of being hospitalized here, they are all facing the same challenges. One positive benefit is the way relationships grow between the family caretakers. They look out for each other and pass the time talking, giving each other massages, or sometimes even pedicures (a big part of the Filipine culture)

Very little is provided by the hospital. Patients must bring their own food, water, toiletries, blanket, pillow, fan, dishes and stuff to wash your dishes. The one CR (comfort room or bathroom in English) is for all the patients in the ward, plus their caregivers. It is used to bathe, toilet, wash dishes and sometimes do small laundry.

To help you compare and contrast to our American hospital system vs the Philippine public hospital I thought I would make a list of things you won’t see in a hospital room and a list of things I have seen at the hospital that is vastly different than the US experience. Keep in mind, there are “better” hospitals in the Philippines, but this public hospital is for masses, only very wealthy people can afford better care. The poorest of the poor don’t even seek care at the public hospital unless they have a sponsor or a missionary to help them.

THINGS YOU SEE IN A PUBLIC HOSPITAL:

• IV bags hanging on a wire on a nail on the wall or window frame
• Wires for 7 ceiling fans, but no operational fans to be found
• A cat that freely roams the wards, preferring to travel between the surgical ward and the isolation unit
• Plastic or wooden chairs for family (without padding)
• Multiple people sitting on the patient’s bed (not just your patient either!)
• Mattresses that are so worn they are flat and no longer have vinyl covers
• One sheet provided, no pillows or blankets
• Small plastic “condiment” containers used for urine and fecal specimens
• Bedridden patients urinating in empty 1.5 liter Coke bottle behind a blanket that family holds up for privacy
• Food delivered on trays that must be immediately transferred to your own dishes
• Vendors selling fruits and snack breads
• Rats
• A mom of a 1 yr old and 4 yr old who both have pneumonia, sharing one cot in the hallway between the pediatric and surgical ward. Two IVs hang from the wall.

THINGS YOU DON’T SEE IN A PUBLIC HOSPITAL:

• IV pumps
• Crash carts
• Exam lights
• Privacy curtains
• TVs
• water pitchers, bedpans, cup ect
• ice machine
• hand washing station
• nurse call bells
• mirrors
• shower
• toilet with seat
• toilet paper
• sink for patients or soap
• hospital beds that move up and down
• HIPPA (all patient matters are discussed in front of all the other patients and it’s not uncommon for a doctor to use a particular situation as a teachable moment to the others in the room)
• PRIVACY!!!!!

In just yesterday’s 8 hr visit alone, there are several crazy stories.  I always think of my “medical” friends and wish they could be here to see this. Yesterday I saw them transport a young woman to surgery using two IV fluid bottles for her pillow, one under her neck and one under her head. When the same woman came back to the ward after her surgery, she was still asleep, hooked up only to her drip IV line, and her family was given some general instructions of how to care for her as she woke up from surgery. Apparently there is not a recovery room.

 

Another young man came to the ward yesterday with an injury similar to our Ati patient, Eljon’s. He had badly fractured his elbow back in October, but lacking money the family didn’t seek medical attention. Now after 4 months it was apparent that it was not getting better on its own, so his tearful mother brought him to the hospital in hopes that someone would help them get the care he needed. She explained through tears that he would graduate this spring but could not work because he had no use of his arm. The doctor offered to do the surgery for free, but the family must come up with the money for the supplies which usually cost about 10,000 pesos ($250 US dollars). Since most families here make 4,000-6,000 per month or less, this is a huge problem. The “Filipino” way is to go to all your family and friends and ask them for help with your hospital bills. We’ve been told that close family members are “expected” to give about 500 pesos when asked about such things and if you are “rich” maybe a 1000 pesos.

 

Our patient, Eljon, is still waiting for his surgery. Since he is only 4, the doctor wanted the pediatrician to sign off on his overall health, since the surgery will require general anesthesia. Eljon has intestinal parasites, so he is being treated for those before he can have his surgery. There is a risk that an active parasitical infection could cause a major, life-threatening complication. So he’s being treated and waiting. We are hopeful that his surgery will be done on Monday. Please pray that he will be safe and the surgery will be successful. Pray too for patience for his mother and sister as they deal with a wiggly and active 4 yr old in a busy surgical ward, far from the green grass and open spaces of his home in Carla village.

 

This isn’t a deeply spiritual post. I share this not to complain or malign the country we serve in. Poverty is a cruel task master. A developing nation is just that… developing.  Some parts or aspects are 21st century and others, particularly what is available to the poor are more antiquated. There really is no “middle class” as Americans know it here in the Philippines. So when I speak for resources available for the poor, I am talking about very large portion of the population, especially where we serve in the provinces. Urban areas have a greater percentage of wealthy Filipinos and many more “Western” resources.  I have entitled this post, “Count Your Blessings” because I feel that in many ways part of the reason the Lord has sent us here is to help those who support us at home appreciate how blessed they truly are. No one likes being in the hospital, but even in that trial, most of us are supremely blessed when compared to so many around the world. May you thank the Giver of all blessings today for what you have and remember to pray for those who haven’t been blessed in the same ways.

 

 

Things you see and learn in the Philippines

This is a common sight as men carry 50 kilos (110 LBS!) of rice up the mountain. This is the same way we move the 5 sacks of rice per month that First Love provides as a reward to students with perfect attendance. Next time we will have to get a picture of Rusty or Adam doing it!

I often get requests for “fun” posts about living in the Philippines. Today seemed like a good day for a light hearted look at the differences in life on the “other side” of the world.

Today, Feb 11 is a special non-working holiday. It is in honor of the anniversary of the death of a governor of the neighboring province. Schools, banks and many businesses are closed today and it’s an important local holiday it counts towards the 180 days of school required by law here, even though students (and teachers) are not in class. To me this would be as if Spring Cove didn’t have school because of the anniversary of the death of a former governor in Maryland. J

On my way into Caticlan today to do shopping for the next several meals I saw a few things that would not be typical sights on the drive to Wal-Mart at home.

• Men with large bundles of pillows tied together and hanging off both sides of a bamboo pole that he worn over his shoulders. They were  door to door pillow salesmen!
• A  sign in the local clinic with for circumcision for 800 pesos (about $20 US dollars). This is right in the same market where an xray costs 200 pesos and medicines are sold by the pill (usually 8 pesos per pill or less)
• Tarps with freshly harvested rice, drying along the road.
• Fresh fish at an open air vendor under a modified ceiling fan to discourage flies
• Small fish drying on screens along the road (this is the only kind of food preservation I have seen while here)
• Men carrying freshly painted bamboo poles on their shoulders. They were headed to a place where a new boat is being built. The bamboo poles act as balancers for the small, narrow, canoe like fishing boats
• An older woman walking up the road in ragged clothes and bare feet

One super positive thing that happened today was that Josh recovered his iPod. Last night around dusk he went for a walk with his iPod in the back pocket of this well-loved, “holey” jeans. When he came back, it was gone. He retraced his footsteps but didn’t find it. This morning we got word that someone had found a cell phone on the bridge and sent it to the lost and found in the barangay hall. After a couple of stops, he found where it had been taken and apparently the “finder” had picked it up before the heavy rain last night because it’s fine! We were told before we came here that Filipinos will steal your laundry off the clothes line, but that hasn’t been the case for us at all. With the exception of two unsavory characters, we have found the Filipino people to incredibly honest and kind to us in every circumstance. What a blessing!

News from the Field…

This month marks the beginning of our second year of serving the Lord in the Philippines. As we reflect on the amazing journey the Lord has led us on, we are moved to tears of joy. Our family has been so blessed and enriched by all God has allowed us to see, experience, learn and do this year.

Our original mission to assist the Beavers with construction and at their schools has evolved over our time here. We are now assigned to ministry to the Ati tribal people which has been a true joy to each member of our family. We’ve been welcomed by the community and count many in Carla village to be dear friends. We’ve seen positive spiritual changes in people as they experience God’s love in real and physical ways. We’ve been honored and encouraged by being able to serve side by side with the local Filipino pastors as they seek to reach the impoverished and spiritually lost people in their area.

The new assignment, while a blessing in so many ways, has presented new challenges to the family as well. Internet here is slow and unreliable. Our educational plans for the three high school boys included internet based algebra and geometry curriculum. Additionally our whole family is isolated from the other missionaries and their families serving on Boracay. This has compounded the spiritual challenges of being away from an English-speaking church and fellowship.

We have been praying about how we can be the most effective in ministry to the Ati people and the local church and meet the needs of our family. The Lord seemed to be leading us toward a shortened term of service, with a return to the States before the next school year.

Then we went to renew our visas and were told that because of the type of visa we have, we must leave the Philippines by June 1. This came as a big shock to us and a great disappointment as we feel there is still much to accomplish here for the Lord. With more prayer and after seeking godly counsel, we began to see that God has used our prayers about a shortened term to prepare our hearts for the timeline He had for us all along.

We have mixed feelings about this new development. Of course we are happy to be able to see family and friends again. We are excited to share with everyone at home more of what God is doing in the Philippines. But we are very, very sad to be leaving the people who have very quickly become a huge part of our hearts and lives.

We do not know what God has planned for us next. We ask that you will pray for our family as we seek God’s will for our lives and ministry. Please pray that we will be able to bring this phase of the ministry to a close, entrusting the local church and Pastor Peter to carry on the projects and care of the Ati people we have started.

Thank you for your love, prayers and support during this transition time!

In His Service,

Rusty and Kristin and family

 

PS. Just yesterday Rusty was invited to the Ati tribal council meeting to offer our help in getting them potable water by cleaning and sanitizing their water system. As their chief shared with the council members our need to go home in May, the group discussed things in their native dialect for a few minutes. Then they explained that they want us to go home and tell people about the needs of the Ati people, get new “networks,” apply for long term visas and come back and live with them in the village. This was a great honor, as the community is very closed to outsiders. Their desire to have us live in their village, among them, is a wonderful testimony to how God is working in their hearts. We know that it is NOTHING that we have done apart from the light and love of Jesus in our lives and service to them. Praise the Lord for such a wonderful open door and pray with us as we determine God’s will for the next phase of our lives and ministry.

Matthew is growing up

Photo credit, Carrie Russell

Compassion

Compassion

 Recently our ministry has had a turn toward compassion. It’s been interesting to see the effects of being willing to help someone in their hour of need. God often orchestrates the unfortunate events in life, to draw us closer to Him. As we get to know the people of Carla village better each week, we have been able to help out in a few special circumstances of very serious medical needs. One young man, who we recently helped, injured his foot while working in the mountain cutting down bamboo. The piece he was cutting fell and hit his foot, both cutting it deeply open and breaking and dislocating one of the metatarsals. His family had the resources to take him to the local hospital, where they stitched up the wound and referred him the public hospital in Kalibo. The doctor at the local hospital felt the bone may be broken, but without an operating x-ray machine, he had no way to know for sure. Knowing that we had taken other villagers to the Kalibo hospital, the family asked if we could accompany them. The x-ray and ortho doctor confirmed the local doctor’s suspicions, the bone was broken and needed surgically set. The patient is Lordgyl, who goes by his family nickname of “Noy-Noy,” a 22 year old father of two with baby number 3 on the way this spring. He has no health insurance and though his parents have a few more means than most in Carla village, the cost of surgery was way outside of the family budget. After hearing the diagnosis and weighing their options, the family decided to return home and not operate on the foot.

After quite a long story, which is very unfamiliar to those of us born and raised in the USA, Noy-Noy was able to have the surgery he needed that may very well have preserved his ability to work and provide for his family for the rest of his life. The total cost… surgery to pin the bones together, doctors care, medicines, hospital stay, miscellaneous… was less than $500 US dollars.

The very best part of the story is this… every Sunday since his surgery Noy-Noy and his wife and his father and mother have been in church! Noy-Noy’s mother has been a faithful church attender every Sunday since we moved to Balusbos in October, but like most women, she came to church without her husband. We are praising God that He not only gave us the opportunity to help this family with a real, physical need, but that He is now drawing their hearts to Himself! That’s the true act of compassion… a Savior who loves us so much that He would face the cross on our behalf and then pursue us with His unfailing love!

 

PRAYER REQUESTS:

• Praise! Lorgyl had the pin removed from his fractured foot today and now is allowed to go back to work! Praising God for His healing and for Lordgyl and his family’s attendance at church each week!
• Pray for our livelihood projects, rabbits, pigs and small vegetable gardens, designed to help improve life and health in the Ati village by enabling families to raise more of their own food! 
• Continue to pray for more men to attend church and become interested in spiritual things. PRAISE, last Sunday there were 12 Ati men in attendance!! (That’s up from an average of 4 each week!)