Gunshot Survivor-The Power of Prayer
The Official Story
by Dwayne Harris
It was Wednesday noon- I had just arrived home for lunch after having negotiated all morning for a piece of equipment that could unload 5 shipping containers that were to be arriving at our hanger construction site in the morning. I was heating food up for lunch when I heard a knock on the outer door of the house we live in. It was the neighbor from across the street and he told me to call the police because the house one down from ours was being robbed. I had the phone number for the local police station in my phone from January when we had been robbed while gone over Christmas. I called the police number immediately and they said they would send some officers over right away. As I looked down the street I could see 4 or 5 guys down at the corner watching the house, and my neighbor and his friend were standing with me watching from the other way. I thought the residents of the house that was being burglarized were not home and I did not know till later that they had been tied up in the house at gunpoint. We heard some banging around and the watching neighborhood started to arm themselves with clubs and block off possible escape rountes. I walked down the street right in front of the house and saw three guys come out of the front door crouching down and head towards the back of the house. As the first two guys started to climb over the back wall they were surprised by the neighbors that started yelling at them. The two robbers then climbed onto the roof of the houses and started jumping from roof to roof of the neighboring, close houses. I ran down the street parralel to them to cut off their escape where they would have to come down. As I rounded the corner of the block the first robber was just jumping off the roof and when he hit the street I saw he was carrying a small 22 revolver. I was close at that point and he fired one shot into my face at a few feet distance. I grabbed his arm and the next shot missed me but as the struggle continued just before I threw him to the ground he fired one more shot that went into my chest. I proceeded to take the pistol away from him and threw it out into the middle of the street away from us and started calling for someone to help me hold the guy down. The neighbor from across the street came around the corner with a big rock in his hands and proceeded to throw the rock against the guys head. I released my hold on the robber and he did not get up for a few moments. I yelled at Bob, a short-term volunteer with us from Kansas, to get the truck out and take me to the hospital. By this time the robber that had shot me was getting back up. There were half a dozen men from the neighborhood standing there with clubs and they knocked the guy down again. He got back up and proceeded a few more steps and then collapsed. Sure that the robber would not escape, I walked back down to our house where Bob was getting the truck ready and two police men were coming down the street towards us. I pointed them to the end of the block and climbed into the truck while Bob locked up the house. I called Wendy and told her to meet us at the CVAH Adventist hospital but she informed me she was just rounding the corner towards home so we stopped and she got in and we drove over to CVAH.
The Rest of the Story
by Wendy Harris
Around noon on Wednesday, March 7, I was heading home after taking care of some business in town. I called Dwayne with a quick question and learned that he was home. I told him I'd be home in a few minutes, thinking I could join him and Bob since they'd probably be eating their sack lunch at home before going out to the project. I remembered one more stop I had to make, and providentially I was delayed about half an hour, missing the whole drama that was going on unbeknownst to me, and saving me from witnessing the traumatic scene. I texted Dwayne that I had been delayed but I was on my way. As I was nearing home in a tric, I got a call from Dwayne that sent my heart beating. In a garbled voice he said “meet me at the hospital now”! I said “where are you, I'm almost home!” He told me they were just pulling out so as I round the corner and saw the truck coming my way, I jumped out, paid the tricycle, and ran and jumped in the back of the truck and we drove off towards the hospital. Dwayne was hunched over in the front, passenger seat with his hand under his mouth catching the blood while Bob drove.I could not get to Dwayne from the back of the truck but I leaned over the bar and tried to see his condition. He told me he had been shot in the face by robbers and Bob tried to explain what he knew of the situation.He said he was ok and his pulse felt strong and though his face was all bloody and his hand had a pool of blood, it didn't look like it was continuing to bleed a lot, so I calmed down. It was just 15 minutes drive to the hospital. I texted a few doctor friends on the way (and at the same time other friends and family). I knew all the doctors were in a meeting because I had just been there earlier that morning. then so I didn't call immediately. But when we got to the E.R. there was only one resident and I didn't know her. Dwayne started to point to his chest and have trouble breathing. That's when we found there was a bullet wound in his chest. I immediately started calling the doctors. They had just gotten my text and were shocked! They stopped to pray and then when they got my call they all came running to the E.R. Dwayne was starting to show signs of shock with a pale color and sweating. I started to get worried, but praise God it didn't last long. As soon as the doctors arrived there was action everywhere and Dwayne was looking better already (I even have wondered if God was already answering the prayers that were being lifted up for him around the country as my text was being passed around like wild-fire). The ENT specialist for this area just “happened” to be around and was heading for the meeting when one of the doctors grabbed her in the hall and brought her to the E.R. The pulmonary specialist just “happened” to be on his way to the hospital and was only one hour away (he lives four hours away). They took Dwayne into surgery within an hour of his arrival (as best I can remember). The ENT surgery found the bullet had passed just in the right place so there was no major damage and had come within one centimeter of the spinal cord! By the time she was finished, the pulmonary specialist and assisting surgeons were able to continue the surgery into the chest. They found the bullet once again had come within one centimeter of hitting the main vessel in the heart and had only clipped the lungs. They placed a chest tube and drained 900cc of blood out of the chest cavity. They left the bullet where it had lodged in the tissue because there is no risk of infection or problems with it there. Three and a half hours later he was done with the surgery and I got the news that all was well! I wasn't at all worried during the surgery or surprised at the news. I just felt everything was going to be ok. I was out doing errands during most of the surgery. The container vans for the hangar construction were supposed to arrive the next day and the truck drivers needed to be paid so Bob took me home and I grabbed some things at the house to stay in the hospital and then we went to the bank before heading back to the hospital. In ICU I found Dwayne with tubes all over the place. He could nod his head yes and no and was obviously completely coherent. He was weak and could only squeeze my hand a little but as the hours passed he rapidly gained strength. His vital signs stayed stable from the time he arrived in the hospital until now. That is another thing that kept me calm. We serve a very powerful and great God and everyone around here agrees that all the pieces of this story are not a coincidence. One thing I have learned through this experience (among many) is the power of intercessory prayer. As the news spread around the world, I was encouraged to know that many people were praying for Dwayne. We continue to feel the prayers as Dwayne's recovery has been so smooth. We are so grateful to God and all of you, words cannot express. I hope that after this experience we all will learn to pray more and with more confidence and faith for people in need that God brings into our lives. To be continued.
What Are You Waiting For?
I want to share a story with you how I became a witness of Emie's decision to be baptized. My first time I met Emie was when we visited Limbasan church on Sabbath 6 month ago. She volunteered herself to translate for Andrey. Just after worship was done, I came to her and asked if she would agree to go with me to the village of Lapiak and help me with the kids program. Even though I had already asked another girl to join me, I just felt I should ask Emie too. The next day, after we finished our kids' Bible study in Lapiak, she asked me if we could start the same study in her place because there are many kids that will be happy to have something like that. And so we did. In the morning we would go to Lapiak (15 km on a bumpy jungle road) and then in the afternoon we would do it in her place (it is part of Limbasan, and still a jungle). The kids there were so attentive to the Bible stories. Even their parents were showing interest. Since that time Emie has been pretty busy every Sunday. The whole day long she is helping me in conducting our Bible studies for children. Even though she has small 3 and 4 year old kids of her own and even if it’s raining, she will still come for the children’s program. She never looks for excuses and never asks for anything like money for gas. I would say, she took this ministry devotedly. When it was time to start our evangelistic meetings in Mainit, Emie somehow and for some reason, moved to live there in Mainit just a couple days before. Even in that I could see God’s providence. I had my children's part in the meetings every night. Somehow my translator lost her voice in the first night (it was not a surprise; we had more than 100 kids) so I texted Emie to help me , and she agreed gladly. Thus she was helping every night from 5pm to 11pm, never tired. And miraculously God kept our voices working every night. I was really surprised when brother Nitz (our bible worker) asked me to talk with Emie about baptism, since I thought she already was baptized! I decided not to push her, instead I told her my story, how I came to Christ. The next night during the kids program, one little boy came to us with a handmade guitar and he sang for us. When he was singing I could feel a reverence and presence of God, even if I couldn’t understand the words. I could see my hundred plus, usually screaming and noisy kids, sitting perfectly quiet at that moment. Emie also felt the same way, she told me later that she was deeply touched with the song. The words in the song were about how soon Jesus is coming, and it was asking, “Are you ready?” The next night Emie seemed so thoughtful. Actually it was the last night of our evangelistic meetings. Then she said to me that she couldn’t sleep last night, she was thinking about the song and about what I was telling her of my experience with God (I told her that at one point God seemed to be asking me, “You know so much, what are you waiting for?” Emie said that she was ready, and she wanted to be baptized tomorrow. Oh, what a joy it was for me to hear that news! I couldn’t keep my tears any more, I embraced her and we wept together in unison. Now Emie is a member of the Adventist church. She is still busy every Sunday with the children's programs, but now it takes more sacrifice, because she is coming from Mainit 20 km away every week by herself! Praise God!
By Tanya Mershalova
PAMAS Palawan Missionary
Reaping the Harvest
Thank you so much for your prayers and support for the recent evangelistic meetings held by our team in Palawan! We praise God for the 36 baptisms! These are a result of many months of bible studies and medical outreach in the surrounding areas. A dental outreach in several villages was also held right before the meetings began (See pictures below). Read this inspiring report about the nightly adventures and children's programs and how satan tried to attack in several ways but was not successful in stopping the meetings! Please continue to pray for the Palawan project and the new believers that they may stand firm through the trials that come their way.
Wendy and Dwayne
Reaping the Harvest
First Sabbath with the newly baptized souls! So encouraging! It's like a little heaven in this sinful world. Everyone was so happy having fellowship with the rest of the brethren, singing, reading the Bible, sharing each others' food during lunch and sharing testimonies of how they accepted our Savior, Jesus Christ. But before this very inspiring scene, we held a 2 week Evangelistic Meeting last October 16-29, 2011. Bible students from Mansalay, Mainit, Calapi, Limbasan and Lapiak who have been studying with us and our Bible workers for more than a year (and others for almost a year) were gathered into one group for this meeting. Andrey, our pilot was in charge of transporting the Bible interests from 4 different locations to the meeting place. He started to pick them up at 5:00 in the afternoon to be able to finish transporting them to the meeting place at around 6:30. We could feel His presence during these quite stressful times. It wasn't that easy for us and for the Bible interests because Satan was really doing his best to destroy us. A couple times the truck with the trailer full of people who would attend the meetings was targeted. Someone threw stones at the people and some were hurt, but still they continued to attend the meetings. Satan even sent some drunkards to disrupt the meetings but praise God He is always with our speaker, Rolly Reyes and He gave him the right words to say.
Praise God because in God's guidance we were able to finishe the whole 2 weeks with more than a 130 adult attendees and also more than 130 children attending the children's program. Each one of the 36 baptized souls have their own inspiring story to tell of how God led them. They also share with us the sad stories of how their relatives and neighbors treat them now as a new believer. These will all be a great challenge and trial to them. They have stepped forward by accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior, now they will be needing our prayers and more care for the trials they will be having along the way. This is not a small thing for them because they are new in faith but they believe and have faith that God will continue to lead them. May the Lord bless us all as we continue to serve Him.
Shielah Reyes
PAMAS missionary
First Mission Flight
I pray that this email finds you all blessed and excited about the times in which we live. Even with all the challenges the world is facing at this time, we can have confidence that Jesus is interceding on behalf of God's people. I recently experienced an example of answered prayer and I am compelled to share my testimony with you to the Glory of God. More then five years ago now, in the privacy of my bedroom, there in Westmoreland, TN. I knelt next to my bed and asked Jesus to make me a missionary. You are aware that He answered that prayer three years ago, but I had also requested that he allow me the honor of serving as a missionary pilot as well.
(Coordinator, Bible Worker, and Pilot for PAMAS Palawan)
Tracts of Hope
Last Sabbath we enjoyed participating in the world wide "Hope Impact" literature distribution program for the second year in a row. As always, we were amazed at how many people were so open to taking the tracts. As the mass of red and white-shirted church members made their way through the market, we observed people sitting on the side of the road or in their stores or tricycles pouring over the small magazines. On the back was written the local phone numbers, radio and TV stations where the people could learn more.
Our fellow missionary friends (working in Mayoyao) shared with us that most of their interests and friendships in the community have come from tracts we gave in previous medical missions in their area which had their phone numbers on the back! They said people text or call them frequently asking for a visit or advice on medical problems. In this way, through medical missionary work, they are gaining the people's love and respect.
Please pray for the mountain people of Mayoyao and all the towns and villages scattered throughout the Philippines that are longing and waiting for the hope of the Good News! Pray that God will open doors to reach them in the short time they have left. Jesus is coming again soon!
Thank you for your prayers and support for this ministry!
We'll let the pictures tell you the rest: More medical missions, two powerful typhoons in one week, continued hangar construction etc. Thanks for your prayers for the helicopter in Palawan that needs new blades. We are looking into some promising possibilities! Keep praying!
We ask for your prayers and support for the hangar construction which is now at the point where we are ready for the shipping containers which will make the walls of the hangar and living quarters. We will also need a 10kva generator to power the welder for making the trusses and other parts of the construction. Please pray that God will provide these and other needed items so the construction can continue!
If you'd like to help, just click the "HELP" tab at the top of this website. Thank you for your gifts!
Missionary Minnie greets a patient at the couseling-literature booth at a medical mission in Mayoyao
Hangar complex foundation
Dwayne and nurse volunteers helping with a recent medical mission we were asked to hold during evangelistice meetings in a nearby town
Stuck in the muck at our project
After first storm Dwayne cut branches off the falling tamarind tree in front of our house
Dwayne and Wendy on a survey trip in the mountains of Luzon
Misionary Ellen helping her daddy tell the story in our neighborhood branch sabbath school
Hungry People
We just finished another whirlwind of a month starting with a couple trips up to Pagudpud (in the north) to help finish a couple churches for a friend and then pouring the cement pad for the hangar while getting ready for another group that arrived Sept. 1. We just came back from leading them on a trip for 10 days doing medical missions up in the mountain provinces. We had as many as 22 volunteers at one point of the trip! What a job, but what a blessing, as usual!
The Team
God provided a great group of volunteers once again for this big endeavor. Dr. Norbert's group from the States came with some regulars: David, an experienced nurse from Loma Linda, and Dr. Ray, 83 year old OB/GYN, and Howard, a healthy 81 year old! We also appreciated the help again of Gigi and Mariss who pulled over 100 teeth at each site and Dr. Peachy from Manila who blessed us again with her help and sweet smile! We also enjoyed having two girls from Sweden who came to volunteer for a few months. Danny Henson, our missionary overseeing the project in Palawan, also came to help, along with many invaluable L.I.G.H.T. missionaries (Medical Missionaries) including our own dear Briane and Joy Lupkey, Joe Burce, Ciprian (we nick named him "Chip" 
(from Romania/Germany), and many others! We appreciate them all very much!
Hungry people
We were amazed once again at how open the people are in these areas to not only health education but the Good News of the Gospel! They are hungry and waiting for someone to come in practically every town or village in this country! What an opportunity! If only we could reach all these hungry people. Our compassionate missionaries were able to talk and pray with every patient once again, and give them literature before seeing the doctor.
Faith Camp WVA
After a nice weekend at AIIAS with my parents, we went straight to Iloilo (another island) for another blessed time at Faith Camp at West Visayan Academy. We led a break-out session in the afternoons for those interested in medical-aviation and also told several testimonies throughout the 3 days of the campmeeting. We had fun camping this time, even through the torrential rains, which made for quite a commotion in the night and some good memories
Here is Dwayne's update on the airbase and stories of how God has been providing for it:
Things have been busy since the last time we wrote. We
have been making progress on our airbase in Quirino, Luzon. We have completed
our water system which comes from a spring about 1 kilometer away that
is at a higher elevation than where our hanger is at so we have a nice
gravity fed flow of water. We ran about 1600 meters of pipe and
buried it about a foot deep. We started digging the trench for the
pipe by hand and it quickly became apparent it would take well over a
month to bury it if we continued by hand so I went in search of a mini
excavator. I located one through a friend from the Adventist Hospital
and the owner said he would give us a good deal. They sent an
operator with it but he worked for two days and his boss said he
wanted him back at another project so I asked him if I could run the
excavator and he consented. It took about a week to bury the pipe all
the way to the hanger. When I went to pay the bill for the excavator
they only charged us for the time their operator ran it which was
about half the time I ran it, we thanked God for that.
We started pouring the concrete pad for the hanger once we finished
the water system. We spent about 8 days pouring concrete and finished
it the day before Dr. Norbert's medical team arrived. Everyday we
started at 5am and prayed for cloudy weather. We praise God because
every day we poured cement the sky remained cloudy with a breeze
blowing and it never rained more than a sprinkle.
That's it for now! Please continue to pray for a new helicopter and new blades for our helicopter in Palawan. Enjoy the latest video made by our helicopter pilot, Andriy. The Palawan and Luzon teams continue to reach out, with God's help, to remote villages, even without the air support at this moment. Thank you for your important part in this mission through your prayers and support.
Jesus is coming soon!
People of Darkness, People of Hope.
Listen to the Heart
Congenital heart malformation is one of the top ten causes of infant deaths in the Philippines, said the Philipine Department of Health."
Three children - Jeric, Joy and Jomar - can barely lead normal lives because of their in-born heart defect. Diagnosed with heart murmur, they need surgery. However, their families are unable to afford the high costs.
The PAMAS team, together with a group of medical and media volunteers from Australia, Taiwan and Singapore, meet this three children as they journey around North Luzon, Philippines, giving medical aid.
Prior to this medical mission, PAMAS missionary Briane saw God make a miracle happen for one of these children and he is excited to see what else God can do to make the hearts of these children whole again.
A NEW BEGINNING FOR Abner*
Caring missionaries use what they have to help Abner
Extreme Medical Missions!
The Biggest Miracle!
As the time got closer for this big medical mission trip, we realized that another vehicle would be almost essential for the kind of traveling we'd be doing (on some of the most dangerous and remote roads requiring 4 wheel drive) and for the size of our group. It seemed impossible with all the other big financial needs we had, but we knew that God would provide somehow. We had been praying for a few months for a vehicle for the new Mayoyao mission that we're helping our friends, Briane and Joy (newest part of our team get started (about 3 hours from here). But wouldn't it be great, we thought, if God would provide it now for this trip! We tripled our prayers, found a truck for sale, and waited. The days drew closer. . . and not too late, and not too early, but the day before we left to go pick up our group, God provided a couple specific donations, and we purchased the 4 wheel drive missionary truck!! (You can see it in the pictures.) It was and is perfect for our needs! It holds 6 people comfortably and has a big bed in the back to haul supplies. What a great God we serve.
The Trip
I jokingly call this the "Extreme Medical Mission Trip" because we drug these dear people all across northern Luzon, camping on classroom floors, in missionary houses, and budget hotels--staying in 9 different places in 12 days! We drove from one end of Luzon to the other, it seems, with sometimes just a few hours of sleep! But, I did not hear a word of complaint! All I saw were increasing smiles, bonding, and great joy that only serving others can bring. What a team and what a trip God provided us!
The Team
We had 2 doctors, 5 nurses, one counselor, 2 camera men/women, and many with multiple skills that added greatly to the team (translators, drivers, massage therapists, medical missionaries, "pharmacists" and "ophthalmologis" etc 
We were thankful for the surgeon and dentist team from CVAH (the Adventist hospital close to us here in Santiago) who joined us for part of the time as well. We are looking forward to the video that our camera crew is making of the trip.
We had a very multi-cultural (from 5 countries) and diverse team, some seasoned missionaries and others visiting a developing world for the first time. Some were experienced, remote-area nurses and doctors, and others were just getting started. It was amazing how all the skills and personalities fit just perfectly for what was needed! It was also a great learning experience in many ways for many of us. I appreciated very much the spirituality of the team and the time and care taken with each patient.
Fun with Education
This was our first time also to make a real priority for education (and natural remedies) with half a day allotted at each site, just for that. And, though we still have much to learn and improve on, we were pleased with how things went. We gave our Australian team members (2 medical families) the responsibility of giving the health lectures and demonstrations, and they did an excellent job with top quality presentations! The people were eating it up, especially when we brought out the prizes for the quizzes between each talk! (The hats and baby blankets were the favorites that made the crowd go wild! But even the little notebooks and pencils amazingly caused a stir.) Some of the topics were hard to swallow (Nutrition, Water, Smoking, Alcohol etc.) but they really seemed to understand. It may take another generation to make the changes, but it has to start somewhere.
NEWSTART Health Fair
We called these medical missions: "NEWSTART Family Health Fairs" to distinguish from a typical medical mission. We encouraged the people to come and stay all day, which most of them were able to do. We tried to give people practical ways they could prevent and treat their problems even after we left. I feel we are finally finding a good balance between natural and conventional medicines. We used alot of garlic, charcoal, malunggay and lagundi capsules (local immune boosting and healing leafy greens), vitamins, sulfur soap, etc. Many of these things are readily available in these areas and they can continue using the fresh sources even after they run out of the capsuled versions we gave them. We taught them how to make and use their own charcoal and how to use water for healing. The local missionaries (mostly Philippine Frontier Missionaries) already teach these things to their people, but we were able to add credibility to them, which they really appreciated.
Counseling and Prayer
We enjoyed having a professional counselor along to join in the counseling station with our other "counselors". With their various backgrounds in health, they were also able to talk with each patient about their health needs. Depending on what the patient seemed interested in, they could counsel on spiritual, family, or health issues, or all three! We were so happy that God provided alot of great sharing materials too for this trip! (we're learning to give it generously away and God will provide more!) The counselors were able to pray with each patient before sending them on to see the doctor. They, along with the doctors, made notes on the patient's record forms and we left them behind for the missionaries to do follow-up. We found several special cases that need surgery or other special care that we're working on finding help for.
By land or by air: Speed the work!
This was also our first time to lead a big group up here and these guys were perfect guinea pigs! We learned alot, and more then anything it was confirmed in us the great need for a helicopter! (After all the traveling, I even developed a condition on my legs (Erythema Nodosum) that practically laid me flat for almost a week!). For now we will keep working on the ground, scouting the areas, and preparing the airbase until He provides for air transportation. Thanks for your prayers for this need that could greatly speed God's work in these areas!
I will let the pictures and the upcoming video tell the rest of the story of this memorable trip
Pray for us as we plan another trip with a group coming this September.
May God continue to bless you as you share in this ministry!
