• Home
• Who We Are
• Missionaries
• Volunteer
• Links
• Pictures
• Videos
• Donate
• FAQ
• Contact Us
• Feed

Besides the miracle of a safe and successful mission trip with only minor glitches (Praise God!), we have to share with you the biggest miracle story of all.

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.

I will let the pictures and the upcoming video tell the rest of the story of this memorable trip 😉