Aina’s New Life
We hardly ever share follow up stories, it seems, but here is one case you may remember. A few years ago we learned of a medical mission group coming to Puerto Princessa to do free cleft lip/palate surgeries. We sent word out and were able to help several children and teenagers get the life changing surgery. One of the biggest life changes was for Aina, a teenage girl from Balabac, the remote, southern islands of Palawan. She was born with multiple deformities and her face especially was severely misshapen. One of our student missionaries, Allison accompanied Aina as her “mom”, since her own mother had died some years back and her father was unable to go with her. Allison stayed with her day and night and even cared for her for several weeks during her recovery. We did not expect the surgeon to fix all of the deformities on her face, but what a surprise when she came out of surgery! Aina was the most surprised of all! She was so happy. She wrote Allison a very sweet letter thanking her for helping her to have a new life. Allison decided to sponsor Aina to Palawan Adventist Academy, which she has been attending for the last couple years.
One day, during a recent medical mission trip (with Dr. Norbert’s group from the States) we did a free clinic near the academy, and we were privileged to see Aina again! She had come to avail of our free dental work. She was just as excited to see us as we were to see her, and she squeezed us tight as if we were family. It was great to see her beautiful smile! She is doing well in school, despite the difficulties she faces. (We continue to support her tuition and books and sometimes lodging and a little food but there are many other needs that come up). It is amazing how she has survived and we never hear a complaint from her! She struggles with headaches and eye problems and she recently lost her father, so now she is a real orphan. But, she now stands with her head held high and she no longer covers her face with her hair. She has managed her way alone through the trials of her life. She even somehow found a way to earn enough money to get some dentures for her missing front teeth! This helped her looks and self-esteem even more. Best of all, through the influence of her Godly teachers and classmates, Aina chose to be baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church and she gives God all the glory for her new life.
It was a whirlwind week in Narra, during the medical mission trip with Global Village Ministries. Since we were just a couple hours south of there in Brooke’s Point, it was easy for me to go up and help while Dwayne continued working at the project. (He came up a couple times during the week and helped). Every day we went out to a different area to hold clinics with consultations, dental work, free medicines, and counseling (health and spiritual). We saw on average around 400 patients per day. In the evenings we helped with an evangelistic meeting by providing health talks and VBS for the children. It was great to have my old friend from academy and her family with us this time (Nurse and Dentist), and also some doctor friends from our Adventist hospital in northern Luzon. Also several other of our local fellow missionary friends and their families came to help. We also had fun getting to know new people, several of whom were enjoying their first mission trip ever. They got the full mission trip experience!
The whole team
We ended the busy week with a delightfully relaxing time on the beach with the group, (thanks to wonderful friends who made that possible!) It was especially nice to relax since Dwayne was in the middle of a 10 day round of Quinine, treatment for Malaria. Those who have ever taken Quinine can empathize. We call it “The Poison”. It makes you deaf, nauseous, dizzy, draggy, and have headaches. But, the good thing is, it usually kills the persistent Malaria cases. 
We headed back down to Brooke’s Point again after the mission. We never run out of things to do in this project! Dwayne finished the annual inspections on the airplanes and continues to fix our run down truck and work on all the other maintenance projects. He continues to get regular calls for medical evacuations from the southern island of Mapun, and it seems to average about one flight per week. I continue to help with multiple Bible studies and children’s programs along with taking care of various patients that we find along the way. I have also been getting our small Learning and Wellness Center building fixed up and organized with all the meds, hydrotherapy supplies, and children's, and Bible study supplies.
What has kept us most busy is working day and night with our neighbor girl, Jeleta who continues to struggle with regular demon attacks. We have had times of great progress and other times where we seem to be losing ground. There have also been recurring attacks with some of our students in the mountains. It’s a very real battle we’re dealing with in this unseen world, but, we know Jesus has already won the victory! We’ll tell you more about these stories next time.
Until then, please continue to pray for Jeleta and all of our missionaries as we strive to help her and her family have peace and love with Jesus in their home!
Comments are closed.