Airbase Progress
The last month has been really busy with lots of traveling on top of everything else. The first week of February we went up north to Pugudpud and met Dr. Norbert's group (Global Village Ministries) for a week of medical missions. I worked on finishing up some things on one of the churches that I've been overseeing the construction of for Dr. Norbert. We enjoyed seeing the packed church in the evenings as a result of missionary volunteers that we had helped arrange to come and do revival meetings and continue to work in the area. The two churches we helped build were dedicated on Sabbath.
We came back home for a couple days and then left for a supporting ministries retreat in Thailand that was hosted by the Southern Asia-Pacific Division. It was great to meet all the other ministries and network together.
We praise God He has provided for many of the needs this month. We picked up a generator/welder we have been needing on our way back from Manila to Santiago. We also have been able to purchase all of the container vans that we need for the Hanger construction and also the rest of the culverts that we need for finishing the runway. We are also very thankful that the local government has assisted us with putting in culverts and graveling the road so it will be passable with a 2-wheel drive vehicle when it rains a lot.
This week we have an excavator scheduled to be brought out to put in the culverts in the runway and unload the container vans from the trucks that are supposed to be delivered on Thursday. We are praying it will stay dry this week so all these plans can be accomplished.
Wendy has been busy with surgery patients and planning an upcoming missions & faith campmeeting.
The helicopter blades we've been looking at in Germany have been a dead end all around so far. Maybe God has something bigger and better planned for Palawan.
We continue to value your prayers and support. Looking forward to seeing many of you this summer while we're in the States for a couple months.
Dwayne and Wendy
Treasures in Heaven
It has been an eventful and busy year for us. God directed us to a piece of property in Northern Luzon that is perfect for an airbase. I have stayed busy with developing this new airbase. We are putting in a 2300ft runway that is nearing completion as well as a hanger/housing structure that is about 50% complete. We were also able to put in a spring fed gravity flow water system that provides adequate water for the building as well as some irrigation for gardens during the dry season. We are amazed at how God has found ways to stretch the resources and creatively provide for the needs of this big project.
We are blessed to live near the Cagayan Valley Adventist Hospital and have developed many great relationships with the doctors and church members there. A number of hospital employees have sacrificed some of their Sundays to come down and help us with the construction on the airbase. The medical staff and administration have also shown great support by offering free services and giving of their own resources to help our various patients needing treatment. It has been encouraging to see the mission driven focus and self-sacrificing spirit in the church here.
We praise God and give all glory to Him for another year He has brought us through. We also thank you for your faithful part in prayers and support for this ministry.
May God bless you abundantly in the new year and bring you closer to Jesus and His soon return.
Dwayne and Wendy Harris
P.S. We just got back home and found our house had been broken into during the holidays. Many things were stolen including power tools, a large projector, kitchen appliances, original land title etc. (About $3,000 worth of goods, many of which are not available here) Though we are disappointed, we are able to continue on with peace knowing that it all came from God to begin with and He can take care of it. Reminds us again how temporary the things of this Earth are.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19-21
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