Good news!

Good morning! Maayong Buntag! This morning, Tim and I got to got to Faith Baptist, our church here, with Steve and Christina. It was a good morning, but the highlight for me this morning was being able to see my beautiful buntis friends, Rezel (due this week at Mercy) and Ludina (due in October). Please pray for them both as they are excited and nervous for their up and coming labors! The two of them have been such a joy to spend time with. They are both very different individuals.....

Rezel heads up the kitchen staff at a seminary here at Faith Baptist, and is very shy...she has a beautiful smile that she always covers up with her hanky...she is a beauty....gentle and gracious....silly and sweet. What a joy to know her! I get to be at her birth, too!

Ludina is a firecracker! A stubborn, quick-wit lady who goes to a church way out in the mountains and has to stay at the seminary here because she has a low-lying placenta. She works as a secretary here at the seminary and rides on the back of motorbikes all the way down the mountain! So now she must stay in town to rest. She is a fantastic lady and I can't wait to see her hold her new baby in October. Please pray for strength and health for her.

And then this afternoon, I got to go visit dear Janeth at the hospital. Like I posted last night, Janeth was our patient from yesterday who had to be transported for a c-section.

This afternoon, I got to visit her and her new healthy baby girl named Blessy. She is rosy and chubby....a big baby indeed! Here is Blessy with her momma and Grandma at the hospital. All went well for these two and though Janeth is in pain from the surgery, she might be discharged in 3 days. Pray they go fast for her.....DMC is not a fun place to be for very long.

Praise the Lord for a healthy delivery and for His gracious protection! God is so good. I am so grateful for His tender mercies. Blessy is a blessing and Janeth had a gorgeous smile on her face when I visited....no doubt she is going to be a great mommy.

Have a great week! Be blessed!

Busy Days....

Greetings! As Tim shared last post, we've been having some good times with his parents and the weather has been spectacular!

Despite their visit, my work in the clinic continues! This week was my last week before the hiatus until the new students arrive and school starts September 8th. So I was hoping for a fairly eventful week and the Lord provided!

My birth shift on Wednesday was a great one....two baby boys born! The first was Ana Rose's "Anderson"...healthy and happy, this little guy was born posterior and had trouble getting out. But God was good and Anderson is doing well. The picture of the nursing momma is Ana Rose and Anderson.

The second birth was difficult as well. Emelyn labored long and hard for her baby boy. He was very big and when his head came out, he got a little stuck and turned pretty blue. But with help from his midwife, Laura, he came out and turned pink within a few seconds. He had a good cry and began to nurse. I was able to chart for both births and actually felt totally comfortable doing so! What a blessing. I feel like I am truly learning and getting more confident in supporting these beautiful ladies!

Then on Friday, I had prenatal exams from 7:45 am until noon and saw 14 ladies! I gave them their prenatal exams all by myself and Christina, my mom-in-law got to watch a bit! My wonderful director, Krys, gave me the opportunity to do their entire prenatal exams without supervision! AND I gave 5 tetanus injections, too! Krys was in the next cubicle just in case I had questions and would check the chart when I was finished with the exams to make sure I didn't forget anything, but I was so humbled giving these ladies their exams after only a month and a half of observing and taking baby steps towards doing them alone! I also began to understand just how much I need to learn!

Then today I got a text from my team leader, Jonna, saying that our continuity, Janeth, had come in at 4 cm dilation. Jonna decided that the two of us should do this continuity together because we just fell in love with this little pregnant lady. At 18 years old, she carried a maturity far beyond her years. She was very overdue and after applying Evening Primrose Oil to her cervix, we were certain that she would deliver soon....we even later checked at the hospital to see if she went into labor there, but couldn't find her.

But she showed up at Mercy today (quite a few days later!) around 10 am and slowly progressed to 6 cm around 4:45 pm. However, because she was overdue and her belly was soooooo large, full of excessive amniotic fluid and possibly a HUGE baby, Jonna decided that it would be best if she delivered at the hospital, just in case as she may need a C-section.

She had labored with us for so long that it was hard to say good-bye to her, but Jonna inserted an IV (pictured), we prayed and then accompanied her to Davao Medical Center. We waited to see a doctor for two hours.....the emergency room was filled to the brim with children with Denghi Fever, adults with fevers, LBMs, ectopic pregnancies, and a doctor who had been working for 24 hours already. The only doctor working in emergency, Dr. Pen saw Janeth well after 6 pm and shared with us that she was only 7 cm and a C-section would probably be their next course of action. Janeth was so strong....quietly laboring with her boyfriend and her cousin.

Janeth shared that she was nervous, scared and that she didn't want us to leave....we were happy to stay as long as we could. By 7 pm, Janeth was being taken to another room to wait some more and we had to leave. Jonna and I were so exhausted, but grateful that Janeth would soon have her baby.

We are praying for a safe delivery whatever happens and we are going to visit her on Sunday to see her new son and see how she is doing. Please pray that all goes well and she continues to have peace. She is a beautiful woman and her smile brings such peace....I will post pictures of her baby if we get to see her tomorrow. :)

Tim, Steve and Christina's day was quite different! They headed to Paradise Beach to rest and read the day away. They had an amazing time and I am sure Tim has pictures that he will post later. They leave Monday, so we are hoping for two more great days with them.

Please continue to pray for us, for our health, and God's wisdom....Tim is looking at an opportunity to head up north to preach and do more with the water filtration stuff, but he needs lots of prayer that the Lord would pave the way for him and that it would be clear whether he is to look further into that plan or if the timing isn't right.

Thank you for all your comments and prayers! They are such a blessing to us, so keep 'em coming!
Be blessed!

Driving and stuff

Sorry we haven't been updating our blog too much this week. We have been too busy having a great time with Mom and Dad. Today we went to the House of Jubilee to help feed the kids. I'm not sure if we're much help, but the kids love to see us and play with us, so I guess that counts for something.

This afternoon Matt was kind enough to lone us his car so we took Mom and Dad on a bit of a tour of the city. I suspect my driving startled them at times, but I'm just trying my best to drive like the locals. We went up to Jack's Ridge for a great view of the city, a couple of the islands, and the bay. It was a lovely day, so the view was fantastic. We then drove north out of the city to see what we could see. We drove for well over an hour but never actually left the city of Davao. They boast that they are three times the size of Manila which of course is a farce. They cheat by putting the city limits very far away from what we would consider the city proper.

We drove to the edge of the mountains. It was beautiful. I didn't really take many pictures because I was driving and didn't want to stop very regularly. I do plan to go back to that area though because I think I could get some really nice pics there. I don't have any pics of Mom and Dad either because when I tried to take one, Mother complained that she was grubby.

Anyway, we're having a super visit with my parents. Please be praying for Dad. His sleeping patterns have been askew. Below are a couple of photos taken with Bethany's camera at Jubilee today. One of them is of her being swarmed by the children. The other is some of the kitchen staff that prepared the lunch for the kids.

Tomorrow is our 5 year anniversary. I love my wife.

Cheers,
Tim

Just Catching Up...

A brief catch up on the events of the last few days:

My parents arrived in Davao this morning. We're very excited to have them with us all week. We took them to Boodles (a nearby restaurant) for lunch and Dad ordered BBQ chicken. They served him a chicken leg that still had the foot attached! We'll tell you more about their visit as the week goes on.

Bethany took me out for a lovely birthday dinner this weekend. We went to a place called Jack's Ridge and ate dinner as we looked over the city. It was great. And the chocolate cheesecake was fabulous, which is surprising because most Filipino food that involves cheese is usually a big disappointment.

I spent some time at the ropes course, Outland Adventures, last week. They were doing one of their three days camps for high school students and they had asked me to take some photos for a multi-media presentation they're working on. I had a great time taking pictures and hanging from great heights, but I also got to observe the camp and got a better understanding of what they do out there.

The kids spend time doing various group activities. They then debrief with the counselors about how the activity made them feel and what life lesson they could learn from the experience. With each activity the counselors introduce a piece of the gospel. In the evenings they all gather together to sing worship songs and hear more about the gospel. By the end of the weekend many of the students have made a decision for Christ.

The whole thing seems like an excellent way to minister to these kids. I'm hoping to spend a lot more time at Outland in the future. Right now I'm looking for as many ways to minister the gospel to people as I can.

Cheers,
Tim.

LBM and Birthdays....

Greetings! And a very Happy 28th Birthday to my bana, Tim! It's been a very busy day, but I should start with yesterday (Friday).

I was on duty for prenatals and Ate Susan (my supervisor) taught me how to do injections! I got to do several prenatals on my own and then she MADE me give a tetanus injection on my own! Crazy! She said that I was a very fast learner and was so impressed with my bloodless injection. WHOOOPPEEE! I am learning so much!

Then, Jenn and her helper, Nene and I went to "ukai, ukai" which is the best place to get used clothing here in the Phils. I got a great blouse for 25 pesos! That's like 50 cents! We had a great time and then went to Jenn's house to have all the amazing Filipina midwives over! We had pizza and so enjoyed getting to know them better....we decided that we needed to have a karaoke night soon!...and eat Filipino food, of course!

Today, I have been in the birth room. A good and heavy day all at once....I arrived at 6 am to work with supervisor, Jonna, interns, Laura and Julia, and Jane, our lovely Filipina midwife.
Dear Gigi was already in labor and in intense pain. I was able to chart. We were sure her baby would arrive by 7:30 am, but by 8am, baby was stuck inside and she was crying to Jesus for help. I passed on the chart and asked if I could pray with her.....after 10 minutes of praying, her screams and cries were more like low moans....her body was beginning to relax a bit, too. I began to rub her back and she looked as though she was resting.

Our supervisor gave it a few more minutes and then inserted an IV. Our supervisor decided to transport her to the hospital and at that point, Gigi was ready for a c-section.

I prayed with her again and continued to massage her back while Laura and I accompanied her in the ambulance to Davao Medical Center. Once again, DMC was filled to the brim with business....the nurses were kind, though, and got Gigi in there pretty quickly. However, her wait for the doctor was long and we were told to leave. We are still waiting for word whether she had her baby boy and whether it was by C-section or naturally. Please pray for Gigi and her little boy.

On the way back to the clinic, Laura and I had a good time of praying and crying for Gigi. I hear that it never gets easier to transport a "buntis" to the hospital....this is the hardest part of my time here. Mercy is heaven compared to DMC. Whew. I am so glad that everything that happens is filtered through the loving hands of God....and He is all-loving.....ALL the time. Mmmm. Heavy.

We had three more women in during our shift, one gave birth to a baby boy as we were transporting Gigi to the hospital, the other two were sent home because they were not dilated enough. Perhaps the swing shift midwives will see them!?

After shift, I came home to find out that Tim was at Outland Adventure taking pics again (soon to come) and having loose bowel movements (LBM) for his birthday....so sad. He came home late....so sad....sweaty and ready for our dinner drive to Jack's Ridge...a beautiful lookout restaurant in the hills of Davao. Before leaving, I lit his cheesecake (only 2 candles would stay lit because of the wind/rain/thunder/lightning storm that was brewing), but the pics turned out anyway...then he opened my card....Ahhhhh. I will let him tell you about HIS birthday, Jack's Ridge and Outland Adventure next post. :)

Many blessings to you all and keep those comments coming!

All things Filipino....

Greetings! This afternoon Jenny, Lois and Charity took me on a Filipino Extravaganza to NCCC Mall. They needed a homework break and I needed some "out and about" time. Our first stop was to "Chow King"...the McDonald's of the Philippines....as Jenny said, "Kids here don't say, 'Mommy..take me to McDonald's'...they say, 'Mommy! Take me to Chow King!'" So there you go...we went to true Filipino fast food and had the most popular desert..."Halo Halo".
Halo Halo is crushed ice mixed with sweetened condensed milk, buko, candied bananas, candied beans, crunchy rice flakes, strange candied unidentifiable fruity jellies, and purple sweet potato ice cream....Mmmmm. It was good...the finished product is pictured below.
Then they took me up to the bowling alley...and check out my score! Yes, I am "Bet" and Lois was "Noif" 'cuz the guy couldn't figure out how to spell her name. :) Jenny and Charity were in the lane beside us and we had a great time cheering each other on and making quite the scene.
Then we took a taxi in search of REAL cheesecake....you see, the cheesecake here is made of processed cheese....tastes like salt and well....cheez whiz. But after being tipped off by another midwife, we found "Lachi's"....a dessert place far far away (or seemed like it) and REAL cheesecake appeared!
Tim's favorite dessert is cheesecake and I just needed to find one for him....and with the help of my dear friends, Jenny, Lois, and Charity, we picked out an EXTREMELY expensive (by Filipino standards) chocolate swirl cheesecake for Tim's birthday. Ahhhh. He will LOVE it.

Then we came home, had some grub and met at the clinic for home group...all us students and staff together again. The teaching was fantastic and it led to some deep repentance for things said and some things unsaid....for the way we foreigners have treated the Filipinas to the way we have portrayed the body of Christ. We were reminded that we ALL are the "aroma of Christ" and should treat each other as such. It was a good word. Heavy stuff and I know God is not finished with us.....

Tomorrow morning is another prenatal day and I am looking forward to meeting more ladies! Thank you for all your prayers and encouragements! Be blessed!

Water pumps, thunderstorms, and pirated movies....

Greetings! Thank you all for the comments on last post....poor Tim is looking and feeling a bit better now that his beard is beginning to grow back. It may be a while before he totally feels like himself.

This post is an "everything" post...no specific theme, just news of what we're up to.....so we begin:

We've been having some water trouble...not sure why, but our water pump has been shutting off and it seems to do this when I am in the shower. I am very thankful for the opportunity to even TAKE a shower, but when the pump stops, the water stops and when your soapy and Tim has to run all the way to the street, turn on the water, run up the stairs, and then turn on the pump, we get a bit frustrated. We're trying to fix the problem soon as Steve and Christina (Tim's parents) are coming on Monday! YEAH! It'll be great to see them and show them around our new home. AND they will get to experience our awesome COLD WATER showers, too! Who needs a water heater when your body temperature heats the water as it hits you!?

In other news, we've been having the MOST AMAZING lightning and thunderstorms. They start at around 6 pm (just when it gets dark) and end around midnight! Sometimes the heavy rains follow it, which sounds like thunder....until you HEAR THE THUNDER! The loudest thunder I've ever heard! BEAUTIFUL! There aren't any tall buildings to block your lightning view, so the show is magnificent. It is so easy to marvel at the power and beauty of the Lord in the midst of the storms. He is FANTASTIC....what a wonderful Creator....AND we catch the rain water just in case we lose our water (like this morning!) and last night alone, we filled both our giant buckets half full!

Another amazing experience in the Philippines, is the pirated movie selection....now, in Canada, I would be opposed to buying such filth, but here, since we don't get movies, the pirated gems are a blessing....Tim and I have never watched much TV and we don't have one here, but the occasional movie on Tim's laptop is one of the greatest ways to "cool down" at the end of a busy day.....ahhhhh. Of course, some the pirated stuff is just plain hilarious...you can actually hear people talking during the movie and sometimes they drop the video recorder....it is quite the movie experience. :)

Are you bored, yet?

Continuing on, Tim's birthday is Saturday (he will be 28!) and I have to work....and so does he!! He is supposed to be taking photos on location at Outland Adventure Camp! They are having a weekend of high schoolers and Tim has been asked to document the experience for the directors. Great fun for him.....except yesterday he had a little accident and tore off a HUGE piece of skin from his foot...the wound is deep and bled a lot...and he is to be tromping through the wilderness today through Saturday...so we're praying it heals quickly.

My last night shift was a quiet one, no babies. But Ate Susan, my supervisor, and I had an amazing two-hour conversation about the Lord, how we got to Mercy, and the journeys in between. While we were talking, a small ant train began to form....little by little...from one end of the clinic to the other, the ant train began to grow...and grow...until it was a full ant SUPERHIGHWAY! I kid you not....that ant community was migrating right through the clinic! It was truly amazing. The queen even came out for the migration event! I looked over and nearly lost my breath as the millions of ants in perfect alignment, all traveling the same way, passed from one outside door to the other. Way cool! Ate Susan quickly got out the bleach and then the ants went nutsy and died. Poor, poor ant community. They lost some of their own that night. But it was cool! The picture is actually when the majority of the ants had passed and the few stragglers were left behind! The one with the ants swirling is the ant community protecting the queen (in the middle)! They continued heading towards the door while swirling around the queen! If I were an ant, I think I'd get dizzy! The other picture is of our dear clinic guard who helped fight the ants. He makes sure we midwives are safe....even from ants. :)

This week, I also found out my team members (the students and supervisors I will be with for this semester)! My supervisors are Jonna (pronounced "Jonah") from Oregon, who has been here on and off for 5 years, and Elai, a Filipina who may be taking a sabbatical, so I may not see a whole lot of her for a while. My peers are Heather, another married student on her second year, Lois, my dear friend, also in her second year, Josephine, a Filipina student who is an awesome worship leader, Medea, who is first year, but has a lot of experience being a nurse and all, me, and Serena, a student arriving in September! Our prenatal day is Wednesday and we will be in the birth room together, too. Please pray for our team as we desire cohesiveness, community, humility and grace.....patience for the supervisors who will be teaching us, peace in our dealings with each other, healthy relationships between peers and teachers, and joy in working together...please, please pray.

I think that's about all there is to report this week....thank you so much for all your prayers, comments, and encouraging words. Be blessed!