The Final Chapter

The final chapter

So much has happened of the last 2 weeks in the Philippines, we can’t believe we’re now home!

A snapshot of the things we’ve been involved with would include the following:

1                     Assisting with the feeding program at Nasisi

2                     Visited many of our sponsor children and their families

3                     Assisted at 2 medical missions, where doctors prescribed medicines that we then dispensed

4                     Participated in 2 church services

5                     Participated twice at the local jail, where we sang, prayed and spoke with the prisoners

6                     Assisted leading at a Friday night youth program

7                     Assisted more than 30 local people to have dentures fitted (one woman had no teeth at all for over 30 years!)

8                     Talked with local church leaders

9                     Presented at a whole day teachers seminar

10                 Taught mathematics and music in Years 2 and 3 classes

11          Made and repaired dentures

12                 Helped to set up a community computer centre at the school

13                Assisted 3 more critically ill children to receive medical attention under Project Joshua

14                 Encouraged and resourced church pastors

15                 Speaking at regional church meetings

16                 Attending prayer meetings

17                 Enjoying a church lunch where a whole roasted pig was the main fare!

18                Exploring the local markets where few European people are ever seen

19                 Travelling on ‘tricycles’ – motorised motorcycles with a sidecar

20                 Climbing Kawa Kawa to walk the stations of the cross and for an awesome sunrise view

21                 Really enjoying the company of 13 people from ONE Community church!

If you EVER get the chance to go on this mission to the Philippines, our strong recommendation would be to GRAB IT!!

We have all had such a wonderful time meeting with the gracious people at Pastor Choi’s ACCC church, we’d all go back in a heartbeat!

Team news from the last few days of mission!

Wonderful team time in the Philippines!

It’s hard to know where to start with this blog – so much has happened over the past couple of days in Ligao and surrounding areas.  It feels like we have been here for weeks!  We’ve highlighted three areas for your interest …

We had a marvelous time at the Nasisi feeding programme (sponsored by One Community Church).  Four times a week, about 70 – 80 young children in this village are fed a nutritious meal prepared by mothers in the local church that was started up here by Pastor Choi and Alma.  The attached photo shows the smiles on all the children’s faces at this meal time.  It’s simply impossible to say how moving it was to see the good people here looking after the most vulnerable members of this small community.  We have attached a photo of the community centre being constructed here at Nasisi – at this stage a simple roofed area.  The pleasing thing to note is the cost of this structure (30,000p) was funded by the local people in recognition of how much they value the relationship they have with this local church! (30,000p is approx $750A) a vast sum of money to these very poor people!)

Many Pilipino families are very large – 12 children is not uncommon!  This many children places a huge burden on the parents to feed clothe and educate their families.  So we were asked to run a Family Planning seminar for the young mums in the community.  In spite of the teeming rain falling on the canvas roof at the time (!), a large number of mums turned up to hear what members of our team had to say on this topic.  The seminar was well received and was a very positive experience for all.

We forgot to tell you that last Saturday the team visited the local jail in Ligao.  Again, this was an experience that is hard to capture in words.  Suffice to say the prisoners very warmly welcomed our presence and freely participated in the worship service led by Pastor Choi and Alma.  A number of our team gave brief testimonies - which was a challenging experience as this environment was so different to what we are accustomed to in Melbourne!  We’re back at the jail again tomorrow (Saturday)

We are very pleased to tell you that the school computer centre is much closer to reality.  A number of the team have been busily working to install the 8 computers our church has bought for the school and wider community.

Project Joshua continues to do much good for children here with disabilities.  Alan and Ben have successfully organized an operation for a young girl (Blessie Mae) who was suffering from enlarged tonsils.  We have also have begun arrangements for another young girl to have an operation to close her palate.  We expect more children to appear at the medical mission tomorrow who may need special medical attention – even surgery.

Bec and Jeanette join the Vineyard team to interview potential sponsor families in an area nearby to Nasisi.  Photos were taken, report cards read, ages and other families information collected.  Over the coming months these needy children and families will be able to be sponsored by individuals and families in Australia.

That’s all for now – we’ll try to write again before we leave the Philippines.  Please continue to pray for us.  We value your prayer support!

Great progress in the Philippines!

We are very pleased to report to all our family and friends in Australia that much progress has been made in the three areas of work we targeted for the time we are here .... teaching, dental work and computer installation.

The teachers on team successfully ran a seminar last Saturday for local teachers in the areas of mathematics, music and we also worked through the question 'what makes a good teacher a great teacher'.  Linda is now continuing to assist in the teaching of mathematics in Years prep to grade three by working with teachers in their individual classes.  Georgie is also working with individual classes demonstrating different ways to teach music.

Mal, Andrew and Jim (a local dental technician from the church here) have completed denture work for more than a dozen local people who had no teeth or very few teeth.  Working under trying circumstances and with less equipment than they are used to in Australia, the team are successfully alleviating much suffering and embarrassment in the lives of local people caused by missing teeth.

The computer savvy people on team are helping to install a bank of computers in the school (our church funded this equipment)  The installation process is not easy as much prep work needs to take place first - such as the installation of security doors for the computer room, computer work benches built, power supply and a wireless system to install.  We are wanting to make the system as robust as possible so little maintenance will be required in the coming year.

Today we are heading off to the feeding program at Nasisi.  Many church members have financially supported this critically important program so we'll be able to report in the next blog as to how it all turns out!

The attached photos show the group of 'graduating' teachers from the teaching seminar and also one of Andrew hard at work helping to build up a set of dentures.

Report Number Two from the Mission Team in the Philippines

Report Number Two from the Mission Team in the Philippines

Sunday 8^th January 2012

What a time we’re having in this great place in the world!

So many things have already happened that it is impossible to list the lot.  But here is a snapshot ….

1                     Our team helped to run a Medical Mission yesterday.  A local doctor saw approximately 180 patients!  Typical complaints included vitamin deficiency, coughs and colds, asthma, hypertension and general pain relief.   Many antibiotic medications were prescribed.  All of the recipients were very poor individuals and families who would otherwise have little or no access to medical help.

2                     A group of teachers from our church ran a seminar for the teacher’s from Pastor Choi’s school (and also staff from other Christian and state schools).  The three areas we covered were:

a.       What makes good teachers ’great’ teachers

b.      A range of Mathematics teaching strategies

c.       How to teach music in primary and secondary classes

3                     Today (Sunday) the team split up into three groups to go to local churches where we gave testimonies or preached.  These gracious people provided meal for us at lunchtime.

Pastor Choi and Alma have been so very hospitable towards us – they’ve fed us breakfast every day and then provided either lunch or an evening meal.

The weather has been quite extreme – very warm to hot; humid; torrential rain; cool and balmy!

We’re enjoying every moment.  We are very pleased to be here.  The team is bonding so well.

Until next time

Greg Warmbrunn

(on behalf of the entire team)

First Days in the Philippines!!

REPORT FROM THE CHURCH TEAM IN THE PHILIPPINES!

Thirteen very excited members of One Community Church flew out of Tullamarine last Tuesday morning, heading off to the Philippines for a couple of weeks with Pastor Choi and Alma's church in Ligao.  (we flew in the world's largest airline - the A380 - to Singapore, then on to Manilla for an overnight stay)

The next day, a simple one hour flight in the morning to Ligao City ended up taking most of the day - seemingly chaotic organisation at the airport, delayed flights, masses of humanity all waiting around and poor weather meant we eventually flew out at 3pm!  On approaching the little regional airport of Legaspi, the weather closed in and as flights land visually and not by instruments, at the last moment - with the landing gear and flaps down, the landing was aborted.  We roared off into the clouds, did a circuit out over the ocean and came in to land in the opposite direction.  This made for an interesting situation - with a strong following wind - would never happen in Australia!  We came in fast - the fastest I've ever landed, hit the tarmac hard, bounced back up into the air, landed again and continued to roar down the tarmac at a great rate of knots.  The pilot hit the brakes fearsomely, the reverse thrusters at full tilt and after a seeming endless time we pulled up to a complete stop.  Spontaneous applause broke out from all in the cabin.  We had arrived safely!

We were greeted so very warmly by Pastor Choi and Alma.  Space does not permit great detail here, but suffice to say we are now having an excellent time with these godly people.  We've had a walk through the local market.  Plans are  being firmed up as to what will actually happen here over the coming 2 weeks - some team members are teaching local teachers; a couple are constructing dentures for local poor people; some are organizing a mobile pharmacy and medical station; some are visiting inmates in a local jail; some are setting up 6 computers donated by our church to Pastor Choi's school; some are organizing medical assistance for Project Joshua (which our mission fund is supporting) - for a boy badly burnt, fusing his skin together and prohibiting him extending his arm; 

Alma has already had us in her home for meals; we've visited their school.  Time is disappearing fast!  Stayed tuned for the next installment!  Please be praying for us that we might remain safe and do God's will for the people in Ligao!   For more up to date information and photos of our mission, go to: onemissionteam.blogspot.com

On behalf of the team

God Bless

Greg Warmbrunn