Back to Manila

Well, we spent the last few weeks in Tabuk working with a village called Dananao. In this village we spent the entire month of March hosting a health fair (as I talked about in the March update). Everything went really well. We did all sorts of health teachings on things like dehydration, sanitation, community awareness, breastfeeding, nutrition, etc. It was a ton of fun. We also did bible activities with the kids and at the end of the month we ran a VBS with the kids. That went really well. We had over 200 kids come. We all had a ton of fun.

The month of April is supposed to be spent in Tinglayan. This is in the mountains and the medics will be reaching out to different tribes and villages that rarely receive health care because of their remote location. Getting into these villages requires a lot of strenuous hiking. Unfortunately, Jack and I will not be joining the medics on their outreach. If you could pray for them it would be awesome. Because of my pregnancy the leadership and Jack and I all felt that it was in the best interest of me and the baby to stay back and go to Manila. So that is where we are now. It has actually worked out very well because Jack has been really sick. He was in bed with an IV for almost 10 days. The doctors believe he is either suffering from Malaria or an amoeba, or both. So he is on medication for both and he is on the up and up. Since we've been in Manila he has been feeling much better and is able to get up and go places. So continued prayer for his health would be wonderful. I am feeling much better. As many of you know I have been really sick with my pregnancy and have lost quite a bit of weight. I am finally getting out of that mode, which is very exciting, and am able to eat much better. Thank you all for your prayers. I am now 17 weeks along and very excited! So while we are in Manila we will be working with the maternity clinic that Mercy in Action has here. I will be helping the midwives and doing prenatals. Jack will be out and about making relationships with the people here and working with the street kids. He will also spend some of his time in Welfaresville, which is a very impoverished area here in Manila. At the beginning of May the rest of the medics will join us here in Manila and we will do more medical outreaches here. We are having a lot of fun, despite all the illness between the two of us. Thanks again for all of your prayers!