Manila

It's been a while since I've updated and there have been a few things going on so I thought I'd fill you all in! Last weekend Jack, Layla, and I made our trek to Manila. The boat ride was beautiful and the 2 hour bus ride was ok. One thing about the air conditioned buses in the Philippines is that they're FREEZING! It is the weirdest thing, but they are so cold you practically need your winter jacket. Luckily I had a blanket and sarong, so we were ok. Jack was super cold and did not enjoy it at all! Once we made it to Manila we met up with some old friends from the Philippines and stayed with them at a missions guest house. It was great to see Chris and Cathee and meet their son Samuel. He is adorable! In Manila we did a lot of running around, mostly getting things that we can't get on the island. It was a very exhausting trip because having a 2 year old there is tough. Because of the way the streets are made you can't use a stroller, plus there's too many people to maneuver the stroller around even if we could use it. So we basically had to carry Layla everywhere! It was very tough and exhausting! While in Manila we were able to attend the Manila Vineyard and meet up with some people we hadn't seen since the last time we were in the Philippines. That was a lot of fun...great worship, but I forgot my bible there...oops! And of course, while were were in Manila we got our Taco Bell fix, something we always do :) Our trip back to Puerto Galera from Manila did not go as well as the trip there. The bus was super crowded and uncomfortable and then the ferry ride was super choppy! It makes me scared and nervous, but praise God we made it safely!

Back here in Aninuan (this is the name of the baranguay, or neighborhood, that we live in) we have been busy helping out. Jack has been teaching guitar on Tuesdays and Fridays, and he started his classes that he has to take at Denver Seminary online. He has also been hanging out with the guys around here and playing some basketball and playstation with them. I have been helping out with prenatals on Mondays and Wednesdays, and I have been attending a moms group that the clinic is trying to start on Friday mornings. So far there has not been much luck with moms coming, but hopefully it will take off. The clinic does well baby check ups on Friday mornings so they are hoping that some of the moms will want to hang out for a little while and support each other with being new moms, and of course breastfeeding!

Yesterday, I attended my first birth! I was so excited! I was paged at 4am that a labor was in process at the clinic. So I went down and supported the mom with her labor and birth. She had a beautiful baby boy and the labor went great! She delivered at 7:30am, so it didn't take too long! I felt so blessed to be part of this baby's birth. Mom, Joveth, is doing great and so is her son (they haven't named him yet). He is breastfeeding like a champ, which I was super excited about!

We also took our kayaks out for the first time yesterday afternoon (after I woke up from my nap). It was a ton of fun! Jack did a little snorkeling and Layla went in the water too. I snorkeled as well, but just for a short time because I have this weird fear of seeing the fish in the water that I'm in. I'd rather just think there is nothing there. However, I am trying to get over that since there are beautiful reefs here!

Our neighbor (who is the family we rent this house from) is having a wedding tomorrow that we're invited to. Their daughter is getting married and there are currently a lot of preperations being made for that. Right now they are building a giant bamboo tent in front of their house for the reception. I will post pictures of that and the wedding once I get them. It should be fun and interesting. So that it what's been going on for now...sorry this post is so long. I will try to update more frequently. Thank you for your continued prayers! Blessings!!!

Settling in

We are doing well settling in to our routine and catching up on the time change. Layla and I actually went to bed at a normal time last night and woke up at 7am! Yeah...jet lag is so hard, especially when we are no 15 hours ahead of Denver time. So far we've gone to the market a few times to get some things for our house and food. We also went to the beach yesterday for the first time and Layla loved it! At first she was really scared to get in the water, but after some time and watching some of the other kids go in she was happy. She kept saying "I'm swimming with the fishies! Yeah!" Layla has also made friends with some of the other missionary kids here. This is them all hanging out on a big bouncy thing.













Yesterday Jack made us our first meal here. Eggs, potatoes, and some veggies. It was quite delicious and fun to make our own food.














In addition to that we've run into some creatures. The ants here are horrible! The laundry detergent and fabric softener that we used back home must smell sweet because the ants are attracted to our clothes like no other! This is a picture of the ants we swept up after killing them. They were in some of our clothes. It was disgusting! Since that picture we have had a few killing of ants like that. I just have to give up this battle I think, but there is something in me that won't let it go. I hate ants!!! I also saw my first gecko in our house last night. They are fun little creatures, but they're also a little freaky. Every time they move they scare me!















So now that we're settling in we will start up with the stuff we came here to do :) Jack will start helping out with the clinic and teaching the medical assistants some guitar and bible classes. I will be helping out there as well, plus I might start training to do some midwifery. We'll see what the Lord wants me to do, but until then we're excited to get started! We will keep you all posted as things get interesting. We love you all! Blessings!

We made it!!!

After a long 30 hours of travel we made it to our new home in Puerto Galera! Our trip was pretty uneventful, which is good. Layla did awesome! She slept on every flight we were on. Our long flight was 15 hours and she slept for 11 of those 15 hours! Can you believe it?! She was such a good sport...no breakdowns or tantrums the whole time! So, just to give you a run down of what our day looked like, we left Denver at 8:23am on the 14th. We flew to San Francisco and had a 2 hour lay over there which ended up being a good thing because we got lost at that airport and we had to switch airlines so we had to get all new boarding passes. It was a pain, but we made it to our gate about 5 min before we had to board. Then we got on the long 15 hour flight. I didn't sleep much at all, maybe 2 or 3 hours, but Layla and Jack slept better than I did so that's good. The food on the flight wasn't bad at all which is definitely a plus. I watched a bazillion movies and tv shows on the flight while Layla slept through most of it. Then we arrived in Hong Kong. That airport was a little tricky, but no too bad. We had a 3 and a half hour layover there so we just hung out and Jack made friends with some of the other Filipinos in the airport. I was super tired by then, but we had to go on. Then we flew from Hong Kong to Manila and that was only a 2 hour flight...not too bad at all. I think the worst part of all the traveling was the lack of sleep and sore rear ends. After we arrived in Manila we got all of our bags and found out that one of our bags split open and was all wrapped in plastic. We have since learned that some of our stuff is missing. :( After all that Vicki from Mercy in Action picked us up at about 1am Manila time. We went back to a small apartment she has in Manila and slept for about 2 hours until the van arrived to take us down the the port so we could catch the ferry and make it to Puerto Galera. Luckily there are a lot of porters around that helped us with our bags. The ferry over to the island was really choppy this morning. We were sitting in the front of the boat and with the bigger swells Layla, Jack, and I all got soaked. Unfortunately, Layla and I got it the worst because of our seats. Layla did great though because she was laughing and giggling the whole time! She didn't mind being wet at all! It was great...she is an awesome traveler. So now we are at our home and just trying to settle in.

Thank you all for your prayers, we appreciate it so much! God definitely protected us and gave us traveling mercies. Please pray that we get settled in and that all of our stuff shows up. I am missing all of my "bottoms." So all of my shorts and capris are missing. We're hoping that once we get things all unpacked they'll show up, but there is very little chance that they will. We're also missing some of our toiletry items. Hopefully everything will work itself out. I must just have to go and buy some pants/shorts. We could also use prayer for strength, health, and a quick adjustment to the time change. I will update you all again soon! We love you all! Here are some pictures of our travels.


Layla standing in front of our plane in the San Fransisco airport. The is the big plane that took us to Hong Kong.



Passing time in the Hong Kong airport.



We just arrived in Manila! Yeah, we made it!!!!



Layla and I on the ferry heading to Puerto Galera. This is before we got soaked from the big swells! :)

The Beginning

It is time for us Fairweathers to leave our wonderful family and friends here in the states and follow the call the Lord has given us. On Wednesday, Jan 14th, we will get on an airplane and fly to Manila, Philippines. We will arrive in the Philippines at 11:58pm on Jan. 15, Philippines time. So that means we arrive at around 2pm on the 15th Denver time. We are so excited to start the adventure the Lord is leading us on. We will be in the Philippines for 4 months so that Jack can fulfill his missions practicum that he has to do for his MDiv that he is getting from Denver Seminary. While we're in the Philippines we will be working with Mercy in Action, the same organization that we went to the Philippines with the first time. We are so excited to meet up with our friends again. We will be doing medical outreaches, working in the clinic, health teachings, teaching Bible/faith classes, and Jack will be teaching guitar. In addition to all this Jack and I will be working very hard on laying the ground work that needs to be done for the children's home that we want to open next Fall for street kids from Manila. This is our heart and we can't believe that our dream is becoming a reality. We want to thank EVERYONE that has loved, supported, and encouraged us. We are so very grateful for everything. There is no way that we could be where we are today without the loving community that God has placed around us. You guys are the best! Leaving is definitely bittersweet. While we can't wait to get to the Philippines, it is also very difficult leaving the ones we love so dearly. I know Layla will miss all her buddies so much once she figures out that she won't be seeing them for awhile. Please keep in contact with us. If you have skype give us a ring sometime...we would love to chat with all of you! We also have our own website now http://www.thehandsandfeet.org/ so please visit as we will be updating it often. I will also be blogging quite regularly as a way to let you all know how things are going. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel and arrive in the Philippines. Specifically we need prayer for Layla as we travel for over 24 hours and come in to a country where we have passed the international date line. Pray that her adjustment to the time and culture go smoothly and that she stays healthy. Please also pray that our culture shock is minimal and that we blend in with our surroundings well. Pray that we stay close to the Lord and really listen and follow His lead as we minister to the Filipino people. I could use prayer for my home sickness that I know I will struggle with. Thank you all again for your love and support! Blessings!

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!

South China Sea

So the beach was great! Jack and I both love the ocean so it was awesome to be there. We rented this little boat and a fisherman took us to this little cove that has a reef!!! For about an hour we got to snorkel around and look at all the beautiful corals and fish! It was so cool, especially since we are salt water aquarium enthusiasts. It was neat to see all these fish and corals that we have had in our fishtanks in the ocean. The beach was white sand made from all the dead corals. I must have picked up a ton of sea shells while I was there. We both could have spent forever there! We loved it. We will post some pictures on our website of our time there!!!!

March Update

Here's an update on what we've been doing for the last few weeks. We spent two weeks in a city called Baguio. While we were there we took a course called Integrated Management of Childhood Illness. It is a class that was developed by WHO and UNICEF. The program is recognized globally and it teaches health workers to assess and classify children under the age of five for health problems. It's main focus is to treat the main causes that are killing children under the age of five. For example pneumonia and diarrhea. It is really a cool way to assess, classify, and treat children. The WHO has determined the correct drugs to use for certain situations, so it really has streamlined what to use on the children and when to refer the kids to the hospital if their illness is serious. It also gives you an opportunity to counsel the mothers on proper feeding habits and simple things she can do at home for a child with a cough and cold. The countries that utilize the IMCI program have worked with the WHO and UNICEF to make it specific to their country. So the diseases we assess for and the medicines we use are specific to what is killing children in the Philippines, but it is something that we can use worldwide. It's really cool. For the entire month of March we are working with a village called Dananao. It is a resettlement village (sort of like the reservations for the Indians in America). We spent the first week going through the village and weighing all the children. Then for the next three weeks of March we spend each day (mon-fri) giving health teachings and doing bible activities to the kids under 5. We have split the village into three sections so we have completed our first week with the first section and then next week and the following week we will do the same thing for the other sections. The health teachings are on things like nutrition, dehydration, safety, cleanliness, and community discussions. We also provide a healthy marienda (which in the philippines is a snack you have between breakfast and lunch, and then also between lunch and dinner). We just provide the first marienda since we are there in the mornings. We make the marienda and then also have the mothers of the children that are low or very low weight help us prepare the meals so they can learn different things they can use to cook healthy meals for their families. Then on Saturday we use our IMCI training that I told you about and do health checkups and treatments on the children under five. Towards the end of March we will also do more health checkups that will include the children over five and the adults. Also, the last week of March we are putting on a small VBS for the village and doing a village clean up day where we'll go around and clean up the village. It has gone really well so far and it has been a lot of fun. In addition to that we are doing rotations at the hospitals and rural health units with some doctors that we know. In the hospitals we spend our time with the patients praying for them and just sitting and talking to them. At the rural health units and doctors offices we do some IMCI assessments and then shadow the doctors. That has been really cool. The rotations at the hospitals have been a little tough because we have seen some pretty bad cases and there was one little boy that we saw this week that just died from pneumonia. There is another little girl there that had a high fever, had convulsions, and does not speak now and the hospital is still not sure what the high fever is from. Sometimes it is frustrating, but we try and give that to God and pray for the patients and healthworkers. So that has been what is going on this month. Next month we will go into the mountains but I'm not sure what that will look like so I'll have to give you an update on that when we get more info. Thanks for your prayers!!!

Baguio City

Hey everyone! So we've been in Baguio City for the last two weeks taking a course on integrated management of childhood illness. The course is sponsored by WHO and UNICEF. We just finished today. We learned a lot of great information about the treatment and prevention of childhood illnesses specific to the Philippines. Baguio city is a beautiful place to stay. It is nestled in the mountains and the views are gorgeous. The weather is very similar to San Diego. It is also much drier here so that has been a nice change of pace from the hot humid weather of the other places we've been. We are leaving on Sunday to go back to Tabuk but tomorrow we are going to visit the beach of the South China Sea. We're all pretty excited about going to the beach. It is about 2 hours away from here but well worth it. I'll give an update on what the beach was like! We miss you all and thanks for your prayers! Love, the Fairweathers :)

We're in Manila!!!

Here's a little rundown on what we've been doing the last few weeks. We arrived in Manila and stayed there about two days. Manila is really hot and has a ton of people. So we spent those days going to the mall, exchanging our money, etc. After those 2 days we went down to a place called Laguna. It's about an hour south of Manila. There we spent a week at IFL. We learned how to take a 10x10 meter plot of land (with a house) and grow a garden that would hopefully provide food year round. It's called FAITH gardening which means food always in the home. I was pretty sick that week and had a really tough time eating. In addition to learning the gardening, it is an orphanage and school so we got to hang out with really great kids all week. A lot of the kids have really crazy stories, like being found in a dog cage with human bite marks and sores all over them, but despite all that they have great hearts and a huge love for Jesus. It was really a great thing to see. So after that week we went back to Manila for a day and a half and then got on a bus to take us up to Tabuk. The bus ride was 10 hours, but it was way more comfortable than the airplane (except they kept the air con on all night so it was freezing cold). So then we spent a day in Tabuk where we went to the market, internet cafe, etc. Then we went into the resettlement village (pakok) where we did our homestay for a week. That was a pretty big challenge for a lot of us. I was dealing with some depression, home sickness, and culture shock, but I've received a lot of prayer and feel a lot better now. Jack and I stayed in a really nice home that was made out of cement. The family was the son of the pastor and he and his wife are both 24 years old. They have two children. It was pretty hard because so far most places we went the people can speak English really well, but in the village most people don't. The family we stayed with did speak a little English, but it was hard to communicate. Jack and I got to plant rice fields for half a day (which we found out we were horrible at). It was actually pretty comical, we were really slow and had a hard time planting straight rows . After that day, Jack was invited by Johnny (the husband we stayed with) to plow the fields. Jack ended up being really good at that and enjoyed it. So he did that for a few days. Loida (the wife we stayed with) wouldn't let me help her do anything so I did a lot of just wandering around and sleeping. We ate rice every meal and had a lot of fish. They butured a chicken and a duck while we were there and we also ate some caribou. It was pretty interesting. So we just got back from our homestay Tuesday night. Yesterday it rained all day and Jack and I went to the market and today we are here at the internet cafe doing email and updating our website. We go on our first medical outreach tomorrow and then over the next week or week and a half we do 4 or 5 medical outreaches at some villages that are pretty close to Tabuk. Then we go to another school for two weeks to learn Child development and some primary health care in the Philippines. After that I'm not exactly sure of the plan.

Greetings!

Hey there everyone!

I am new to this and we want to keep everyone involved in what's going on in our lives! We just recently moved to Boise, ID to attend a missionary medic training school. We are super excited with what God is doing in our lives! We just finished our second week and we are now officially Wilderness First Responders (WFR). To be certified as a WFR we had to complete and 80 hour course. It was very intense and a whole lot of work, but we are now the EMTs of the wilderness. I will post some pics of our training...it was a lot of fun. The training was part of our missionary medic course that is taught through Mercy in Action. Check our their website at www.mercyinaction.org They're a great organization/school that has a heart for the poor and outcast of the world. The training that we will recieve in the next year will prepare us to be medics in third world countries. We love and miss you all!