Today was our third clinic day at Trece Matires where we spent the whole day seeing 100 medical and 54 dental patients.

 The day started with a team prayer dedicating the day to the Lord, followed by a health talk by Michael on the topic of “Healthy Diet”. Unfortunately the Filipinos have very poor awareness of healthy eating and tend to eat foods that are very high in carbohydrates (rice), sugar, and fat (fried foods). Rice and sugar snacks are relatively affordable even in the slums and is the likely contributing cause of obesity and diabetes. Michael emphasised the importance of a well balanced diet, as well as regular exercise to raise awareness of healthy living within this community.

Betty also delivered a talk to educate the community about hypertension. Unfortunately Filipinos often struggle to understand the need to treat chronic conditions and are often very non compliant with their medications. 21% of Filipinos are estimated to suffer from hypertension in this country, and many are poorly controlled. By the grace of God we have been able to work with the local helpers here to establish the Medical Support Fellowship (MSF), where we would support and supply the patients’ medications and invite them to attend bible studies. Through this program, we have been able to see lost souls receiving Jesus as their personal Saviour, as well as improved health in the patients within this fellowship. Praise God for this program and pray that this will continue to serve this community physically and spiritually!

 Personal testimonies were delivered in Tagalog and all the volunteers worked hard to spread the gospel to all the patients. Praise God that the medical and dental clinics ran very smoothly despite the hot and humid conditions.

 Notable medical patient cases today include a young 37 yo female with a large thyroid goitre with possible airway obstruction. Unfortunately the access to non urgent elective surgery here is near impossible and all we were able to do was administer ventolin to improve her breathing. Leo removed a cotton tip foreign body in a patient’s ear which has been stuck inside for 4 years! On the same patient, she had a benign sebaceous cyst on her face and was very keen to have this excised. Under ‘relatively sterile’ conditions, minor surgery was performed under local anaesthetic and the whole lesion was excised successfully despite the poor lighting!

 Unfortunately there was a patient with months of weight loss, abdominal pain, blood in stools. He had a firm mass in his abdomen and overall his symptoms all suggest a malignant tumour. Unlike Australia, residents here are turned away from public hospitals even with problems like this unless they have sufficient money to cover for their own health care … unfortunately there was very little that could be done for this patient.

 Van extracted 11 teeth from one patient today - a mission record! All 3 dentists had their usual challenging dental extractions, but perhaps the most striking observation is that many very young children aged 7 or 8 are fully compliant with sitting still in the chairs (without their parents sometimes!), having local anaesthetic injections and having their teeth extracted while fighting back their tears. Truly brave children!

In the evening, the team members were  served with a delicious dinner cooked by the volunteers, followed by an amazing time of fellowship with the local volunteers and workers from Bukang Liwayway. Carrie orchestrated a team game that was thorough enjoyed by everyone!

 Praise the Lord for His amazing Grace and provisions during this trip. Praying that more lost souls will be reached to bring more glory to Him!

Leo Pang