Philippines Medical and Dental Mission 2023

  Our Last Day in the Philippines !    12 days of our Medical and Dental mission has ended. However, has the mission truly ended ? On the contrary: there will be a follow up of all the patients seen by the BL church and we pray that by God's grace there would be a transformation of many hearts. Our team members and the BL team conducted an evaluation of the mission. Our medical team saw 572 patients and the dental team saw 332 patients. From the dental side we did 625 extractions and 89 fillings. The medical team did more surgical treatment this time. Both teams embraced each other for their faithful heart of devotion for God's glory in the process. We thanked God for His grace that we are adopted as His children. We are also very thankful to the many back home who have prayed for us and given so generously to our mission. Van Hua

 4 October 2023 How time flies. Today is the last day of our mission. Praise God that Van is feeling better but unfortunately he is still not well enough to join us in serving at the clinic. It has been a challenging day for the doctors. There were cases where no treatment could be provided due to the complexity of the illness. Michael saw a lady in her thirties with lymphoma. She was diagnosed 2 yrs ago but unfortunately due to the lack of transport to hospital and her husband abandoning her with 4 kids, she did not proceed with the prescribed treatment. Her condition has gotten worse and is now in late stage with poor prognosis. Pastor Christian spent some time sharing the gospel with her and she came to accept Christ. Praise the Lord! Betty saw a 9 year old girl , brought in by her grandmother, with exceptionally poor vision. She has lost her sight in her left eye from an accident, and her right eye is very myopic. Arrangement has been made for us to pay for her to get a pair

3rd October 2023 Today is our second last clinic day at Marilao.  Our dentist Dr Van is still sick with gastro and by God's grace we are glad that he is improving as he stayed at the hotel to rest. I saw a lady with ENT surgeon Dr Leo with left tonsillar cancer and lymph node spread. We take it for granted the good health care in Australia. It is more challenging to have someone with a serious condition assessed in the Philippines because of financial difficulties. Our hearts are broken to see someone with a potentially treatable condition not able to access appropriate treatment. We continue to see patients with diabetes and hypertension who cannot afford their medications due to finances and let their medical condition worsen. We encourage them to attend MSF so that they can obtain appropriate monitoring, medications and hear the word of God for this is spiritual food which gives eternal life. We continue to emphasize the importance of healthy diets in the health talks and consul

2 October 2023 We started the first day of medical and dental clinic at Marilao with one man down but not beaten!  Dr Van, our dentist came down with a series of symptoms that made him bedridden.  But we shoulder on with anticipation and concern how we can get through the day with only two dentists and a full load of dental patients that have already registered for the morning. Our dental nurse Cheryl stepped up and extracted a few teeth. By the grace of God, we finished both medical and dental patients well before time for lunch! Hard to believe, but it is true, and we thank God for less challenging patients, so the working pace was faster. Working in an indoor air-conditioning environment definitely improved our energy levels.  This is despite the fact that a few members of the team did not rest well through the night at the hotel.  The BL headquarter at Marilao has undergone some renovation and made it feasible for all medical and dental patients to work together, with our pharmac

Sunday October 1, 2023 Our last day of rest and recharge for the coming week to serve in Marilao. We chose to attend GCF Makati today for Sunday service on recommendation by Pastor Fred from BL. Amazingly, it is mission week - October 2023 at GCF, our God is sovereign!   Pastor Rommel Yazon from Greenhills Church gave a sermon about missions based on Isaiah 6:1-13, “Here I am, send me” about Isaiah’s commission to serve God, encouraging us to discover how God is calling each of us into ministry. Mission is difficult and can come at a high cost as messengers of the Lord, but we are forgiven, redeemed through Jesus’ sacrifice and have Good news to proclaim to the world. Pastor Yazon’s summary of a missional Christian is one who: Prays, sends, welcomes, goes and mobilises. Our afternoon study from 1 Peter 2:4-10, was about Jesus being a living stone, rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to Him. In a similar way we too, through believing in Christ the cornerstone,