Christmas Day in the Philippines

Wishing you all a very Happy Holiday Season
Dec 24th it rained all day but Christmas day was beautiful and sunny so we went for a swim. You may or may not believe this but we would have much preferred to be with family in crispy cold Manitoba for Christmas.

Power On!

Our untrustworthy electrical service is back on, thank you Jesus! We have enjoyed three nights with air-conditioning already. We see this as a Christmas gift from above as we were anticipating the possibility of no power for up to three months. Now we are waiting to see our next electrical bill it seems that the customers may have to help pay for all the damage. This would mean that although we have had no power for about three weeks our bill may be more than when we did have power. Not quite like Manitoba Hydro!

Typhoon Utor

The winds were not as extreme this time but the flooding was a little frightening. It rained hard on and off for hours but just as it was getting dark it started gushing into our yard and within minutes our home was surrounded with water and threatening to come inside. I was standing in knee deep water when I took this picture the muddy water came within one inch of the floor when it started going down again. And sure enough Veronica was at a birth during the whole thing once again.

I don't know about you but this does not taste like my grandma's cooking!

Bagong Po-ok "New Village"

This is a village that our family is going to be hiking into every Monday afternoon. Our goal is to reflect the love of Jesus as we build relationships with the Manyun people and provide checkups. More great photos at Our Web Album

Typhoon Durian

Walking to see mom morning after storm. Check out "Our Web Album" for more typhoon damage photos. (click on link to the right)

I Cut Down My First Banana Tree!

This past Saturday I helped build a church for a tribe up in the mountains who's previous church was destroyed during a typhoon.
The towel was one of the tools hanging off my tool belt its for wiping sweat every couple seconds and the bananas, well the tree was in the way so I cut it down.

I spent most of the afternoon on the roof with the man on the left and no I did not go barefoot!
The man on the right is Pastor Toto he is the pastor of the church we've been attending.

comfort

Every Sunday, the children in Sunday school provide special music for the worship service.
Last week we experienced another brown out which left us without power for the night. This means no aircon or fans! Extremely hot and sticky! We were trying not to be too discouraged!
That day I went to see one of the women from church who had recently had her 7th child and I knew that we expect way too much! Her living room consisted of a concrete floor and one grass mat, absolutely no furniture at all. The bedroom for the whole family was a room with a bamboo floor, open to the ground outside, one bamboo bed, one hammock. The kitchen floor was completely mud and gravel, a primitive table, not one chair.
Later we were led to another buntis (pregnant woman) to do a prenatal. Her home consisted of an 8x8 shack on stilts, for every piece of bamboo on the floor there was an opening to the ground below.
It was a stark reminder of the poverty! Why am I complaining about no fan for one night? What does God want us to do? 

Curt as caregiver!

Veronica was away for a few days in Manila doing a well woman clinic. This is how Curt kept track of the kids!
Everyone made it safely out of the sand by the end of the day!
We are thankful to have a place for the kids to run, swim and play nearby.

We are noticing stings from tiny jellyfish, not enough though to stop us from swimming in the ocean.
 

Nerissa

Notice how the baby is wrapped and tied after it is born. There is a tie around the waist, knees and ankles to keep the blanket snug. The babies calm down immediately. I've been very busy this last week with births, prenatal checkups and well-woman exams. People here are very appreciative of the care we provide. Every time we make a home visit merienda (snack) is offered. Usually a coke and skyflakes (crackers) are served. This is great unless you have 5 home visits in one morning. This means 5 cokes! 

Fresh Coconuts!

We had our first taste of fresh coconut milk the other day. Our nieghbors taught Curt and the kids how to open the coconuts. The lady with the big knife is Grace and her husband Charlie is standing in back, Grace is a local midwife that Veronica will be spending a lot of time with during our time here.

Happy Birthday Alayna

Alayna was pampered on her birthday by the beach vendors.
For just 500 ps (about $12) she had her hair put into braids and then given a one hour massage. 

Talking via the internet with grandma!

We are happy to be online at home now. 

Photos

Finally, some new photos, click the link at the right!

Old and New

From Suburban to Tricycab!
Why don't we drive these things in North America? Rather efficient way to haul 7 people!

Day 11

The inside of our house is being painted and Curt must have used a dozen tubes of caulking to fill holes. We have come across a number of creatures. Roach spray has been used on a mouse and on cockroaches!
People have been friendly and we’ve met lots of our neighbours. We go to the main road almost every day to buy our fruits, vegetables, eggs and meat for the day. There are sari saris (little stores) everywhere.
We are learning how to get around by tricycab. Mercy also has an ambulance which we ride in occasionally. We had 18 people in it the other day! FUN!
Life is very different here but I think we’ll do fine!

We have arrived!

We have safely arrived in Puerto Galera. All of our luggage arrived too. We will post some pictures soon. I'm using someone else's computer. We spent the first night in a beach cottage along with 2 cockroaches! We are waiting for our house to be cleaned hoping to move in this afternoon.

We're on our way!

As you can see some of us are finding this flying business quite relaxing.


We have arrived in Vancouver safe and sound. Veronica's cousin Leo and his girlfriend came to visit us at the Vancouver airport making our six hour layover more enjoyable.

Back in Manitoba!

We’ve been back for about two weeks already. I (Curt) have been working two days a week at a hog farm where my brother Keon works. A little different than pastoring I must admit! However, one really neat thing about this job is that a recently immigrated Philippino couple work there as well. So coffee break and lunch times usually include some language teaching. Only God could have planned an opportunity like this.

Next week Saturday we will be trying out our two-stepping moves at the Barn Dance / Hog Roast Fundraiser that my family has been busy planning. This money will be used for start-up costs. Then in 3 weeks we fly to Manila Philippines. For those of you wondering about our financial situation we still need $400/month for living expenses in Manila. Thank you all for your faithful generousity.

Coming Home Soon!

Coming home in two weeks then leaving for the Philippines about five weeks later. We are planning for a October tenthish departure.
These last weeks here in Boise will be intence please pray. Curtis has 8 days of Wilderness First Responder training and Veronica has morning seminars including large asignments every day. The kids are getting their own version of missionary training put on by the Children in Crisis students.

Fixing Pigs Feet

Not quite plastic surgery but valuable skills none the less. Last week Veronica and I got to learn how to stitch up a large wound. I'm afraid our patients did not survive the procedure!

Today I and the rest of the Mission Medics received some basic skills on how to help a mother in labour and what to do in case of certain complications. I must say, I think I had one up on the single students who have never attended a birth!

Prayer

Our last 2 weeks here at the end of August are going to be extreme! Would you pray for us and our children? Curt will be in Wilderness First Responder training from 8am-10pm for 8 days straight. Veronica will be in seminars every day, with an assignment every afternoon. Our children will be in a fun missions boot camp for the mornings and with Veronica in the afternoons. We don't want to be stressed about it. God will provide our strength.

Praise the Lord . . .

for air conditioning in our house, our classroom (AC in the truck is broken). It has been close to or over 100 degrees F for over 2 weeks straight, no rain, no break. Last Saturday it was 40 C, Sunday 41 C, Monday 40 C. Prep for the Philippines except it is very dry here.

Ouch That Hurt!

Yesterday, Veronica and I got to practice poking needles into each other’s arms. Giving your wife a needle just isn’t the same as giving a cow a needle back in my farming days! Today I also got to see first hand what a person’s eardrum looks like. Wow, Mission Medic studies have been amazing! I never dreamed that I would one day be interested in this kind of stuff. I’m kind of taking a liking to it. I have been learning about loads of diseases and illnesses and what to look for when assessing people. Our focus thus far has been mainly on children. When we come home in September I could check to make sure you don’t have scabies or marasmus!

New photos

click the link!

Simple Solutions?

During our first week here Vicki made this remarkable statement:
If one person would devote their life to teaching parents in India how to treat diarrhea in their children, they would save more lives than all of the doctors in India.
(The treatment is simple: 1 litre water, 8 level tsp. sugar, 1 level tsp. salt. Mix it and have child drink often.)

God is good

We made it through a cold camping weekend in the mountains with everyone from Mercy in Action. Great bonding and appreciating God's beauty in nature time.
We did a 5 mile hike, up rocks, over logs, through puddles, across bridges, down steep paths, out into a clearing looking over a valley with cliffs in the distance and back again. All of our kids (except Simeon) hiked most of the way! We're proud of them!
We love what God is teaching us here! It's powerful and intense. Not a lot of time to spare.

Up and Running in Boise, ID

We left our home country of Canada on the night of June 6th. We had a long, tiring and breathtakingly beautiful three day drive through many mountainous areas like Yellowstone National Park where we stopped to see Old Faithful. We spent our first night at Kathy White’s home in Sheridan, Wyoming as planned. We arrived in Boise on Friday the 9th and had all of Saturday to settle into our new American home before meeting the rest of the Mercy in Action crew Sunday evening at a “welcome here bar-b-q”. One of the first things we did when settling into our new home was hang a Canadian flag in our living room. You might be interested to know that there are 9 Canadians out of a group of 41 people who have come to train with Mercy in Action.

us

Curtis & Veronica

Grateful

It's wonderful to have family and friends encouraging us and standing behind us as we prepare to go with Mercy in Action. Thank you.

Here's the clan!

Left to right:
Josiah, Alayna, Amber, Anessa, Simeon
Aren't they beautiful? We love 'em!

Hi everyone!

We thought it would be fun to host a blog so that we can keep in touch!