Louie and Fe: Our God saves!!

Many of you have seen pictures and read stories about Louie and Fe, the darling brother and sister with cerebral palsy living here in Sagay. We first met them last year -- an entire family existing in squalor due to extreme poverty and multiple mental and physical handicaps.

Let me tell you, there is NO POSSIBLE WAY we could save this family! Yes, we could give them food and medicine, but we all knew that was just putting a bandaid on a gaping wound. This family needed a SAVIOR, and in a big way!

Four adults and two children lived in this shack with no running water and no electricity.

This May, their father Irenao, already unable to walk, suffered a stroke and lost complete use of his right arm and leg. During his hospitalization, their mother, mentally handicapped and partially blind, attempted to care for them, but the results were distressing. Louie and Fe began visibly regressing.

We tried hiring a friend to provide daily home care....

We considered searching for a orphanage or institution that accommodate the whole family...

We wanted a long-term solution to ensure that the children and their parents would be provided for, especially considering that someday there may not be missionaries here to care for them. Seeing that we were powerless, our prayer came from a place of real need: "God, save Your people!"

AND HE ANSWERED!!!!!!!!

My friends, our God is a real God who does real things for real people in the real world! And just when we began to lose hope, Jesus came and brought His light to the darkness of this family's plight.

Our missionary community met together with the family's extended relatives who live on the other side of the island. They are a loving network of aunts, uncles, and cousins who had agreed to care for Irenao until he recovered. But our main purpose of meeting with them carried much more weight.

We asked if they would be willing to take in Louie, Fe, and their parents: to clean, feed, and care for each of them. For life.

After those last words fell from our lips, we waited, scanning their faces to see how they might respond. They themselves are poor, living in a small home on the side of a mountain, but we could see the love they had for one another and the generosity they had already extended to Irenao.

If you were in their place, what would have been your response?

How often Our Lord asks a simple favor of me, a little sacrifice, and I refuse Him. Not wanting to submit myself to unnecessary discomfort or inconvenience, I turn away or leave the task to someone else.

I am being honest when I say that I still have so much to learn from the poor. Because my friends, after just a moment of discussion and all-around nods of approval, this family said yes!!! Yes to opening their home to these four souls in need. Yes to the coming decades of service. Yes to the dirty work, the heavy lifting, the smelly tasks.

They said yes to love.

Smiles all around! Fe and Louie with their dad in their new home.

Praising the Lord during our meeting with the family!

God, in His goodness, had planned this from the beginning. All we had to do was to pray and seek out His will, and He did the rest!

We are still praising God for this miracle, and now I must beg for your help. We are committed to continue our financial support for their daily needs: four hungry mouths to feed, diapers, and transportation to physical therapy cost about $65 per week, or $260 per month.

Please, please consider donating monthly to provide for this family!! They so desperately need your support and your prayers! Our Lord Jesus has such a special love for them, and I believe that you too will receive great blessings from Him for your generosity on their behalf.

You can donate to my mission fund at rebeccatilyou.fmcmissions.com -- just write "Louie and Fe" in the comments box.

For more on this story, you can read my teammate Melissa's post here.

How great is our GOD!!

A tribute to Father

This is an important week for our Church! This Sunday was the feast of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Jesus, and this Friday we celebrate the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This is also an important week for Father Joe, our priest, spiritual father, and mission partner here in Sagay.

In April 1989, in southern Maryland, I was born. Just a few weeks later, Fr. Joe was visiting parishes in New Jersey giving mission appeals and planning to continue on to Rome. But he never made it to Rome because he suddenly became very sick and had a series of seizures. After five days with no improvement, his host family convinced him to go to the hospital. 

Baptizing dozens of babies at a chapel Mass. Father has a deep love for the sacraments.

In Father's words, the doctor briefly examined him and then commanded the hospital staff to "get that man admitted immediately! He has two days to live!" A large mass on Father's brain made an emergency operation necessary but with little hope for success -- Father was told his chances were 50/50 and that, even if he survived, there was a great possibility that he would be left in a vegetative state.

On the eve of Corpus Christi, Fr. Joe lay awake in his hospital bed anticipating the operation that would begin the next morning. It was his first and only visit to the States, and considering the possible outcomes, he requested that his bishop in the Philippines have his body sent home for burial if he did not survive.

In his early priesthood, celebrating with a young couple after their wedding Mass.

Miraculously, the operation was 100% successful! And five days later on the feast of the Sacred Heart, his bandages were removed and doctors cleared him for discharge -- a miraculously quick recovery!!

Today, 27 years later, Fr. Joe frequently reflects on his life and how God has led him through every trial he has faced, not the least of which being his operation. This anniversary week is always a reminiscent time for him, but this year in particular because it is also the closing of a chapter in his priestly life. After nine years of faithful, tireless service to the people of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary parish in Sagay, Father is being transferred to the coastal town of Balingoan located on the mainland, less than a mile from the port. This Friday he will cross the ferry and report to his new assignment, beginning a new chapter in his life just as he did on that same day so many years ago.

A common sight: Father hiking mountains to visit the sick or in search of water sources.

God has been so good to Father Joe -- and so very good to me for allowing me to serve under his shepherding care. I have learned from Father that we can each only do so much - no one person can do everything - but that our job as Christians is never completed. That when we are unsure if some undertaking is possible, we must simply go on and trust that the Lord will take care of it.

That, in matters of mercy and service to the poor, it's better to act first and ask questions later, to not worry whether your finances and resources will suffice but to just give and give until there is nothing left.

Blessing a ferry before its first voyage. Fr. Joe's own father was a marine mechanic.

I have learned that a little humor can lighten the heaviest of life's burdens and that there's nothing a cold bottle of coke cannot fix. That the Lord affords us all sufferings for our good, and that sometimes He even allows us to "suffer comfortably." That, while we may not always see God's hand at work in our lives, when we look back we will realize that He was there all along.

Repairing a family's home after it was destroyed by a fallen coconut tree.

I love you, Father! Your new flock will be forever blessed to have you as their shepherd! I pray that the Holy Spirit will raise up many more holy priests willing to lay down their very lives every day for their people and their poor.

Snapshots

Here are a few pictures from the busy month of May!

Baby Ariel was born with a hole in his heart. We met him in January when he was just one month old; he was thin with grayish skin and rarely made a sound -- clearly a sick little baby! After two trips to a cardio-pediatrician on the mainland and four months of daily medicine, the hole has begun to close. Ariel is thriving and getting chubbier every day. Thank You, Jesus!

On the right is Onel, a young man from Malaybalay who attended our mission trip this April. Last week he accompanied us on a home visit to Michael, our friend suffering from PAN, a rare disease of the blood vessels. Although Onel himself has received little formal education and has great difficulty reading, he zealously shared a Scripture passage with Michael's family and spoke to them about repentance and the mercy of God. Evidence of what the Holy Spirit can do in a heart that is ready to receive Him! 

These are our dear friends Lilay and Jerome Siapo! Until now, they and their five children have shared a small, crowded house with their extended family. With the help of Fr. Joe's maintenance team and YOUR generous donations, they now have a home of their own. (This picture was taken after Fr. Joe blessed their new house.) Please pray for the Siapo family as they work alongside us in this mission. Jerome gave up his job this year so they can serve full-time as FMC interns while they discern whether the Lord is calling them to become missionaries!

New kicks for a cool kid

Pure joy!! Who knew simple pair of sneakers could light up a kid's face like this? Id Krism is one of our most dedicated, hardworking college students. Last week he excitedly told me that he was joining a summer basketball league, but his daily footwear consists of a pair of plastic flip flops and the dress shoes he wears to school. Today we found this pair of basketball shoes in a box of donations from the States. They're perfect fit!

Thank you to everyone who has donated to our mission! I wish you could meet Id Krism and all our friends here to see the joy in their faces. They truly feel loved by your support!

Why I'm [still] a missionary

It’s 10:48pm and I just finished rinsing the last of the lice shampoo out of my hair. It’s just a preventative measure this time, but I’m being a little extra careful because a few weeks ago at this time of night I was picking dozens of little eggs off my scalp. Lovely, I know.

I have lice on my mind because earlier today I spent hours with a young girl in fourth grade who has a good number of these little buggers all over her head, but that fact is easy to forget when you catch sight of her adorable smile and inquisitive brown eyes. Her name is Jessa.

We first met Jessa this morning up in a mountain village after attending the community’s annual fiesta Mass. My mission partner Melissa called me over to inspect this little girl’s legs. Her left leg is strangely bent and will not straighten; she walks gingerly with a painful limp. She has two large wounds, one on the outside and the other on the inside of her leg. What happened?

Jessa and her grandfather explained to us that they are only visiting in Camiguin for a few days and tomorrow will return to their home on the mainland. Five days ago at home, Jessa was leading a work horse, pulling it by its rope, when the rock she was standing on slipped and she fell, badly injuring her leg. She suspects it is broken, but they have no money to see the doctor. Jessa and her grandfather both embody the attitude I have seen countless times here among the poor -- “We’ll get along somehow. We’ll make it work.” And I understand why; what other choice do they have?

But WE have a choice. We offered them a ride to the hospital, where the pediatrician requested an X-ray for Jessa’s leg. The nurse cleaned her wounds and Melissa purchased antibiotics as well as some soap and shampoo; Jessa appeared as though she had not bathed in a very long time.

“What is your religion?” I asked her. “Are you Catholic? Do you know Jesus Christ?”

“Yes,” she smiled broadly. And so I told her, as I try to do with each of our patients, “Jesus loves you.”

Somehow in Visayan the words come across even more beautifully - “Nahigugma si Hesus kanimo.”

Jessa desperately needs someone to remind her of that fact daily. Her parents are separated, and she lives with her elderly grandfather and one sibling. She clearly has no one to teach her to bathe, no one to pick the lice out of her hair, no one to dress her wounds, and no one to bring her to a health clinic where she could be treated.

During our car ride home, I caught Jessa repeatedly stealing glances my direction, then smiling and shyly looking away. I knew why. Here was a girl encountering love freely given, possibly the only time she has experienced that kind of love from anyone other than her grandfather. I gently rubbed her back and wished for more time to get to know her.

Usually we see our medical cases all the way through, from admittance to discharge, from initial checkup to final followup. But with Jessa it is different because she and her grandfather will leave Camiguin tomorrow and we’ll likely never see them again. They have no cell phone number, no form of contact.

We can only pray that they take our advice with to bring Jessa’s X-ray to the government hospital, where she can receive medical assistance free of charge. If her leg is not fixed now, she may be crippled for the rest of her life.

Job 24:12 says that "the soul of the wounded cries for help." In this case, I think God did not want our help so much to treat the wounded body as the wounded heart. To let a little girl know she is loved, cared for, valued. To let her grandfather know that there are still people trying to live the Christian life to its fullest, to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Yes, Jesus, that is why I became a missionary. To love others as myself out of love for You!

Missions: Glorious, not glamorous

Missions is really hard.

I write this at the risk of stating the obvious because there still exists a false idea that missions is one thrilling adventure after another, hiking mountains to preach the name of Jesus to unconverted tribes all while wearing dri-fit clothing, drinking from coconuts, and singing praise songs.

Has that happened in my life? Yes. Does that accurately describe my day-to-day life? Not even close.

The founders of Family Missions Company are famous for saying that while mission life isn’t glamorous, it is glorious. This is true.

There is nothing glamorous about the stench of human waste in an overcrowded hospital ward, bedsores that refuse to heal after months of intensive treatment, and medical bills so high that you sincerely begin to wonder if God will again work a miracle and provide the funds to pay for it all.

Update: Two days later, Michael is still in a very hot, open-air transient ward
waiting for a hospital room to become available.

Yet how glorious to stand at the bedside of a dying child and know that, if Jesus soon calls him home, at least you had the opportunity to pray with him and to comfort his mother.

How glorious to be present when a stranger passes away in a neighboring cot -- to bring the love of our Almighty God to his family now drenched in grief by the loss of their father.

How glorious to assure parents who have lost all hope that God wants to provide for them, that they need not worry about the costs which they could never afford and rather focus on helping their child to heal.

I need to remember “glorious, not glamorous” on days like today. We began the day at 1:45am, transferring 21-year-old Michael (read his story here) in an ambulance across islands to a second hospital and then to a third, trying to find him the right doctor to treat his lupus and severe infections. All throughout the day we prayed and prayed for miracles, for our funds to stretch far enough to cover the bills, for an available room in the hospital, etc.

About 4pm this afternoon we had a new visitor at our house, a man whose 1-year-old girl has just been hospitalized for pneumonia, dehydration, fever, seizures, and possible brain damage. In my human weakness, I don’t want to take on this case. It means repeating the process of transferring another patient to the mainland all over again tomorrow. It means another teammate might have to accompany this family each step of the way to ensure they are receiving proper care and have their needs met. It means more expensive bills that we may not be able to pay if we do not receive enough donations.

But our God! For Him, these mountains are nothing - they melt like wax before Him. Our God is unconcerned with official diagnoses and dollar figures. Our God, using us as His instruments, wants to heal His children physically but even more so spiritually.

Thank you for becoming a part of this mission. Thank you for storming heaven with your prayers! Please help us to continue the work God has called us to do by donating to my mission fund, rebeccatilyou.fmcmissions.com. We need your help!! We are so grateful for every donation you make.

Mentored into mission

This week we brought 22 young adults from Camiguin on a mission trip to Malaybalay City! For them, it was a unique opportunity to experience the life of a missionary, to bring Jesus' love and mercy to their brothers and sisters who, not unlike them, are in great physical and spiritual need.

Home visit in Isla Bonita accompanied by three of our college students (on the left).

For us, it was the fulfillment of a dream and countless prayers. One year ago, when we launched our college ministry, we hoped that it would be much more than just financial sponsorship. We mentored the students throughout the year, watching as each one began to develop a deeper relationship with Jesus through prayer and Bible reading. We hoped to raise them up to be missionaries in their own right, teaching them to preach the Gospel and serve the needy just as every Christian is called to do by virtue of his baptism.

Students singing praise and worship songs at a Bible study.

This week, I was supremely blessed to witness these same students with whom I have journeyed over the past year doing exactly that: boldly preaching God's Word, sharing their testimonies in homes and on the streets, visiting the imprisoned and the sick, bringing food to the hungry and hope to the despairing.

For me, this mission trip was a confirmation from the Lord that our work here has made an impact. Through our witness and years of service, God is raising up more laborers for His harvest!

An enormous thank you to everyone who has donated to our college sponsorship program or to this mission trip -- the students pray for you daily!