Nahulog sa kapayas!

[Translation: "He fell out of a papaya tree!"

This little boy and his parents have reason to celebrate tonight! Six-year-old Francisco fractured his femur two days ago when he fell out of a papaya tree. His family had no other food to eat with their rice, so he was climbing their tree to pick some of the fruit when the accident happened.

My first ambulance ride! Francisco didn't complain once during the five-hour journey from Camiguin to the mainland, including the one-hour ferry crossing.

Praise Jesus, we were able to secure two packs of blood for transfusion before and after the surgery (Blood is hard to come by here, and you typically must provide your own donors. One of our friends generously offered to be a donor for Francisco.)

Francisco successfully underwent surgery this morning, receiving stainless steel implants that will be removed in one year. He is doing well and should be discharged on Sunday.

I loved having the opportunity to be a missionary witness in the hospital, praying the Rosary, reading the Bible, and speaking about the Lord's goodness both with Francisco's parents and with the other patients in the ward.

Indeed, how good is the Lord to entrust us with the care of His precious children! Please pray that this experience of God's merciful love will draw Francisco's family into a closer relationship with one another and with the Lord!

Rex: Becoming a man of God

[Part 2 of our Christmas campaign]

We were only too happy to bring Rex and his family a Christmas care package! Rex is a phenomenal young man who we are sponsoring in college and whose life has been dramatically changed this year by Jesus Christ.

On a recent afternoon, Rex dropped by our cottage. As we chatted on the porch steps, he pointed out a group of boys walking by, clearly the “tough guys” of the neighborhood, with whom Rex is well-acquainted. Although these days, his free time is occupied by prayer and Scripture reading (he’s currently reading through the book of Isaiah), it was not long ago that he could be found on the streets late at night, drinking, smoking, and getting in fights with the other boys. Noting the guys passing by, he said, “They’re still living like that because they don’t understand. But after they experience something, they will change.”

“What is it that they need to experience?” I asked him. “What caused you to change your life?”

Visiting Rex (white shirt) and his brother Ricky for Christmas.

Rex became serious and answered, “Three things, ma’am. First, I knew my dad wouldn’t change if I did not change.” After Rex’s mother abandoned the family # years ago, his father developed an alcohol problem. Throughout high school, Rex worked to provide food for his father and little brothers, and eventually chose to leave his delinquent lifestyle to be a good example to his father.

“Second, because I wanted to finish high school and go to college. And third...” and here he paused, choosing his words with great care, “because the missionaries came. Because of you.”

I could say nothing in response -- speechless because, by the grace of God, I knew it to be true. I recall Rex in my senior English class last year, clearly a young man wanting to be good but caught in a sinful lifestyle. I remember the tough love that we showed him, and how our words did not fall on deaf ears.

Rex has a heart of service - he daily volunteers to bring medicine to Louie and Fe.

Today, Rex speaks about what Jesus has done in his life and how, at 16, he is a changed man. He is learning the power of forgiveness as he seeks to forgive both his mother, who left him in childhood, and his old friends who have hurt him. He speaks with conviction because he knows from experience that there is no better life than this -- to walk humbly with Christ.

Children of mercy

[Part 1 of our Christmas campaign]

Louie is a 13-year-old boy. His sister Fe is 10. For their entire lives they have lain next to each other on the bamboo floor of their home, unable to walk, talk, or feed themselves.

Both Louie and Fe have cerebral palsy. We met their family several months ago and, in all honesty, were overwhelmed by their tremendous need.

Their father Irenao is physically disabled and unable to walk but a few steps with great difficulty. His wife is mentally disabled and cannot care for her family. The grandmother is elderly and has been living with tuberculosis for several years. Louie and Fe’s older sister Leah is 15 years old and attends school -- she is in 6th grade.

We visited their family as part of our Christmas campaign, hoping to provide both spiritual and material support. They survive primarily on potatoes that grow on their land. Irenao spends each day harvesting and preparing the potatoes, while the women take turns walking a long distance to fetch water for cooking and cleaning. Louie and Fe lie motionless except for occasionally waving their arms or legs; their limbs have become very rigid and almost locked in place, as they have no access to proper care, therapy or medicine.

Lilay and Jerome Siapo ministering to Irenao and his wife.

When we arrived on December 24, they were preparing for a big day. The Sunday after Christmas, at their town’s fiesta, the parents planned to be married in the Catholic Church and to have Louie and Fe baptized! Our friends and ministry partners, Jerome and Lilay Siapo, excitedly agreed to handle all the preparations, getting proper clothing for each of them and even a small wedding gift - bowls, plates, and drinking cups as they had none in their home.

The week after Christmas, we brought the entire family to the hospital for checkups. Louie was admitted for a few days for pneumonia, and Fe received an assortment of medicines for bronchitis and asthma.

My mom (!) helping me to give Fe her medicine.

Despite the severity of their condition, Louie and Fe have quickly won the hearts of everyone in our company helping to care for them. We introduced our sponsored college students to the family, and they immediately offered to help out in any way possible! Our team of caregivers continues to grow as Lilay, Jerome, and several students assist us in visiting the family’s home three times each day to feed and bathe the children and administer their medicine.

Our awesome college students helping to give Louis and Fe their night dose of meds.

The students have remarked that, although they themselves are poor, this family lives in much greater poverty. I am inspired by these young people’s eagerness to serve those in need, to have mercy and compassion on the poor and suffering. It seems only appropriate that this year, which Pope Francis has deemed the Jubilee of Mercy, we would bring the mercy of our Heavenly Father to His sons and daughters, and in particular to this very special son and daughter - to Louie and Fe.

Christmas joy!

December marked my first Advent and Christmas in the Philippines! Our biggest project this month by far was our Christmas campaign.

Thanks to our generous benefactors, we were able to raise money to provide 30 families with complete care packages of toiletries, food items, etc. We also sponsored 100 smaller care packages that our priest Father Joe distributed to homes throughout Sagay. It sounds simple, but for the recipients it was a tremendous and unexpected blessing.

Buying everything from spaghetti sauce to shampoo -- in bulk!

When we visited families' homes on December 23 and 24, several were already preparing what would be their Christmas meal, which consisted solely of kamotes - a starchy, native potato. Kamotes grow plentifully in the mountains, and are the most common food option when a family is too poor to afford vegetables, fish, or even rice. One man explained that he eats just kamotes for every meal, aside from an occasional banana. Sometimes he and his children eat nothing at all.

One mother shouted joyfully when she saw we had brought her a bag of rice. Imagine her surprise when we revealed the additional spaghetti, canned meats, and packs of soup!

A few of our sponsored college students holding boxes of groceries.

The most amazing part of the Christmas project was getting to bring Christ into the homes we visited. We asked the families to join us in a brief Bible study, and they were very glad to do so. We read the prophet Isaiah's foretelling of the coming Messiah, the Prince of Peace, and Zechariah's prophecy of the light that would soon illumine our world's darkness with the birth of Christ.

Jerome and Lilay, our good friends who assisted us in the home visits.

What good news of great joy for us to announce to these families! Poverty, broken relationships, unforgiveness among friends and neighbors -- all of these Jesus came to restore, heal, and save. And we can be the principal witnesses of this salvation!

Thank you to all those who gave so generously to our Christmas campaign! Stay tuned...I'll be posting stories of individual families we visited to show you the joy that they received this Christmas.

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and his name will be called 'Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.'" - Isaiah 9:6

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!

This November marked my first Thanksgiving in the Philippines! Last year at this time I was 30,000 feet in the air, on my way home for Christmas, so my "turkey dinner" was a little more like mystery meat on a plastic tray. But this year we celebrated in true American style!

My teammate Genevieve and I island-hopped to visit our missionary community in Malaybalay. Sammy and Lindsey Romero are fantastic missionaries and good friends, and we had a blast preparing the Thanksgiving meal together with their three adorable children.

The kids and I had fun making handprint turkeys. What are you thankful for?

Ovens are not readily available in the Philippines -- at least, not among the poor -- but the Romeros were recently blessed with a crockpot and a toaster oven, which made it possible for us to cook many of our favorite holiday dishes. Lindsey baked delicious pies, substituting kalabasa (native squash) for pumpkin, and the turkey that Sammy slaughtered in the backyard graced the center of our Thanksgiving spread.

Typical Thanksgiving pose, peeling potatoes with a dishtowel over my shoulder.

Of course, we had plenty of leftovers and were more than happy to share our Thanksgiving treats with Filipino friends, for whom "American-style" food is quite a novelty.

I pray you had a blessed Thanksgiving with your loved ones. May we carry the spirit of thankfulness into our day-to-day lives, always remembering the goodness of God and what He has done for us!

Jesus in the dentist's chair

As I type this, I am aware of that odd sensation of cement smoothed over the top of two of my molars, and my mind begins to recount the events of the day. After my morning prayer and a rushed breakfast of fresh bread, I made my way to the hospital for my first “real” dental appointment since becoming a foreign missionary. Last week my teammate and I happily discovered the office of Dr. Monsanto, whose brother is Msgr. Monsanto assigned here in the diocese of CDO, and assured her of our quick return.

Our Lady, Mary Mediatrix of All Grace, similar to the image adorning the door of the dentist office.

I wasn’t too worried about the appointment because I could clearly see God’s hand at work, helping us to find this dentist whose office is tastefully decorated with pictures and  statues of Our Lady and the Infant Jesus, not to mention a small plate of scapulars conveniently placed on the front desk, should any of her clients lack that blessed object which is so commonly worn here in the Philippines.

Still, my general demeanor must have betrayed any lingering sense of foreboding, as Dr. Monsanto felt it necessary to reassure me that I had nothing to fear. She planned to fill two purportedly “big” cavities and to conquer the other lesser one at a later date.

I was surprised how quickly she began drilling the first tooth, with no preemptive novocaine shot, but overhearing her conversation with her assistant, I presumed, through my limited knowledge of Visayan dental vocabulary, that she intended to drill a little on the surface of each tooth before going deeper and requiring anesthetic. After a while the drilling sensation began to morph into a slight pain, and then a much sharper one as she neared the nerve.

It must be getting close now, I considered, as I prepared myself for the pinch of the injection and the ensuing numbness that would soon overtake one side of my mouth. But, unperturbed, she continued drilling.

“Gami lang, ha?” she politely noted, as if asking my permission to proceed for just a little while longer. I gave an affirmative response, or as much as I could muster with all manner of dental hardware bracing my jaws apart.

As I closed my eyes and began to contemplate the loving face of Christ, I felt a calmness settle over me. My attempted mental rosary had come to naught, as the increasing pain made it difficult to focus on the words of the prayers, but the face of my dear Jesus was somewhat easier to hold within my concentration. I thought, too, of a few beloved friends here on Camiguin who are in great need of conversion, and I begged the Lord to let me offer up this small sacrifice for them, that their souls might receive more of His grace for repentance.

Eventually the dentist finished drilling; the anticipated anesthetic never came. When she proclaimed her work completed, I conveyed my honest surprise.

“Oh, I’ve heard you use novocaine in the U.S. when filling cavities. We don’t do that here in the Philippines,” she explained rather nonchalantly, with only a hint of hesitation in her voice as she observed my reaction.

I didn’t know what to think, except that, 1) I was and still am astonished at the surprisingly bearable degree of pain brought about by the drilling of two apparently large cavities, and 2) I was grateful for this small but truly meaningful sacrifice that I could offer up for the conversion of sinners.

I recall once reading that now-Saint Padre Pio would not accept any anesthetic, even during more serious and extremely painful dental procedures, due to his concern that onlookers might irreverently inspect his stigmata, the wounds of Christ that he bore on his own hands and feet. For some reason, that anecdote has always impressed me because of his decision to willingly undergo suffering out of love for Our Lord. I cannot boast to possess the same fortitude as that great saint, such as would inspire me for pious reasons to submit myself to greater pain than must necessarily be borne, but I am humbled that Jesus would allow me to have this experience, to unite my suffering with His in a more intimate manner than before.

Every Friday, as I meditate on the Stations of the Cross, I read the words of St. Josemaria Escriva: 

“Love sacrifice; it is a fountain of interior life. Love the cross, which is an altar of sacrifice. Love pain, until you drink, as Christ did, the very dregs of the chalice.”

My Jesus, may I desire more and more to offer up my small pains for the glory of Your kingdom!

Jesus on night adventures

It's already dark out, but we promised to bring medicine to our student Recardo who is awaiting the results of his MRI, so we call our new friend, a motorcycle driver, to ask for a ride to Recardo's mountain home. It's very muddy from a week's worth of typhoon-like rain, and we're praising God as the bike slips and slides along the unpaved road - thank You, Jesus, for a skilled driver!

Rodito driving his parents and little sister.

We deliver the medicine and check in on the family. It's still difficult and very painful for Recardo to walk. I ask his sister Gelaiza why she has been absent all week from school -- I've missed her in my English class. A toothache, she explains, and my flashlight cuts through the darkness of the night as I inspect the offending tooth. We'll check at the health center to see when the dentist will next be visiting our town, we assure her.

We play with the littlest ones who are scampering around outside the house; last week we were able to bring backpacks and notebooks for the children -- much-coveted school supplies and unaffordable for families like this one. Their need is so great. I take a turn holding Andi, Recardo's baby niece, and reflect that just a few months ago I met her for the first time in the hospital when she was admitted for pneumonia. How good is the Lord! I marvel at the way He has drawn us into this family's life.

Recardo outside his home.

Before leaving, we pray for healing for both Recardo and Gelaiza and then hop back on the motorcycle. What a blessing that our driver Rodito has now accompanied us on several such home visits and witnessed our mission in action! On the ride home I'm feeling a little bold, so I ask him, "Can you read?"

"Conti," he responds. Only somewhat.

"Do you know how to pray the Rosary? Would you like one?" I press on. His affirmative response is all I need, and when we arrive back at the house we invite him inside for his first catechesis. A few minutes later he walks out with a glow-in-the-dark Rosary to grace his motorcycle on night rides, as well as a Rosary guide to assist him in praying. There's something stirring within his heart, it seems, and we resolve to continue looking for opportunities to invite him into a deeper relationship with Jesus.

What a blessed evening! Just another night here on mission in Camiguin.