Mercy In Action is currently sponsoring several projects in the Philippines.

We continue to support two midwife practices in Manila, run by Mercy In Action Licensed Filipina midwives who served us for years in our Manila birth center. Recently we established a third birth center in Manila as well, which is being lived in and run by a wonderful Filipina midwife who is a widow raising three children. All of these midwife services are in the inner city slums of Manila, where many women deliver without medical assistance due to lack of finances and the need for trained midwives is very high. Only recently I went with one of our midwives to a tiny house and in the dark backroom assisted a woman delivering a footling breech baby. The result was a healthy baby and happy mother and father, but the outcome could have been very different without excellent midwifery care available to the poor and disenfranchised living in places like this.

In Puerto Galera we are working on a Pilot Project with a local Filipino doctor in his clinic. Together we have developed a Mother Friendly/Baby Friendly Birth Center in this rural community by adding two homey and well equipped birth rooms to the existing clinic, open 24 hours a day for both births and medical emergencies. We are funding free maternity care for the community by paying the wages of a midwife and doctor to always be on call at no charge to the patients. This is a community where there are many woman who still give birth at home unattended by any trained person, and often receive no prenatal care. By removing the economic barrier of having to pay a birth attendant, and by reaching out with free prenatal care as well, we hope to improve the maternal and infant mortality rates in our community.

We also do regular medical outreach to several different tribes around the area. Some are near the road and some are a day or more hike into the mountains. Part of our outreach is to bring food to the families with pregnant mothers or malnourished children.

And of course we do what all missionaries do; we simply live with the people. The people of this community are very open hearted and friendly, and we have made many friends. The neighbors chat with us, and we share food. Often people in the surrounding area bring sick children to our door. One night recently an acquaintance brought his child who had stuck a large bead way up her nose (Ian figured out a way to get it out; they were so thankful).One night excited men came by to show Scott the two 6 foot long poisonous snakes (Cobras) they had just caught behind our house! So sometimes we help them and sometimes they help us. And each human encounter is a chance to experience God's love together!