Staying At Home

In obedience to public health advisory, families stay inside their homes until the lockdown is eased.  Because of panic, no consideration nor exemption is given to families with members who have contagious diseases other than COVID 19 or mental disorders.  So it happens that families are forced to stay together inside small one-room houses with poor ventilation 24 hours a day for months. 

An otherwise healthy boy, after 3 months of lockdown, came down with a fever but because medical check up has become more expensive with the added cost of COVID screening, personal protective equipment and disinfection, his family chose to just keep him at home and give him herbal tea. 

After 4 weeks, he developed headache and started having altered mental state.  Mission volunteers who happened to come to the village to distribute sacramentals and remind people about prayers, are invited to see the bedridden patient.  

The family had no money because their livelihood was badly affected by the pandemic.  The mission brought the child to the hospital where he was seen by a doctor and diagnosed as having bacterial meningitis.  Diagnostic tests show tuberculosis.  

Locking people down on a poorly ventilated and congested community is not healthy.  Can this situation be changed?

  

Kawas Mission

St. John the Baptist Chapel

Angie Village, Barangay Kawas, Municipality of Alabel, Province of Sarangani

Everlasting thanks to the donation from the children of St. Michael's School in UK, 

donation from French mission volunteers Nolwenn, Agnese, Virginie and Marie,

and the labor of the members of the Apostles of Mary Catholic Youth League 

and the Eucharistic Crusaders

and to the lot donor, Mrs. Angie Mayol

April 18, 2017:  Procession to beg for the end of the drought and to beg for the grace of conversion of the patients and their families.

Procession ends in the tent chapel dedicated to St. John the Baptist. 

This chapel crashed down after a recent tornado hit it.

New chapel built to replace the tent chapel that crashed.

Thanks to the generosity of the children of St. Michael's Primary School in Burghclere, UK, under the direction of Sr. Mary Elizabeth.

Current and former members of the Apostles of Mary (including Bro. Matthias) at work. 

The rush to finish the painting before the chapel fiesta.

Legion of Mary reviewing the candidates for Baptism.

June 24, 2016:  Baptisms administered by Rev. Fr. John Timothy Pfeiffer

Consecration of the families

June 25:  wedding

The bride - newly baptized - a convert from paganism.

Make of our hearts one heart....

A happy patient enjoys the fiesta meal.

Daisy Delovio, a 15-year old member of the Eucharistic Crusade, takes charge of the fiesta program as the Master of Ceremony. 

Mothers dancing...

The Altar server poses for posterity...

   

   Thank you very much from the bottom of our hearts!

May God bless all who do us good!

September 14-20

Led by Providence

Julie, a heavily pregnant woman with uterine tumor traveled three hours from Rizal Province to Quezon City to visit her cousin who was working as a domestic helper to beg for a loan to pay for her surgery.  Her money was just enough to take her to the terminal.  Penniless, she walked the long road towards her cousin's place of work.  Along the way, she passed by a Church.  She noted that it was Catholic and decided that she would visit it after she saw her cousin.  She arrived to find her cousin occupied so she had to wait until her cousin finished her task.  While waiting, she traced back her steps towards the Church she passed by, went inside, and knelt in prayer.  She immediately noticed that it was different from any other Church because it was surrounded by reverent silence.  Afterwards she returned to her cousin who told her there was no money to lend to her.  After receiving fare money to go home, she sadly went back to the Church to pray.  As she went out, she met a woman who started a friendly conversation with her.  She did not know the woman but as she told her sad story, she was given a number to call.  She did not know the name of the Church but the woman gave her my name, promising that our mission helps sick people in dire need.  On September 11, she sent a humble message appealing for help.  

On September 14, a volunteer from Tanay conducted a telephone interview to ascertain Julie's needs.  On September, she was evaluated by an obstetrician-gynecologist who advised surgery.  Afterwards, the volunteer conducted a home visit.  She discovered that Julie and her family lived in a very small hut which was poorly ventilated. had recently lost her home to a fire accident and that her husband's income was not consistent and was insufficient for the family's needs.   She and her family listened attentively to the catechism lesson taught by the volunteer.

Today, September 21, Julie is in a public hospital in Morong and is being prepared for surgery, waiting for blood donation.

Safe delivery

On September 14, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, mission staff and some patients in General Santos joined in praying the Rosary for the safe delivery of the wife of our mission bursar with placenta previa.  All tension was relieved when the baby girl was delivered normally.  The baby was baptized on September 19 by Fr. Timothy Pfeiffer and the family prepared a feast to thank all who had helped pray for the safe delivery.  

Infected Umbilicus

An unbaptized baby in the public hospital in General Santos was referred to us for assistance.  We provided the medicines and medical supplies needed.  The child's father is a non-practicing Catholic and the mother a non-practicing protestant.  Both have decided to have the child baptized by a Catholic priest so catechism lessons will be provided.

Infant Baptism
An army captain suffered a vehicular accident and much of his savings were spent during his hospitalization.  Just before he could fully recover, his pregnant wife was rushed to the hospital and needed an emergency caesarian section.   Their health insurance did not cover all the cost and they had to beg at the office of the social welfare for help.  Still, after the social welfare discount, there was an excess hospital bill that remained to be paid.  So they turned to the mission.  On September 20, the captain attended Holy Mass at Holy Family Chapel in Tacloban and afterwards asked Fr. Ghela for the sacrament of Baptism for his newborn baby.  Fr. Ghela agreed and the Christening was then scheduled.

Mystical Rose
On the evening of September 18, a college professor in deep thoughts walked slowly down the road.  As he passed by the little grotto of the Mystical Rose, a mission volunteer recognized him and greeted him.  It was a happy meeting.  This college professor had once attended the first conference and Mass of Bishop Fellay in General Santos in the year 1997.  Since then, there had been no more communication with him.  At length, he revealed that his thoughts were occupied by a certain patient who was in extreme need. He took pity and wanted to send help but as he had spent his savings on his own son's neurosurgery, he was thinking of ways to find extra money to help the patient whose appeal he heard over the radio.  His chance meeting with the mission volunteer lifted the weight off his shoulders and he hopefully referred the patient for assistance.  How great was his amazement when he learned that the mission was named after his favorite devotion:  the Mystical Rose.  Ave Maria!   His patient is from Paranaque in Metro Manila, and the case is now forwarded to mission volunteers in Our Lady of Victories Church in Quezon City.

Mass of the Angels
Around sixty people attended the burial of little Claire who died the day after her Baptism.  Her parents were quick to learn about the traditional Mass.  They went to Confession on the day of her burial.  Now they are learning the missal and the Baltimore catechism.  Their 8 year old eldest daughter commenced her preparation for First Communion.

Samar Mission
In partnership with the Philippine Army, a medical mission is being prepared in another remote village in Samar.  Part of the mission will be a spiritual recollection for the military personnel.  May
God bless this forthcoming mission.

2015 updates

September 7-12

Sick Week

This we call the sick week because all but one mission worker was sick.  April contracted dengue fever. Lovely had anemia and measles. Joy had joint pains and suffered fatigue. Joefrey had to be confined in a hospital due to liver infection. Rosmar was anemic. I had cough and sinusitis which made me lose sleep and ability to concentrate at work.  Joel alone was not sick but his daughter Lucy had dengue fever.  When her platelet count plummeted so low, I visited her in the hospital to encourage her.  She is a Eucharistic Crusader and had just received Confirmation so I asked her to look around her and see all the sick children and their worried patients and to pray for each of these souls that they may know and love God.  I asked her to offer her sickness to God for the conversion of souls and to prepare herself to accept whatever God wills for her, if it be death or good health to continue to work out her salvation on earth.  She was very cheerful and promised to pray for her neighbors.  

We offered up our worries, pains and fatigue and continued to receive patients.  For lack of data (Joel is in the hospital now to assist his wife on childbirth and the staff had not yet submitted their reports), I shall present only the patients whose stories I remember well.

Afraid to Die

One patient in San Pablo, Laguna (in Rizal Province) sent a desperate text message saying she was 8 months pregnant and had eclampsia and feared that she was dying.  She was given counseling by telephone and was assisted to go to Confession to ease her conscience as she was bothered by guilt. She was brought to a Catholic parish church nearest to her place for Confession.  In this we were able to get the help of Purita Balando, the mission catechist based in Rizal Province.  

Defiant Patients

Two sick persons from our mission village in Kawas came to demand assistance.  They came from a group hostile to the Catholic Faith.  They were members of a protestant sect who jealously guarded their members and considered our mission activities as encroachment.  I reprimanded them for repelling the mission workers who came to pray the Rosary at the wake of a deceased patient who happened to be their relative.  The patient was a Catholic and had attended Mass at our chapel a number of times but when he died, his children and relatives forbade our volunteers to visit and pray for his soul at the wake.  We prayed for his soul in the chapel instead and prayed for the conversion of his clan.  Now at the visit of these two relatives I had the opportunity to explain to them that part of our mission work was to help them receive grace and eternal life.  They were given assistance in the hope of weakening their defiance against the sacraments.  They were all smiles after receiving free medical consultation, ultrasound and medicines.

Dispirited Mother  

An unbaptized baby from Kawas got sick.  Her mother did not want to come to the mission for help because she had willfully ignored various invitations to come to Mass.  After two years of attending Mass, she got affected by the insults and gossips insinuating that she just came to the Mass to beg for food.  The gossip was started by a former patient who had previously attended Holy Mass and joined the catechism classes of the Legion of Mary in the mission village due to ulterior motives.  After gaining the trust and confidence of the catechists, she had borrowed money from them to support her gambling then later, because she had no intention to pay, she stopped coming to Mass and did all her best to discourage her neighbors and friends from attending subsequent catechism lessons and Holy Masses.  Her method of attack was to make them ashamed of receiving alms.  To prove to the gossip mongers that they were wrong, the mother of the sick baby preferred to suffer hunger and disease rather than come to Mass for the sake of alms. Recent attempts of concerned patients from the neighboring village to invite her to come to Mass failed to excite her to come.  When her daughter got sick, the good patients came to her again to encourage her to bring the baby to the mission.  At first she resisted but when the baby developed pneumonia and had difficulty in breathing, she hastened to the mission to beg for help. The baby was admitted to the hospital. The mother and grandmother humbly knelt before the Blessed Sacrament and resolved to resume attending Holy Mass.

Saved by Providence

A couple came to the mission looking for "Ma'am Yolly".  They heard their neighbor in the hospital ward mention the name and they decided to seek the person and beg for help.  Their third daughter was born with a heart defect and was too small for her age.  She was just two months old and she lived almost all of her life in the hospital.  She was able to get out of the hospital recently but after two weeks, she was rushed again to the hospital.  She needed a blood transfusion but they had already used up all their meager resources and can no longer raise money to pay for the blood.  When they came to the mission, their very first statement before introducing themselves was that they were ready to change their religion and embrace the religion of the donor.  They imagined that they were facing a protestant missionary.  Upon learning that the mission was Catholic, they were grateful to God for guiding them to the right path. The following day, they came to attend Holy Mass.  After the Mass, Fr. Tim spoke with them and on learning of the condition of their baby, visited and baptized the baby.  They asked "Ma'am Yolly" to be the baptism sponsor. That evening, they prayed the Rosary with their ward neighbor. The next day, they sent messages that the baby took a turn for the worse.  They were encouraged to pray and trust that if the baby died, she would be very happy with God in heaven. Soon after, the baby was dead.  Today they came to the mission for help in the burial expenses.  They were able to smile at the thought that their baby was baptized and therefore certain of salvation.  They expressed their grateful amazement that Fr. Tim did not wait to be asked to baptize the baby but directly offered to visit and baptize without demanding any pay or special treatment. This is our consolation and joy, that one little innocent soul is able to join God and that one family that is almost lost to a false religion is given hope and strengthened in Faith through the beneficence of countless donors of the mission.  All thanks be to God and to the mission donors.


Photo documentation:  On the feast of the Holy Name of Mary (Sept 12), Fr. Tim baptized patient Xia Claire, a 2 month old baby with congenital heart defect.  The baby died at around 4 PM on Sept 13.  After baptizing the baby, Fr. Tim imposed the brown scapular on the other patients and their watchers in the same ward.

August

August 30:  Seventy persons, most of whom were mission patients and their family members, were confirmed by H.E. Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta at the unfinished Our Lady of Rosa Mystica and St. Joseph Church.  Around 570 people attended the ceremony.  

July 

June

June 27:  First patronal fiesta in honor of St. John the Baptist in the mission village in Kawas, Sarangani Province, an offshoot of the medical mission at the Provincial Capitol on August 2008.  During the fiesta, there were adult Baptism followed by wedding of 5 couples.   

The tent chapel also serves as the catechism center.

Converting from a breakaway sect, waiting for Baptism to begin.

Dressed in the tribal garb, brides-to-be waiting for the ceremonies to begin.

In tribal attire, 2 grooms waiting for the ceremonies to begin.

Baptism:

Wedding:

May

April