updates: 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.