gthemidwife

Well, four of my most favourite people left me yesterday – but I am so excited!

Crystal Meeks, Evelyn Pullis, Karen Ligab and Brenda Alinao left yesterday morning in a jeep packed full to the brim with household and clinic supplies. They are heading to Bugnay to start a sister clinic that will be serving the tribal women in the remote areas of the mountains of Tinglayan.

Achao and Emmaus went with them to help them get settled in and finish off the renovations.

I am so excited about the adventures that lay ahead for us this year in Bugnay!

When will the first delivery be? How many women will come to deliver at the new clinic? What types of complications will we see? How will we be received by those in the far off villages?

These are all questions that we are going to find out soon! Please keep checking here for the latest updates on the Bugnay BIrth Center and all of our adventures here in Tabuk.

We just wrapped up an incredible 10-day Medical Mission to the mountains of Kalinga.

The Team! Doctors, nurses, construction workers, midwives, translators, cooks, support staff = 40+ people!

Samaritan’s Purse Canada put together an amazing team of doctors, nurses, construction workers and support workers who came and served with us in one of the most remote areas of Kalinga. From March 18-28 we served over 1000 people  from 7 villages with medical check-ups, medicines, vitamins and eyeglasses. Most of these villages can only be reached on foot – so we had a lot of exercise over these 10 days.

Cathee Mapes and I hiking from Bugnay to Buscalan.

Patients lining up first thing in the morning to be seen by the medical team.

Lisa, fitting a lady with some prescription sunglasses. She will be ready for the rice fields!

At the same time as this outreach, I had my best friend from Canada visiting with her 14-year old daughter. Becky and Emma Wiebe joined right in and were an amazing addition to the team. From fitting eyeglasses to giving lice-shampoo spas for the kids – they did it all!

Becky preparing eyeglasses for their new owner.

Spa Day with Emma!

The wonderful construction crew worked tirelessly on renovations for the new Bugnay clinic. They put up a ceiling throughout  almost the whole building.  Ken, Ken, Wade, Rick and Matt (the construction guys!) stayed behind in Bugnay while the rest of the team hiked into the mountains. I hear that it looks wonderful though and I can’t wait to see it next month!

What an amazing experience! Thank you to everyone who gave, donated, prayed and came. I hope there will be many more teams to come.

We have an exciting announcement to make! No, we aren’t expecting baby number three – yet!

We are officially opening a sister clinic in the mountains of Kalinga!  Adhering to our vision of ‘Sharing God’s love through competent midwifery services’, we at Abundant Grace of God Maternity Center will extend our services to the mountains of Tinglayan with a new maternity center located in the village of Bugnay (about 5 hours from our Tabuk site).

The Village of Bugnay nestled in the mountains of Tinglayan.

After reaching out to the villages in the mountains of upper Tinglayan, Kalinga in March and April 2011, we were trying to come up with a plan to reach out more in this remote and needy that area.  After many discussions and much prayer we decided that in order to be successful in affecting any sort of lasting change, we needed to maintain a constant presence. But how would we do it? We began to pray some more.

Prenatal check-up during our Spring outreach to the mountains.

Then in May, our good friends from Geschenke der Hoffnung e.V. (http://www.geschenke-der-hoffnung.org- a German organization who has funded our new clinic facility in Tabuk) asked us if we would be interested in multiplying the work that we were doing in order reach more people with the love of God!  Of course our answer was an excited “Yes!”

We have chosen to locate this sister clinic in the village of Bugnay. We feel this is the ideal site because we have already formed a wonderful relationship with the people through regular visits in the last five years.  Bugnay is also the most easily accessible of the five Butbut villages in Upper Tinglayan. Being so close to the National Highway will make it easier to ship in the needed supplies as well as to get to the local hospital in a hurry if and when emergencies arise. The clinic will serve the five Butbut villages of Upper Tinglayan, as well as other surrounding villages in the area.  We are eager to reach out and establish deeper relationships with a population of approximately 5,000 people.

Crystal Meeks and Evelyn Dungoc

This February we will begin renovating a rented home with the intentions of opening The Bugnay Birthing Home in May of this year.  Crystal Meeks, CPM from North Carolina will be directing the clinic, and Evelyn Dungoc, a Filipino Registered Midwife will train the the local midwives and run the clinic.  We are excited about this new facility and can’t wait to share with you all the amazing things that God does with us at Abundant Grace of God in 2012.