I want to share our 2020 statistics and numbers from Abundant Grace of God Maternity Center. Although COVID has had a huge impact on our clinic, staff and patients alike, we have been able to continue giving our best to our community.

2020

Number of individual patients cared for : 993

Number of women enrolled in care: 700

Number of babies safely delivered at our clinic: 313

Number of prenatal exams done: 3755

Number of postnatal visits: 1052

Percentage of deliveries who are first time mothers: 27%

Number of women who had previously delivered unattended: 46

Number of midwives employed: 10

Number of total employees and volunteers: 26

The Macad family is planning for a year-long furlough next year!

This will be the first time since starting this clinic in 2007 that we will have spent more than a few weeks away from it.

It is time for our family to get a break and to introduce our kids to the other half of their cultural background. Maybe now they will be able to understand some of their mother’s strange jokes! 🙂

We are starting the planning process already even though we don’t plan on leaving until July 2021. There is a lot of things to get in place and a lot of duties that need to be delegated. I have confidence in my local staff to run this clinic just as well if not better than us. Who knows, maybe they won’t need us to come back!

We have a few construction projects that we are wanting to complete and have running before we leave. Through generous grants from Samaritan’s Purse Canada and Samaritan’s Purse Germany we are going to be able to build an outdoor public bathroom ( a must for these Covid times!) and 2 extra postpartum rooms so that we can keep patients socially-distanced from each other after delivery.

Keep up to date here and on our Instagram page (aggmckalinga) as we prepare for next year.

I just wanted to post a quick note to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who helped us raise money for new supplies.

Staff midwife Marivic and I are pictured above holding some of the MANY supplies I was able to bring home with me from Canada.

Thanks to your donations we were able to purchase:

80 new blue surgical towels

50 new baby blankets

3 new blood pressure cuffs

2 new breast pumps

50 new amnihooks

20 new bulb syringes

3 new fetascopes

Nitrazine paper

Towels

Tums

Antibiotic ointment

Thank you from all of us here!

These photos are kind of funny I know, but the reality is that we are running low on all sorts of things at our clinic. I will be heading to Canada in October with my three kids for a family visit and I am hoping to bring back some supplies with me to restock the clinic.

Would any of you be interested in giving towards the cost of these supplies?

I have the order ready to purchase and am just hoping for the funds to come in so I can have it shipped to Canada before the end of October.

In particular the needs are:

Delivery room baby blankets (these are not the typical newborn flannel-type blankets, but medical grade ones that we sanitize and re-use after deliveries)

Surgical towels – for drying off babies as soon as they are born before we wrap them up in the warm dry blankets and place them on their mommy’s chest.

Fetoscopes and blood pressure cuffs for prenatal exams. (We go through about 3 bp cuffs a year – the rubber disintegrates and the metal rusts quickly in this tropical climate)

Amnihooks and nitrazine paper for labor and delivery.

The total cost for these supplies is $350USD including shipping.

If this practical way of helping out appeals to you, please click below and leave any amount that you wish.

HELP DONATE SUPPLIES

Thanks in advance!

The Staff and Patients of Abundant Grace of God Maternity

I admit that these HOT summer days have drained all of my energy and drive to get things done. As I drive my car to the clinic I pass by my neighbours working in their yards, doing their laundry, drying rice on the road … I know they must feel the heat too, but they keep going.

I arrive at the clinic and let out a big sigh followed by “It is so hot!!”. To which my Filipino staff reply, “Yes bossing, it is hot.” Meanwhile in the birth room there is a first time mom labouring quietly to bring her baby into the world. Her midwives try to keep the fans going to keep her cool and keep bringing her water to drink so she stays hydrated. She doesn’t complain, she just keeps labouring in earnest. A little while later the clinic is filled with cries of a newborn baby and there is a happy and exhausted mom.

This post is meant as a tribute to the way the locals here in Kalinga just get things done. They don’t stop to complain about how things difficult something is, or how uncomfortable they are, they just get on with it.

I first came to the Philippines over 15 years ago and the more years I spend here the more beauty I see. Of course there are always frustrations and cultural differences that can make me crazy, but these are usually because I am particularly impatient or uncomfortable that day.

Some of my favourite things about the culture here in Kalinga:

• Children are treasured. My kids get loved on and smiled at wherever they go.
• Everyone loves to laugh! Everywhere they go they bring the party 🙂
• There is a great cultural pride for the way things have been done for hundreds of years. A lot of the times, the original ways are the best ways.
• Fathers as well as mothers are great caregivers for their little ones. You will often see dads working around the yard with their babies tied on their backs.
• Sharing is as important a value for adults as it is children. Being told you are generous is one of the highest compliments.

Oh, and the babies here are the absolute cutest! I will leave you here with a picture of one of our sweet babies born at the clinic.

This April we hosted a group of 19 Canadians from Samaritan’s Purse for a medical mission. This was our 5th Samaritan’s Purse team and we reached out to four new communities and two old ones.

The SP Canada team consisted of three doctors, one Nurse Practitioner, 6 nurses, one EMT and lots of support team members who ran eyeglass clinic, blessed the children in many villages and lead the team.

 

We went to Malignant and Taga in Pinukpuk, Ableg and Balenciagao in Pasil, and Pakak and Magsaysay in Tabuk City. The Armed Forces of the Philippines joined us again and provided haircuts for kids in all locations. In total, we cared for almost 2000 patients!

 

The SP Canada team could not have reached as many patients without the help of our big local team of translators, cooks, midwives and helpers.

Our two weeks together was an example of how two different cultures and backgrounds can work together to bless many more than either could do on their own.

Thank you to our wonderful team of Canadians who gave up time and finances to serve alongside us sharing God’s Love with the Families of Kalinga.

Ken and Ann Hastings, Rian and Zelda Du Plooy, Emily Way, Janelle Jeong, Elaine Wall and Taryn Bender, Len and Shelley Hyatt,  Laurin and Ruby Trudel, Brenda Servold, Annita Doherty, Adel Naude, Rick Campbell, April Belsheim, Annamarie Snyman and Erin Neufeld.

(Not to be forgotten, the three Filipinos from Baguio who also joined for half of the mission: Angela, Jonathan and Dennis!)

Last week we had a super typhoon blow through the Province of Kalinga. Tabuk City, the place where Abundant Grace of God is located, was going to be right in the center of the storm.

We knew the typhoon was coming and I saw posts on Facebook and other social media platforms asking for prayer. Yes, I think I even asked for prayer.

Then I though to myself “What am I actually asking God to do?”

Was I asking Him to send the typhoon in another direction? Honestly I don’t think God really works that way, but even if He did would I really want to ask Him to send the typhoon to other people in other places? That sure didn’t seem right.

Was I asking Him to let the typhoon lose force before it makes landfall? Again, I don’t think God works this way as I am pretty sure typhoons are a part of how the “nature” works.

I guess I can agree with the prayers for safety for all of those in the path. However two years ago when another typhoon blew through Tabuk and levelled almost the whole village of Pakak, through the generosity of Samaritan’s Purse Canada, the families were able to build better, stronger homes.

I settled on praying this prayer “God… be with us. Amen”

He was with us.

He was with us when not one of the new homes in the village of Pakak was destroyed.

He was with us when we had no power or water at the clinic but still helped to welcome five new babies into the world. It seems typhoons bring babies out!

He was with us when a teenage mom came to us in labor with only her little sister to accompany her. He was with us when this teen mom delivered a premature baby who needed help breathing. He was with us as we were able to get him admitted to a private hospital that was able to care for baby until he was able to breath on his own.

 

The older I get, the less sure I am about the best “way” to pray, but the more sure I am about Who is listening.