Update from Jeff

It is now lunch and we have 20 minutes before we get back to work. God is good and the project is going fast. We will most likely finish building the bathrooms ahead of schedule. The weather is hot, the sweat runs freely, and the work is good. Especially because we know for whom we are doing the work for. Our God is good, and just like he did for Jonah, he has provided us with a nice breeze. For the rest of the afternoon we will be working on the building project, and a need for additional medical training has come up. We (jeff and La Ne') will teach the staff how to clean out the wax form the ears, take a more complete medical history, and try and organize and stream line the medical exams. We saw 274 give or take on Saturday, and this next week end will will most likely see more than that.

Yesterday, on Sunday, I had a chance to share with the church here, of all of your love at bernal, the support that you provided, and miracles that you have been done, and how the work that is going on here in the Philippines is encouraging us.

Peace of Christ be with you all, continue to be on your knees for us all, and be greatly encouraged because your gifts and support has been received well and has helped to embolden their faith, strengthen their love, and renew their hope. A servant for Him, and an ambassador for Bernal,

Jeff

2/27 Update- The rundown of medical mission day #1

Our day started with breakfast and devos nice and early at 3 am when the rooster outside our dorm decided to wake up and sing to us. We really got rolling at 7 AM when we headed over to Lord of the Harvest Church for a full day of medical missions.

The Sankey doctoras we trained last year worked with the staff at the church to set up a full hospital in the church sanctuary- including triage stations, blood pressure checks, eye checks, wound care, a check-up with Doc Jeff, and then most importantly a prayer station with Pastor Bernard. Shade structures were constructed outside to accomodate all the folks waiting to be seen.

During our 12+ hour day we saw and treated 274 patients. We had enough medications and supplies to treat every patient- and enough time to talk to, translate each conversation into Tagalog, and truly love on each patient. Time stood still for us yesterday- and for that we are very grateful.

The church and Sankey also provided vitamins and food for two meals during the day- another amazing feat considering the number of people at the church.

There are so many stories to tell- and we will have some of our team write in with their stories.

They've Arrive- Direct Message from the Philippines...

Greetings to our family and friends from the sunny skies of Sankey.

Our adventure began with a big praise- after arriving at the San Francisco airport in record time and unloading our many bags, we realized that Rich's passport and backpack were in a car on the way back to San Jose. The praise is that the passport and the backpack arrived back in San Francisco with plenty of time to spare!

Our second praise is that we had a shorter flight (12+ hours, rather than the scheduled 16, with no layover in Guam) and clear traffic all the way to Lucena. Now we will admit that it will take time getting use to the aggressive and sometimes crazy driving here- but all of our close encounters with the jeepneys (the busses) and the 3 wheeled motor cars (the taxies) made us gasp with laughter!

All the staff and kids here were so glad to see us- and asked about all their friends and prayer families back home! Letters from the kiddos are already being drafted to all of their pen pals back in the states.

Please pray as we are headed right into a big day of medical relief tomorrow. We sorted through all of the medical donations today in preparation for a church outreach, feeding program, and medical clinic. We asked Toto how many people we would be seeing tomorrow, and he said- "Hundreds! Maybe one or two or six hundred..." Whew!

Please pray that we bring God's healing touch to hearts and to bodies. Some of the folks we will be seeing are the same ones we treated last year- and we are especially looking forward to seeing all the kids that are disease free after last year's treatment of their skin rashes.

We are headed off to play with the kids for the evening- what beautiful smiles they have!

Thank you for all of your prayers and support!

Love,
The Team

And they're off...

Our team has departed for the Philippines!! Please continually be lifting them up in prayer until their return on March 9th. We'll be constantly posting updates on this blog as we get them.

Philippines Trip 2010

Well it's Wednesday 24th February and the day has finally arrived!!
Bernal's first missions trips sets off tonight, headed for Sankey Orphanage, Philippines.
Yesterday the 3 from Montana arrived safely, and last night the whole team spent fun-filled hours packing their bags with all the books, balls, crafts, games, clothes, vitamins and medicines that you have generously donated. Praise God that everything was included with room to spare and under weight!! This evening the team of 7, representing 3 churches, will travel to San Francisco airport to set off on the grueling 16 hour flight to Manila, Philippines.

Our team are (from Left to right in the picture):
- Joyce & Randy Brodehl (Kalispell Church, Montana)
- Kurt Adolph (Bernal)
- Jeff Powers (Bernal)
- Coleman McClintic (Kalispell Church, Montana)
- LaNe Powers (Bernal)
- Rich Birchard (Westgate)

We have already seen God's provision with how much has been given both financially and materially. PLEASE continue to pray, especially for:
- Safety in travel
- that all the bags will get through customs without a hitch
- protection, both physical and spiritual.

Check back over the next 2 weeks for regular updates from our team.

Final Preparations

Our team is currently making their finals preparations for the departure to the Philippines, next Wednesday, February 24th. Please continually lift them up in prayer over the next few weeks until their return on March 9th. You can visit this blog, or find us via Twitter at www.twitter.com/bernalchurch for regular updates and up to date prayer requests for the team.