I am living in Davao City now with fifteen other young women, split up into two houses next door to each other. The women are all amazing and we immediately become like family after only a few days of getting to know each other. All of them come from different walks of life and have absolutely incredible stories of what the Lord has done in their lives and their hearts in order to get them to the Philippines. From South Africa, to Switzerland and California to Idaho…different languages…cultures and callings, and yet we all have one thing in common; we desire to be heart-felt, well-educated, rural living, independent, confident, freely-loving midwives! Ready to serve the Lord at every moment, and take on the world one baby at a time!!
The weather is so hot and so humid and sticky and tropical! It rains and pours and thunderstorms almost every night. It is wild! Dancing in the rain has become a nightly ritual and after studying for 6 hours straight, it fills us up and cools us down!!
The clinic that we work in and study at is called Mercy Maternity Center and is next door to our home. The windows next to our beds are directly across from the clinics birthing rooms, so we get to fall asleep to the sound of laboring Filipina woman every night and wake up to the screaming cry of a baby taking its first breath! It is unreal. Probably a nightmare to most normal people, but for us, its music to our ears! Haha!
Already we have been given the chance to minister to many women and children, take visits to the local hospital where we will eventually transport our own continuity patients in an emergency, camp out on the beach on Samal Island (ridiculously gorgeous, and the home to any visitors, just a 10min fairy boat ride away from Davao!!). We have gotten to watch and assist with several births, begin taking prenatal, learn a new language, live with the people of Davao, and bond with locals and our supervisor midwives! Things have been busy, busy, busy!!
As for Davao and its people, there is much poverty and desperation here. The other morning, I had left my house at around 8am to go to the clinic and two little boys were outside of the gate picking through heaps of trash on the side of the road. They had no pants on, no shoes on and were looking frantically for something as if it had been waiting there for them and they just needed to find it. I realized later that they were looking for food. They were hungry. That sort of thing is normal here and knowing that we are not here to “save” Davao but to live here, learn and love the people with our whole hearts, and help in any way that we can, almost leaves a feeling of hopelessness sometimes. We can not help every single person and fix every single problem, there are just too many needs, too many desperate eyes and mouths begging for money while you walk in the market…we are all only humans, we too are weak, with the same needs, maybe not the same physical and financial needs, but emotional needs. We all need to feel and know that we are loved. We need to feel wanted and to know that someone cares about the way we feel inside. We need to be seen and heard. We need to know that we are forgiven and set free!
All we know is how to give Jesus. To walk in His Spirit. To pour Him into others and to live and move in Him, in His promises and His Kingdom, one that does not look like this world, but is brought down to this earth so the King can be revealed. To introduce them to the King that gives beauty for ashes and strength for fear, gladness for mourning and peace for despair! And He knows how to do and give everything else…even the needs that we cant see.
Many of us students spent the first few nights crying ourselves to sleep because of the overwhelming compassion that weighed on our hearts, that we didn’t even know we were capable of feeling with our own limited, self-seeking hearts. We didn’t know we could love a people so much that it physically hurt. Jesus has been breaking our hearts for His people. To truly see them. To look at them with His eyes, hear them with His ears and speak to them with His voice. It has changed us forever, and this is only the beginning.
But even in the midst of the suffering, there is a great, deep abiding joy in their spirits. They are filled with light and they love freely. We have been transformed by them, not just by their perseverance in hardships, but the overflowing love and hope that spills from their hearts. They are strong, and steadfast. They love their God, and they have taught us in everyway that no matter what another person has said or done to you, you are to love them. Simply because God says so!
They have welcomed us into their country with open arms and have made us feel at home! They are hilarious and fun and even after an emotionally hard day, with hearing certain phrases 10000000x a day, such as, “MAAYONG BUNTAG PUTI!” (Good Morning white lady!!) and “Maaaam, do you have a bana ? (husband) Can I be yours?” You cant help but smile to yourself and laugh with wonder why the Lord would ever choose YOU to do this, here, on the other side of the world! Haha! He is the God of surprises!! And His joy is our strength! There hasn’t been a day that goes by that the Filipinos have not taught us how to laugh at life and never to take yourself too seriously!
But to laugh and love and honor God and your neighbor before yourself and to eat as many fried, sugar-rolled bananas as you can before you die!