Participants: Kent & Leonda George (Host)
Series Code: AFM
Program Code: AFM000015
|
00:25 I was hungry, and you fed me.
00:33 I was sick and you ministered to me. 00:39 I was in prison and you visited me. 00:46 Had nothing, and you clothed me. 00:50 You know, when I read that, I said, you know that's going 00:55 to be the final question we're asked. That means 00:57 that we don't just come, and we just sort of baptize 01:01 people and leave. 01:02 We don't just come and hand out clothes and leave. 01:07 What that means is that we come and these people 01:12 become our people. 01:19 People have often asked, "Why are you out there?" 01:23 Certainly, "Why are you out there for so long? We thought 01:26 you were going to go for six years. " 01:29 In our weak moments, we have to ask ourselves 01:32 the same thing. 01:33 But at the core of our reason 01:39 is that we are very, 01:40 very certain that God called 01:44 us to go to the native Palawan, 01:47 and take the gospel to them. 02:32 I'm trying to get a hold of Mailen's husband Gin, 02:37 for a patient we saw last night, a pregnant girl, 02:42 to see how she's doing. They didn't call during the night. 02:57 I don't know if that's him or not. And now we are 03:00 getting ready to go see some other patients way up 03:03 on the mountain. 03:06 There's this lady. She comes up and she says, 03:08 my daughter is really, really sick. 03:10 I mean, we have to get her to the clinic. 03:11 I can't get her there. She's so sick she can't walk. 03:14 She can't do anything. And so, I said, well just a 03:16 minute. Let me check around. I'll find somebody and we will 03:20 We have a bocket - that's like a backpack that you can carry 03:23 people in. 03:24 And so I started asking, and everybody has an excuse. 03:27 I have to work in my field. No, we have to go there... 03:30 We got... everybody... I mean no matter who I ask. 03:32 They said, oh no, that's impossible. We can't do that. 03:35 And I was getting really frustrated, because this 03:37 kid is really sick and they are way in the jungle. 03:39 And finally I said, well, okay, nobody is going to help. 03:43 And I'm going to go up there. I don't know what I can do. 03:47 I don't know if I can get her back. 03:49 We head on up and the trail is just horrible. 03:52 At one point I'm walking along on the edge of a progress - 03:55 it's like where the dirt is fallen away, and I mean, 03:58 one misstep and you're down that thing. 04:02 I finally get there about noon and I go in this little nipa hut 04:07 there's about, oh, six feet by six feet in that little tiny 04:12 nipa hut. There's six children, and four of them are sick. 04:16 and two girls, both teenagers, they're so sick, the one, 04:20 she can't even lift her head up. 04:21 I got the bocket, and I said, okay, well, let's get the girl 04:25 into it. I hope she lives until we get to the clinic. 04:29 And I walk out the door, and there is Meliling. 04:32 Meliling is not a Christian, but he is taking Bible studies. 04:35 And he had heard that we were needing somebody. 04:38 And he had made that hike all the way up there just to help. 04:42 And I thought, man, that is what a Christian is. 04:44 It was so steep. I mean, every step I took I was grabbing for 04:50 something to hold onto because it was just, it was 04:52 just really, really tough. And it was hot, and 04:55 fortunately, Meliling, when it got really bad, he'd take over 04:59 when I was falling too many times. And then I would follow 05:02 and, you know, I would keep asking, is she still alive? 05:05 Anyway, it was three hours. It took us that long to get 05:09 her back to the clinic. 05:10 But her sister was almost as sick as she was. 05:14 Well, the next day, we sent the father back. 05:17 We said, you light a fire when you are ready. 05:21 Then they appraised both of them to see what condition 05:24 they were in, later in the day because they were so sick. 05:29 Turns out that Milka had measles malaria and pneumonia. 05:33 And Tika, she had three different diseases, too. 05:37 Anyway, they were in pretty bad shape. A few days later, 05:41 I was down there to visit them. 05:42 I walk into the hospital, and of course, they are really, 05:46 really shy, especially down there, they are really shy. 05:49 They're real mountain people, so they're much more shy than 05:53 the people around here. 05:54 And I was talking with her mom, and Milka wouldn't look at me 05:59 but toward the end she looked up and she smiled. 06:06 And that one smile was just worth it all. 06:10 It's just knowing that you made a difference. 06:14 She very well could have been dead if we hadn't done anything. 06:20 And so, three hours crawling through jungle with 06:25 somebody on your back... 06:27 One kid, he's a teenager. He's been sick for months 06:31 and months - just the whole body swelling. He couldn't 06:34 even see. His whole body was just huge - big stomach and 06:38 eyes and his face. 06:40 And Mrs. George had been visiting him, and eventually 06:44 sent him out to the hospital. And they found some kidney 06:47 problems, and I'm not sure what else - need to review his chart. 06:51 The clinic is a busy little place. 06:55 patients a year. 07:00 We have the ability, and often do, have patients hooked up 07:04 to IVs. We may have patients with an acute or chronic 07:09 situation where they are needing to be under 07:12 daily care for weeks at a time. 07:14 We have a lot of daily patients as well. 07:16 Often times, 10, 15, 20, sometimes during the 07:20 busy season, in a day. And then, Sundays often 07:23 60, 70 plus patients. 07:26 So when we have in-patients as well, it can be really 07:30 difficult trying to do IVs and meds and taking so 07:33 much time with them and also seeing these daily 07:36 patients that are coming. But they are really good 07:39 experiences. 07:40 Working in the clinic is hard. 07:42 You're giving of yourself all the time. 07:46 And some days, many days, it seems humanly impossible 07:52 to keep up the pace. The demand is huge. 07:55 Other days, fortunately, you get a little reprieve. 07:59 Our medicines are - we mostly get them from Manila. 08:04 The drug suppliers are very expensive. Probably even 08:08 more expensive than the states slightly. But to ship them 08:11 from the states would cost more. As far as where the 08:16 money comes from, basically, all donations. 08:19 They come from donations. 08:21 So this side of the clinic we do med preparations. 08:25 And we keep some of our medications, but it's just 08:28 too small, so we - it doesn't all fit. 08:32 On the other side is the lab 08:35 and procedure room and we also keep some more 08:39 medications in here. Any kind of dental work, 08:43 any kind of minor surgeries we do in here. 08:46 We keep extra medications 08:50 that won't fit in here, 08:53 we keep it in that hut over there, 08:55 which is falling apart. 08:57 We are in the process of building a new clinic 08:59 which is desperately needed. 09:10 The clinic is pulling in patients from all over 09:15 southern Palawan. 09:17 We have people that hike from within the mountains 09:21 six or more hours. Some people half a day or more. 09:25 And we have had people that have hiked further than that. 09:28 They come up, they come up from the lowlands, 09:32 from the coastal areas they'll hike up to our clinic 09:35 because they know they get kind care. 09:38 They get quality care. We try to take their cases 09:43 seriously and do the right thing by them. 09:46 We try to follow up with them. And it's completely free. 09:51 We don't charge them anything. 09:56 There's one old man that they think is about 80 years old. 10:00 And he can't walk anymore. And he's really miserable. 10:06 But it's really cool because he's basically - like last week 10:11 when I went to visit him, I had not seen him for five years. 10:13 He said, when I told him I was praying for him and I wanted 10:17 to pray for him right then, he said, I believe, 10:19 he said, I believe in Jesus. And I said, you know you 10:22 can ask him to help you with your pain, because it's just 10:25 really miserable. Everything is just going wrong with him. 10:30 He really was very receptive. So I'm going to visit him 10:34 again today so I can - I mean, it's mainly like a 10:38 I mean it's a medical visit, but it's more than that. 10:41 We visit him because he - Mrs. George has been visiting 10:44 him in the past. But he's just really lonely and very receptive 10:49 to the gospel. So we're going to go visit him today, too. 10:54 It is through the clinic. It's through the relationships 10:58 that I built when I was the sole caregiver, I think, that has 11:02 laid the foundation for what we do there in people's trust 11:06 in what we do. They know that we are 11:10 not God, that we make mistakes. But that we are there for them 11:14 and that we have a God that is there for them. 11:17 And they trust - they trust us. 11:51 It's bees wax. 11:59 Kensuli was the place where, I mean, it was 12:02 across the river where everybody went to get drunk 12:05 and everything like that. I went to visit there, 12:07 and I didn't really like the place. A couple years later, 12:10 I just felt this - I don't know why, but on Sabbaths, I would go 12:14 there and hold a meeting and it was just horrible 12:17 because there would be people who would come 12:18 to the meetings, but I mean, there would be yelling and 12:21 shouting and screaming, and you wonder... are these guys 12:23 listening? There's one time I stopped in the middle of 12:25 my sermon right in the middle of a sentence cause nobody 12:28 was listening. And nobody even knew the difference. 12:30 You know, every Sabbath I would come home and I would say 12:33 oh man, I don't want to go to Kensuli. I would like to 12:36 sit down and read a book. This is Sabbath! 12:37 I just felt this urge that I needed to go there. 12:40 And I kept going and going and going. 12:42 And over a period of four years, five years, I kept doing that. 12:54 Kensuli is a totally different place now. I often think 12:58 what if I had decided, no, I'm not going to go there. 13:01 I don't feel like going. If I had gone by my feelings, 13:03 what you see there, would have never happened. 13:06 This is Niksun right here. Niksun, how are you? 13:10 This is our first teacher here. He started out the year 13:14 with close to 70 students, and he was the only teacher. 13:18 How old are you? 13:21 He's 17 years old. 13:26 Niksun is another interesting story. 13:30 When we first came, 13:31 he would have been four years old. 13:35 When I was giving Bible studies to my kids, Niksun joined in. 13:40 And they were actually baptized together. And I've had 13:43 opportunity through all these years to nurture Niksun 13:45 and be a mom because he doesn't have a mom. 13:47 His mom died probably when he was eight or nine. 13:51 When we started the school last year, we weren't even 13:54 ready to do it, but we went ahead anyway and we had 13:58 about 30 students. We had Niksun here. I mean, we just 14:02 started out from bare bones scratch, and it grew that year. 14:06 It went really well. And then this year, 14:09 it just went up to 70 students. 14:17 It's been just really exciting to see his growth. 14:21 He started teaching. He also went away to high school for 14:25 one year and has come back. He has natural teaching skills. 14:31 But spiritually, it's been exciting to be able to 14:35 mentor him, watching as he is struggling and 14:38 going down and coming alongside side, and saying, Niksun, 14:42 I want to lift you up to the Lord again. 14:43 And watching him coming back, being on fire, and wanting to 14:49 take that message to his people. And he came to just staying 14:53 over there, a little, tiny room off the school that was built 14:57 over there. There's tens of twenties of them that sleep 15:02 there most every night so that they can have worship with him 15:04 in the evening, worship with him in the morning. 15:07 Then he teaches all day, does literacy training afternoons, 15:11 Bible studies with people, a 17-year-old kid. 15:16 And he was the sole missionary that was over there. 15:19 And watching what that did for him spiritually, 15:23 has been really, really incredible. 15:29 The people here, they couldn't even write their 15:31 own name. They couldn't even sign their own name. 15:34 They couldn't read. 15:35 They didn't know rudimentary math, you know. 15:40 If they went to the lowlands to do business to buy something 15:43 they could get ripped off because nobody was, 15:46 nobody knew that kind of thing. 15:50 "Oba. Iba. Obi. Oboo. " 15:58 "Aboo. Iboo. " 16:00 I can't help but just sit there and watch all the kids. 16:04 It makes me feel so proud of them. It's just so incredible 16:09 to see this happen because a couple of years ago 16:11 this village is where you came to get drunk. 16:14 That was the only thing it was notorious for. 16:17 You get here a 10 o'clock in the morning, everybody was drunk. 16:20 You just, you could plan on it. Now what a change. 16:25 This domain, this land here has become God's land. 16:29 The devil claimed it before, but he is being driven out. 16:32 And it's just so neat to see that happening. 16:40 God has grown everything. I mean, now we have a school 16:44 here that has 30 students. Every morning as I see the 16:47 students walking to school, they're just so happy to 16:51 be going to school. They get two good meals a day. 16:55 And we have an agriculture program. 16:56 And it is through school that they first really got in touch 17:02 with the Lord, became converted, became Adventist, 17:08 and they, in turn, are put to work: teachers, pastors 17:13 nurses aids, whatever. 17:15 What we found out is that you put a Palawano as a teacher 17:20 and it teaches them incredible leadership qualities. 17:24 It teaches them how to preach. It teaches them how 17:27 to teach. It teaches them all sorts of things. 17:30 And so, actually, by putting them in as a teacher, 17:33 it's actually giving them more of an education. 17:36 We mentor them all the time. We're developing materials 17:40 for them to teach from in Palawan. 17:42 Everything is in the Palawan dialect. So our goal 17:45 through the school is to raise up more and more leaders. 17:48 that can go further and further out. We've got 17:52 Niksun in Kensuli. But what about Notorhongan? 17:55 What about the other side of the mountain? We've got more and 17:58 more calls coming from the other side of the mountains 18:01 saying, What about us? 18:08 You know, most people don't think about darkness 18:10 unless we're in it. 18:12 Darkness is a place of shadows and fears, 18:18 of things unknown. 18:20 It's a place where we go to hide. 18:24 A place where we wonder who's out there? 18:27 A place of uncertainty. 18:28 In John chapter 8 verse 12, Jesus declares, 18:32 I am the light of the world. 18:36 So when God steps into the picture, light dispels darkness 18:41 Life destroys death. 18:44 Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness. 18:50 Have you ever wondered why the Bible spends so 18:54 much time talking about light and darkness? 18:58 Could it be that behind the veil of darkness are faces? 19:05 Faces of people with hearts and families? 19:08 Faces of people that God loves? 19:13 Jesus said, you are the light of the world. 19:18 Will you go and bring the light 19:21 to the people God loves? 19:40 We're headed to the lowlands. Good trail. We want a day that's 19:45 cloudy and a little rain is nice too, because it keeps you cool. 19:51 When you hike these trails and get to your destination, 19:54 you'll be totally drenched either with sweat or with rain. 19:58 And I prefer rain. 20:01 I put these guys in charge. They're in charge of 20:04 everything while I am gone. They'll make sure 20:07 that everything goes right. Right? 20:13 We got a message through one of our Bible students. 20:17 She was preparing for baptism. She and her husband had 20:22 been in the lowlands. And she came in and she said 20:26 the people in Mollus are really, really interested. 20:31 They want somebody to come down. You know, 20:32 they here all about of our groups going out to other 20:35 villages on the Sabbath afternoons, and they would 20:38 like somebody to come and tell them, too. 20:42 We're like, Mollus? I mean, that's not only down the hill 20:45 that's a drive as well. And apparently, people 20:49 know what goes on in Kamantian. She said, 20:51 they like what's going on in Kamtian. 20:56 People are cleaner, healthier. They're happier, and we know 20:59 it's because of the church. So they want that, too. 21:03 They want to learn about God. So we said, Wow! That's cool. 21:07 It seemed like the opportune time to send a group out 21:11 and from that point on, every Sabbath, we're sending a 21:15 group down. It started out just meeting in somebody's - 21:18 just outside their house, squatting on the dirt. 21:22 But within two weeks they had a nice big porch. And then, 21:26 within a few months, they asked, Could you maybe give us 21:30 some nails? And we will build a church. 21:34 We don't even have a church built in Kamantian. 21:36 We're still meeting in the school. 21:38 We said, sure we can give you nails. 21:40 So they built themselves a little structure there in Mollus 21:44 and it's where they're meeting. 30, 50 people come every 21:47 Sabbath. After about a year, Can we have Bible studies? 21:51 We've just started Bible studies down there. So here they have 21:54 a church - they're already meeting - no baptized members, 21:57 just Bible studies. 22:09 Come to find out, as we were going through 22:12 coming off the mountain, you pass a village, 22:15 go out to the main road, drive down to Mollus. 22:18 So every Sabbath, our truck from Brooks Point was going 22:21 out there, picking up the missionaries that were 22:23 going to go out to Mollus, passing this village. 22:25 The neighbor kids from those villages would just pile in 22:28 the truck. Well, this is cool. Ride in the truck and then 22:30 get to ride back and see another village to boot. 22:32 So they all go in there, week after week, week after week, 22:36 week after week. And Bingbilong, this other village 22:38 says, What about us? Oh, you want one, too? 22:41 Okay. So, stop there. Have a service with them. Then 22:45 they would go on to Mollus, have a service with them, 22:48 get back to the trail head often after dark, and have to hike 22:51 all the way back in the dark. Then call us about 9 o'clock. 22:54 We're back in. Rain or shine, 22:56 that's what they were doing. Eight to nine people going 22:59 out every Sabbath, every Sabbath, every Sabbath, 23:01 mentoring these people. So now, yes, Mollus has built 23:04 themselves a little church and Bingbilong has now said 23:07 Can we some nails? We will build ourselves 23:09 a little church, too. 23:23 Besides the church, we are nurturing three Palawan 23:27 pastors. We're nurturing them to be pastors. At this point 23:30 they call themselves "morinuk" pastors. 23:33 They are very humble, and they don't want to say, 23:36 We are pastors. They are like just like 23:38 pretend pastors. They are like little pastors. 23:41 So we are constantly developing them as leaders, 23:44 freeing them from their culture enough that they are willing 23:48 to go out. We are not trying to westernize them. 23:51 But we don't want them to have that - the tie. 23:54 That they are free to make godly decisions is really 23:58 what it comes down to. 23:59 They're free to leave behind 24:03 the cultural chains of animism. 24:07 To go out into another area, 24:10 minister to people and raise up another church. 24:14 We envision that there will be many, many daughter churches 24:17 that come out of this. We currently have three 24:23 that are actually being developed as churches, 24:26 and then there's other groups that are meeting that our 24:28 members are going to each Sabbath and mentoring. 24:31 It's going to raise up new leaders within those areas 24:34 that will then go further out. And it just repeats itself. 24:37 I mean, we have no end of things that we can do to just 24:43 expand and grow. And, so where it ends, I don't know. 24:48 I don't know. It's in God's hands. It's his baby. 24:51 But it's just exciting to be a part of the whole thing. 24:56 Being a missionary is - I don't know how to say - 25:00 It's kind of like where the rubber meets the road. 25:05 You get right down to what's the purpose of your life? 25:09 And your life is to be of service. Your life is to give 25:13 of yourself. Die to self every day. 25:17 And let Christ live in you and through you. 25:21 And everything that you do is saying whether he is 25:25 there or he's not. 25:27 We don't just come and baptize people and leave. 25:31 We don't just come and hand out some clothes and leave. 25:35 We come, and these people become our people. 25:39 We become one of them. They are our family. 25:43 Of course, you want the best for them. 25:44 Of course, heaven wouldn't be the same if 25:48 they weren't there. 25:52 There is nothing like working for the Lord and being 25:57 beyond your extremity to having to flatly rely on 26:02 God's strength, his wisdom, his grace. And we find 26:08 ourselves in that situation so many times. 26:11 Every day, it's like he says, This is where I want you. 26:16 This is what you need to be doing. 26:17 It isn't always clear what we need to be doing. 26:21 And I don't believe it is for most Christians. 26:25 We live in the fog a lot. But we believe in the light. 26:29 And it's there that God continues to draw us 26:32 forward, draw us forward, draw us forward. 26:34 If you really want to make a difference, just commit 26:39 your total life to God. And just say, 26:42 God, wherever you want me, that's where I want to be. 26:45 And come to a place like this and become one. 26:49 Become one of these people. 28:57 Adventist Frontier Missions - reaching the unreached. |
Revised 2014-12-17