Dear Friends,
We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year celebration. For this new year, we pray that God will continue to bless you and your family in every area of your lives....May He embrace you with His love and peace, and continue to direct your ways....
Personally, we have a lot to thank God for in the year 2007....He has been so faithful to Chris and I, and to the ministry He has entrusted to us....allow us to share with you some of these things....
We are now 28 weeks pregnant! After a miscarriage, God has blessed us with another precious gift....we're expecting by the end of March or early April. I'm getting big and heavy and feel hungry all the time now! Please continue to help us pray for a healthy pregnancy and a normal labor and delivery to a healthy and normal baby.
Tribal Youth/Students:
- three of our tribal students graduated from college last year...2 of them were the first in their family to have even had the privilege to go to college. The guy, Ramon, went on to university in the city to take up Law. He works as a househelper to be able to do so. The two girls, Bylen and Marivic, went back to school to take up units in Midwifery. Marivic helps us at the mission house/church and in our outreaches. Bylen helps at a charity maternity center run by another missionary friend.
- At the start of the school year in June 2007, we had 27 tribal students living with us. Most of them came from the mountain tribe 6 hours away from town, and some are from tribal resettlement villages in Tabuk but still a bit far from the main town where the schools are. At present though, we only have 20 of them left. Some stopped for financial reasons and /or academic reasons, and others moved to another boarding house closer to their school. We continue to disciple these students and have regular schedule for prayer meeting, Bible study, and Sunday fellowship which we hold in the same building where we live. Whenever possible, we involve them in our outreaches.
CR/Latrine Project in Pakak:
- in May 2007, students of SCCD or School of Christian Character Devlopment from Boise Vineyard came to help dig CRs or latrines in the resettlement village of Pakak. We had high hopes when we started this project 2 years ago. We know that if the people in Pakak have them and use them, it would help with their health, especially the kids.... but it's really taking a long time for this to be completed....it really is not a priority of the villagers....we are encouraged though that some really understand its importance.....so we persist and persevere in helping the people see the importance of having and using them....
TB Testing and Treatment:
- we had graduated 30 kids from their six months and/or nine months of treatment. They all gained weight, have better appetite and more energy after their treatment. Most of them have already had their follow-up and cleared from TB by a doctor we are working with. Others will have their follow-up in the coming week.
- we have done sputum testing on the parents and grandparents of these children and sponsored some for chest x-ray in the hope to find the adults who may have been the sources of TB.
- at present, we are helping 3 kids and 3 adults who are currently having their treatment.
Weighing and Nutrition Assessment of Kids:
- together with the barangay midwife and health worker, we have started weighing and assessing the health and nutrition of kids especially those 5 years old and under, in two other resettlement villages in our town of Tabuk. In the village of Lacnog Butbut, we weighed 98 kids, and out of these, 25 are either low weight or very low weight, three of whom have had TB sometime back. In the village of Lanlana, we weighed 31 kids, and 6 of them are low weight and 1 very low weight. In our work in the other villages, the ones we graduated from tuberculosis treatment were the ones who were low and very low weight kids. This is why we wanted to assess the weight and nutrition of these kids in the two new villages first and prioritize these low and very low weight kids for further assessment with the doctor we work with and be tested for TB. We will also be doing sputum testing for the adults in these villages.
We would like to thank you all so much for making our work in Kalinga possible...Thank you for your prayers and generous donations. May God in His faithfulness, love, grace and mercy, continue to bless you and your family abundantly in every area of your lives!!!
Love and Blessings,
Chris and Cathee Mapes:)
No comments:
Post a Comment