Inside the Pressure Pot

You think the Philippines is hot and humid, but add in a pressure pot and you have now experienced true heat and humidity, I’m pretty sure ;) it also poured rain for about ten minutes today which cut the heat, but I don’t think it did much for the humidity!

I started the day assisting dental which was familiar stomping grounds from my last GHO trip. Our dentist is awesome and so kind!

After that I got moved to triage thinking I might have escaped feet for the day only to have my first patient be a toe infection! God has a sense of humor forsure ;)

I bounced between triage and dental today, assisting wherever things were slow or there was a gap from people going up into the mountains to install water filters. And in the afternoon, I had my students back!

Boy is class fun :) we had so many tag along today too — all of their church friends really wanted to get their vitals taken! Which induced many laughs and jokes, but was secretly also fantastic practice and by the end of the day, I think all of them, including the older pastor were feeling much more comfortable with their tools which is fantastic.

Something that stuck out to me today which I was not expecting was our lesson on clean water and hygiene. Coming from the United States, we know about and have access to clean water and hygienic practices. And I know in third world countries that this is not always the case (part of our team’s mission is literally installing filtration systems so the villages have access to clean water). But at the same time, based on the interactions we have had with our team (lots of bottled water, hand washing stations at the court and church, etc.) I was expecting them to not be as interested in this section of the training and was initially framing it as “here’s what you can teach people in the far villages”.

But this section drew their attention most. They took pictures of my “slides” and took notes in their books and asked so many questions and had lots to think about and share during our discussion.

It’s always so humbling to realize how much we take for granted and how much other people have to deal with daily. Having access to clean, running water with the flip of a switch is second nature to me. I can drink out of any faucet in the house, and I get free water at every restaurant. Our access is so much that we often bring reusable water bottles with us because so many places have free fountains.

But here, clean water is hard to get. It’s expensive and inaccessible. And now I see why this section was included in the training. And I’m grateful for the people who put it together in the way that they did. Additionally, these communities that these pastors will be serving will have more access to health because of the healthy habits they are now able to form.

The last thing I want to share tonight is how beautiful the testimonies of my translators are! In lulls, some of my favorite questions to ask people are:

1. How did you come to know Jesus?

2. What’s your favorite thing about Jesus?

The common theme for my translators was that they grew up catholic and someone, either a friend or family member, brought them to Jesus. And they are now desperate to help others get to the same saving faith. They talk about the catholic practice of praying to saints as worshiping other gods, which is super interesting to me.

Their answer to their favorite part of Jesus is that any problem they bring to Him, He is there and can fix it. And that they don’t need to be perfect to talk to Jesus. He loves them as they are.

So… how did you come to know Jesus? And what’s your favorite thing about Him?