The Bailey family adjusting to and diving into their mission

Here are some things we have been up to since arriving in Malaybalay.

Here is our neighborhood chapel where we attend Sunday Mass.

San Roque Chapel

 we do a weekly bible study with the Isla Bonita community.

Here are some children at the weekly Bible Study

We start with praise and worship songs.

We visited a Deaf School that we would really like to work with and help find sponsors so more children can go to school there.

 (It is only $10 to sponsor a child!)

 Right now there are only about 6 students.

Here we are visiting the jungle to have Desert Day (time to read scripture and pray quietly in nature),

and the girls got to go swimming in a mountain spring pool.

It was freezing!

Grace has been searching for the biggest leaf.

I think she found it!

The moms and girls have been making house visits in Isla Bonita.

Here we are visiting a woman who just had a baby.

All the local kids came in to say hello!

The dads have been doing work projects like building roofs and walls and putting in cement floors.

Here you can see Donovan through the house because they are putting up new walls.

We visited a Mall in Cagayan de Oro and I finally found some Mexican food (my hugest pregnancy craving)!

The girls play “water play” with our laundry tubs when it gets hot.

We also visit the City Jail where we sing, pray and give testimonies and talks.

Arriving

Here Catherine and Mr. Ed are looking at the monkeys

 Here we are waiting for the inmates in the meeting room.

Introducing our family

Then of course there is getting used to life in Malaybalay

 our new house

our new car (a Filipino family has generously let us borrow)

our new way of doing laundry

and cooking and eating Filipino food.

Felicity has been enjoying fresh mango! 

Everyone in the family likes Filipino mangoes (which taste different to us then ones we have eaten in the U.S. And Mexico)

And finally this is the spider Donovan chased around the girls room.

It is a “small” one of its type (Giant Huntsman Spider: has the largest leg span of any spider in the world with a foot diameter from leg to leg) and I hope the biggest and LAST that we find in our house!

Maricel and her Family

There is a family who lives in Isla Bonita (a community in Malaybalay) that we have been helping. We hired Maricel to work in our home three days a week and she is very sweet and hard working. Mondo and Maricel have four children, two girls and two boys. Their youngest boy David who is five years old has bowed legs from malnutrition. This past week he was bitten by a dog on the hand and is now receiving 4 rabies shots. His little sister Rachel was just diagnosed with pneumonia and asthma and was in the hospital for three days this week. Like many family's in Isla Bonita they can't always afford to buy food or even rice. We visited their house recently and I was face-to-face with their needs.

The roof has a large gap and many other small openings that lets in the rain and insects.

It is our hope to replace the leaves with tin panels.

 As I looked around I realized that not only was the roof falling apart but the walls were barley there.

 This is a large hole in the wall near their wood burning stove. Notice the walls are made of bamboo strips woven together.

They have sheets up in place where the walls used to be.

This sheet is on the edge of the family bed which on the other side drops down a hill to a small stream. L to R David (barely visible), Long-Long and Rebekah (not pictured is her oldest daughter Jonahcel). 

They have no bathroom but must go outside. Their small one room house has one bed for all 6 family members. The bed is made of bamboo slats with no mattress. They have no electricity and no running water. They must go to a family's house to fill their water jugs for cleaning, drinking and washing clothes.

 Another gap in their wall.

 Here Maricel stands in the doorway (where they prop a door up at night).

 To get to their house there is a very steep hill that gets muddy and slippery. They often fall trying to climb down to their house and it is especially hard for little David. We hope to put in cement steps and a handrail.

 We have been praying for this family and thinking about them a lot. We believe that God has given us this opportunity to help them. Recently I was thinking about Lent and making sacrifices. I don't know what you have decided to give up this Lent, but may I make a suggestion? Would you consider giving up a material comfort for this family and donating the money you would have spent to help rebuild their house?

Perhaps you give up Starbucks once a week = $20 a month

or everyday = $150 a month.

your family could give up eating out once a week = $80 a month

give up going to the movies = $10

Whatever you decide please consider praying about it and praying for this family. Whatever sacrifice you make this lent makes your prayers that much more powerful.

A few things our family has given up as missionaries in the Philippines (maybe it will help you think of something you could give up this Lent):

• hot showers
• bath tubs
• air conditioning
• many dairy products (fresh cheese, sour cream, fresh milk)
• many types of meat (hamburgers, steaks, pork chops, ribs, bacon, you get the picture)
• a television (& cable)
• access to perpetual internet (give up internet except 2 hours a week)

If you would like to help this family donations can be made by clicking HERE. Make sure to put Maricel Home Project in the memo line. Everyday we are made more aware of how much we have been blessed with materially in the United States compared to so many other countries. As you think about all you have and have been blessed with remember that God has given you these things so that you can share them with others. A little goes a long way here and God will bless you for your generosity!

All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each ones need.         - Acts 2:44-45

Dominic Update

Surgery is over and all went well. Praise God! Thank you all for your prayers, we ask for continued prayers for his recovery and healing for the next few months.

Pray for Dominic

Please pray for our nephew Dominic who is in KC ,in  surgery at this moment (7:00 am March 10 and last all day). we just had a mass said for him as he was being prepared for surgery. please refer below for more info from Donovan's mother.

Please add Dominic Bailey to the prayer list for the next month or more.  He will have a 9 hour surgery on March 10 at the KU Medical Center in KC, KS to have two rods placed in his spine. 

His Duchene Muscular Dystrophy has destroyed his muscles so greatly that the curvature of his spine is causing health issues, he is unable to cough because his muscles are deteriorated, his intestines have shifted to one side due to the curvature, one lung will not expand properly and his heart (the most important muscle) is deteriorating as well.  He has suffered two bouts of pneumonia in the past year, the hope is to straighten his spine to allow his lung to expand better and give him a little more coughing ability.  Pray that the surgery will be successful, that God will steady the Dr’s hand during the long procedure.

Dominic is 13 years old and you may have seen him at church (St. Jude) at the 11:00 Mass or in the parish hall during Coffee and Rolls gathering.  He has been in a wheel chair permanently since he made his first communion at the age of 8.  His little brother, Christian now 4, also has DMD and will progress similarly as Dominic through the years.  We pray for a miracle every day, asking that if it be God’s will to please find a cure for this debilitating disease.  How wonderful it would be for Dominic to be able to walk again, to be able to hold something in his hands again (more than 5 lbs.), to hold his back up straight and not be in constant pain, to straighten his legs, to feed himself, to use the restroom alone, to raise his hand in class, and to know his brother won’t have to suffer in the same way he has. 

How many muscles does it take to help?  One, your heart!

Please pray that Mother Theresa of Calcutta, Mary our mother, Joseph (and all the saints) take our prayers to the Father, and bring his healing to Dominic and Christian and all other boys that suffer with DMD. 

Whatever God’s will, also pray that we will be able to accept it gracefully, as Jesus said, Your will, not mine.

 

Thank you for your prayers,

Linda Bailey