I led a team of four. Two other Mercy Girl Midwives, myself and a Filipina translator. The Journey to the mountain (bukid) began at 3am with an 8 hour bus ride. The bus took us to a small city at the base of the mountains where we bought a few more supplies, squeezed into an over crowded jeepney (pictured) and headed up the mountain for another two hours of bumpy, mountain roads!
Along the way the Jeepney stopped to unload passengers and the other Mercy Girl teams as they arrived at their assigned villages. We arrived at our stop, the end of the line, at 5:30pm. The evening sky was beginning to darken, we were hot, tired, and a little apprehensive. We knew some one was to meet us but we really had no idea where we were. We unloaded our supplies (including two 5 gal water jugs (84lbs)) and waited. As darkness fell a motorbike pulled up and we recognized a man from the organization that provided our training. “You won’t be able to stay here after all. We are trying to work out other arrangements”. We began to pray. He was on the phone, and a last minute invitation was given. We would be hosted by a mountain village (I thought we were already in the mountains!) a 4 kilometer hike up (Ugh!) "Lord I don't know how we are going to carry our supplies 4 kilometers, in the dark, to an unknown destination". We sat by the side of the mountain trail we were supposed to begin trekking and prayed. The Lord sends angels in all shapes and sizes! Out of the blue two motorbikes with wooden plank side seats show up and they know the village we need to reach! We hired them to take us and all our supplies up the mountain. The ride was terrifying!, The driver white knuckled the bike the entire ride, saying "Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh My God!"
Our destination was worth every "bump" in the road! God couldn’t have planned it any better! We ended up staying our whole next 3 weeks in an extremely open and receptive village of 26 houses. We had many ministry opportunities like sharing testimonies, sharing the Jesus film (after having 2 showings of the Jesus film, Tatay asked if we would leave the DVD for him, so he could show it to nearby villages), taking BP’s, doing health surveys, and hosting nightly Bible studies.
We were able to run 3 weeks of Vacation Bible School for kids and start a young girls small group. We taught the girls about Jesus, taught them memory verses, taught them how to share the Gospel, and then taught them how to grow as a Christian and carry on their own Bible study. The last night we were there our girls small group came over for a sleepover!
We even had the blessing and honor of hosting a house church almost every night and having two baptisms for the members of the new church. I had the privilege of baptizing "Tatay"(dad/father), the medicine man and founding member of the community. At 82 years old, he lead his community as the first to publicly follow Jesus and be baptized. (*Blog post all about Tatay and his story to come)
The chairman of the village and his entire family were baptized, as well as some of the girls from our small group. 16 in all! We have even received word that the people are still meeting together to study the Bible after we left.
We were extremely blessed and well taken care of. We packed in food for one week and never needed to return to town to buy more supplies. Each day people would bless us with gifts of fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, and even dishes that they had cooked for us. We even had the privilege of being invited for meals into several homes and even hosted a few meals ourselves. The Lord miraculously provided more than we needed. No matter how much we ate, the food never ran out! 
This outreach was incredibly challenging both physically and spiritually. The Lord asked me to step out of my comfort zone in so many ways and He challenged my thoughts on what missions, evangelism, and “rolling with the punches” really means. He stretched my faith and I believe my capacity to trust Him to sustain me has increased so much!
Thank you, Thank you to my prayer and support team! I feel so blessed to have been a part of the incredible work that was started. Your partnership impacted 26 homes in the Bukid for eternity!
Please partner with Gracie by prayerfully and financially supporting her!
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Thank you for your words of encouragement. The Sales Family