Manila, Philippines - Winter 2019

Who was on the team?  SCC members partnering with Global Eyeglass Ministry (globaleyeglassministry.org), and some from Alderwood church and others who came with Medical Relief International (medicalreliefinternational.org).

Partner ministry in the Philippines that we served?  Global Surge, Int.  SCC supports two Global Surge missionary couples. Global Surge is all about discipleship, urban church planting, and so much more.

Purpose of the trip?  Evangelism. The Gospel. We provided eyeglass and dental clinics that Filipino Global Surge Pastors used as tools for outreach/evangelism by their churches. The clinics also bless the local communities and cultivate good relations with local authorities.

How does it work? The local Pastor and church members arrange a location for the clinic, often an outdoor covered basketball court or school. We even did one under a bridge in a poor area this year! The church members invite the community to the free clinic where they share the gospel with every person. Then, each person is provided service at either the dental or the eyeglass clinic. (Note: Serving them is NOT conditioned on whether or not they accept Christ.)  After the clinic, the local pastor follows up with everyone who came to the clinic to connect them to the church or have further discussions about the gospel.

So what happened?  We did six clinics in and around the greater Manila area. On average the Eyeglass Clinic saw ~120 patients each day and Dental on average saw ~75 each day. We had to set limits toward the end of each day as there were always more people to be seen than time available.

Overall, for the six clinics for the six churches, we saw 1,152 patients. 

Dental Clinic saw 415 patients (mainly extractions of badly decayed teeth, typically three or more per patient). That team relieved a lot of pain!

Vision Clinic saw 743 patients. We matched 309 prescription glasses, and 486 reading glasses, all helping people to see so much better. Many could hardly see at all before! Some cried with happiness - what joy to see them so happy.

But here’s the best news. 708 of the 1152 indicated a salvation decision! Praise the Lord with us for this, and pray that they will be joined to those local churches as the Pastors follow up. 

We also visited another Global Surge ministry called Kids Jam. This takes kids ministry right to the streets. It aims for ages 4 to 14 with high energy music, Bible story, and treats, all presented with love and the gospel.

We attended worship at Floodway church the first Sunday (Pastor Gordon preached). The next Sunday we worshipped at Pasig City church (the original Global Surge church).

Thanks for all your prayers! We were blown away seeing God work - He changed our hearts in so many ways.