Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Red Light

A lot has been going on here in Cebu. Firstly, thank you for your prayers; baby Kyle went to meet the Lord on Saturday night despite the intensive care he was receiving. They found that he had congenital abnormalities that were just too much for his little heart to overcome. Once again, please continue to keep the young mom in your prayers as she grieves. Also, due to the emergency c-section and NICU monitoring, the hospital bill came out to 130,000 pesos, which is a little more than $2700. Needless to say, this amount is not exactly covered in the budget, so if God puts it on your heart to give this month to Glory Reborn, it would be much appreciated!

As far as clinic work, I started with the Red Team this week. Red team consists of gram staining (Pap smears, vaccines, and lots of education). However, I've mainly been doing pre-natals and initial interviews because we've had free labs the past two days. Tomorrow I work the night shift with Red Team, and then Saturday morning is the family planning workshop. So i've been doing a lot of prenatal check ups, which consists of fundal height, fetal heart tones, BP, and baby position. I'm getting better at feel what position the baby is and also finding the cervix! (which we learned can be a little difficult). We also had another delivery on Monday morning. Another girl! :) Her delivery was sooo quick! She was 9cm and then all of a sudden here comes baby before they could even rupture the water bag. She's a precious little baby who has a very calm temperament. I got to hold her for quite awhile today while her mom got a ligation. She seemed to enjoy the Taylor Swift songs as I rocked her :)

Tonight we went to the red light district here in Cebu City, and boy, what an experience! We went with a man named Father Hines who has been serving this city for 29 years! Praise God for his perseverance in reaching out to the people of Cebu. He's part of many different aspects of outreach including helping people the live at the dumpsite, aid for the homeless elderly, and the red light ministry. The red light district is a breeding ground for sex trafficking. There are very, very young women who are being sold as prostitutes, and they hardly have a clue of the consequences. Not only that, but the red light district is also "home" to many orphans. Their moms just abandon them and they grow up there. We went and passed out stickers for the children and biscuits & condoms for the prostitutes. The kids loved talking to us and following us the whole way through, mostly begging for more stickers and asking our names. They all love Father Hines; he goes there EVERY day to give out things, including medicine. I found out that it took a long time and a lot of work for him to even be able to visit. Some of the women we talked with were pregnant or had babies, so Hilary would encourage them to come to the clinic for their care. I can't even imagine someone trying to deliver a baby there in those conditions. There are so many things to pray for in this area, but really, they need God the most; He's their only hope of a Redeemer. There's too much for one man or a hundred men to take on, only God can bring restoration to this part of the city. Please continue to keep Cebu in your prayers and pray that many of the women take the opportunity to come to the clinic to receive proper care for them and their babies.

Love,
Melissa

1 comment:

  1. Melissa,

    I enjoy reading your messages.

    Be safe.

    Dan & Becky Briddle

    ReplyDelete