Thank you so much for your responses to my last email and to the needs in the clinic!

I've gotten to go on about 3 medical runs now, and one flight just for fun (that first one where I rode in the stretcher/basket to try it out before using it on patients). The word is getting out quickly and we have almost daily requests for help with various sick people in far away places. We can't go to all of them so it's really hard to decide which ones are truly emergencies or which ones can wait 'til we get there on foot or until they can carry the patient here, if the river isn't flooded.

The other day Dwayne and I went to Amrang, a distant mountain village on the side of a mountain where a bunch of people were sick and we just spent the day there taking care of everyone in walking distance from where we landed. It was hard to find the place 'cause we had never been there, which is often the case. All the villages look the same from above, scattered around the mountains. But after circling around a bit we finally saw a little smoke signal coming from one area and we knew that was where they had made a clearing for us. The people there have so far to hike to get to our clinic and often the river is too high to cross. One man spoke to me requesting us to start a school and clinic in their village. This isn't the first request we've had from that area. I found some pretty malnourished kids and a lot of the usual Malaria and respiratory infections. It was a lot of fun. The view from above was awesome and it was great to see places I had heard about for years but had never seen.

We've had a couple machete wounds, post delivery and difficult delivery problems, and a few chronic arthritis or respiratory illnesses where the person would never be able to make it here by foot. Dwayne and I went to one guy near the base of the mountain one Sunday, who had whacked his leg while cutting the brush around his house. He had been loosing blood for almost 24 hours but was amazingly still strong (unlike an emergency a few weeks ago that David went to where the kid lost so much blood he about didn't make it to the hospital—watch for that story in the magazine).

Anyway, we landed in a new spot near Bingbilang (lowland village near the trail head) and then hiked up about 15 mins or so to the patient. Dwayne was a great assistant, holding pressure to stop the bleeding and helping me clean it while I got things ready to do the stitching. One of their kids was sick too with a 41.2 Celsius fever, highest I've seen yet (over 106 F). So I took care of him too, and then we were off again. I got back in time to help finish up the crowd of patients up here at the clinic. It was so nice to come back from an emergency without being completely sweaty, worn out and covered in mud from the trail. (By the way the guy with the cut leg hiked up here the other day to get his stitches removed!)

As you may have picked up, I am having the time of my life with this helicopter (and it's pilot J) Not only is flying fun (and getting regular supplies of bread and other yummies from Dwayne when he goes to town!), but the "work" is fun too. I love doing home visits, when the stress is no longer there of what to do if you find a patient that needs to go out to the hospital or the stress of getting done in time to hike back before dark or before you run out of food or water. It's a totally different feeling and relationship too when you are with people in their own homes than when they are here at the clinic.

God has definitely blessed this project (and me!), with Dwayne committing to serve here with this helicopter. Dwayne is not only here to serve our project but he also plans to help other missions as well on Palawan and on other remote and mountainous islands. He's already visited some and is in contact with others. There are more helicopters and pilots in the works that he and David Gates are working with as possibilities. Dwayne's cousin is also a helicopter pilot and he and his wife (who is a nurse) plan to come this December and join our team as well. The needs and opportunities are unlimited.

I thank you for your prayers for this project and for me and Dwayne. In the past I’ve really wondered how anyone could effectively date in a situation or culture like this (where guys and girls don't interact one-on-one unless they are married), but it's been working amazingly well! We are completely at God's mercy to work out ways that are culturally appropriate for us to spend time together and be able to communicate. And He has provided for us over and over! It is really awesome. We have the same commitment to serve God in this type of ministry for the rest of our lives so that has been a big thing that has drawn us together. We both enjoy each others' adventuresome spirits as well (he being a bit more adventuresome than I!) I don't know what the future holds but so far it seems God is leading and only opening doors and not closing them. So, I appreciate your prayers and thank you again for them.

The helicopter project is a wonderful addition to our mission. God has provided as we need things and amazingly we have been able to use the helicopter for almost all of the needs of this project so far, which is quite often! But, we do have to limit the flights as fuel is quite expensive. Luckily most places we go to take only a few minutes to fly to (but hours to walk). The helicopter is mostly used for medical needs like transporting a patient here or to the hospital or taking one of us nurses to check out a patient. But sometimes we use it for bringing in supplies for the new clinic (which is coming along very nicely, by the way) or other supplies that would be very difficult or take forever to get in to the mountains. Even the supply runs are almost always joined with a medical run.

The opportunities for the work to spread to even more remote areas are growing. There are some places that have not been reached yet because it takes several days of hiking with little food or water available along the way to get there. But with a helicopter that will all change. Pastor and Dwayne are already planning some visits, maybe this December, to some remote people who have never even seen a white face before. They will have to land a distance away and go in by foot with other Palawanos the first time so people will not be afraid or be aggressive, but once friendships are built we could go and visit often.

The need for an adequate and safe home base in the lowlands for the helicopter and missionary staff is becoming bigger as the days go by as well. Whenever we have our team prayer meetings we spend time looking at land options and praying for God's guidance and wisdom about what to do. Right now there is no safe place to leave the helicopter in the lowlands for very long, much less overnight. There is no place at the Georges’ current lowlands rented house for the helicopter, or for the growing missionary staff that come and go. For now, we keep the helicopter on the mountain, but please pray with us for a safe place for it in the lowlands as well.

I am so excited! I recently found out my parents are going to come visit me this Christmas! They've been wanting to come see me for about 4 years now but I wouldn't let them hike the dangerous trail. So, now that we have a helicopter they can come! We will be cozy in my little hut, but I can hardly wait.

As I was reading this morning, I started underlining and taking notes from the "Time of Trouble" chapter in "The Great Controversy". I started noticing a major trend. Over and over it says we need to be praying "earnestly" and "fervently"! It says to be "persevering" and "determined" in prayer , to "agonize before God", and then in another place: "Do not cease intercessions". Another place: "Do not neglect communion with God" and: "TAKE TIME TO PRAY". I realized I am not praying or taking things seriously like I should be. She says NOW is the time to "exercise our faith" and "make it a habit to trust in God", BEFORE the time of trouble comes when we "will fail" if we have not learned to trust him in the little things. It is sobering to think about and yet exciting at the same time. It won't be long now.

Love, Wendy

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