Suffering through Shots

Do you remember those days in elementary school which struck mortal fear in your hearts?  Those days where you were coerced into having a needle, an inoculation, an immunization shot? Oh, the dread, the anguish, the agonizing anticipation of having the nurse put that needle into your arm?  We were just children and those days were some of the worst days of our lives. 

                Here in the Philippines, we see those days repeated over and over—an endless cycle of terror and torture  striking these amazing young innocents with overwhelming torment! 

The Church is now providing, at significant expense, an array of immunizations and pills to these wonderful young missionaries to prevent and protect them from severe illness.  The water bottle alone with its excellent water filter costs the church nearly $25.00 per missionary.  While in the MTC, the missionaries now receive Tetanus, Typhoid, MMR, Chicken Pox, Hepatitis A & B--7-shots total!  Add to that several pills over 3 weeks which we must hold them down to administer!  They can’t get their lunch or dinner without gagging the pill down first!  (exaggerating a bit here!).   Of course, we must allow them their agency? 

Can you imagine the suffering inflicted upon these child-like mortals most of whom have never had a shot in their lives!  Sister Lana Riddle, a superbly qualified nurse practitioner becomes the executioner!  I had one handsome smart missionary come skulking into the president’s office to hide behind the door in order to avoid getting shot!  It is almost like they are being shot at sunrise!   

And then to witness the pain and phobia engulfing them after the shot.  The hold their arms grimacing in sorrow and suffering for days as if a near fatal wound had been inflicted. 

OH!  Remember those days!  With love, and fear! 

George & Debbie Taylor

Tales of the Isles of the Sea

Dear Friends and Neighbors: 

We see the spacious tall gleaming sky-scrapers rising out of a congested complex city—almost erupting in clusters.  Reaching upwards to the heavens, like towers of Babel,  they silently assert modern splendor—their proud appearance dominating premier prominent places. 

The numerous shopping malls are almost endless in their display of today’s fashions, the stylish trends of the world at large.  On the main streets are gigantic billboards, Las Vegas style, promoting the proud appearance of contemporary Babylon.     

Yet, within the burgeoning city of 21 million and beyond is a people streaming humility and faith.  Of the tragic stories of abuse and compulsion through the influence of the “universal” church planted here by the Spaniards centuries ago, there lingers a people of faith, of family, of belief in the Lord Jesus.  The Philippines is the only Asian Christian nation.  They are a polite, reverent and respectful people!

Typically, they have a believing humble heart—they love their children and they try to raise their families.  The poverty stricken deteriorating homes and markets within the myriad streets demonstrate the enormous contrast—the gulf between two worlds within one city.  The luxurious homes in their gated communities (mostly wealthy foreigners) are isolated from the “sands of the sea” population trying to scratch out a living, many of whom have moved from the Provinces where survival is challenged.  

           We have a young missionary who is a recent convert.  He was sitting on a park bench reading just over a year ago.  Two missionaries came along and asked him if he would like to learn about the gospel. 

He said, “yes!”

Now, he wants to go out and find a young man sitting on a park bench reading.   

These are the peoples of the isles of the sea.  The Lord loves them and He has “promises to keep!”

And so do we!  We love you! 

George & Debra Taylor

Our Melting Pot

Dearest Friends and Neighbors:

We have a melting pot here and sometimes it simmers right over with love and with the Spirit of God!  This “batch” (class 517) had a large contingent of Filipino missionaries going to the missions in the Philippines. 

But we also had 8 missionaries from India and 11 from Mongolia.  The blending of these young people from vastly different cultures, climates and diets(!) is amazing.  Why it’s like getting Ghandi and Ghengis together!! 

But the gospel and the love of the Lord bridges all boundaries and blasts all barriers.  We are all filled to overflowing with the love of Jesus Christ in this special place, this beautiful land, these precious people!  And you are priceless to us as well!  As they would say here, “We are much grateful!   

GT & DT 

Outdoor Gym Fun!

It is warm, warmer and hot!  The sun is shining light, bright, brighter and brilliant.  But, it is humid, moist, wet and we sweat!  But, we love it! (not the sweat).   

Our current “batch” of 63” is ready to “hatch” in another week.  We have a gaping construction pit in our outdoor gym (Philippines Area parking lot—a big cement lot with two BB standards, a volley ball court, a badminton court, two ping-pong tables, a lot of jumping ropes).  I tried to introduce 4-square for the missionaries but they didn’t catch on yet.  I can’t get anybody (except a few sisters) to play it and they are so non-competitive and tentative that it’s no fun!  Most of the elders love basketball!  But, we only have enough room for a few.  When the sun comes out, many of the sisters and a few elders head for the benches (our sick-bay).  Getting a tan in the Philippines is most undesirable. 

The gaping gym pit has big rebar spikes sticking upward so that any missionary who loses a volleyball has a high chance of being impaled!  We have complained so the project ought to be completed perhaps in another two months.  We’re working on alternative options for gym.

We are expecting about 90 new missionaries in one of our next batches in June.  This number is over our present capacity.  It should be fun housing, feeding, showering, and sweating!

We’ll keep you posted. 

George & Debbie

Heaven is laden with gold and diamonds!

Dear Friends:
We find that so many of the families in the Philippines and throughout Asia depend upon the mother and, or the daughters supporting the family, particularly economically -- working and earning money. Ten percent of the mothers in the Philippines actually leave their home and work abroad (Hong Kong, etc.) to try to earn enough to have a subsistence.

A goodly number of families sacrifice a great deal to choose or allow their daughters to go on a mission, sometimes with harsh opposition.

One missionary sister told me, and I paraphrase…
My mother, my brothers, my relatives, my ward members—all told me that I should not go—that my duty is to support and help my family! We have so very little—a small humble home [shack] with little means. My mother was angry with my decision to serve a mission, but my father said, ‘no, daughter, you go on your mission. We don’t have much here but our home in heaven is laden with gold and diamonds! You must go on your mission!’

I wept!

Love,
President & Sister Taylor

Happy Mother's Day Debbie!

Here's the Junior Primary (including Tommy) singing a Mother's Day song just for you!

It’s warming up!

Our Dear Friends and Neighbors: 

Well, another gorgeous day, another week, another month here in the tropical Philippines.  It’s warming up!  After a frigid winter season of about 80 to 90 degrees, with high humidity, we are going into our summer season with higher temperatures, higher humidity with 110 percent chance of down-pours including monsoons. 

The flowers are blooming bigger, the shrubs and trees are blossoming better, the foliage is fuller, the allergy count, the air pollution and the Manila smog is getting thicker day-by-day!  The cars, buses and huge numbers of modern SUV’s in metro Manila multiplies each week exponentially!  It’s going to be a beautiful season!   

I thought of 2 more driving principles (you may recall the last three!):  No. 4:  Don’t take a GPS! (Don’t even take a map!) No. 5:  Take a cell phone!

We love it here.  We love the people, we love the missionaries.  We love the work!  We love our Heavenly Father.  We love you!

George T. Taylor, President

Philippines Missionary Training Center

13 Temple Drive, Greenmeadows

1110 Quezon City

(63 2) 635-9147