Birth Center Saves MotherBaby Lives in Philippines

This past week something wonderful happened --a baby was born. Not just any baby, but the Great-Great-Grandbaby of the woman who's name and picture graces the front of our newest Birth Center in Mindoro island, Philippines.

Florencia was a midwife who died last year. She had presided over births on her island from the time she was 16 years old until just a few years before her passing at the age of 106. Florencia entered an arranged marriage at 17,  that would become over 70 years of happy marriage, 13 children and more than 100 decendants. 

Florencia lived through the final century of the 2nd millennium, a time that included terrible hardship for Filipinos during World War II, and massive cultural and developmental changes. She experienced grinding poverty most of her life, but reveled in the joys of family, community, church, and her work as a midwife.

On the day Florencia departed this life, we had just finished loading the truck on another island that would carry birth equipment and supplies to start the birth center in her home community of Aninuan. It was almost as if she were waiting for us to get a replacement in place before she could go to heaven.

Meddie, Florencia's granddaughter, is our birth assistant in the Florencia Memorial Birthing Home. Meddie has worked for Mercy In Action for over a decade and she is precious to us. This week she became a grandmother for the first time/ 

Generations. It all reminds me of the old folk song with these lines" And when I'm dead, and when I'm gone, there'll be one child born in this world to carry on...to carry on."

Welcome baby Elliah, you have a rich history as you take your place among the Generations.

Links:

• Mercy In Action website