Joyce McPherson runs Compassion charity
HHM hold a children’s bible study,
many young lives are impacted
A year of new beginnings!
That’s what 2008 has been declared
and I can testify to it. This year really is a
year of new beginnings. After a turbulent
2005 and 2006 God brought someone
into my life in 2007 and on January 23rd
2008, here in Subic Bay Philippines,
Mark Henderson and I married in the
presence of God, our parents, our staff
and our 4 foster children. It was a pre-
cious time and I am so thankful to the
Lord for his faithfulness and his interven-
tion in our lives. He really does know
exactly what we need and he truly is the
mender of broken hearts. I have learned
the reality of what I have taught for years,
that man may fail us but God will never
leave or forsake us. I want to thank you
all for your prayers and support, it has
meant a lot to my family and me. The
ministry was sustained because of it and
souls are still coming into the kingdom
every week. We have all felt the benefit
of your prayers!
Mark, from my home church in
Moira, is now permanently based here in
the Philippines with us and has adjusted
so well to life here. He is currently install-
ing a fantastic generator that he received
as a donation from FG Wilson, Northern
Ireland. It will be invaluable to us as we
experience so many power cuts here and
believe you me it is hard to manage 15
sick kids, with no power in steaming hot
temperatures and with no nebulisers,
shop in Dollingstown, N.Ireland. The shop
supports the work of Helping Hands.
suction machines or other appliances. We
are so grateful for the donation and we
will put it to excellent use!
We have just had our first official
staff meeting for 2008 and it was an
exciting time. The air was filled with ex-
pectancy and an attitude of thankfulness
for one another and for what God was
doing through us could be felt from the
onset of the meeting. We, as a staff,
have decided to take this year to concen-
trate and focus on our individual roles
within the work, our roles as teammates
and on winning souls and seeing miracles
of healing in the lives of our patients. We
have much appreciated the many foreign
volunteers that have graced us with their
presence last year. In fact there have
been more than 80 of them and each has
brought different gifts, talents and ministry
to the table. They have come from
churches all over Northern Ireland and
even from USA, Australia and Canada.
A real mixture! We want to take this
opportunity to say a big thank you for
what you sowed into Helping Hands Heal-
ing Hearts Ministries during your time
with us. This 2008 will be slightly differ-
ent from last year as we will not be ac-
cepting applications from foreign volun-
teers. We will however be reopening and
accepting applications in 2009. So if you
had hoped to apply this year, please hold
that thought until 2009! Maybe God has
another plan for you this year that you
haven't even considered yet!
At the meeting the other day, Grace
gave us an update of how many patients
we had helped in the hospital for 2008.
We actually provided medicines, opera-
tions and work ups for 1458 patients!
That was a great achievement for us and
to know that for each of those patients we
had also affected the lives of their families
and neighbours too in many cases, this
really filled our hearts with joy! As well
as the hospital patients, we have helped
hundreds of people in our medical mis-
sions, reached more than 1500 in our
crusades and also housed 45 patients in
our Children's Recovery Unit. Each time
we take in a child, we also take on the
responsibility of reaching their relatives
for Christ too. The parents and siblings
visit on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s and
attend Helping Hands bible studies and
Tagalog services in our Church. The chil-
dren and the families never leave the
same as they came! We have miraculous
Mark completes the Generator setup.
(left hand side of picture)
testimonies of Gods grace and mercy and
changing power in their lives. Let me
share just a few.
Do you remember John Carlo? He
was the little boy with the brain tumor that
we asked prayer for in our last newsletter.
He was very ill when I wrote that letter
and not long after, he went home to be
with the Lord. We had nursed him for a
couple of years and as always we had
got intimately involved in his life and the
life of his family. We had the privilege of
leading him to the Lord at the tender age
of 7 and we also led his Mum, Dad, aunty
and sisters to the Lord. The whole family
really was transformed. At the funeral I
listened with tears streaming down my
face to his mum as she spoke of how spe-
cial a child her only son was and how his
short life had changed their lives. She
shared how difficult it was to watch him
suffer 7 brain operations, daily injections
and blood tests. She watched him suffer
and she watched him fight for his life.
She said he was the bravest, most kind
boy she’d ever known. (She was right!)
John Carlo was a light to all he knew.
The doctors adored him, the caregivers
loved him and the other kids even ad-
mired him and how he managed his dis-
ease. But of all the things Norrie com-
mended her boy for, this is the one that
amazed the crowds who gathered. She
said that because of John Carlo, they
came to know Jesus and that had
changed their lives! They would never be
the same. She shared the gospel and she
encouraged everyone at the funeral to
come to know Jesus the way John Carlo
had and they way she had. It was one of
those moments where there was just noth-
ing more to add, nothing more to say.
Silence, and bowed heads, said it all.
That very night, the whole family
came to church to worship the Lord. They
may have cried throughout the night but
they were there and they drew strength
from those around them. We all did.
HHM Advisory Board:
•Pastor David Goudy
•Sally Goudy
•Pastor David Calvert
•Jonathan Brady
•Gillian McPherson
HHM Addresses:
Visitors Residence:
17 Foster Street, New Banicain,
Olongapo City, Philippines 2200
Children’s Recovery Unit:
6 Harris Street, East Bajac Bajac,
Olongapo City, Philippines 2200
They have been there every Sunday since
and every Thursday night. They really
are a family transformed and a light to all
around them. Two weeks after the funeral
Norrie came to CRU and volunteered to
assist Geraldine (Gerlie’s mum) to cook,
bake and clean for the children. We
didn’t accept her as a volunteer but in-
stead we hired her straight away and
praise God she has turned out to be a
blessing to the kids, the other staff and
the foreign Volunteers! God is amazing.
He really does have the best of plans for
our lives. Not to Harm us, but to give us a
Future and Hope!
Christian Rebultan
(see story below)
Christian Rebultan came to the hospi-
tal for help about 3 years ago when he
got sick. He was diagnosed to have
AML, which is one of the most fatal types
of Leukemia. He was dreadfully ill and
short of a miracle, it didn’t look like he
was going to make it. His eye swelled up
to the size of a tennis ball and was per-
manently halfway down his cheek. It
dripped and smelt and was scary for him
and for the other kids around him. He
hated that the most of all his symptoms.
The Doctora who was treating him ex-
plained that a textbook case like his had
30% chance of survival, even with full
chemo meds. We sought God and asked
for wisdom. The chemo costs a fortune
and with such low odds we just didn’t
know what to do on a human level. After
prayer, both Grace and I agreed that this
was a boy to help. He was one that we
had to hold fast to and stand by. That’s
exactly what we did and for the next year
or more we provided daily for all his
needs. It was a burden financially but
because of faithful supporters like you at
home, we were able to provide all that he
needed! His mum and grandmother
(“lola” as they say in the Philippines)
were his main caregivers as his dad had a
contractual job labouring on a building
site. His work kept the other kids fed,
especially the new baby they’d just had.
The problem was distance. They lived 3
hours away from our hospital and be-
cause Christian had to have a constant
companion, it meant that for months on
end, mum and lola wouldn’t get to go
home and see their husbands and other
kids. Life in hospital is a nightmare. Their
bags would get stolen, they would get
sick themselves, Christian would pick up
someone else’s germs and become sicker.
It was a challenge but we supported them
every step of the way. We watched him
pass through the valley of the shadow of
death. We watched him wish he was
dead because he couldn’t take any more
pain, needles or lumbar punctures. At
times we just wept with him. But God was
faithful to provide and faithful to deliver.
After many months of suffering, Christian
was finally declared to be officially in
remission! We rejoiced with him and took
pleasure in sending the family home to
start again. Although we were unsure of
their commitment to Christ we knew we’d
been obedient to Christ and planted good
seeds.
After many months of hearing noth-
ing more from them except on the occa-
sional all clear check up, we got a text to
say that they had sad news. The dad
(who was about 34 yrs old) had stood on
a nail on Monday but didn’t have the 80
pesos (about £1 or $2) for the tetanus
injection and so he had waited overnight,
borrowed it on Tuesday and proceeded
to have it injected on Tuesday night. By
Saturday he took lockjaw and by Sunday
he was dead! It was a tragedy. The fam-
ily was devastated. Christian had sur-
vived but only to watch his own father
die. That is how they felt! How do you
answer that? Sometimes there are no
words. Please keep us in your prayers for
moments like this when we need wisdom
from Heaven. We went to their place, 3
hours away, to offer our condolences and
to pray with them for the comfort of the
Holy Spirit. While we were there though
we noticed Christian's face was swollen
up on his jaw line. His eye was back up
into the socket by this stage but he never
had gotten his sight back in it. He had
gone back to school and was putting his
wee life back together. Suddenly at 9 yrs
old he was the man of the house or so
everyone kept telling him at the funeral.
We asked his lola to bring him for a
check up for the swelling although she
insisted it was because of his sore tooth.
About a month later, they came for a
check up. Bad news was once again
before them. This was no ordinary tooth-
ache. It was a symptom of his cancer
back again for the 2nd time. We were all
devastated once again and struggled to
make sense of it all. Christian went
downhill quickly and although chemo was
the only option, the odds of survival had
A patient receives physio
treatment at the CRU
dropped to 5%. It wasn’t looking good.
Again we asked for wisdom from God
and this time we decided not to treat him
with chemo. I can tell you, it was one of
the most difficult things to look lola in the
eye and tell her that we wouldn’t be
paying for chemo this time. The hurt in
her eyes nearly broke me. But I promised
that we were not abandoning them and
we’d be with them every step of the way.
We kept our promise and we have never
left their side for the last 6 months of
more. In November, we watched Christian
grow weaker, bleed out, stop eating, stop
walking and give up hope. When we
asked ‘so son, what will we pray for
today?” he would just tell us to pray for
him to go “upstairs to Jesus”. He didn’t
even ask us to pray for good health any-
more. He wanted to die. He was ready
to die. He had Jesus in his heart and he
didn’t want to suffer anymore. We had
an early Christmas for him and he got
Action Man and a plane as he requested.
(thanks to whoever sent that on the con-
tainer, you made a wee boy very happy).
We prepared ourselves and the family
prepared themselves. I lost count of how
many times the team called us to say
today is the day... We rushed from Ma-
nila, or wherever we were to say our
goodbyes. We hugged. We cried. We
smiled. We experienced every emotion.
Many times over! And yet, he still sur-
vived. Christmas night we went to the
hospital to give away the many shoe
boxes and toys that you had sent for us to
bless the kids with and honestly, it was
Recent CRU photo with HHM vans.
their best Christmas ever! You did it. You
made sick, dying and poor kids, smile on
Christmas day! That night we looked at
Christian and began to wonder what was
going on. He was still there. Weak but
there. The following week, the Doulos
Ship came to town. We had arranged to
accommodate their volunteers and give
them chances to minister to sick kids and
their families. Many came and for every
team that came, they were moved with
compassion for this wee boy! They
prayed, they cried and they prayed some
more... They had faith and they prayed
for healing and comfort and for a mira-
cle. They helped encourage us to pray
for a miracle too. Even some of our RTM
Irish volunteers helped stir up our faith
too. Faith is infectious you know! If you
have it you should share it when others
Claire hands out a shoe-box appeal
present to one of the children
are faltering! Sometimes we almost give
up too soon. Our emotions dictate to us.
Circumstances dictate to us. And yet, the
Word of God and God himself should
override every one of those things. Chris-
tian began to ask for more prayer and for
God to make him better. He wanted to
live again. In January he got worse and
one night at about 2.30am Grace got
called to the hospital to assist as they
planned to intubate him. That meant they
would put a tube down his throat into his
lungs and place him on a ventilator to
breathe for him. Often there’s no going
back from this point. I had already talked
to the Lola before about what she would
do if this scenario ever happened. She
had decided that she wouldn’t intubate as
she felt he was ready to go without any
more suffering and she didn’t want to
prolong it for him. I encouraged her to
trust God and see what He may do! Ei-
ther way it would be best for Christian. So
that night, she stuck to her decision and
didn’t allow them to place the tube. That
should have been that. That should have
been the end. But it wasn’t. Since that
moment our wee boy has got stronger
and stronger. Two weeks ago we were
able to discharge him from hospital and
bring him home to CRU to be loved and
nursed back to health. He is eating every
two hours and even complaining that we
don’t feed him enough! There is no off
button for his appetite. He says that he
didn’t eat for a full month in hospital so
he’s making up for it now! He gains
strength everyday. He looks more hand-
some everyday. His humour is back. His
hope is back and for the first time in four
months he's had the strength to walk
again. Please pray with us. What a
testimony this child has already. I asked
one of our Doctoras yesterday if there
was any explanation for what had hap-
pened? None she said. It HAS to be
God. His mum has found a job as a secu-
rity guard and so she works days and
comes sleep beside him at nights. His lola
is back in the province raising the other
kids. We were able to give her £120 to
start a small food kitchen or chicken rear-
ing business so they too would have a
small income. Please pray for this family.
They need God and they need a trans-
formation in their lives. Christian needs
the miracle that has begun to continue!
Believe with us. Join with us.
So much has happened this year.
We’ve built a house again for another
family who’s house was washed away in
a flood. Special thanks to Emmanuel
Church in Lurgan for both the majority of
the funds and the workers for that project.
It really is a testimony to that family and
their whole neighbourhood. Now we
have weekly bible studies there and are
seeing souls come to Christ! It’s worth it!
That’s the bottom line in all that we
do. It’s worth it. Its worth the tears, its
worth the hours we put in, its worth the
sacrifices we all make. It’s worth it! We
love serving the Lord. And we appreciate
you making that possible! Please do keep
holding us up in your prayers and please
keep giving. The more we do the more it
costs! We have so many plans for this
year for medical missions, children’s cru-
sades (in the form of fun days) and of
course for the hospital wards. We now
also help adults too who have been
abandoned by their families or who have
no other source of income. We have seen
a couple who almost died in a car acci-
dent both come to know Christ. The man
lost his leg and the woman also sustained
serious injuries and yet, because we
showed them compassion and gave them
practical help, we were able to lead them
to Jesus. They are testifying all over the
wards!! Help us to help them.
We will be working on the web site
this year and trying to make it more up to
date and relevant. I had let that slip and I
do apologize. In fact we have employed
Lawrence Gopez to handle the Multime-
dia Dept and therefore improve our me-
dia output. I will also be more faithful in
getting newsletters out to you regularly. If
you would prefer to receive your newslet-
ters by email then please let me know.
Feel free to email me with any questions,
encouragements, or comments. I am most
contactable at claireggoudy@hotmail.com
although my new name is now Claire
Henderson! I will maintain my current
email address, for the time being, as it’s
the one on all of the literature and there-
fore the one that everyone is familiar
with.
Blessings from,
Mark, Claire, Gerlie, Georgette,
Meann, Caleb
and all @ Helping Hands Healing
Hearts Ministries
 Praise Reports
*We thank God for the 3 new nurses we have. KG, Heidi and Cheryl are now working full time for CRU and love be-
ing mission nurses. They are thankful for those who have sponsored their salaries and made it possible for them to
serve the Lord here at Helping Hands.

*We thank God for the healing of various patients this year in the hospital. Many who should have died were able to
go home in good health because of the prayers and a touch from God.

*We were so thankful for the toys and Shoeboxes that you sent for the kids and even for their parents. It made Christ-
mas special for them. For most of them it was the only gift they received and so it was memorable. Plan early for next
year if you would like to be part of making Christmas special again. Boxes would need to be completed and shipped
by October/November to make it on time! One lady called. Conni is here staying with us while she finds direction in
her life and decides what to do next for her and her new baby son JP. She said that the gift we gave her was the 1st
gift she’d ever been given in her entire life! She wept… we did too!!

*Geraldines house is a real testimony of God's provision and power to transform lives. He has turned that family
around. They are no longer the shame of their neighborhood but now they are admired and respected. God is Good
to them!

*Grace's mum is recovering well from her stroke and with the help of a physical therapist she began to try to walk
again. She still has a long way to go and needs a lot of support.

*Beth's mum was granted a US visa after waiting for more than 15 years. She is excited to go and be with her son and
family there, but of course is sad to leave Beth and her other kids here. But she is thankful for the opportunity to go
abroad.

*Elsie has finished 1st year nursing thanks to your support and help. She has done well in her course and was even
able to take some advanced subjects that are meant for 2nd yr students. She is looking forward to enrolling in June for
2nd year and will appreciate any help towards that expense. She sends her personal greeting to all her friends in Ire-
land.

Prayer Points
*Because of the worldwide credit crunch the Pound has weakened against the Peso. In one year, due to the fall, we
now have have to raise 25% more funds just to stand still. This makes a huge difference to our budget.

*We desperately need a Social worker so that we can maintain our license with Social Services here. The problem is
finding a Christian one who has a heart for the Lord and for the Mission. Please pray for the right person and for
sponsors for their salary. They should earn about £120 a month. That is a lot for us but God is able and we are trust-
ing Him to provide.

*Pray for more miracles this year. We want to see the sick leaving the hospital healed. Not just because of the medi-
cine but because Christ has touched them and healed them from top to toe! Pray for our faith as we reach out and lay
hands on them.

*Please pray for our family. We are now a mum, a dad and four foster kids! (as well as two nannies who also live with
us) We are doing great as a family and the Lord is truly blessing us with such a deep love for one another. Please ask
the Lord to protect our home, our marriage and our kids. The devil really does seek to steal, kill and destroy and we
value prayers for covering. The kids especially need prayer for their health. They pick up all the germs from our pa-
tients and as a consequence they seem to be sick on a monthly basis. I know it’s a hazard of the work but I also be-
lieve that God can protect them from every sickness. Please pray for us.

*Please pray for Marvin Bonjoc aged 2 years old. He needs surgery to unblock a clot on a vein in his heart. The sur-
gery is called PDA. It will be done in Manila and will cost an estimated £2000. As you can imagine that’s a huge
amount for us to budget for one child. He is strong and reasonably healthy at the moment though, so it’s a good time
to operate rather than waiting until he’s sick and weak. He’s come the whole way from Santa Cruz (4 hours away) just
to get our help. So pray that we can help him…

MINISTRY INFORMATION AREA:

HHM Newsletter - Issue 1
BANK ACCOUNT: HELPING HANDS POSTAL ADDRESS: 31 DANESFORT,

2008
BANK: NORTHERN BANK LTD
ACCOUNT NUMBER: 61239074
SORT CODE: 95-03-61
CHARITY NO: XR522
OLD KILMORE ROAD, MOIRA,
COUNTY ARMAGH, BT67 0SG, N.IRELAND
TEL: +44 (0) 28 92612701
EMAIL: helpinghands@azusa.net
WEBSITE: www.helpinghandsministries.com