A team of 27 Adventist Health volunteers partnered with local medical providers to care for 2,366 patients on the Philippine island of Mindoro during an Adventist Health Global Mission trip in late February 2026. By the time the last patient was seen, the impact was measured not only in numbers of patients served, but in the abundance of prayer, laughter, and high-fives.

“God really blessed this trip,” said John Schroer, Director for Global Mission at Adventist Health. “Every individual brought a 2,000 percent dose of Jesus. The trip was a spiritual high point for all of us.”

Volunteers saw close to 500 people a day. Services ranged from routine care to complex needs, including more than 600 minor surgeries, over 1,000 dental procedures, hearing tests with hearing aid fittings, and ENT procedures. Adventist Health volunteers took with them more than 2,600 pounds of medical supplies, including dental equipment, surgical tools, an autoclave for sterilization, hearing aids, and vision supplies.

A team of 79 medical providers from the Philippines, many who work in Manila, joined the effort. The clinic was held at Adventist World Radio headquarters on Mindoro and was supported by local Adventist churches and the Adventist Church Mission of Mindoro.

Alaina Whitaker, Laboratory Manager for Adventist Health Sierra Vista, and her husband, Casey, felt impressed by God to serve on Mindoro. “I am a new manager and many of my staff are from the Philippines,” Whitaker said. “I thought what if I went to see where their culture is from. They were very excited, telling me, ‘Alaina, you have to do this; eat the mangoes; go here.’”

During the trip, Whitaker conducted glucose tests and urine strip tests. After training others to help with labs, she welcomed and registered patients and then assisted the surgical team prepping surgical sites. Casey doesn’t have a medical background but was indispensable on the trip. He helped raise the tents, created games for the kids while they waited, and painted a mural with the teenagers. He made trips to the hardware store and was often “the muscle” on the crew. After six kids got circumcised, he was right there high-fiving them and giving out water and treats.

“We couldn’t speak Tagalog,” said Whitaker, “so we ended up smiling and laughing a lot — the universal language! In one mountain community, they didn’t speak English, but we brought a volleyball and played with 40 kids. All we did was laugh and high-five and laugh.” 

While translators were available, Whitaker says prayer became their third language.

“The days were so busy and there were so many people waiting for care,” she says, “that if we waited to pray with them as they were leaving we knew it just wouldn’t happen. So, we decided to pray whenever we were able. We started seeing the fear the kids had as they laid down for their procedures, so we started praying with them. It became a safe space to invite God in publicly and personally, and that set the tone for the rest of the trip.”

The care teams had capacity to provide just one service for each person, so as patients arrived at the clinic, triage was crucial along with checking vital signs and providing clear flow to various service areas. For many patients, this clinic represented their only opportunity for care. There were long lines — nearly double the expected number of patients on the final day — but no one complained about the wait.

“One of the keys to our success, in addition to continual prayer, was authenticity. When you’re real with people, they respond positively,” John said. “Our volunteers were so open about their love for God, and we were wonderfully blessed by the Filipino community. God is working!”

— This article originally appeared on the Adventist Health website.