History

Many of us are Medical Mission of Divine Mercy members to Mexico, Laredo, and Costa Rica, some of us since 2002. We began our mission overseas to the Philippines in 2017 bringing the image of the Divine Mercy and the Blessed Mother to all of our missions. We left those images in the Churches, orphanage, and homeless elderly shelter that we visited. We also brought a priest to hear confessions and say Mass. We learned that the healing of mind, body, and spirit, the Divine Mercy way was the utmost goal of our future missions. 

Father Kelly, a Maryknoll missionary, a living saint, passed earlier in March 2021. He taught us well for 15 years and now intercedes for us in heaven. His last words were, "continue with mission work!" 

Our small team joined the University of the Philippines Medical Association in America with 44 doctors and 22 nurses. We served 2500 plus patients with about 250 surgeries in Vigan. We began working to bring the Divine Mercy message and its goals to patients and doctors/medical teams. Confessions were held under the trees along with daily Masses, praying numerous Rosaries and Chaplets of Divine Mercy.

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The team composed of the Argao family and a few Thersians went to the White Cross Orphanage in San Juan, Manila,  to serve 70 plus orphans. The McDonald's representative brought food and games for the kids to play along with a mascot. She also led the group in prayer of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy in Tagalog. We handed out backpacks full of clothes, toothbrushes, soap, and school supplies that we had previously gathered. The children there showed nothing but joy and happiness. They would pull on our pants, wanting to be held and be loved. 

We had served about 70 elderly, abandoned men and women. We saw the love of God in those devoted Nuns who turned their convent into a place of refuge, otherwise, many would be living on the streets. We had celebrated Mass and some of the residents' birthdays and had brought basic needs. We handed out food and clothing while also continuing the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and Rosary practice.

We took our spouses, 5 US Nurses, 18 Local doctors, and 1 US Doctor to Pampanga. We saw over 250 patients at Sta Lucia Church and a nearby school. It became our clinic where we helped bring healing to the mind, body, and spirit of the people we saw. We had Mass at the beginning of the day with Confessions afterward. We prayed the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and Rosary with the patients. The finale was a day with healing Mass, Anointing of the Sick, Investiture of the Brown Scapular, and culminated with Our Lady of Lourdes procession around the fishing town in Pampanga. We returned to the US with a smile and a feeling of success. We had a conversion of a couple during the procession as they returned to the Catholic Church upon their return to the US.

We had presented our faith and good works to the Medical Mission of Divine Mercy board, but later that year, we were sadly told that we could not use the name of the Medical Mission Of Divine Mercy (MMDM) in the Philippines. God had a beautiful plan set for us, so in late 2019 we founded a non-profit organization: (MODMMM) Mother of Divine Mercy Medical Mission. We got the name approved in only 2 days. Our founding date is December 17, 2019. We were approved by the State of Texas and IRS to continue our mission work to the Philippines in January/February 2020. 

 Our team was called to serve the evacuees of a volcanic eruption before our scheduled medical mission to Pampanga. A volunteer named Alma brought us to a dusty, bumpy road by the mouth of the volcano called Wawa. There were 175 families waiting for us. The families had to escape the island by boat. We told them how God loved them because we were not supposed to be there that day. We attended to the medical needs of some of the families. We brought many supplies however we could not bring rice and water because our rental van could not handle the load. However, sometime during the day, a line pulled up behind a pick-up truck and what they had were rice and water. By the time we went to say thank you to them, quietly they came, and quietly they were gone. We now call it the "Miracle at Wawa".  

We arrived on the eve of our Lady of Lourdes feast day. Now we arrived as the Mother of Divine Mercy Medical Mission. We had morning Mass with 15 local medical doctors and served 350 patients. We had a priest hear confession for the patients as well as the volunteers. The second day of the mission consisted of healing Mass, Anointing of the Sick, Investiture of the Brown Scapular, and culminated with Our Lady of Lourdes procession.

While home in the US, 5 typhoons had hit the Philippines back to back with much death and devastation. Many families were left without homes, hungry and sick. We discerned, gathered at our St. Laurence church, and started a drive to send supplies to affected areas all over the Philippines. We held 2 typhoon relief drives, the first with 26 boxes that were sent overseas. On the second relief drive, it was raining hard and we had thought about canceling, but persevered. We gathered 27 boxes and recall how God blessed the mission like the multiplication of the fish and loaves. Amazingly enough, the rain ceased when we began praying the rosary.