Accepted students must apply for a missionary visa from the Philippine Bureau of Immigration after their arrival in Davao City where our school/clinic is located . The Philippine Government requires such applicants to submit a 'Letter of Commissioning' and a 'Letter of Financial Guarantee' from their home church. The Letter of Commissioning states that your home church is willing to 'commission' you to serve here in the Philippines. The Letter of Financial Guarantee states that your church will commit to helping you meet any costs incurred in lieu of an emergency. Some students in the past have experienced problems securing such letters from their respective home church for various reasons. The primary issue is the hesitation or reluctance of their church leadership to commit to financially helping in an emergency. Perhaps their concern is that such assistance should be shouldered by the student's family and not the church. This is a valid concern that we certainly recognize. However, its important for you as an applicant to understand two important issues;
In other words, the Philippine Government willingly accepts the word of your church that you qualify as a 'sent-out-one' from their body. These letters play a very important role to substantiate your visa application. With this clarification, we want to encourage you to discuss the issue of requesting these letters with your church leaders BEFORE you apply to the school. We trust that your church leaders are willing to get behind your vision to be a midwife. We also hope that your leaders will recognize the role that a trained Christian midwife offers to the World Christian Movement as it relates to foreign missions which we highlight in greater detail under our 'Mission & Goal' and 'Overview' links. The role of a Christian midwife actively participating on the cross cultural mission stage is a new and innovative thought. Our school mission and vision has been cast after spending more than a decade advancing this perspective. We strongly believe that a trained Christian midwife has the capacity to be a signifiant agent in serving the World Christian Movement. Our strategic vision is to see our graduates use their new skills to access places around the world where she is fully capable of transcending barriers to the Gospel message. We hope that your church might be willing to prayerfully invest in you with the consideration that you may serve as an overseas missionary someday using your midwifery skills as part of an evangelistic, church planting, community service, cross cultural mission team. Sincerely, Matthew & Krystina McNeil ----------
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