18th Rosa Mystica Medical Mission in the Philippines

Our Mission in the Mountains of Alabel 

About 40 volunteers from all countries are gathering from February 2 to 9, 2025 in the Philippines, at the call of ACIM (Catholic Association of Nurses and Doctors), Amep (Swiss Association for Mission and Mutual Aid in the Philippines) and Four Missions (U.S.A). They are deep in the mountains of southern Mindanao Island where more than 90% of the population dies without ever having met a doctor.

Our Partnership with the Municipality of Alabel 

Alabel is spread over a vast territory where many tribal communities live in the mountains of Sarangani, and for the third consecutive year the mayor is hosting the Rosa Mystica Medical and Spiritual Mission.

This mountainous area is located east of the large city of General Santos where the HQ of our association ACIM-Asia is located, a dispensary built next to the large Rosa Mystica church served by Fr. Timothy Pfeiffer, prior of Davao (Mindanao), who is also the chaplain of the Rosa Mystica mission.

This year we will go to the communities furthest from the urban center of Alabel, which we did not visit during the last two missions. However, we will not be able to go to Kisoy, Mayago, and Catmoon, three “sitio” (administrative division of the “barangay”) that the mayor wants us to serve. This would make us lose precious time in transportation.

We will therefore settle in Datal Angaas, a village that takes more than two hours of concrete roads, tracks and river crossings to get to. And it is the municipal services that will pick up the patients and transport them to us. So we will make the trip to Datal Anggas three times because, for security reasons, the mayor does not want us to spend the night in the village.

Indeed, while the communist insurrection officially ended in 2022 and although the army accompanies us to ensure our safety, the danger remains. In addition, the rain can turn the tracks into mud slides and we would risk getting stuck up there.

In the New Canaan Valley

The mayor of Alabel has therefore offered us another mission area this year: a fertile valley watered by a river flowing at the foot of a mountain range that unfolds in a fan above a small tropical paradise to which its inhabitants have given the name of New Canaan.

The road is recent. It was impossible to build it for a long time when the communist rebels and terrorists were in power; they systematically bombed the construction equipment to prevent the military from pursuing them.

More than 20 years ago, when Yolly, our permanent nurse (organizer of the Rosa Mystica mission since 2007) visited this village, there was only one “toilet” for the entire population.

Regions Affected by Natural Disasters

We will also go to Spring and Ladol, two barangays that, like Datal Anggas and New Canaan, suffered heavy agricultural losses with the drought in April 2024. Most families suffered from hunger and disease. In recent weeks, heavy rains have caused the rivers in this area to overflow.

In the Philippines, natural disasters (drought, torrential rains, typhoons, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc.) regularly plunge the populations of entire regions into total destitution and a state of health emergency. The Rosa Mystica Mission tries to respond, very modestly, to immense needs.

The Rosa Mystica Mission needs your help and your generosity! It only survives thanks to the donations of its friends and benefactors. 

You may send your gifts to:

4 Missions

Rosa Mystica Health Mission

Telephone: (608) 960-7505 

Email: [email protected] 

Postal address: P.O. Box 628551, 

 Middleton, WI 53562-8551

Or donate at web site: https://fourmissions.org/donate/