CALLED to Papua New Guinea

Dear Readers, I am pleased to report my “little” building project is finally complete. About 4 weeks ago, I began construction on a new footbridge to replace the one that crosses the drainage ditch in front of our house. The original bridge was rotting and had sunk far enough into the ground that runoff from heavy rains would often submerge it (not the most enjoyable obstacle to cross on call nights). As I had enjoyed many a small building project in the year we served here before, I again gained access to the Station Workshop with all its wonderful tools and leftover material. I had originally planned on a smaller footbridge design, maybe 4x6 feet, but the salvaged beams I found were long enough to envision more grandiose proportions. A nurse anesthetist friend of mine here named Brian Bosip (AKA “Flex” - F3PNG) recently went home for Easter and posted some Facebook  pictures showing the men of his village milling lumber. Seeing these fine PNG beams produced from massive ju...

We arrived in Papua New Guinea exactly 6 weeks ago today, and we moved quickly to make the most of every day. For as short a time as we would be spending here, we wanted every moment to count. We expected to depart this weekend, on April 19th ...then COVID happened... Countries closed their borders. Airlines grounded their international flights. Fear gripped the world. Over the last month we have watched the ebb and flow of emergency preparedness here in PNG, with variable levels of lockdown both nationwide and in our Jiwaka Province. As the rest of the world has wrestled to constrain the poison, we have steadily made preparations and prayed our efforts might remain unnecessary. This week a few more COVID cases have emerged in various areas around the country - which is more likely a representation of testing availability rather than actual case numbers. We still do not suspect the pandemic has reached our Western Highlands, but as we have extremely limited testing, we won’t really kn...

I hope that you all have had a wonderful weekend celebrating the Resurrection of Christ! I am sure this Easter looked and felt different than what you are used to ... same here!  But in spite of all the unknown right now, we have reason to CELEBRATE and be at PEACE, because Jesus conquered death and is ALIVE!       Our Easter weekend started on Friday afternoon, with a visit to the "Haus Bung" (meeting house) to walk through the Stations of the Cross.  Stephanie, a missionary here at Kudjip, did an AMAZING job setting up the stations in an interactive way, with beautifully written descriptions. Pennie's commentary after having the crucifixion explained to her: P: Did Jesus's feet bleed?    Me: Yes P: Did it hurt?    Me: Yes Me: Why do you think He let himself be hurt? P: Because He LOVES us! The simple truth of salvation explained by Pennie ... God Loves YOU so much, that He allowed His only Son to die for you - Do you believe in th...

Dear Readers,  Today marks the beginning of a four day Easter weekend here in Papua New Guinea, a timeframe for which the Prime Minister has also reinstated the   restriction on public transportation. This week PNG has had it’s second case of COVID on the island of East New Britain, so efforts are ongoing to prevent the spread. In the last two weeks, our hospital has screened almost 400 patients since establishing the COVID  tent, and we have yet to see COVID emerging here in the Western Highlands. Nonetheless, vigilant screening will continue as we pray for the pandemic to pass us by. Meanwhile we remain busy at Kudjip Nazarene General Hospital caring for the sick and injured in the name of Jesus Christ. A few interesting cases are as follows: CASE 1:   This 2 week old infant came to me in the Outpatient Clinic with a rattling pneumonia and pus gluing his eyes shut . The clues to the diagnosis were his age since birth and the fact that his mother was having a simila...

Since there was a recent documented case of COVID in PNG, the entire country has been on "lockdown" for the past two weeks.  Transportation across provinces is prohibited, police are enforcing road blocks, and schools have all been shut down... including the Missionary School on the station.  Most of my fellow moms here at Kudjip have school-age children along with a couple of pre-K/toddlers.  As many of you have come to discover in recent weeks, teaching/supervising older children with little ones running around and demanding attention is a difficult task.  Understanding this, I felt led to put my time and teaching experience to good use and host a playgroup three mornings a week for all the tiny people on the station.  The hope and purpose is to give the moms a couple of uninterrupted hours to teach and do school with their older children.  Pennie, Solomon, and I have enjoyed two weeks of playgroups so far, and we plan to continue - since the PNG Gove...