CALLED to Papua New Guinea

A message from Rachel:  In case you've been wondering, below is what the kids and I have been up to during our first few weeks at Kudjip.  While Ted is serving at the hospital each day, a good chunk of my time is spent doing homeschool and daily domestic necessities.  Outside of that, I strive to be an encouragement to the full-time heroes here by being present and willing to help however I can... that's my calling as a missionary mom! Here are some of the things we are doing: - Jumped back into our morning homeschool routine  - Meet Ted every Sunday morning on the Pediatric Ward where he leads a short devotional for the patients and their families, then we all attend the local church together -  Play outside A LOT with missionary and Papua New Guinean friends - Love on some of the full-time missionary families by hosting them for meals - Teach Music at the Elementary School - we are working on learning a song to sing as a special at the Easter Lotu (Church Serv...

Dear Reader, thank you for meeting with us here, carving out time to hear our stories and hearts. We feel your presence in this missions work - an encouraging hand on our shoulder as we obey the Lord's call to pour out love and light into the people of Kudjip. You are a blessing to us, thank you !  Now two weeks into our time here on Station, I have turned the corner from feeling overwhelmed to feeling comfortable with the work at hand. There are still many questions and unknowns, but the Spirit provides a confidence in using the resources we have to provide the best outcomes possible. On the Pediatric ward I have rejoiced with many families in their child's recovery and hospital discharge. I am thankful for the medicines, oxygen tanks, IV fluids and especially all the wonderful staff that we have to cure all manner of disease. Typhoid and pneumonia cases have been more prevalent of late, while we continue to have a regular supply of malnutrition, meningitis, heart disease, and...

You don't know what you don't know, until it's staring you in the face. That's the eye-opening reality jarring my conscience 100 times a day here at Kudjip Hospital. As I wrestle to make a definitive diagnosis or select the right treatment, each decision may well determine whether a patient lives or dies. As you can well imagine, this is stressful. But I've been here before so my instincts (so far) have been on the right track, and I have wonderful career missionary docs all around me who are more than happy to answer my questions. For this, I find myself frequently praising God. Also, the Holy Spirit has continued to massage a balm of next-level peace into every moment, leaving no room for anxiety or fear. I believe that I owe a debt of gratitude to a great number of faithful prayer warriors - thank you all! After taking a day to unpack and settle into our mission house, I covered call on Saturday which entailed rounding on the Peds Ward and then covering the ER f...

We made it!!! Thanks be to God and all of you faithful prayer warriors, we have arrived at Kudjip Nazarene Hospital.  We left our house around 7:30am on Tuesday morning (EST), taking a total of five flights from Richmond to DC, then to LA, then to Australia, then to Port Moresby (PNG capitol), then up to Mount Hagen in the Western Highlands, arriving here at Kudjip around 6pm Thursday evening (PNG time), all in all about 44.5 hours in transit. Miracles upon miracles, all the flights were on time and all our luggage made it through!  While the kids caught a few solids naps during the trip, Rachel and I generally stayed awake to help reset our internal clocks, so you can imagine the gloriously sound sleep we enjoyed last night. We're still walking around in an overtired daze, but I'm certain some of the lightheaded feeling is joyful euphoria being back in PNG - familiar friendly faces, musky cookfire smells, lush flora, verdant misty vistas, and above all, the warm embrace of ol...