CALLED to Papua New Guinea

We have been living and working on the Kudjip Station for 5 months now, and I realize that we have never really shared about our local church that we attend on Sunday mornings. So...I thought that it would be nice to give you all a glimpse into the Sunday morning service.  When we are not visiting a bush church off-station, we attend Emmanuel Church, which is located right outside the main gate of the station. This is quite convenient, because only a short stroll is required to get to church, and there is no issue of finding parking. :) This morning, as I walked to church, I was greeted by smiling children in their Sunday clothes playing a game of tag, one of the security guards patrolling our street, a stray dog roaming around looking for scraps, and several other missionary neighbors. I was joined by Dr. Jim on my walk, and sat with him and his two daughters during the service…since Teddy is still stranded in Dusin. (You’ll hear all about that in his blog post when he gets ...

Who's excited?   ...THIS GUY! In about 24 hours, I will board a small MAF airplane to return to Dusin - the mountain village were Rachel and I first experienced PNG culture. This time around, I'm flying with 5 other Kudjip men to enjoy a week-long Men's Retreat - full of scenic hikes, red meat, soccer with the local kids, a healthy measure of quiet time to decompress, and lots of manly bonding. I'm sure I'll come back with some stories to share, but in the meantime, I'd like to leave you with something from the archives, never before posted. Here follows the journal notes from my first Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) experience, when Rachel and I (entirely new to PNG culture) were sent off to Dusin. (You can read other Dusin adventures in the September Blog Posts). ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ We accessed the MAF "terminal" through a narrow chain link entry lined with waiting PNG nationals. It was a small building with an even smaller waitin...

Since Teddy gave everyone a “Week in Review” of his life here as a doctor on station…I thought it would be nice to follow up with a synopsis of our last few weekends here in PNG. As I have mentioned before, Teddy and I are always eager for new experiences while we are here at Kudjip, and these past few weekends have certainly been fulfilling! The core event of every weekend has been hosting a Roman’s Bible Study in our home on Saturday afternoons. Several different missionaries have been in attendance, as well as some MAF (Missions Aviation Fellowship) volunteers from Mt. Hagen. We spend about an hour each Saturday discussing different sections of scripture: how they apply to our ministry here as missionaries, and how they challenge us to go deeper in our relationships with God. It has been exceptionally rewarding! ********* One of our weekend adventures was an outing with the Crouch Family to Banz…a nearby village/town that boasts a market, several second-hand shops, and a new re...

Dear Readers, As I contemplated what to write to you for this posting, my mind churned through a blur of faces and diagnoses from the last week, and I realized that I have not yet given you an adequate scope of the broad range of illnesses and injuries I encounter every day. What follows are a hodgepodge of medical diagnoses I discovered and treated just within the last week, some of which will include a short story and/or picture. My hope is, as ever, that you will feel like a part of what we are doing here, experiencing the losses and victories alongside us - and that this will further motivate you to partner with us in prayer for the work at hand - ministering the Lord's Gospel of Love and Healing. All our Love, Ted & Rachel ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  Diagnoses I see multiple times every week: - Viral Respiratory and GI infections - Pneumonia - Dehydration with Gastroenteritis - Reflux and Gastritis - Musculoskeletal pains - Arthritis - Osteo and Rheumatoid - Congestive He...

Her little smile lit up the room - simple, shy, and with a joyful freedom that I rarely see among my PNG patients. The tip of her slightly large tongue rested casually between her lips, as though she always had a funny thought in mind. Her parents sat quietly, reading my face for some understanding of their daughter's illness. Apart from her protruding tongue, she appeared to be a perfectly happy four year old. I opened her medical book, noting her name - Stephanie David. As usual when I welcome patients into my little clinic room, I introduced myself, shaking the parents' hands, "Welcam - mi hamamas long lookim yu", then Stephanie's, who buried her shy grin into her mother's blouse. Also a routine with kids, I then let Stephanie pick a Sesame Street sticker to put on her hand. (Many thanks to our dear friends and family for the ample sticker supply via Care Packages!) In reviewing her parents concerns, I was immediately taken aback when they said she is...

Happy New Year!   I believe God has GREAT things in store for us!  For me, today feels like the last day of the Holidays – the Christmas tree is down, the nativity figures have been put away, and tomorrow I’ll be going back to normal work hours at the hospital (we’ve had the clinic closed for a few days over the last two weeks). In addition, today Rachel and I started our annual 21 day Fast, a wonderful time of dedicating the New Year to God and prayerfully seeking His direction for this year – in both our personal walk and among the Kudjip Nazarene Body, in our missionary work here, and for the road beyond this year in PNG. (If you have followed our Blog from the beginning, you will remember an outline on this 3 week prayer and fasting in a January 2014 Post .) Being the first Sunday of the month, we gathered today with all the area’s missionaries for the “English Lotu Service”. We had a lovely potluck lunch, and then it was time for Lotu. Every month, the service is ...