Hydro Project Begun, My Part is Done!

Last week was my last week of official work with the hydro project. I spent 5 weeks supervising, instructing, and working along side my group of 42 guys. It was an enjoyable experience and I am glad that I got to participate in getting this project started but I am also glad I have free time again to spend more time getting ready for school to start.

It took me 3 weeks but eventually I was able to match every name with every face. Hopefully I can remember them all so that when I see them around later I can call them by name!

This project is about more than just building a hydro-electric plant (although that is the primary focus). It is also about building community relationships. We want the people that live around our station to be on board with the ministry of the hospital and to be supporters of the work we do here. That doesn't always happen so we are using this project as an opportunity to reach the community.

In order to help everyone in the community in a country that has 85% unemployment rate, we are hiring a new group of workers every month so every gets 2 pay checks then has to wait until their turn cycles around again over this 2 year project. When this very first group ended, we concluded their month with a meal and a discussion.

Our primary health care staff gave a lession on HIV/AIDS to all of the workers and their families. They concluded the lesson with a salvation message and a meal. I also had the opportunity to share my testimony with my workers. It was a nice time to celebrate the kick-off month of the project and to show the workers that we really do care about the community.

Pray for the community surrounding the hospital and for the many different workers that will help with this project. There is a new group of workers this month (52 this time!) and I don't know any of them. However, I know that from my first group, very few of them are Christians. I assume the same will go for all of the workers. Pray that God will work in the lives of these men and work through Earl Hartwig who is an engineer that will be arriving on August 8 with his family to become the project manager for the next 2 years.

Amy and I are headed into the "bush" for a week with no electricity, cell phones, internet, or any way to contact the outside world besides a radio. The only way to get there is a 4 hour drive followed by a 3 day hike over the mountains or a short plane ride. Needless to say, we will be flying! Our time there will be spent working on a mission house that is used by missionaries for vacation, various ministries, and often language study. We will be sure to tell you all about it and include lots of pictures when we return!

God Bless!

The workers and their families listening to the HIV/AIDS talk.

The workers in line for food.

The workers posing for a final picture before we end work for the first month.

Surgical Outpatient Department Update!

Hello friends,

Thank you all for your prayers and concern for our bone cancer patient, Naomi. We saw her in the surgical outpatient clinic at the end of May and sadly have not seen or heard from her since then. Several of you have asked about her and I have been holding off sending the update, clinging to the hope that on the next Monday or Wednesday she will be in line at SOPD. I still am hopeful that she will come back or at least notify us that she has sought treatment at another hospital. Thank you again for partnering with us in prayer for this young girl and her unfortunate situation.

On a typical Monday or Wednesday we see between 30 and 50 surgical outpatients. The patients first pay their fee for the doctor visit, about $5 for adults and $3 for children, then wait in line while Sister Vero, Sister Roselyn, or myself screen them. When Dr. Jim and Dr. Maggie are done rounding on the surgical ward, they come to the clinic and start seeing the patients we have screened. One of the three nurses will stay outside and continue to screen and call patients' names while the other two nurses assist the doctors inside with dressing changes, suture/staple removal, ultrasounds, pelvic exams, and casting.

The patients who come to SOPD are patients who have had surgery recently, have been discharged then come back to follow up with Dr. Jim or Dr. Maggie post-operatively for dressing changes, labs, or x-rays. We also have several "osteo kids" who come monthly for labs and x-rays. Osteo kids are children with chronic bone infections, usually in the tibia or fibula (bones of the leg) and are on long term antibiotics to control their infections. We check their vitals, take an x-ray, and check their CBC and Sed rate for signs and symptoms of infection, or worsening of their condition. We have a few patients who are on chemotherapy, usually Methotrexate, often for cervical or uterine cancer, and we check their labs on a monthly basis as well.

We admit patients on Mondays and Wednesdays who are scheduled for surgery either Tuesday or Thursday. We try to schedule 4-6 patients for each surgery day. On Mondays and Wednesdays we also schedule patients for our minor procedure room, or MPR, which are usually patients who need scopes, small hernia repairs, wound debridements, removal of a small abcess, or other minor procedures requiring little sedation or anesthesia. 

Below are some pictures of some of the sweet patients we see on a routine basis and my co-workers doing what they do best, to give my friends at home an idea of how I've been spending my Mondays and Wednesdays! Thank you again for praying for and loving the patients we serve at Nazarene Hospital!

A little boy with his walking stick waiting outside the minor procedure room for a right foot sequestromy (removing a piece of bad bone).

 Dr. Jim performing a colonoscopy in the MPR with the help of Sr. Vero and Mr. David.

Mr. Bosip, who helps with most of Dr. Jim's orthopedic cases, applying fiberglass to his POP cast (sometimes we get cool colors like green, red, black, and purple, but usually it's just white)! 

 Sister Vero screening an orthopedic patient.

 Julie, a patient with cancer, with her husband for a routine check up.

 Sister Roselyn performing a dressing change on one of our chronic osteo kiddos.

 Dr. Maggie, who is a rural registrar studying surgery (same as a surgical resident in the US), admitting a patient.

 Dr. Jim doing an ultrasound on Sendy. Sendy is a mother of four who has been coming to clinic for a few months complaining of reflux/heartburn type symptoms and has lab findings indicative of chronic pancreatitis. Dr. Jim is trying his best to treat her symptoms.

A cute mama with a fractured tib/fib waiting for a new cast to be applied (she ends up getting green fiberglass and liking the color so much she asks us to put a cast on her other leg!) :)  

Summer Work and Summer Fun

Amy and I recently went on a hike to a new place we had never hiked to before called Mt. Audugla. On top was a large boulder we could climb onto to get a nice view of the valley. It turned out to be quite an exciting trip as Amy got her first experience of semi-repelling down a waterfall. I always enjoy a chance to get outside and explore more of this beautiful world. Unfortunately this particular expedition was also the muddiest one I have been on!

View from the top of the mountain. Behind those clouds to the left is Mt. Gilewe, the 2nd tallest mountain in PNG.

Our group, Sean from MAF, and our 13 little guides.

Most of the hike was pretty dense jungle but it made for a fun time.

Since school has been out, I have been keeping busy in a number of ways. A few weeks ago, I was recruited to make trips into town (Mt. Hagen - 1 hour away) and during that week I went to town every day for 5 days in a row for various reasons. Normally we only go once every month to town.

I have big plans for next school year and am excited to have so much time to prepare considering last year I only had 2 weeks to prepare before school started. Any free time during the day I try to spend preparing lesson plans or other things to get ready for school. Unfortunately I haven't had much free time the past month.

For the past 4 weeks, I have been assisting with the supervision of our hydro project. As I have mentioned before, we heavily rely on government power which turns off frequently and worse, has huge power spikes that destroys hospital equipment. In the past, our hospital station has had a functional hydro-electric plant but it has been non-functional for years.

From generous donations and a grant from OzAid, we have the money we need to reconstruct our hydro plant and make it better so it lasts for 50+ years. We have an engineer who is coming to live here with his family but until he arrives, I have agreed to supervise this project.

We are now in our 4th week of work and so far we have been kept busy clearing out our old hydro canal which we just finished today. Next, we will need to dig out lots of dirt to get it to the proper slope before we line the entire thing with cement. We start digging tomorrow!

Pray for these workers as most of them are not Christians and pray that I and other leaders can make a positive impact on them. Also, there is always potential for unrest in the community any time we work on a project that is on the border of our station so pray for peace! The project is going well but it has barely begun and we probably have at least 2 years more work!

My current crew of 42 men.

Most of the canal was completely overgrown after years of not being used. Believe it or not, there is a canal under there!

We took areas like the above picture and made it look like this picture. The canal is approximately 1 km (5/8 miles) long and took us 3.5 weeks to clean the whole thing.

Thank you for praying for our Bible quizzing team. Last week they competed in the world quiz at Olivet Nazarene University in Kankakee, IL. They competed in 2 divisions, District Experienced and Regional (the highest division). In the District division, they were 1 of 44 teams at the quiz and did remarkably well for their first time to ever quiz against another team! After 4 days of quizzing, the team came out of the tournament in 6th place! Individual trophy winners included Lydia Radcliffe, 16th, and Josiah Radcliffe, 20th, out of 217 quizzers in their division.

The Regional division presented a bit more of a challenge to the team as every other team in the division was literally composed of the best of the best quizzers from each educational region in the United States. In addition, most of the quizzers in this division are very experienced quizzers and very good. All of our quizzers were rookies and had never quizzed before they arrived at Olivet. In the end, they placed 9th out of the 9 teams in the division but with a record of 2-6, they show that they were not completely out of place in that division. Hopefully it was a great learning experience for all of them!

Lydia Radcliffe, who is 13 and just finished 7th grade, placed 5th place overall in the Regional division. That is an incredible accomplishment and even earned her a $600 college scholarship. We are all so proud of how hard she worked all year round!

Our Quiz Team Left to Right: Susan Myers (Chaperon), Lydia Radcliffe, Ethan Myers, Josiah Radcliffe, Allison Dooley, Jessica Myers, Bill McCoy (Coach), Marsha McCoy.

Even though they were so far away, we were able to join them on this journey through the miracle of Internet! Some of the rooms at the quiz were being streamed on the Internet so any time our team was in that room, we were able to see them. Also, we were able to use Skype through the McCoy's laptop to see additional quizzes that were not in those rooms.

Due to the time difference, all of their quizzes occurred between 11:00PM and 8:30AM. Because of that, we were not able to watch the quizzes together live. Instead, I volunteered to record the quizzes for us on my computer so we could watch together. For 3 nights in a row, I stayed up most of the night to record quizzes at different times during the night. Then each evening, we had a quizzing party and projected the quizzes up onto a wall for everyone to enjoy.

Thanks again for your prayers and continued support! I know some of you have asked about Naomi from our last post but I will let Amy update you on hospital stuff since that is her area of expertise!

God bless you in your ministry where ever you are at.