40 are baptized!

"People brought all their sick to him and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed." Matt. 14:35b-36

Wow!! All they had to do was touch his cloak! What awesome power! Certainly none of us claim to have such power. But we do see God's healing power at work in our hospital! And it is not just physical healing. No, Nazarene Hospital does not exist for the sole purpose of meeting physical needs! Our main goal is to get as many as we can ready to meet Jesus whenever their time on this earth is through.

Hospital Evangelism is a vital part of our ministry. We have four chaplains, two full-time and two part-time. Their job is to minister to every patient that is admitted to the hospital as well as those that they are linked with through various outpatient services. Chaplain Taime has been here the longest and has had a tremendous ministry. His passion is follow-up. He has started many churched over the years by first introducing Jesus Christ to one of the patients and then linking them with a Nazarene church near their home. Where there is no church, he has began new ones!

This past week-end I had opportunity to go to a baptism. The events leading up to this baptism spanned a two year period. A boy by the name of Opeye was admitted to the hospital in the early part of 2007. He was introduced to Jesus. His parents, a brother and two sisters also made a commitment to Jesus. God then involved a young layman, Moses, by calling him to serve as a pastor to this family and their community, a community known to be feared by others. Moses moved his family to the area and began ministering. They built a church which they have now outgrown! Now two years after that young boy's admission to our hospital there is a church at Kerowil and 42 people were baptized! How awesome is that! Pray for the Kerowil church that it will continue to grow and reach out to others nearby!

The First!

There have been a lot of firsts over the past few days as we have moved all our patients and medical supplies over into the new hospital. We have remained closed to all outpatient visits and emergencies except to stabilize patients as needed. That also has included pregnant moms in early labor.

I was on-call today and received a phone call at about 11:10 a.m. informing me about a woman, Anna, that came into the hospital in labor. The staff evaluated the patient and determined that this was her third pregnancy and that her cervix was already dilated to 6 cm and she was having strong contractions. Knowing that she could deliver fairly quickly we admitted her. About 25 minutes later I received a second call stating that this lady was about to deliver! I grabbed my camera and bag and headed to the labor ward. I got there just in time to see a new baby girl enter the world! The miracle of life never ceases to amaze me no matter how many times I see it!! This precious little girl will join two older brothers. She weighs 3.525 kg (7lb 12oz). Below, Dr. Bill is presenting Anna and her new baby a special certificate stating that she is the first baby to be born at the new Kudjip Nazarene Hospital.

Please continue to be in prayer for us tomorrow, Monday 11/9, we will be open and seeing lots of patients for sure!! Some will come just to check out the new facility. Pray that as we continue to provide medical services here in PNG that we do it in such a way as to glorify our Lord!

Movin' Day!

Wow!! What a day! Wish you could have been here!

We remain amazed at how well everything went on this the first day of the "big move"!! It was definitely orchestrated by God! All the patients were moved from the old to the new hospital in just a little over 3 hours! We had lots of workers who gave their all.

Now, the day is done and patients are being cared for in the new hospital wards, the ER is ready to handle patients and other areas are very close to being ready. We have anticipated that we would need 3 days to get everything settled and have posted public notices that we would be closed Nov. 4-6. However, due to the efficiency of the staff and helpers we may begin seeing patients in the outpatient department as soon as Friday the 6th!

Included here is just a sampling of what you would have seen had you been here!

Photos by Cilla Radcliffe, Quintin Shmelzenbach & Jeff Myers

Have you ever had one of those really busy Sundays with added services in the afternoon such that the idea of going out yet again seems totally uninviting? We felt like that this past Sunday. We had our Harvest party on Saturday night after which we had one of our new missionary families, the Kerrs, over for the night, which we thoroughly enjoyed! (They live at the Bible College and since we don't travel after dark needed a place to lay their heads!). We went to church on Sunday morning and then had a nice dinner with our guests and then had our monthly English service at 2pm and then...we were ready for a little rest!

It seems often times when you do what you know you should and show up for the evening service or next special event...God moves in a mighty way and realize you certainly wouldn't have wanted to miss it!! That too is how we felt!!

We had a Prayer Walk through the new hospital buildings. This was organized by Kathy Radcliffe and Dr. Stephanie Doenges and it was very moving and special for all present! We started out in the outpatient area and after sharing a bit of scripture and song we went through the doctor and nurse exam rooms and the treatment room praying God's blessing on it all. We then went through pharmacy, all 4 hospital wards , then operating theater and central supply and finally ended with the ER and orthopedic rooms. There were missoinaries and national workers, all of us coming together with the common goal of comitting all of our work to our Lord God, the Creator of all things who is all-powerful and all-knowing and all-loving and has provided this tremendous ministry that we get to be a part of !!! We wouldn't want to be anywhere else at this time in the great history of Nazarene Hospital!!

In just 12 hours we begin our move into the new hospital! Pray with us that all will go according to God's plan.

Harvest Party Fun

Here at Kudjip Compound we don't need much of an occasion to have a party. We enjoy any reason for getting together as a mission family and having some fun. But it just so happens we had a reason this time, it was Halloween, ... ah, err, I mean it was Harvest Party Time. And so we got together and had a lot of fun. Some of us, as you can see, came in costumes and some didn't. Jeff came in a costume because his wife came up with a good idea (the part Jeff hates the most, that, and collecting all the pieces and parts to make a costume), aren't we a cute pair of dominos?! Jessica created a robot for her costume and Ethan came as an Elven Warrior (from the Lord of the Rings) as seen in the picture below left.

Aunt Becky and Aunt Erin had some games that we played, like water balloon toss, a scavenger

hunt and a good ol' fashion 3

legged race! And no hobo dinner time at the park would be complete without Uncle Scott leading the kids in a good game of flashlight freeze tag, of course in the dark. There was some wonderful home made treats as well. When the fire was ready we all placed our hobo dinners (a meal wrapped in foil) in the coals and waited for them to cook. It was a beautiful night at the park Uncle Bill created for outdoor enjoyment. Since the park is elevated, you can look across the open spaces to the mountains that surround us, and they are fun to gaze upon. And the moon was a brilliant ball of light hanging in a clear sky. A wonderful time to celebrate and a beautiful evening created by our Heavenly Father!

Time for you to "Engage"

Well time is drawing near, very quickly, actually, for the official Kudjip Nazarene Hospital move. Next week November 4th KNH will start the transition from the old hospital building to the new buildings. Gina Pottenger, Managing Editor, Engage Magazine asked if Susan would be willing to do a phone interview about the new hospital and upcoming move. That took place this past Friday and you can hear the interview at www.engagemagazine.com sometime this next week, along with an article that was written by Dr. Bill McCoy on the new hospital. Susan needed to go to the Melanesia Field Office to have access to an outside line for the international phone call. As they were doing some testing before the actual interview they were having a hard time hearing Susan. Options for getting the interview were discussed and it came to mind to try our Digicel cell phones. Thank the Lord again for this blessing. After Gina in Kansas City tried a couple of times to get in and was unable, Susan made the call and the interview was completed, with good sound quality! Please be in prayer as this coming week, November the 4th through the 6th, we will be very busy people here at Kudjip Nazarene Hospital, making the move from the old to the new!

NEVER say NEVER!

The Lord sends blessings each day! Sometimes it may seem harder to see them than at other times. Then there are times when blessings are out there and you don't even know it and of course sometimes the opposite takes place. You know the blessing is out there but it doesn't show up, ... until the right time. Such was the case with the Easter box from our friends and former neighbors the Gaudings. They mailed it March 14, 2007 and it arrived October 2009. It took about 2 and half years to get here, so never say never. PNG customs was keeping it safe for us, it arrived to them on the 30th of March 2007 as the picture below shows. We appreciate the Gaudings
thoughtfulness and we appreciate the thoughtfulness of all who have sent cards, gifts and prayers these past 8 plus years, they do mean a lot to us! Each of you who think of us and say a pray when the Lord lays us on your mind, bless us with God's love and care. We had a church a few years back whose box was a few days short of a year in arriving, but the Gaudings are now the official, no doubt about it winners of the longest time it took a box to arrive to Papua New Guinea. So I guess no time is to long to arrive and to the best of our knowledge only one box is still out there somewhere in package land. So maybe the Gaudings hold on the "Longest Package to Arrive" title could be in jeopardy?! Thank you everyone for blessing our family, may the Lord bless each of you richly!

Jeff, Susan, Jessica and Ethan

Goroka Weekend!

This past weekend we took a little family time along with 3 of our friends here at Kudjip and headed East 134 Kilometers which took us 2 hours and 53 minutes down the road to Goroka (Gore-row-ka). It was time for a little R & R. Mike Chapman, our hospital project manager, his wife Diane, our MK school teacher and a friend of theirs, Gary, who is here for 6 weeks helping with the electrical work for the new hospital, went with us. We stayed at the CRMF (Christian Radio Missionary Fellowship) guest flat. We did some shopping because prices are a little better closer to the coast and sometimes you find some items that we may not see or have not seen for a while in Hagen, also, I believe, because you are closer to the coast.

Some of the worst road between Kudjip and the North Coast is actually between Kudjip and Goroka which is kind of in the middle.

We had fun eating at the Mandarin, a Chinese restaurant. It is kind of an unwritten rule that

when we go to Goroka we plan to eat at least twice while we are there. One day we got adventuresome and went exploring. While on our adventure we came across the University of Goroka and drove around the campus area and actually stopped at one of the buildings to ask if anyone knew where a certain resort/restaurant was that we were looking for. We finally found it and Susan and I realized that we had actually been there before but didn't realize it from the directions. It is a beautiful place and you can see Susan pointing out the directions in the picture, above right. (Susan was specifically pointing to Syndey in hopes that this may be helpful to her parents who will be visiting us in Dec/Jan followed by a few days in Sydney!!) We had a very nice lunch at "Pacific Gardens". Of course the Kids had their opportunity to swim both days, at the Bird of Paradise Hotel, a high point for them, of course anytime they get to splash and play in the water is a good time for them. We played some great games of domino's at night and even watched Mike's Brisbane Broncos (He's also a Denver Broncos fan ... boo hiss) play Rugby on Saturday night and they won defeating the Dragons. Now they will continue on in the playoffs.

Sunday was a very special time for us. While on furlough we spoke at the Collville Nazarene Church in Washington and had the privilege to meet Pete and Janet Breuer. They are a wonderful couple who are following where the Lord leads them and for this time it is here in PNG. They are serving at New Tribes Mission in Goroka. NTM works in translation and aviation. Janet is a nurse and gave Susan, Ethan and Diane a tour of the clinic on the compound. Susan also had a chance to meet the 2 doctors that work at the clinic. Pete works in maintenance doing all kinds of things which is what usually happens on the mission field. He is currently building the metal work for a concrete ramp that is being built into the clinic area. Before we left Kudjip we contacted them by email to say that we would be in Goroka and wanted to see them. They were gracious to invite us for breakfast Sunday morning and then we all went to the Sunday service at NTM. It was a wonderful breakfast of Cinnamon rolls, coffee cake and of course there was PNG fruit.

We felt the Lord's presence during the service and appreciated the message brought by Dave Taylor. One of the hymns sung was the "Love of God", I do like this hymn very much and I can't help singing it and not think of my Pop as he and I have sung this song together many times, one of those sweet memories. It was just a great Sabbath Morning.

After we left NTM we headed for our final time at the Mandarin (for this trip) for lunch then packed up and headed back down the highway for our return trip to Kudjip. It was a great weekend with friends, seeing friends again and meeting new friends and of course just getting away for a few days. As you can see in the picture we met some new little friends. Near and around Daulo (Dow-Low) Pass (which is the highest point on the road between Kudjip and Goroka at 8128 ft) you will often see these little ones trying to make a few coins selling these flower wreaths and necklaces to people passing by on the road. We stopped to get a few photos and bought wreaths and took some pictures of the little ones. Then continued our journey home.

Tree Days!

We own a book called, "You Know You're an MK When ... " by Andy and Deborah Kerr, for

instance you know you're an MK when ... 'You watch National Geographic specials and recognize someone'. Well here in PNG you know you are an MK when ... you get 3 days off from school because they are cutting down a tree close to the school house

and you want to be sure the children are safe from a tree or limb coming through the school house. And such was the case this past week here at Kudjip. Cutting down the tree was quite a feat.

In Ohio, as kids growing up, every winter we would look forward, with great hope and anticipation, to "Snow days." Well, when you live in a tropical climate snow days just don't happen! So you get the monthly "Teacher Shopping Day." No school because the teacher must go once a month to shop so they don't starve to death. And then every great once in a while you get something like "Tree Days!"

The story behind the taking down of this beautiful and majestic tree is a sad one. My guess (and only a guess) is that this tree was probably close to 80 years old, it was big. It was close to 80 feet long, the stump at it's widest was 50 inches and one of the limbs measured about 15 inches in diameter. About 3 years ago our maintenance crew was taking down another tree close to this one, it was smaller but deadly. One of our maintenance guys was in the tree (that was just taken down) when this other tree or a limb came down and knock him out of the tree. He lived for about 5 / 6 hours and passed away. Months later the College of Nursing girls dorm was being dismantled and was going to be rebuilt. The construction crew that was hired to come in and build the new dorm ringed the tree. That is they stripped the bark off of the tree all the away around it about 6 to 8 feet in height, in order to kill the tree. They did this for two reasons. First to limit the amount of leaves and debris from building up in the gutters. We rely on the rain from the roof to fill our water tanks. This water is then pumped into our homes and the college of nursing dorms.

But the sad part of this story is the second reason. They felt that Jakaba's spirit (the man who fell out of the tree and died) was in the tree. Initially, there was a great attempt to save the tree as we are very protective of our trees on the compound. But when a large limb, still with leaves fell out of the tree 3 weeks ago it was felt that the tree was not going to make it and in fact was dieing slowly. As Paul Harvey was famous for saying, "And now the rest of the story." The limb that fell out of the tree came down just 5 minutes after our school kids had been in that area playing and getting in line to reenter the school. Had it fallen and struck a child it is highly possible it would have killed them. We serve a mighty God who looks out for us and our kids and we thank Him for His hand of protection on our kids and teachers!

It was quite a site to see the tree coming down limb by limb. There are some things that you almost always see a Papua New Guinean with, a Bush Knife/Tomahawk or a spade. And they can work wonders with any of them. There was a team of 4 who came in to take down the tree. One guy named David was the tree climber and chopper. That 15 inch limb I mentioned earlier, he chopped off with his axe! In fact the only time he used a chainsaw was at the base of the 50 inch trunk when it was time to cut it down. These guys didn't use bucket truck or anything else fancy. David just climbed from limb to limb cutting each one off and moving to the next. He was in the tree for 5 to 6 hours straight. Aside from 2 limbs that we needed to use a rope on to drop them in a better location, he dropped the limbs right where he wanted.

There were a couple of things that I thought were cute or on the interesting side. At one point David was in the tree and wanting to go up higher. I am assuming that he didn't like his options for going higher, so he tied a short piece of a small limb to a rope, sat

on it like a swing, while the 4 of us down below pulled him up to the next spot he wanted to be at. It still brings a chuckle when I think about it. One of the last limbs to come down, if chopped off as is would come down on the MK School, so we got a rope and 15 guys and tied the rope to the limb and we went to our pulling position. After the limb came down I decided that we should have had 17 guys because a small limb coming off of the big limb just caught the edge of the MK School porch roof and grazed the spouting enough to put a slight dent in. We also had one limb that we roped and pulled, however, should of had another 3 or 4 guys instead of the 4 we did have. This limb came down and clipped the overhang/eves of the MK School and sheared it off along with the electrical box, which by the way was disconnected. The actual school structure was not damaged. We thank the Lord for only these minor damages!

The second morning I showed up and they were cleaning up a little getting ready for another day of cutting. I had thought that I would pray with them before we got started but as I was coming back towards the tree they were on the other side praying for Gods hand of protection upon them before David started up the tree for another day's cutting. I was told that 3 of the 4 tree choppers were Christians but that David the man in the most dangerous position was not. Please remember him in your prayers that God would get a hold on his life.

Although our kids don't get "Snow Days" here in PNG, "Tree Days" work just as good, especially if your a kid looking for a day off from school!

In the first picture on the right you can see the MK School porch, roof and water tank and in the picture on the left you can see the College of Nursing girls dorm.

I was seeing patients in the clinic yesterday and noticed a lady on the line with a piece of green and white striped cloth tied around the lower half of her face. She sat with her head bent down a bit as if this would help to hide the reason for which she came to the clinic. As it happened I was the one who got to see Maria. After entering the exam room she began to untie the green and white striped cloth. As she brought the cloth down I could see only slightly soiled gauze. After she removed it I was impressed with the size of this growth extending out from her chin and neck. She could only open her mouth part way because of the tumor making a complete exam inside her mouth difficult.

Maria first noticed the start of this tumor only 4 months ago. Wow. She had been seen at another hospital several times but they reportedly had some problems with their equipment and had rescheduled the visit repeatedly. Thus, she traveled several hours to see if anyone here could help her. Surgery is out of the question due to the size and extent of the tumor. I discussed her case with Dr. Bill McCoy and we decided that although we couldn't confirm a diagnosis quickly, we would do a biopsy and tried some chemotherapy. We are hoping this is a Burkitt's Lymphoma as these generally respond well to chemo.

Pray with me for Maria. We explained that we are not sure the medicine will help. I am sure she is scared. But God is BIG!