Aniwa here they come!

Dear Friends,

The picture below was taken this am as three of our lady doctors and two MK teens left for a one week mission trip to the island of Aniwa which is part of the Vanuatu islands. We have a new church there and they have started community based health care too. Dr. Becky Morsch will be teaching the community health volunteers preventative medicine, Dr. Susan Myers will be teaching about child health, and Dr. Stephanie Doenges will be teaching about safe childbirth. Jessica Myers and Priscilla Radcliffe will be assisting with children's meetings and doing friendship evangelism with the teens. They will be joined by missionaries from Vanuatu, Sylvia Potter, and Peter and Jenny Isaac who have been sent as missionaries from PNG to Vanuatu. Also joining the team are a pastor couple from Fiji who are also learning to do the community health outreach. Please pray for this outreach into this relatively new area. Pray for their travel and safety and especially for their fruitfulness. They will be holding revival services each evening as well. We had a nice time of prayer to send them off this Sunday am at our circle in front of the hospital as well as at missionary prayer meeting this week. Also our district missionary president who is also our OR supervisor, Margaret Mugang came to the house and prayed a beautiful prayer for Priscilla trusting the Lord to work through them and to use them to build His kingdom there. There have been a number of prayer praises already in the travel arrangements and with Priscilla getting her new passport and visa just today on their way out of PNG headed to Aniwa (an - e - wha).

article & photo by Dr. Jim Radcliffe

Update on Jessica.

A couple of weeks back I requested prayer for Jessica. Jessica, as you may recall, was admitted to the hospital unable to talk, walk or even eat on her own. We had been hoping that her CNS symptoms were a result of TB because that is an infection that we can treat. The other possibilities include disease processes that we are very unlikely to cure.

Last week Jessica's parents requested to take her home so that family and church friends could gather and pray for her. She was gone from the afternoon on the 11th through till the morning of the 13th. On Monday, the 15th, Jessica walked and talked for the first time since before her admission!! On Monday she could say a few single words when prompted...she even knew and said my name when asked! She now is speaking in complete sentences! Wow!!!

Jessica still has a ways to go but God has shown us incredible changes during this week alone! She finished the induction phase of TB treatment which includes 60 days of 4 meds, one of which is an injection, on Monday. She will continue taking 2 of the 4 drugs for another 6 -7 months. Because she is now eating better and able to take her medicines by mouth (without the feeding tube) she was discharged home yesterday (Friday)! Continue to pray for Jessica. Her speech is improving but is not normal yet. Also, she tends to get angry and frustrated which according to her parents is not normal for her. I believe she will continue to improve with God's help and blessings! Thanks to all who have been remembering Jessica!

Dr. Susan

Update on Lonah

Wow! What a difference a day makes...along with your prayers and the knowledge and provision of medicines that God has afforded us!! As you can see by Lonah and her mother, Daisy's smiles, she is doing much better!!
Asthma is such a common disease that we often times forget how serious it can be and that it can kill. Lonah's condition yesterday is the worst exacerbation of asthma that I have seen in a child. I was not sure she would leave our ER alive.
Over the years I have, on many occassions of near death situations, wondered how much is the medicine and how much is the power of God that has permitted healing. I do believe God has the power to heal. I do believe He has given us the ability to learn and develop new medicines and modes of treatment and that God uses that, too. I also believe that God called me here in order to use the skills that He has given me to assist in the healing of His children.
So, where did Lonah's healing come from? God! He heard our cries for mercy and He allowed me, my doctor colleagues, our nursing staff, and the medicines he has supplied us with to be a part of His work!
God, thank you for allowing each one of us, although unworthy, to partner with You!!


Dr. Susan

Pray for Lonah

I can't explain to you why some children touch your heart in such a way that you feel as if they belong to you. How a child you have only known a short while can reach right down to your innermost being and draw you to them. How you can share the anguish experienced by their true parents as they desperately cry out for God's mercy in sparing their child's life.
Lonah was admitted to our Pediatric ward a week or two ago. She has asthma and had a bit of a flare up. She only stayed in the hospital two nights and was then well enough to go home. Late last night she began to experience some shortness of breath and wheezing that developed into a severe exacerbation. I was on my way to the ward for morning rounds when I looked and saw Lonah's mother cutting across the lawn towards me. She quickly shared that Lonah was very sick, that she could hardly get her breath and was looking blue. Lonah's family lives at the Christian Leadership Training College not too far from here. They are students there. CLTC has a clinic and so Lonah was seen there through the night and given breathing treatments but they were not really helping.
When we arrived in the emergency room this Lonah was so very different from the little girl I had taken care just a couple of weeks ago. She was not able to speak because she was so short of breath. After giving multiple breathing treatments, injectable meds (hydrocortisone, aminophylline, epinephrine), IV fluids and oxygen Lonah had improved only a little when I left her.
Throughout the time I was in the ER with Lonah this morning her parents were so very attentive. Her Dad knelt down by the bed holding his daughter's hand pleading out loud his request for God's touch on Lonah, all the while lifting up the precious name of God in reverent faith and trust in Him. Oh, how my heart was touched by this Dad's expression of love for his precious little girl and her Creator.
Pray with me now that God will continue to touch Lonah. I have the rest of today off but had shared the details of Lonah's condition and treatment with Drs. Bill and Erin in order that they could keep a close eye on her this afternoon. Bill called just few minutes ago to let me know that she is improving!!

Thanks!
Susan

Jessica

Nazarene Hospital helps a huge number of patients every year. Some are seen in the outpatient department and are sent home with medications. Some are admitted and go home after just a few days. Then there are those like Jessica, age 5 years, who has been in our hospital now for nearly 2 months. When Jessica came to us she was comatose. After some lab work and a spinal tap it seemed the most likely diagnosis is TB meningitis. Her parents are desparately hoping, along with us, that this truly is TB since with proper treatment complete recovery is possible. We did see some improvement in the first few weeks but progress has slowed. Jessica is not able to sit up on her own, is not talking even though she does make good eye contact and follows simple commands at times. She is often times agitated and moves her arms and legs about without purpose, all but her right arm, where she has paralysis. She eats a little by mouth but gets most of her nutrition through a tube that goes from her nose, down her throat and into her stomach.

Please pray for Jessica and her family. Her Dad obviously loves her dearly and takes very good care of her. Pictured is Jessica, her mom, her Dad (on the left) and an uncle.

Thank you all for taking an interest in Jessica's young life!