The Gas Boys

These are our nurse-anesthetists.  They are all graduates of Nazarene College of Nursing, and of the Post-Basic training program in anesthesia in Port Moresby.  They have all three proven themselves to be careful and serious about their work, and they all have great attitudes toward service to the people here.  When we have to do something after hours, it is a great blessing to have staff who come cheerfully without complaining.  They are David, Petrus and Las (pronounced "lahsh").

AB

The Big Wedding

Many of you know that we've been building up to a really big event here at Kudjip--the wedding of Dr. Becky Wallace, and MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) missionary Matt Preece.  Becky is with for a year, as a volunteer through World Medical Mission.  The story (many stories, really) can be found on their individual blogs at here (for Becky's now discontinuing blog) and here (for Matt's side of the story, and the one they will do together from now on).

Well, Saturday the big day finally arrived.  I'll try not to tell you too much detail, but understand that other than a skeleton crew left behind to keep the hospital functioning, all of your Kudjip missionaries, and many of our national friends were away for the day.  MAF is a much larger group than we are, and although only a fraction of their folk could come, it was an even larger group than the Nazarenes!

The wedding party and the musicians went up to Randan Ridge Friday evening, a group left at 7 AM Saturday to help with decorating, and the rest of us, in 4 more Land Cruisers left Kudjip about 8.  Most of us got back between 5 and 5:30 in the afternoon.

Randan Ridge, for those of you who don't know, is a hotel.  It's high up on the mountain to the south of the town of Mount Hagen.  The road is very rough, but once you get there, things are very nice.  They usually ferry their guests up in a huge 4-wheel drive bus.

There is the main lodge, a long, curving building, with a large covered patio within the curved part.  Beyond that is a long, winding fish pond.  There is a foot path that goes all the way around the pond.  The wedding party stood on the foot path, across the pond from the guests.

The wedding party was Dr. Erin Meier, Becky's sister Tammy, Becky, Matt, Matt's friend Mark from Australia, and Daniel, Matt's good friend and wrokmate at MAF.

Our table at the reception, with Brad and Nikolai Ballin and Cherith and Mikelle, and Simon and Esther Tausi.

Jim Radcliffe speaking on behalf of Kudjip Hospital.

Matt and Becky sharing at the end of the reception.

By the way, most of the PNG Nazarene Missionaries who blog have stories and photos.  See our blog roll on the left of the screen.

AB

Golnamne Church of the Nazarene

This morning we were off to a bush church at a place called Golnamne.  Not hard to pronounce once you practice it a couple of times.  It's the home village of our friend Apa.  We shared his story in April, 2010.  Our friends Simon and Esther Tausi (we've talked about them too many times to link to all of them) and Simon's brother Nason and his wife Neom are here, both for the recent Women's Conference, and for the upcoming National NMI Conference, and they all came along as well.

Golnamne is in an area we've never visited before.  The church people worked on the road, so it would be easy for us to get there.  The road must have been pretty bad before!  Going down a hill, at one point the mud was so slippery that even in 4-wheel drive, the steering had no effect on the direction of travel of the cruiser, and the left tires slipped right into a drainage ditch.  That wouldn't have been so bad if the ditch had been going our way, but it was clear that I couldn't continue to follow it indefinitely!  Apa is a very strong man, and he was surrounded by his strong relatives.  In a few minutes, they had brought a couple of big planks and built a ramp out of the ditch.  I drove right out, and the rest of the road went by without problem.  However, Judy and several of our friends had decided to walk down the hill.

The folks who walked down the hill arrived a few minutes after we did.

 The congregation had prepared welcome signs on the ground made of flower petals. 

The church lined up to receive us with warm handshakes and a welcome song.

 Me preaching

 Visiting after the service

Some people had no confidence in the car, and walked back up the hill.  There was no trouble getting up in the car!

Here's a little video, shot with my pocket camera of the welcome, then of the Tausis and a few other friends singing a special song in the service.  There's also a brief shot of Simon giving a testimony.  It was so moving that I wanted to share it, but I was disappointed to discover that his voice had been too soft for my camera to record.  His face and gestures say a lot.

A Night Away

How our friends Larry and Aarlie Hull came to own a coffee plantation is a fascinating, but long story.  For now, all you need to know is that we have American friends who have a moderate-sized coffee plantation about a half-hour's drive from Kudjip.  They travel back and forth from their home in Centralia, Washington to Madan Estate several times a year.  We have visited them there several times, but never over night.  But last night we changed that.  We drove out right after my work at the hospital was done for the day.  We had supper on their verandah, visited into the evening, then slept in their upstairs master suite.

The Hulls don't use the suite themselves.  I'm sure that this goes back to the days when they were partners in the plantation with another couple, who lived at Madan full-time, and slept in the crow's nest.  Larry and Aarlie still sleep in the same downstairs bedroom that they started using in those days.  The suite has a bedroom with a big round bed, a separate room that was probably originally intended to be a study and a bathroom.  The bedroom has windows on three sides.  You have to understand that it's built on top of a big house that's in turn built on a big hill.  Sorry that we don't have a photo taken from the suite.  You'll have to use your imagination based on the photo taken of the house from across the coffee fields.  By the way, Judy is pretending to be a security guard there at the gate!

Saturday morning we got up and had freshly-roast peaberry coffee (if you don't know what peaberry is, you won't be impressed anyway) on the verandah, along with fruit, toast and cereal.  Then we were off for a stroll around the plantation, along with some of the Hull's delightful employees.  I'll just caption the photos.

The Hulls have built a health clinic on the plantation, and are in the process of finishing a birthing center, which you see in the left background.  In the picture of us with Larry, are the nurse and 2 aides that they have hired to staff these facilities.  Above the birthing center are small apartments for the aides.  The new literacy center and library will be built near-by.  They have already had literacy classes, but the new building will allow them to expand this ministry.

One of the security men told us about some small caves on the hill where the house is.  The local people revere these caves, apparently as being home to "dwarfs" leprechaun-like legendary creatures.  The man who originally built the plantation promised the local people that except for the house (a pretty big exception, I think) nothing on the hill would be disturbed.  When the owner before the Hulls started clearing some forest and leveling some land for staff housing, the locals became upset, but the owner said that as a Christian he didn't care about the stories of the dwarfs.  One night, the security man told us, the dwarfs came and climbed up on the roof of the house, and stomped around loudly, frightening the owner and his wife, who called for help from the security staff (I don't know what they did to help) and then stopped the construction project.  I wanted to see the caves.

In the picture we are in front of the rock structure where the caves are located.

 

The first cave I saw was very small, just a bit of a cleft, with a lower area extending back a few feet, but the second one extended further.  By crawling in a little way, I could see into a chamber that would have been big enough for me to sit up in, but not stand.  

 Here's the crawling part.  I could see an extension, but couldn't tell how far it went, and I didn't want to go through the small passage I would have had to crawl through to get in and see more.

You can see how muddy my legs and arms got.

We went back to the house to wash up and have some lunch (along with some more of the great Madan coffee) before heading home.

All photos by Aarlie Hull.

AB

Quick Update--Meri Bung

Dr. Neville Bartle, former missionary to PNG and a bunch of other places, and now DS of the Nazarene Church in New Zealand was in-country to teach a course, and was able to speak at the Meri Bung.  He was here at Kudjip last night, and gave us a glowing report of the conference, as well as some photos and video.  There are over 2000 women attending!

Though out of order, this is Neville's picture of the buses coming up the hill to Kuli Gap, a pass in a low mountain range between Kudjip and Mount Hagen on their way to Mendi.

Meri Bung

Ladies from Jiwaka Province (here)

If you spend much time in Nazarene churches around PNG, you will catch on that one of the most exciting times in the life of the church here is the semi-annual "Meri Bung", literally women's meeting.  In English it's the Church of the Nazarene National Women's Conference.  Ladies go to extraordinary lengths to raise the money and plan the time.  They sell vegetables at the market, make extra bilums (string bags) to sell or find odd jobs.  Then they plan with their sisters, husbands, older children or neighbors to care for their small children for the week.

Ladies from Port Moresby

Ladies from remote areas usually have to walk out, as flying is prohibitively expensive for them.  For some of them this is their first time out of their isolated mountain villages.  For some, it is the first time to see a car or truck, a paved road or large western-style building.  They come in groups, with a few husbands and pastors coming along for protection.  They created uniforms, different for each district, consisting of matching "meri blaus", a piece of clothing that is sort a combination blouse/dress.

25-passenger buses lined up and ready to go

They come to key gathering places and then buses are chartered to take them to the meeting.  This year, it's being held in Mendi, Southern Highlands Province.  Kudjip was on of the gathering points.  I counted 48 vehicles in all, some 15-passenger vans, 25-passenger busses, open-backed trucks and a few Land Cruisers (a big sort of SUV that is very popular here).  They were meet an unknown number of additional vehicles in Mount Hagen on the way to Mendi.  Some vehicles were packed in so tightly with ladies and all their baggage that I don't see how they could move.  Most Westerners would feel pretty claustrophobic. 

Some were settled in the busses 2 hours in advance!

Departure was Sunday morning right after the church service at Emmanuel Church.  Excitement was in the air, for sure.  There has never been a bunch of junior high kids leaving for Summer camp any more excited and giddy then these ladies.  Some groups were singing.  Some were just laughing and smiling.  There were all ages, all socioeconomic groups, all degrees of education.

The meetings are being held on the grounds of a school, with the classrooms being used as dormitories.  I'm sure that the organizers also build dozens of temporary bush houses.  Many ladies are staying in local churches of many denominations.  The men who go with them patrol the grounds all night for security.

The buses head out

It's now been four days since they left.  A few missionaries went along for the first couple of days, and have returned.  In addition, Judy got a call today from a friend who is attending, who reports times of the moving of the Holy Spirit, with many receiving spiritual help.  Interestingly, she said that there were 38 street boys who have given their hearts to Jesus.  What were street boys doing at a Nazarene Women's Conference you ask?  Well, any big meeting in PNG is bound to attract a lot of locals.  I'm sure that these young men, almost certainly criminals, just heard the music and saw the lights and came out of curiosity.  But they heard and responded to the gospel message!  Praise the Lord!

AB

The Foot Club

This is why I always reinforce Jeremiah's casts with fiberglass!

Yeah, it's a pun.  As people who follow this blog know, I have a special interest in treating kids with clubfoot, (technically called "congenital talipes equinovarus").  These kids are treated by the "Ponseti Method", which involves stretching the ligaments in their feet, and applying casts.  The procedure is done weekly for several weeks, and then is usually followed by a simple operation to lengthen their Achilles tendons.

Seeing the kids over and over weekly allows me to develop more of a relationship with them than with most patients.  Most don't come to love me as much as I love them, however!

Some members of Dr. Andy's Foot Club

Lately I've had several older kids (treatment started after the age of 24 months is called "neglected clubfoot" and is usually more difficult than when you start younger.  One is Jeremiah.  He is five years old, and is not at all afraid of me nor of the power cast cutter that I have to use to remove his casts each week.

This past week, because of a heavy work load, I asked him to skip a week, and come back after 2 weeks.  This gave him extra time to destroy his casts.  He usually crawls around in the dirt and rocks, but this time has obviously been in some serious mud.  For kids who are big enough to crawl, I always reinforce the plaster casts with fiberglass.  Just imagine what these casts would be like if they were only plaster!

Feet are pointed down, turned under, twisted at the center

People here rarely have the opportunity to develop friendships outside their own or neighboring clans.  The families that gather every week outside the orthopedic room for my clubfoot clinic, have a lot in common in their children.  They get to know each other, they sometimes helps with holding kids, giving advice, etc.

The talipes work is one of the most rewarding parts of my life here.  You've seen this in some of the older posts, like this one.  Seeing a child who could only look forward to a life of disability and exclusion from a normal life be able to return to normal in just a few weeks provides a special feeling.  And for most of these kids, the contrast is really that great.  With untreated clubfoot, they are marginalized, unable to participate in many normal activities.  After treatment they usually can live and function normally.

AB