Bush Medical/Dental Trip

February 20, 2019

I had the great privilege of joining one of our doctors and three members of our dental clinic team in one of our remote church planting locations for a joint clinic. The missionary teams had invited us in and prepared a lengthy list of patients for both sides to see! Though there is a local […]

Last Visit

February 20, 2019

By far one of our more challenging patients has been an elderly woman that has usually had different symptoms every time she came in. Serious ones! I began to tell her story in Big Hearts and Everyday Catch. Well, she came in for another visit just 7 days after the last story ends. She had […]

Babies

February 20, 2019

While many stories from the clinic are fascinating, humorous, or just plain strange, sometimes they are not any of those. Sometimes they are hard and sad. It has been heavy on my heart and mind how cheap the life of a child can be sometimes. It broke my heart several months ago when we had […]

Sin and Sepsis

February 18, 2019

It has been the time of all things skin related—from rashes, skin lesions, wounds, and sores to “hhhmmmm…that’s odd.” Rashes have ranged from impetigo (rather common and obnoxious but usually not concerning) to fungal infections (very common) to concerning skin lesions (potentially cancerous areas) that we excise and send to a lab in Australia for […]

Everyday catch…

November 15, 2018

The part about being a nurse that I love the most is playing detective! Asking the questions to find all the pieces of the story in order to discover what is going on. I’ve heard some crazy stories and seen some crazy things! Some days the pieces just don’t fit. We’ve had at least one […]

Ministry is about Relationships

February 6, 2018

All ministry is about relationships. Any ministry is about relationships. Without relationships there is no ministry–we would simply be a stuffed shirt touting our own stuffing. Therefore, ministry is very difficult to quantify, measure, and qualify. I am the recipient of others’ ministries and strive to serve others myself. This being said, the ministries I […]

“Cutting a tree with a turtle” and “eating children”

December 22, 2017

So language learning is not without its moments. Moments of pleasure when you’re able to communicate your heart. Moments of frustration when you just don’t have the words. Moments of confusion when you really can’t hear the difference between what you’re saying and what your language helper is saying. And moments of laughter when you […]

Mourning a Friend, Celebrating Jesus!

December 22, 2017

I have not had the words or known how to say what has been going on here. Time. We all needed some time. On December 7th, I was called to the clinic for an emergency cardiac arrest with a code in progress. A national friend had suffered an apparent sudden cardiac arrest after kicking the […]

“What’s in a Name?”

November 27, 2017

Shakespeare once asked, “What’s in a name?” In a western world, a common part of introductions is to state your name and ask the other person for their name. Here in PNG it is no different. But then it is…Let me explain. In our area, a newborn is given a man or meri (male or female) […]

The Rest of the Story…

November 27, 2017

Most often when we see patients, especially national patients, we don’t usually get to hear, as Paul Harvey used to say, “the rest of the story”…how things turned out for them. For one reason or another, they don’t follow up with our clinic. And for the most part, I am okay with that. But there […]