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Nazarene Hospital Foundation Newsletter –Spring 2008 (PDF version)

Excerpts from Dr. Todd’s PNG Journal
(Written while on a 3 month mission trip to Kudjip Nazarene Hospital)

Grant Peace, Oh Lord

I was just finishing my rounds on the TB ward when I noticed heavy activity in the ER. Upon my arrival there I witnessed a family of 6 all of whom were in distress. Two little girls lay dying, another sister was mildly ill. Their mother had picked and prepared wild bush beans which are native to our part of PNG. She was not from the area and didn’t know that these particular beans are sometime cyanide laced.

There are 3 types of medicine that can be given in this situation of which the hospital had none. Gastric lavage was performed which is a procedure in which a tube in inserted into the stomach and water is flushed down and the stomach contents sucked out. This procedure saved the life of the brother and father.

We kept the brother overnight for evaluation while the family begged to return home to bury their daughters. Now, you might think that because death is so common in PNG that they do not grieve as we do. NOT SO!

Death is as sorrowful in PNG as it is in your family and was deeply felt that day in the ER. My only consolation is the knowledge that those little girls were welcomed into the arms of Jesus and are in heaven right now. It is connections such as these that bind the people of PNG to my heart. I look forward to returning to their country in June and am honored to serve them through the hospital at Kudjip.

Announcing...

Todd and Deann Winter will be leading a team to PNG on June 14th and returning the 5th of July. They will be building a pharmacy at the hospital as well as conducting Vacation Bible School for the children. They will also be visiting some of the bush churches. This will be a 3 generation team as Todd’s parents and children will be joining the team. The diverse team includes college students, a university professor, medical personal and several Winter family friends. Please keep them in your prayers.

Making a Difference

Hazel was born in 1912. At the age of 88 Hazel heard about the Nazarene Hospital in PNG. She heard that the hospital was gifting newborns with a baby blanket but did not have enough blankets to give to all babies. Although Hazel had been diagnosed with Macular Degeneration and had lost 98% of her vision, she still loved to make baby afghans. Hazel found new purpose in life and in the last year of her life she crocheted 35 afghans for the newborns of Kudjip Nazarene Hospital.

How are you making a difference in our world?

Urgent Request !

The hospital has requested the following items for Moms who desperately need our help. Newborn sizes, please. Onesies, sleepers, hats, socks, plastic pants, diapers & pins, receiving blankets, small size baby powder & liquid baby soap. Send your donations to NHF at:

Nazarene Hospital Foundation
555 Black Oak Drive
Medford, OR 97504

The History of Nazarene Hospital Foundation

Following a mission trip to Kudjip Nazarene Hospital in 1998 Dr. Todd Winter organized Nazarene Hospital Foundation under the auspices of Open Hands, Open Hearts. Dr. Todd had become painfully aware of the hospital’s need for basic medicines and medical supplies. Since it’s beginning NHF has shipped 19 containers with a combined value in excess of 6 million dollars to the country of Papua New Guinea. The containers include medicines that most of us find in our medicine cabinets such as Tylenol and Advil as well as many prescription drugs most of which have been donated to the Hospital. The supplies include crutches, hospital beds, IV stands, rubber gloves and so much more. Many items have been used and discarded by our American Hospitals. These containers of supplies have made an incredible difference to the Kudjip Nazarene Hospital.

We are proud to partner with the missionary doctors who have left the comfort and financial stability of the USA to serve the kind and gentle people of PNG. They have made a huge impact on the country as they offer not only physical healing but also spiritual hope and healing.

Until We All Have Names...

By Dr. Bill McCoy, Nazarene Hospital

    Lusame

The odor filled the entire ward. Those who could quickly exited. The rest of us held cloths over our noses to lessen the offense. At first glance it seemed that she could not be alive. Sores covered her entire body and invaded every orifice, deep sores, dripping foul pus and blood. She was unable to open her eyes because of the crusts that glued her lids shut. She was unmoving except for shallow breathing. She was hardly recognizable as a human being. This was my introduction to Lusame.

This child of the PNG Highland, about 12 years old, had been taken by her parents to clinics and hospitals in another province for the past six months. Starting as widespread blisters that had soon become infected, the illness had sapped all the strength from the child. Lusame had been unable to sit or stand for more than four months and by the time she was dropped off at our hospital she was comatose and nearly dead. We cleaned and bandaged Lusame’s tiny wasted body, began treatment and prayed that God’s will would be done in this child’s life. We also prayed for ourselves that we would not just see the decay of flesh but could have our eyes opened to a child of God’s making.

It soon became apparent that Lusame was a person not unlike myself, with needs and desires, who craved relief from suffering, protection from shame, recognition of her existence and hope for a future.

I marvel at the things I have in common with Lusame. This child from the bush whose life has contained so much pain and suffering, share in essentials, the path of a middle-aged American physician.

Every life is lived somewhere between the extremes of joy and grief, between righteousness and unspeakable evil, between purposefulness and meaninglessness, between peace and turmoil, between hope and despair, between gratefulness and bitterness, between loving and hating, between loneliness and belonging.

Our choices and responses to the grace of God determine where we dwell within those parameters. These are the issues of the soul that bind me to this child, Lusame.