well i am on my way home now! praise God for a safe stopover in port moresby and a relaxing stay at the missionary guesthouse there. please pray for me as i now have 3 long flights and am having back pain which will be aggravated by sitting for long periods. thank you!

Apologies for some confusion with posts - on Tuesday I wrote the following on the wrong blog, so sorry if you didn't see it!

[Tuesday's post]
'Hello!
Will just be a quick message, sorry!
Please continue to pray for the young lad who had the amputation as his wound is now infected. We had to remove the stitches today to allow the pus etc to come out, and will re-suture it hopefully soon. He also seems to be having a fair bit of pain at the moment.
A young lady was also brought in this evening with a snakebite. She isn't too sick just now, but please pray for her time at the hospital and for spiritual input into her life during her stay here.
Please also pray for me over the next few days as I am going to stay at one of the out-stations linked with the hospital, staying with a family in the village.
Many thanks for all your prayers!'

Praise God for a blessed few days staying with a family out in the bush at an aidpost. It was encouraging to see a family faithfully serving God. Do keep them in your prayers, as they currently do not have a house, so are living in a couple of rooms of the aid post building. The aidpost is also very basic (e.g. currently no pain medicines) so it is difficult circumstances.
Please also pray for my final few days here before I leave.

Today

- Praise God that he sent rain abundantly this morning!
- Please pray for a lady and her husband who came to us today from a nearby hospital (where there are currently no doctors), needing an emergency caesarean section as the umbilical cord was coming out before the baby, and baby was consequently in distress. The couple have been married for over 10years and this was to be their first child which they have been praying for. Despite a very swift procedure to get baby out, the baby boy couldn't be resuscitated and died. It is hard to know that a different outcome would have been likely in a different setting/situation, yet God is still God here, and he alone has power over life and death. Please pray for God's comfort and hope for the couple at this time.

Thank you for your prayers this week.
Those of us here who had been struggling with a virus doing the rounds are all feeling much better now, and the hospital was mercifully quiet on the days we were feeling worst!
This week I have had opportunity to pray with a number of patients, and have felt more confident in doing this, which is really great. I have also had some good conversations with the hospital pastor, and one of the missionary doctors about medical mission work. On Wednesday I spent a long time with a very sick man (very emaciated, dehydrated and struggling to breathe) praying and talking with him, but mainly just singing worship songs and hymns. I have no idea if he understood what I was saying, but he seemed to smile and respond. The next morning he was quite improved, and his son who is with him asked me for some reading material and I was able to point him towards the pastor who provides patients with Christian books.
Please continue to pray for the young boy who had the awful foot injury when hunting a pig. He returned to us and had his leg amputated below the knee this week. Pray for his time here at the hospital - the staff are feeling that God has his hand in bringing him back to us as a Christian hospital.
Please also pray for a lady who had a baby by emergency caesarean yesterday and has a difficult family situation.
Next week I will probably be visiting one of the hospital's outstations and staying in the community, so please be keeping that in your prayers.
Thank you!

Praise God!

Just to update you, the little girl bitten by a snake has vastly improved in the past 2days! Her kidney function measurements have improved massively (we're talking the numbers dropping by thousands!) and she is sitting up and eating, and even occasionally letting a smile out! I was able to share with her mum this morning that many people have been praying for her. So praise God! Do keep her in your prayers as she's not totally out of the woods yet, but everyone here is thrilled with her improvement.
A number of the missionaries here (including me) are currently struggling with colds, so please also pray for our strength to soon return.

Quick update

Hi all,
A couple of prayer requests from today:
The little girl with the snakebite is very sick with kidney failure. It now seems likely that she was bitten by a particularly poisionous snake, combined with a delay in getting to medical help. We are arranging for her to go to another hospital for dialysis treatment, but this still may not be enough for her to survive.
This afternoon a 17 year old boy was brought in (by canoe and then carried on a stretcher made of tree branches) after a nasty accident whilst hunting a pig in the bush. A huge chunk of his foot (his whole heel) was cut off by his friend's hunting knife and the wound is now also infected. He has been transferred for a probable below-knee amputation elsewhere. Please keep him, his family and the friend involved in the accident in your prayers at this difficult and life-changing time.

Hello everyone.
I have lots of things that we can thank God for!
- Firstly, my new accommodation is going well, and the youth outreach on Sunday was great. A few hundred young people came (plus others from the town) and heard songs, dramas, Bible readings and a short talk challenging them to follow God in their lives. It was encouraging to see the enthusiasm of the youth here to share their faith (they also go to prisons and hospitals), as well as the support of some of their parents who had come to see them in their outreach program. Please pray for the youth that heard the message and for Christians in the town following up the event.
- Our hospital generator had some particular struggles at the weekend, so as well as thanking God for it's recovery now, thanks also goes for there not being any emergencies during the time of no power and there not being any patients on oxygen at that time. [The very next day we had both of these things requiring power!] Please continue to pray for the ongoing generator situation, as there has been a long drawn out process in trying to get a more effective generator into action here!
- Thanks for a really encouraging healing of a patient's skin ulcer - the patient's wife has expressed that she has been praying to God and seen him answer her prayers.
- Thanks to God for the safe return of the MAF pilot here and the family of another missionary doctor.


- Please pray for our aeroplane situation. We have graciously not had any medical emergencies requiring air evacuation during the past 2weeks of no pilot and a broken plane. However we now have our pilot back, but now 2 planes here that are not working!! A mechanic is coming tomorrow, so hopefully we will soon have a working plane!
- The first year CHW (community health worker) students left yesterday to go on a month-long village placement, serving the village practically and putting into practice skills that they have learnt. This will be a challenging time for them, so pray for physical and spiritual strength as they serve.
- Please also pray for energy for me as I am feeling quite tired at the moment, as well as not sleeping too well due to back pain.

All your prayers are greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Dear all,
Many thanks for all your prayers. Here are a few updates and requests.

- The small boy whose parents wanted to go and 'do customs' (traditional spiritual and magic rituals) is very sick, most probably with an incurable brain tumour. The hospital has a rule that, as a Christian hospital, patients are not allowed to receive treatment and also do customs. If they choose to go and do customs, they can not then return to continue their treatment here; they must choose where their trust lies. The parents of this boy have sadly chosen to go and do customs.

- A man on the ward who came in with his wife very sick after a stillbirth and ruptured uterus has been reading some Christian literature that the hospital makes available. The husband was particularly interested in a booklet called 'Do not Fear' which he was reading yesterday. It was really encouraging to hear him say that he wants to learn more, and I encouraged him to talk with the hospital pastor and also share what he is reading with his wife (who cannot read). Please keep them in your prayers, particularly as the wife has now developed malaria.

- Please keep me in your prayers as I move from my current accommodation this weekend, into a house with one of the missionary doctors. Pray that we would get on well and be blessed by our time together. Please also pray for me at times when I feel tired and overwhelmed by the many new experiences here. Pray for strength and comfort, as well as a teachable spirit.

- There is a gospel outreach this weekend to a secondary school in a nearby town that I may be going on. Pray for God's truth to be spoken and planted into fertile soil.

Many thanks for your prayers to our awesome God, who created the universe, and yet hears our every prayer! What a privilege to know the living God and to enter into his presence with confidence!

Quick update of prayer requests!
(again, news at http://lydia-in-png.blogspot.com/2011/06/sunday-tuesday.html)
- Please pray for the 10 pastors and 9 wives that were ordained at Church here on Sunday. It was great to hear a bit of their testimonies and to see them publicly committing to the Lord's service. It was also really encourgaing to see the acknowledgement and support of the wives' roles in the ministries (which is quite counter-cultural).
- Please pray for the patients on the wards who are hearing about Jesus from the hospital chaplain; particularly a family who have just been told that the mother has incurable cancer, and another family who are saying they want to take their child away for a few days to do 'customs'. Please pray for the truth and comfort of Jesus in their situations.
- Please continue to pray for the missionaries here, serving under often difficult circumstances.
- Please pray for me to not get too busy with medical activities that I do not spend time listening to God.
Many thanks! Lydia

Update from PNG

Hello! I have managed to get on a laptop and send out an update!
[for general news see: http://lydia-in-png.blogspot.com/]
Firstly, I must say an enormous thank you for all of your prayers! I am certainly aware of being held up in prayer, and want to encourage you that your prayers are being heard and answered by our awesome God!
Thanks to God for safe arrival. I have received many blessings and encouragements (examples: a CD in my accomodation with worship songs of Bible verses given to me before I came; Sending out a light-hearted prayer request for fruit and being brought a pineapple by someone here within the hour!)
I am settling in and getting to know the missionaries based here. Please pray for strong friendships to grow which will be mutually encouraging and a real blessing.
Please pray for me as I get stuck in at the hospital this week - that I would be able to get on well with the staff and adapt well to the way things work here. Please pray for Addy and Sharon - 2 missionary doctors here. Addy has just returned from 6months leave, and Sharon leaves for hers at the end of July, so it is a time of adjustment for them. Daniel is the other doctor, who returns in 2weeks time after a short break with his family.
Please pray for the MAF plane based here to soon be fixed. (www.maf.org)
Love and thanks to you all!
Lydia xx

Before I leave

I leave tomorrow!
Please be praying for a safe and trouble-free journey (it is going to take 2 days to get there!) and that I will be met the other end.
Please continue to pray for God's peace and protection as I go out.
I will update when I can!

About where I am going

Papua New Guinea (PNG)
- Population: 5.8 million
- 87% live in rural areas.
- High infant mortality (7 children in every 100 die by the age of 5)
- Approx. one doctor per 10,000 people (mostly in urban areas).
- Rural health services are poor.
- Strong beliefs & fears around spirit involvement in life & health.


Rumginae
Rumginae is a former mission station, consisting of the Rumginae hospital, a Community Health Worker School, Bible school and Primary School, as well as a Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) base. The 60 bed hospital is a church-run but government funded ministry to the remote rural community. Along with fifteen associated aid posts and the support of MAF, it serves much of Western Province. It is staffed by two or three expatriate doctors with the remainder of the staff from throughout PNG.


Rumginae Hospital

Why am I going?

Rumginae is where God has directed me to do my ‘elective placement’ as part of my medical studies. The elective placement is an opportunity to experience medicine and healthcare in a different setting to the UK NHS, and many students link with ‘mission’ hospitals to serve God in a medical context.

I believe that my medical training is part of God’s plan for my life, so I see my placement in Rumginae as an opportunity to serve Christ and the people there, and also to build up my knowledge and experience for the future. I am excited to rely on God in a very rural and resource-poor setting with lots of challenges, and to see his faithfulness continue to provide.

The Christian charity MAF has a base at Rumginae, and is closely linked with the hospital. I will be involved in emergency air evacuations of patients, and will get to know some of the MAF families based in PNG.

Prayer points

- I am going to PNG on my own, so please pray for God to place the right people around me during my time there.

- Pray that God will speak to me in my vulnerability, through people I meet and challenges I face.

- Indigenous people in Papua New Guinea have a strong emphasis on involvement of spirits in life and health, so pray for wisdom and protection as I am confronted with these issues.

- Pray that I will gain a deeper understanding of, dependency on and love for God through my time in PNG.

- Pray for wisdom and opportunities in how best to communicate my experiences when I return.

- Pray for the staff in Rumginae and that healthcare will continue to be delivered to people in PNG in Jesus' name.