The Lord is blessing and leading us
as we continue our work in Gaua. After Jeff left in early Febuary we settled
into a steady routine of seeing many patients. Before I had started breakfast
every day, patients would start arriving six days a week at our Bungalow with a
large variety of problems, some serious but others not serious at all. Many here
have teeth that need extraction. I would be seeing patients all morning and
frequently every afternoon also. This workload is not what I need or desire but
I realized that there would be a lot of people to deal with for a few weeks as
the inhabitants of Gaua have never had a resident physician (especially one who
pulls teeth) at any time in their history. But we were hoping it would slow
down.
Government Clinic in
Trouble
Also I became a little concerned
when I visited the local government health center on two occasions and was told
that only one or two patients were now going to this clinic at the top of the
island, when previously it had been quite busy. It was obvious that everyone was
now coming to see me instead. I immediately set out to communicate with leaders
around the island that villagers should be informed that they should continue
visiting their clinic as I had too many patients coming to me. Since then
numbers have dropped a little but many continue to come to see me.
Trip Around
Gaua
In the second week of March,
according to plans laid with "Minister Philip"-the local SDA lay minister, we
set out in the Banana Boat around the entire island. Philip brought with him a
band of young singing men to support him, and I packed a versatile medical kit-
while Philip brought a small generator, a TV and DVD player donated to him for
this work, and also some SDA musical videos- from various parts of the Pacific,
which were destined to create interest wherever we went. Anything digital is
fascinating to these people, and music is something they can listen and watch
over and over.
Whole Village Turns
Up
We began in Durig, the small remote
village which we visited with Jeff. In spite of its remoteness, it has 3
families of baptized SDAs. This village is very receptive to us. Again many sick
people turned out for medical and dental attention. After spending the whole day
seeing patients, I sat to watch the musical videos and the entire village bar
none were present to see it also. Half way through, as announced on our arrival,
Philip then preached a lively message from the Bible and sang songs with his
team of singers. Hearts were convicted and touched, and he closed with prayer.
The musical video was watched again till late at night. And thus it went from
day to day as we began to visit the villages around the island.
Rough
Waters
The next morning we set off in
rough waters, and the seas began to cause some concern. Our path forced us to
take a difficult direction with respect to the waves, which were coming from
behind and to the left side of us, sometimes threatening to tip our boat over.
But the Lord saw us through, and just as we were able to leave the rough water
by slipping into a shallow lagoon which was protected from the bigger waves by
the reef, we passed a ship heading to where we had come from. Ships are very
uncommon around this aread, and the small ship was being very roughly tossed
around by the waves. Later we saw the ship had turned as it had been unable to
reach the place we had just come from, and had decided rather to circumnavigate
the whole island to avoid this rough patch of ocean, which the locals call the
"Big Sea" (meaning big waves!). After pulling up onto the sandy beach of Biam,
we found another community who were awed to have us visit. Visitors are almost
unheard of in this place. Again we saw patients, and showed videos, and every
time Philip made attempts to reach hearts in a very pleasant and winsome way. He
certainly has a gift with breaking down barriers, and he understands the culture
and language well enough to do this.
Doctor-Minister
Combination
This combination of local minister
working with missionary doctor is a very good plan-the Lord's plan. The Lord
blessed us so much in working together this way. My medical work was dealing
with very real and physical needs. Then the opporunity to watch a musical video
supplied a perfect excuse for a social gathering, and this provided the perfect
situation for Philip share on spiritual matters and preach the gospel. Many of
Philip's messages were concerning the Sabbath and salvation issues, and it was
evident everywhere we went that we were breaking up the ground for God. With
every step this tour was turning into a historic moment in the spreading of the
gospel and the three angel's messages in this island.
Our next village was Koro, the
third remote village on the South of Gaua. Many in this island had
deformities-probably due to the inbreeding that tends to occur in these remote
areas. Again barriers broke down and many people came for treatments. Like other
villages, this village was called together-this time by the blowing of a large
shell trumpet which echoed through the forest. The chiefs then held
announcements that minister Philip would show videos and deliver a sermon. It
seemed that every time he spoke, he spoke with more clarity, persuasiveness and
power than before. We spent the night here and got badly attacked by mosquitos.
Our home was one of the chief's homes, which he used little and although it
looked nicer than many island huts, it was moldy inside and had a strong smell
of decomposing vegetation. But we saw many sick who were so appreciative of our
help and seemed to win the hearts of these dear people.
On To West
Gaua
Next morning we set out accross the
water, heading west around the south-west tip of Gaua, and heeded up the first
of 3 remote villages on the west coast. The water now became very smooth, as the
winds prevail from the east, thus leaving the west quiet-almost unlike an ocean!
We were told that typically the west coast has small waves and smooth seas, as
we saw it. This time it was like a pond. There are mighty cliffs and
impenetrable forests, and a variety of beaches and rocky coastline. Most of the
villages are perched on 100 foot cliffs above the water and provide beautiful
views of the water and wonderful sunsets. The name of the first village is
Tulap. In 2001 the New Zealand government provided a very adequate medical
clinic building in this village, but the first health worker, a nurse, committed
adultery and his life was threatened, so he left within a short time after he
arrived. Since then, noone has come to replace him. Again we set up clinic (the
local chief decided to break into the clinic and let us in because the person
with the key was on the other side of the island). I saw a lot of patients here,
and as usual, pulled many teeth.
The following day we arrived in
Ontar, the most receptive village on this tour. We spent two nights with these
exceptionally kind and open people, and the messages Philip preached, stirred up
hearts and we believe will surely bring forth fruit-perhaps soon. At this stage
of the tour, I was already exhausted, and the workload was still heavily upon
me. Sleeping in moldy village huts on hard dirty floors covered with insect
infested mats didnt seem to help. More than one day was given to seeing
patients, but I developed a fever and found it difficult to continue seeing
patients, so I was glad to finish the last case, a man with a strange sinus
passage that had formed in one of his toes. I excised and drained and bandaged
his foot. Again Philip preached, and the people served up their best laplap-some
of the best I have ever tasted. But I couldnt each much, as I felt a little
nauseous. Philip experienced some ill effects from one of the fish he was
served. It caused a strange hypersensitivity to water--touching salt water made
his skin tingle as if touching nettles.
Making
History
On this tour we were increasingly
aware that we were making history for this island, because all of these very
remote places have been dominated by only one form of Christianity-a hybrid of
Anglicanism and paganism-with local bamboo churches controlled by a local
village chief. The Anglican church appears to give little or no support at all
to these people, and they often are not visited in literally years. But as
Minister Philip presented the Sabbath to these villages, the concept of a
religion based on the Bible came to them as a new and strange thing. Some were
receptive and rejoiced, but the news of our arrival was at times presented
negatively to the next village.
Zaccheus
This was especially the case at the
last village we visited. During announcements to the village after we had
arrived, the village chief-a man of very small stature-this time emphasized that
they while he appreciated the medical help we were able to provide, the
religious part was only to be musical videos. It was painfully obvious that he
had decided that he didnt want Philip to preach on his territory. But the little
chief, who in my mind, I refer to as "Zaccheus", was the first of my patients-
and the Lord had different plans. He had 3 broken teeth to pull and he blood
pressure was dangerously high-210/110! I didnt waste the opportunity to tell him
to avoid meats and especially pig meat, as well as other high sodium foods, and
told him I would take his pressure again just before we were to leave, as
sometimes the stress of visiting a doctor can make a patient's BP go up. The
pain in his tooth, together with the shocking news about his blood pressure,
seemed to humble him. After pulling teeth, draining abscesses, and seeing many
malaria and other cases, we decided to pack up and go. The video was stopped,
and I told Zaccheus we needed to run a small class for hydrotherapy and massage
to teach people how to deal with muscle aches and strains. Many, many people
here, including women, constantly suffer from back pain from carrying huge
weights of copra. As my voice was now very hoarse I asked Philip and the other
singers to teach the class, which he took to very well, after observing only one
class previously, which I had given in the previous village. To Zaccheus'
dismay, the class turned into a sermon to the entire community, because
everything about hydrotherapy and massage can be turned into a spiritual lesson.
So at every opporunity I spoke up to give linking thoughts to Philip, that would
enable him to bring in spiritual lessons. At the end, the singing group got up
to sing SDA hymns arcapella, and closed with a prayer which touched hearts. It
was as if the evangelist had been denied to preach, and yet the spirit spoke
more through that prayer than a sermon could ever have done. Every voice was
hushed to hear the prayer of God's servant as he prayed for God's special
blessing on these people and the Spirit of God was manifestly present. After
packing up, we went down to the beach were the boat was tied, where I had
opportunity to take Zaccheus' blood pressure again. It remained dangerously
high, and he was obviously distressed about it, so after exorting him on
lifestyle aspects, which I believed were the key to his recovery, I gave him
some medication as I felt he needed a little help to get through this crisis.
When we left he seemed awe-struck, and humbled, as if God had taken everything
into His own hands, and overruled on this day. We apologized that our visit was
so short, and assured him that we would return to his village again. Who knows
what that visit will be like?!
Stormy
Weather
As we finally made our way up to
the north-west corner of the island, we hit a rainstorm, and as we had a few
extra people on board, the boat being cramped for space, I was unable to get my
rainy weather gear out. So although I was already chilled, I had to tolerate the
brisk breeze (yes it was very cold!) and howling wind as we hit the waves which
were coming from in front of us. The salty spray made it difficult to see, and I
had to ask Matthew, my strong friend who was with us, to take the helm and guide
us to the north east of the island-which he did gladly. All of us began to shake
from the chill of spray combined with wind, and were were glad to finally
return, at the end of our fifth day, to the church on the north east of the
island. From there, we dropped off various people at different stages on the
east coast, until only Matthew and I remained as we turned into Kaska bay.
Praise God, the tour was a success, and to cap it off, the tide was high enough
to bring the boat right up to beach near our home!
After our arrival, I developed a
fever which grew worse as the days have passed, and I decided to take
antimalarials in case I was coming down with malaria. Since then, 5 days later,
I have now bounced back to life and health, and I am unsure if it was malaria or
not. But I praise God for all that He has done.
Future
Plans
As we look to the future, we have
plans to develop a short correspondence course to train young people as health
educators. We have a very simple correspondence course on health currently
running, comprising only 12 lessons, produced by one of the conferences in
Australia for anyone interested in health. It has brought us in contact with
knowledge-hungry young people and has helped us see the great potential for
teaching on this knowledge-deprived island. We want to avoid institutionalized
education but operate a simple course "out the back of the house"-to save time
and simplicity. Those who want to learn come for lessons, complete them at home,
then return them for marking. In time we may add actual classes perhaps once a
week on pertinent and hands-on aspects of the course. So far, we have every
reason to believe the students will accept our efforts to lead them into the
Bible in this way.
Power
Quotes
I claim the following statements
for encouragement and direction and can say that we have seen the fruit of
following the divine plan which God has outlined for medical
ministry:
"The message from the
spirit of prophecy today to this people is a call for a reorganization of the
entire medical missionary work, the key of which is unity..The nurse or
physician is no longer to content himself to simply minister to men's physical
necessity, but is to perform a double ministry. The minister and missionary
worker are to minister alike to soul and body in their need, and thus the entire
work is to become one united medical missionary evangelistic work." (LLM
p37)
"Medical missionary
evangelists will be able to do excellent pioneer work. The work of the minister
should blend fully with that of the medical missionary evangelist." (7T
111)
"The work you have
been doing... is meeting Heaven's approval...You have demonstrated that if our
physicians and our ministers would work together in the presentation of truth to
the people, more can be reached than could be influenced by the ministers
laboring alone." (KC 168)
Pioneer
Work
The plan of doing pioneer work in
close connection with evangelists like Philip is very appealing to me. It seems
to be a very fruitful way for me to spend my time. I would like to spread my
influence over various islands in Torba, working where the people are most needy
and most receptive, and following the same divinely inspired principle. Ideally,
I would like to work with several ministers around these islands, who would each
have plenty to do in the various unentered areas of this province, shepherding
the growing flocks under their care, and themselves needing encouragement and
help from time to time. In helping with the medical needs of these islands, my
work is being used where it is most needed and most appreciated. So far, we have
no plans to pay anyone to help us, but are keeping the whole operation as
lightweight as possible.
Please continue to pray for
us.