Intro: Preparing for PNG

 Dear friends and family,

 

So many of you have helped me walk through the different phases of the long journey that has been undergraduate education, medical school and residency.  Thank you so much for your prayers, friendship and support! This is where I will be blogging my thoughts and experiences, as well as prayer requests during my time in Papua New Guinea.

 

As a quick update to everyone, I am going to be working with Samaritan’s Purse in their 2-year Post-Residency Program at Kudjip Hospital in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. I just got my medical license for PNG approved a few weeks ago (a huge answer to prayer), and I am hoping to be able to leave in January. I still need to obtain my work permit and visa prior to my departure.

 

I am learning Tok Pisin (one of over 900 native languages in PNG) currently and will continue when I arrive on the field. In the hospital I will be working in the Pediatric, Adult Inpatient and Obstetric Wards of the hospital, the Emergency room and clinic. I will cover everything when I am on call 1-2x/week.

 

Kudjip Hospital is a 134 rural bed hospital that provides primary care as well as referral services. The hospital has 6000 admissions, 2000 deliveries and 60,000 outpatient visits a year. Needless to say, I will be busy learning a lot from my fellow physicians and the local staff as I adjust to caring for a new population.

 

As I start the slow process of going through my belongings in preparation for a couple of moves (back to Georgia and then to PNG) I have been touched by the amount of love different people have shown to me over the years in different ways-cards, gifts, emails, messages, visits.

 

I also ran across a book I loved as a child and that my parents gave to me on graduation from medical school, Doctor Dan the Bandage Man. The story is of a little boy who gets a bandaid for a cut and then proceeds to use his new knowledge to help care for others (his sister, dog and sister’s doll). What stood out to me rereading the story was how it was Dan’s own injury, suffering and subsequent healing that then allowed him to care for others. While compared to many I have suffered very little, the last few years have been difficult for me in different ways, dealing with loneliness, doubt and new challenges. I pray that as God has been so patient and gracious in bringing me through he would use me to help others find peace and healing in the midst of their own darkness.

 

Please pray for me that the logistics would come together for me to be able to get to PNG, that God would continue to prepare my heart and mind for the work he has for me and that God would prepare relationships in advance for me in PNG, both with the hospital staff and with locals in Kudjip.

 

Please let me know how I can be praying for you and what is going on in your lives!

 

If you would like to support me financially please go to www.samaritanspurse.org, click on Give and then “Support a Physician.” You can also mail a check with my name and this number: 006043 in the Memo line to:

Samaritan’s Purse

Attn: Post-Residency Program

P.O. Box 3000

Boone, NC 28607