Grass skirts & flowers – Happy Anniversary

Hello from a very ‘COOL’ Telefomin! For the next week we are enjoying the thinner, cooler 4500 foot atmosphere of Telefomin.  It is a beautiful 25 minute flight over the ‘Hindenburg Wall’ Star mountain range to the north of Rumginae.

Last post I explained that the man with snake bite was likely to die. We have had a few ‘death adder’ bites which seem to cause muscle breakdown and kidney failure (unusual with death adder). I am happy to report that his kidneys recovered and he has gone home! There is a big need for adequate supplies of antivenom (Recent statistics conclude we have 10% of what we need in PNG) to treat snake bite.

This week Habi villagers called to inform us of a lady very sick after a snake bite. With no health worker at Habi, she would have died later that day.  The CRMF HF radio network gives the village the means to call for help, MAF who are ‘Flying for Life’ were able to take Rumginae Health Worker Waeya to administer the life saving antivenom. The lady made a complete recovery. What a wonderful example of the body of Christ working together for his glory.

We enjoyed having a snake bite research team from Port Moresby visit to catch snakes. Owen is seen here demonstrating to a large group of staff, students and local people how to apply pressure immobilisation bandage. The team have links with the Australian Venom Research Unit in Melbourne and are working on education and research including the development of a less costly antivenom. One polyvalent antivenom dose costs ~K5000 ($2400).

All this week we have had many outstation Community Health Workers at Rumginae for lectures, practical demonstrations, clinical teaching, encouragement and bible studies. Daniel taught on snake bite, fractures (including how to treat a broken arm or leg with very little resources out in the villages when referral is not possible), and many obstetric topics. All our outstation health workers should now be more able to manage unexpected obstetric emergencies such as shoulder dystocia, difficult breech delivery, high blood pressure and fitting in pregnancy, post partum haemorrhage including manual removal. It was perfect timing to have Denise visiting, a midwife from Australia.

Last weekend, we once again called upon MAF to assist in an emergency. A lady at Obo was having her first baby but her baby had died and was trying to come out shoulder first… which is not possible. After some very difficult intervention and intense treatment, it was a real joy to see her walking around looking well yesterday.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it Superman??? Oh, it’s Tom!
It has been a real blessing to us to have Tom, Libby, John, Trish, Rod, Denise, Mark, Richard and Shelly at Rumginae helping in so many ways. They began each day with devotions at the workshop with our national staff, a time of much mutual encouragement. During their increasingly warmer stay, they worked alongside local staff to complete some much needed maintenance and many other things. Thank you guys!

 

Thank you for your prayers for school. The children are trying hard and learning many things.

As our wedding anniversary, August 23 comes at the end of this tropical wet season, we feel we can most literally testify that: 

Many  waters  cannot  quench  love; rivers  cannot  wash  it  away.(Song of Songs 8:7a)

At the conclusion of a special Thanksgiving Youth Sunday Service, the children of the congregation encircled us, prayed and presented their little flower collections. In the afternoon, Daniel was priveleged to be able to help a mother flown in from Obo with very serious childbirth complications. Although an unusual way to spend one’s wedding anniversary, for us it was a reaffirmation of God’s call upon our lives to serve him in medical missions. 

 

 

Thank you so much for your prayers, support and encouragement.

Daniel and Tammy

I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength for my work. I thank him for considering me worthy and appointing me to serve him. (1Timothy1:12)