To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.
Ecclesiastes 3:1
Great to be back
It was great to be back to Kudjip. I’d forgotten just how beautiful the mountains were. The marketplace down the road was just as loud and congested as ever. The men still gambled and played darts off the side wall of the store. Then there was that same fellow with his microphone, loudspeaker and amplifier, lecturing to the crowd and whoever would listen. I walked slowly over the uneven, muddy road, through the crowds of people. I had to watch my step as walked in between the parked line of small buses and vans. One never knows when one of them is suddenly going to start moving! I always wave friendly waves and greetings to the sellers of carrots, candy, mangos, and beetle nuts along the road. Kudjip’s market is a friendly place.
Changes and transitions
Kudjip’s medical staff is much younger now.
Over the last 18 months, several strong veteran missionaries have left and retired from the mission field. The hospital administrator and his wife finished their 2-year commitment and went back home to Montana. They missed being with her grandchildren over the Christmas holidays. Erin, our medical director, had also moved on. And one of my favorites, a skilled veteran Family Physician of over 25 years’ service retired back to Ohio with her husband. She left a large void.
Newly minted physicians, from Alabama to Minnesota, straight out of training, had stepped in. All were young couples with at least 4 small children each. Kudjip now has more missionary children than I’ve seen anywhere. It’s my new mission-kid capital!
The world is not what I think it is.
I keep getting surprised.
I was finishing an operation with Dr. Alex, an excellent surgeon and native of Papua New Guinea. As we closed the skin incision with what we called a “Baseball stitch”, I innocently asked Alex, “Do you know what a baseball is?” I figured Dr. Alex, as someone who grew up in a former British colony, knew more about rugby or cricket than he did about baseball. But I was wrong. Dr. Alex put down his suture and addressed me sternly: “Doctor, we aren’t savages out here. I watch ESPN!”
My Brad Pitt Moment
My taste of being a Hollywood star took place one Sunday, when I went to Catholic Mass.
St. Peter and Paul’s Catholic Church is within walking distance of the mission. It’s just down the way on a path through the green tea fields. When I got there, I sat in the back and off to the side, not wanting to attract attention. But the Pastor and the parishioners wouldn’t have it. To my surprise, the church members really liked that one of the white doctors from the hospital had come to their church! I mean, they REALLY LIKED IT.
At the end of the service, I was surrounded by smiling faces and people wanting to speak to me excitedly in Pidgin, the local language. I didn’t understand a thing, but I didn’t need to. Everyone wanted to shake my hand and wish me well. I think that I shook hands with nearly everyone in the church! I also felt like an NBA player too because I was at least a head taller than everyone!
In the aftermath, walking home through the tea fields, a thought occurred to me.
“Is that what it’s like to arrive in heaven after we die?”
I don’t know. But stay tuned.
The PNG Independence Day celebration
September 16 is PNG Independence Day. And Kudjip’s Mission Station celebrated.
Holiday at the mission compound. I blew up a few balloons and enjoyed the dancing and celebrating by the basketball court. They love their country, and they are proud of it. It’s good to see.
A Substitute Surgeon in the missions
That’s my role for now, until I’m called to do something else. Coming in to cover missionary surgeons, who need relief and time off. Filling in where there’s a need. And it’s all good. Trusting God and leaving things to Him.
