Her 14 yo son was sick, he had a cough and
difficulty breathing. She took him to
the nearest hospital where they diagnosed him with TB and put him on
medicines. When he didn't get better,
they sent him to another hospital. After
sitting at the 2nd hospital for a week without anything happening, mom decided
it was time to get him some more help.
She had heard that our hospital believed in Jesus and wanted her son
cared for by doctors with Jesus on their side.
So she left the hospital that was close to her home and traveled to
Kudjip. Getting to Kudjip wasn't
easy. They traveled via a PMV (public
motor vehicle) from the Southern Highlands to our Jiwaka Province. This costs about 40 Kina, which is a lot of
money for folks in PNG. To give you some
perspective, it costs 4K to travel from Kudjip to Mt. Hagen (about 45 minutes
away), where I go shopping.
When Alfred came to us, it was obvious that
he was short of breath. A chest xray
showed that his heart was very large and that there was fluid in his lung. An ultrasound, showed a very large amount of
fluid around his heart. We were able to
drain off 2 liters of fluid from the lining around his heart, making his
shortness of breath significantly better and his smile more prevalent. We continue to pray that his shortness of
breath improves and the fluid around his heart doesn't reaccumulate, so he is
able to go home soon.
There are a lot of things happening here at
Kudjip - the new Operating Room is being built, our Hydroelectric Dam continues
to progress, we have a new doctor and his family who are joining us for 2
years, volunteers who are here to help us, a revival in the village right
behind us and more. Despite all that is
going on, the most important thing is that people keep hearing and seeing
Christ in and through us each and every day.
This mom's words of I heard you guys believed in Jesus and so I needed
to bring my son here - these are the words that I pray others are saying too. I pray that the work of this hospital would
continue to extend beyond our catchment area, and that others would come to
learn more about Jesus too. Thanks for all your support that make sharing about Jesus here at Kudjip possible.
