Living in Papua New Guinea has been exciting at times. There have been times when I wish I had been some place else though. It's nice to talk about what happened in the past, but when the events happened I would rather have been anywhere else at the time. Medical work is one area I have never enjoyed. We were only trained to do minor things. So when major things happen, it pushed us to the limit some times.

One time we were getting ready for bed when the kids playing nearby brought an injured kid whose name was Edwin. They had been playing a game with old tin cans. The game was rather interesting. Some of the kids attempted to pile the tins up while a couple of them tried to knock them down with a make shift ball. Unfortunately for Edwin when he grabbed a can another kid grabbed the same one. They both pulled hard. The other kid let go and Edwin found the tin smacked against his forehead. He had a nice gash just above his left eye. Blood and guts everywhere. I might be exagerating a bit, but you get the idea. Those cuts on the face always seem to bleed excessively.

So now we have a problem. The thing obviously needed to be stitched. But how? Roxanne hates needles, so that's out. We had been taught to give injections in the backside, but not to sew up people. I pulled out my trusty book "Where there is no doctor" to find out. Actually, I like to refer to the book as "Where you wish you had a doctor." I checked the book to find out which local I should use and how to give the injections so I can attempt to sew it (which I also don't know how to do). The book lived up to the name I gave it because I couldn't find anything that explained it well. What to do? I prayed a lot now hoping for some divine wisdom. I chose one of the two possible locals that could be used (I figured I had a 50% chance of getting it right). I prayed over Edwin before I started on him. At this point you might say I was in an operating theater. The entire village was on our verandah to watch the dimdim (that's what the call foreigners there) fix this kid. My prayer for him was that he wouldn't feel anything. You see, I knew what was coming. I've experienced the other end of that needle and know it hurts like the dickens. That and the fact that I had never sewn up someone before would guarantee this kid was in for it.

Edwin lay there quietly with his eyes closed as I attempted to put the needle in. All eyes were on me. The problem was the blasted needle wouldn't go through his skin. I pushed and prodded with no luck. I sat back to think what to do. Someone said bogina ikamasa 'he has died'. I looked down and he did look like he was dead. At that point I realized that while I had been trying to stick him with the needle he never made a sound nor did he ever move. I asked, "Edwin, are you all right?" He opened his eyes a little and said, U 'Yes'. "Does it hurt", I asked. He said, Tupwana 'A little."

By this time my hands are starting to shake. I tried once again to put the needle through his skin. I thought I got it through so pushed on the syringe. The local ran down his face into his eye. I thought great, now I'm going to blind him for life. The gash will hurt but his eye won't feel a thing! I wiped his face off and once again sat back. I asked Roxanne to do it. She told me she couldn't do that, no way. I explained to her that there was no other way. I couldn't do it now. My hands were shaking uncontrollably. She finally relented and tried it once. No go.

We had put this kid through quite a bit. I figured it would be healed by the time we got the local in him! So I made an excutive decision. I said, "Let's wipe his face off and just put a butterfly on it." That's what we did. I sprinkled a little antibiotic powder on it, cut out a cute little butterfly and plastered to his forehead. We told Edwin to leave it on there till it drops off on its own. That really is not that long there. I think the crowd quite enjoyed this little aside from the everyday life.

What had I done wrong? Well, for starters I found out later the injection is given inside the wound not on the outside as I had been doing. Made complete sense why I couldn't get the needle through his skin.

A week or so later we saw Edwin. I called him over to look at his forward. You won't believe it. There was not a mark on his forehead, no scare, no line, nothing. Completely healed.

And God must have been looking down and chuckling. I can laugh now, but I sure wasn't when it happened. Stay tuned for more stories from the village.

The Truth Project

I'm going through thevideo series "The Truth Project" from focus on the family at a church in San Marcos. It is an excellent series and very much worth watching. It helps to understand the current culture and the false assumptions people are living by.

The one today on history was great. Too many people today do not understand the importance of history. There are people trying to rewrite it in an attempt to remove God from the picture. The point was if people can change the past (i.e., rewrite history) they can change the way people think today. Unfortunately, the majority of Americans are being deceived by the rewriting of history.