Nov. 4, 2018
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NEW OPPORTUNITIES
Just as God’s mercies are new each day, so also are the opportunities HE brings along our paths.
WE had a very unexpected opportunity to minister once again in the life of a woman whose story with us goes back over a decade. Our introduction to Lyneth came when her husband at the time, Soga, came to our clinic in need of medical help. His diagnosis was not a happy one. What we shared with him turned his world upside down. He had advanced staged liver cancer. HE was not far from death, and there was really nothing besides keeping him comfortable that we could really do for him physically. He understood his diagnosis and accepted it well, but during our time of caring for him, he heard for the first time the message of HOPE the Gospel proclaimed. He desperately needed hope at this difficult time of his life, and he embraced Jesus, accepting HIM as his Lord and Savior. Soga’s world turned right side up! His whole outlook on his life and his future AFTER this life just transformed him so greatly that he begged for a Bible study to be started in his home at Kokinaga. IT was then that Lineth started hearing about JESUS. She had to see the dramatic change in the life of her husband, but reality for her was becoming a young widow with SEVEN small children. She did not receive Christ. After Soga’s death, she left her home at kokinaga and her seven children and she went to start a new life for herself, married to a man who already had two wives. BUT GOD WAS NOT DONE WITH HER YET……HE MOVED HER TO MARRY A MAN IN KENEMARO….ACROSS THE ROAD FROM OUR NEW CHURCH!!
Lineth’s saga continues. She came to the clinic seven months ago feeling sick. On exam the cause of her “illness” was yet another pr
egnancy. She had since had two more children with her new husband so now she was having her tenth baby. Thankfully she was faithful at her prenatal appointments so her blood and body were strengthened with prenatal vitamins and iron tablets for those seven months. I warned her strongly NOT to have her baby in the village as a heavy bleeding with delivery was our biggest fear complicating the delivery. BUT, when a woman is having her 10th baby, the time of labor is often not very long, as was in Lineth’s situation. She started feeling pain at 1am and her precious son arrived two hours later. In the middle of the night in a village remote from the main road, getting help was hard. As feared the bleeding was massive…..for nine hours before her husband finally came to get us. The bleeding just would NOT stop. She soaked a thick sweatshirt on the way to the hospital….she needed a blood transfusion and fast. NEED does not always merit getting help though, here. The hospital did not even give her iv fluids much less blood. Not even ONE iron tablet was given when she was just discharged (maybe disguarded would be more accurate) , the next day. HER body was so very very weak and her baby was very very hungry. No milk supply. NO strength to even HOLD HIM….this mommy was in dire straights.
GOD’s AMAZING DOOR of OPPORTUNITY once again opened up as they brought their baby to us for help. WE not only took the baby in, but we got mommy loaded up with fluids and iron tablets. SHE is still very very weak and it will be a long time before her body will rebuild the hemoglobin in her blood to supply her body with oxygen. She is still so anemic that my devices can not even READ that low. She stands up and feels faint. SHE is yellow and pale and miserable….but her baby is safe and she can rest and eat and drink healthy foods and heal.
This morning Lineth found strength to walk across the road and worshiped with us, holding her little son whom they asked me to name! Little ANDREW (strong man) is so very precious. HE may be the OPPORTUNITY GOD uses to help his mommy come to know JESUS. Her new husband was in church with her….he walked her over!!! Maybe he will also get an OPPORTUNITY to meet JEUS as well.
Our Amo celebrated his 15th birthday this week as well. We enjoyed a huge mumu (feast of food cooked under the ground…yummy!) with our PNG family and his friends. IT was yet another opportunity to rejoice in all GOD has done in his life. Amo is such a gift to our family. Please pray with us for GOD to continue to work in his life. WE want to take each opportunity to invest in his life, as GOD gave him to us as a very precious gift.
WE praise the LORD for the opportunity of this past year for Lori. We are coming close to the anniversary of Lori’s bilateral mastectomy. We visited the Dr’s this week for a physical and blood tests to monitor how the old LIVER is doing with all the medication being pumped into her body to prevent cancer regrowth. SO far so good as all the blood levels were within normal limits!! We have been given an incredible gift of ONE YEAR of no notable cancer. Each day is a celebration and each moment of life a new opportunity. Our hearts feel the reality of the two sisters here that were diagnosed when Lori was, who are both now in heaven with their LORD. God’s mercy and continued opportunities to be able to have time to love my family and minister to others sharing my JESUS with them are not taken for granted any longer. WE are living life with a whole new perspective now……one of the roses of the thorns of breast cancer GOD has given us. As the rubber bracelet around my wrist since that life altering surgery reminds me….. “BETTER EVERY DAY”!
Each day God gives us OPPORTUNITIES, and as you pray God uses all the “seeds of the Gospel” planted!
*Rhoda was one of my patients expecting her first baby. She was struggling with high blood
Pressure and had several concerning symptoms causing concern for possible seizures during
Delivery. We watched her very carefully and monitored her baby all night. GOD prevented her
Blood pressure from elevating and she delivered her precious son on Wednesday. I happily put back the
Seizure medications prepared for fast IV infusion…unused!!!!
*Samuel , the son of one of the deacons at Maranatha Baptist Church , was mowing the grass in preparation for their back to school camp coming up in January. The lawn mower was having issues
As a tire kept falling off. He tried to stick the tire back on the STILL TURNED ON mower, when his hand slipped UNDER the mower. Note to self…..when a hand and a moving lawn mower blade intersect, the mower WINS. UGH. Poor guy. Miraculously there were no amputations, though his whole hand was all chopped up. Deep lacerations surrounding all fingers, and possible fractures from the twisting of the blade, but after three hours he had an intact hand again!! PRAY for his healing.
*a LITTLE old lady has been coming to our clinic for three weeks with an infection in one of her toes. The concern was that circulation was inadequate and thus healing was NOT happening as it should. There was dead necrotic tissue on the end of her toe concerning me that she may actually need an amputation of that toe to bring full healing. I have had to amputate body parts just a few times in the many years here, and it is NOT a fun job to be sure. We prayed together, and then I started just removing the dead tissue, debriding the wound saving as much of the toe as possible. SO far so good....the remaining toe is healing now. PLEASE pray for her continued healing. The elderly here are so fragile.
Yet another young woman came with a huge suspicious lump in her breast. Just 23 years old, I had to send Nancy into the hospital for a removal and biopsy of her mass. Im praying it is just a benign cyst, At her age, cancer would most likely be very aggressive. Pray!!
*Each student at GBBC is an opportunity as we invest in their lives. Nearing graduation, our preparation for Pastors conference, Pastors tool box dinner(an evening when we give each graduate a good supply of study materials or books or Bibles or teaching supplies for the teachers) and graduation are all in full swing. As we prepare to send out this new group of graduates to serve the LORD around PNG, our hearts are both sad, for the good byes, and joyful for the exciting futures for each one we have loved on and ministered to during the past four or five years. PRAY for GOD to be glorified.
Each year we also ask people to pray for NEW STUDENTS to come join us. Bill will be traveling this week to Madang where he will be speaking at a graduation, but also recruiting for GBBC. WE hope to start a Long Distance GBBC satallite school in the Madang province. PRAY for Bill's safety as he travels. Pray also for GOD to bring the needed students to fill our dorms and classrooms with investment opportunities!!
Thank you for your part in our lives and ministry! Each day brings new opportunities to invest in lives and share Christ in word and deed. Your prayers and support are so very needed and appreciated!!
No RESERVES. NO RETREATS. NO REGRETS! Fearless. Faithful.
Bill, Lori and all the boys.
