Saving babies

What an amazing adventure it is to be part of training up young people for the nations. We graduated our October DTS and Introduction to Primary Health Care (IPHC) schools a week and a half ago. I am always amazed at what God does in and through our teams.

I have to admit, I have a real soft spot for our IPHC schools – don’t get me wrong – I LOVE our DTS’s, but there is something quite special about the IPHC. For a start – you get a bunch of very mercy hearted people together, you then send them to some of the most remote and needy parts of the globe….and they not only do health care, but they make friends – and quite literally are part of changing nations. It’s not often that you get such tangible results from your endeavours.

Our recent IPHC was no different. We sent a team of 12 girls to remote parts of PNG (they would have to travel by boat for 2 hours just to call back to the base and give us updates!!!). And what do they do?? They join a village – sleep on the floor, bathe in the river, eat what their health care clients bring as thank yous, generally live as the locals do – and see miracles in action.

The story of baby Bonny below is one of the most heart-wrenching and beautiful stories of God’s love and redemption I have heard.

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Bonny was born to a single mother (possibly as a result of rape) in a remote location in PNG – there was no medical assistance with his birth. As a result the mother died, and the young baby was considered cursed and doomed to be thrown into the river. Young Bonny was rescued by a loving couple - only for them to be ostracised by their village for their actions – and due to poverty and no wet nurse wanting to have anything to do with the ‘cursed’ baby – Bonny suffered acute malnutrition. His adoptive parents as a last resort – walked 3 hours with their precious bundle to where our team were – they had heard that the ‘missionaries prayed for the sick’. Hannah our team leader spoke to the parents on God’s view of baby Bonny – that he was knitted together in his mother’s womb by a loving God. Through an incredible turn of events which included a visit to Bonny’s village – the message of life was communicated to the village by Bonny’s adopted dad, which resulted in the village changing its opinion and accepting the baby and Bonny getting the valuable and life giving nutrition he needed. In a month Bonny went from the point of death to having his little belly filled, his limbs strengthened and back on the road to recovery. Hannah even managed to set up a way for the family to receive regular monthly assistance and she has pledged herself for the next 5 years to sponsor Bonny’s new family!!

And do you know what the coolest thing is – this really is your story too – your love, support and prayers for us are part of this – we do it as a team.