Hello from Townsville, Australia.
We are now well into December, and I’m in the group of people who aren’t quite sure how Christmas is just 10 days away! Mellony and I have one workday left and will then be flying south to spend Christmas with her side of the family. 8 years living between PNG and Australia and I’m still not fully used to summer Christmas but I’m becoming more thankful for Aldi stores where I can more easily get the seasonal snacks from home that make it feel more like Christmas to me.
But, the end of the year means it’s time to look back on the many, many things that have happened in the last nearly 12 months of our ministry. Below we’ve put a short list of some of our highlights that we, and you, have been able to help be part of seeing happen this year.
One of the translators who was opening the first boxes of the scripture portions in the church service
The first written scripture portion in the Bamu language has begun its release to the local language speakers! A local translating team has been working for many, many years to see the scriptures translated into the local language. At the end of 2024, a lot of very heavy boxes full of these scripture portions (not technically called Bibles as they don't contain all the books…yet!) were loaded onto our ship, and we were able to transport them up to a village called Emeti, where the translators live, for a celebration, dedication, and official release early this year. Since then, we've also been able to help get it in the hands of people all over the river!
One of our dental assistant students hard at work
Interactive oral health teaching happening in one of the classrooms
We started running a Certificate III in Dental Assisting at our Port Moresby campus this year! There are no official training pathways for dental assistants in PNG, but strengthening the dental workforce is a recognised need in the country. The three full-time students are getting theoretical and hands-on training to become dental assistants (it will be an Australian qualification) working with our dental trailer outreaches. Those outreaches have just wrapped for the year, and we've been able to treat over 600 school children, delivering over 2,700 procedures - our DA students are a big part of making this happen!
A patient who had a cataract removed last time we did eye surgery in 2019
We'll be doing eye surgery on the ship again in 2026! This one has been a long time coming, but we will be doing eye surgeries again on the ship next June! We haven't run this clinic since the pandemic started in 2020, and we are so excited to be able to offer it again in some really remote locations that have no other access to these services.
David led one of the Primary Health Care teams for the first time this year!
We have seen over 5,000 patients in our primary health clinics in Western Province this year! My favourite small stories from outreach earlier this year comes from the Bamu River, when two TB treatment supporters came up to the ship. One had paddled up in his dugout canoe, and the other came by dingy, both with little eskis full of sputum samples from each of their villages that they were hoping we could test for them (which we could!). I find these partnerships so encouraging, and such a good reminder that we are part of such a diverse and interconnected picture of delivering health care in these areas.
Check out the highlight video below! Medical stuff is not the only thing we do. We actually have 2 radio stations, one in Townsville that reaches out to North Queensland and the other in Gladstone which has been undergoing renovations this year (so that it can host more outreach teams in the future!). We also run a café here in Townsville open to the general public which is 2 years old and has a high ropes course connected to it! This video is a compilation of answered prayers from our staff meeting this year.
On a personal note, a highlight for me is that my nursing registration in PNG was approved! I’ve previously held a number of temporary registrations, and it’s been a multiyear process to walk through getting a regular nursing registration (as if I trained or worked full time in the country). For David, a highlight has been also getting to be a student on the dental assistant course (although he will complete it with a more flexible timeframe) and continuing to delve into the dental world. Additionally, we are both very grateful to have been able to return to England and visit so many friends and family this year.
David and I just want to end by expressing our deep gratitude for your continued support this year. What we do isn’t possible without the friendship, prayer, and financial support we receive. We are so very grateful.
We hope you have a very Merry Christmas.
PS: When we got married and combined our blogs/newsletters, we overlooked making sure all our email contacts came across to the new platform; our apologies to those who haven’t heard from us in a while! Thank you to the person who let us know they hadn’t received our emails and prompted us to go back and have a look at this!