You guys, we really need your prayers.

There are some very very serious illnesses, going on that affect us to the core over here; including one very active, sweet little 4 year old girl with a severely broken arm. She’s in the picture with me.

First off –
Ninau is a Papua New Guinean translator. She works with another organization. She has been sick for months on end. She is extremely bad now. She’s been in a coma, here in the Modilon Hospital, the last 4 days. She has opened her eyes, only when they’ve come to turn her over, but other than that – there has been next to nothing. She sleeps. Her muscles are gone. She hasn’t eaten for days. She had laid in her bed or the haus sik bed for months on end, not knowing the illness – and therefore – not getting the treatment that she needs to get well. I love Ninau and it is my prayer that one day she will walk into our office and smile at me. Right now, that looks impossible.
But God.

PLEASE PRAY for her, her family and friends. This is stinkin HARD!! My new found friend Estella, has been here at the haus sik, day and night, for a long time, praying over her; starting when she was coherent, taking care of her and talking to her, even as she now sleeps. Estella called for a time of prayer over Ninau 2 nights ago. I think 16 of us surrounded her bed. We sang worship songs; beginning with a song in her heart language that those around me sang to Ninau. Then we prayed. My heart felt like it was tearing apart to hear her niece, Junis, who has been one of her primary care givers since this began, pray in her mother tongue… Amidst her precious gulps and sobs. It was heart wrenching. There were a lot of PBT people around her bed, all of which have known Ninau years longer than I. We sang some more, read Scripture, and prayed some more. This is HARD! Please pray with us for her healing. It can happen. She can’t be near as old as me (I’m a horrible guesser, but still). She is young. Please pray with us. I’ll update as I can. I know that I’m jumping you into the middle of this – and I’m really sorry that I hadn’t been asking more publicly for your prayers before. I’ll update as I can. Today when I saw her, the only change is that she needs blood. I know her type is O, but I don’t know + or – so after I get that, I’ll see who if anyone within our circles, can donate for her. The blood bank isn’t open again until Monday.

Please keep Ninau in your prayers.

Secondly – but these are in random order –
Another heart breaker is in a very young family, the Dodd family, who works for yet another organization. They came here to work on the Finisterre Range. It is a gorgeous mountain range that I’ve flown over to go to Ukarumpa. Two families built houses to live among the people they serve. One family is town based, like me, for support. So this doesn’t affect just this precious family – it is a spiderweb of pain among a lot of families.
Matt, his wife and 4 small children, live in the bush when they’re here. While they were in America (maybe on furlough, I don’t know for sure),  through an unexpected (but God-lead) chain of events, it was revealed that he has stage 3 lung cancer. There is no cure. He is in bad shape. I’ve just friend requested them on Facebook, so their updates should start appearing on my wall.

It’s times like these where I’m sure grateful that the Holy Spirit will pray for me, because I just don’t have the words. My heart breaks for these families and my family here who is heartbroken with them.

Life is so uncertain. Life is hard.

Both of these people know Christ personally and their salvation is secure with Him in heaven. But this is hard!

And “last but not least” – side note here – watch for an update about “the Least and the Last.” I’m just now beginning to craft it.

Fidelma is in the picture with me. Oh my she is a trip!! I love her!! We became fast friends (well, me faster than her, but she came round). She is the youngest of 13(!!) children, of a translator couple that works with my friend Martha. She’s a tough little girl!!! It took a week for them to get to town after her fall! It is rough living deep in the bush!! Fidelma was going up their stairs (like a ladder) to go into their house. She fell down the stairs and the post that was holding the stairs in place fell on her arm. It broke just below her left shoulder. Look at the picture. I don’t know the correct term for it, but when we looked at the x-ray, the bone was overlapping itself by nearly an inch! Ouch!! Martha and I “happened to the haus sik” at the precise time the doctor was putting a cast on her. No setting it or doing anything at all – he put a U shaped cast on her tiny arm starting right above the break. He had already filled out the discharge papers before he put the cast on. Not even a night in the hospital?!? What?!? He told Martha that the cast would “pull the bone back down into place.”
Really?!

It was what we were offered. Nothing else. So Martha refused to send them back to the bush, and insisted that the doctor “prove his method” by showing us the proof in an X-ray two weeks later.

Well, we got the second X-ray this week, and guess what?? Still.looked.like.it.did.before.
We found a surgeon who assured us that “God is good, and over time it will fuse together and she won’t have any ill affects.” I asked “how long” and he said “oh, by the time she is 7 she will be completely healed.” What?!? The child is 4… FOUR.

Sometimes I really struggle with life here.

I told him that was very hard for me to accept too, and we asked if there was anything more he could do for her. He said, “in America and Australia you have machines to help with things like this. In Papua New Guinea we have to do things differently.” Then I felt bad for questioning his work. He is truly doing everything he can, with what he has available to him. The bit of hope I feel, is that I saw a possible bit of the bone they looked like it might truly fuse back together. It just might work… Please God!

SOO Fidelma doesn’t have a cast on her arm anymore, and is on a PMV headed in the direction of their village. I don’t know what day they will actually arrive. The PMV had troubles, so they’re stranded – somewhere – they might end up coming back here. Sometimes I don’t even have words. It’s not a good situation, no matter how you look at it.

Please pray for this little bundle of sweetness and high energy. It was said that it’s highly likely that without prayer, she will fall again before it is healed and break it again. Oh Lord, please “no!”

So my heart is heavy with all of this laying on it. Please lift us up in prayer. We need it.