PNG Mission Lesson

This is a copy of the lesson I, Tyronza, gave in one of the local churches this morning.

I am happy to have the opportunity of being with you today and of being in your beautiful country. The people here have been very friendly and kind to us. Thank you for asking me to speak to you this morning.

My husband, Dr. Scot Pringle, and I arrived in Papua New Guinea over a month ago. Dr. Scot is working at the hospital and we are here for our first visit of three months.  I was with a group that had made arrangements to go for a hike to a waterfall. Isaiah was one of the men that guided our group. Along the way, the path was steep and difficult. He would take my hand and help me over the difficult parts and we began to share with each other that we were both part of the Nazarene Church and that we were both part of Nazarene Mission International. I have been privileged to be the NMI president at my local church for 18 years.

The NMI mission statement is "to mobilize the church through praying, discipling, giving and education." The Nazarene denomination has almost 800 career missionaries worldwide and has thousands of short and long term volunteers. NMI is the same around the world. NMI is formed to help share the message of salvation through Jesus Christ with others around the world. Three weeks ago, I attended an evening service at Immanuel Church in Kudjip. It was their time for NMI service and the Alabaster offering. Alabaster is an offering taken twice a year. The money is gathered to help buy land for churches and to help purchase the building supplies to build the church. My church at home in the US had just taken this offering.  Money from Alabaster offerings are often used along with Work and Witness groups.

 One of the departments of NMI is work & witness. These are groups of people that pay their own way and go for two weeks away from their homes to help other people.  My church and district are able to send W&W teams to other countries to help build churches. I have been privileged and blessed to be able to go on many W&W trips. I have been seven times to Ecuador, once to Peru and once to Guam on W&W trips. Each time has been to help build a building to either train pastors or a church building. Working with the local people, getting to know them and to know that we are brothers and sisters in our love of Jesus Christ is always a special blessing.  We receive a blessing from God when we are able to help local congregations build a structure for their church.  Another area of NMI is Compassionate Ministries. Compassionate Ministries is a tool for the Nazarene Church to help communities that have had disasters. When there are major disasters around the world, the members of the Nazarene Church want to help. Aid is given through our denomination to help with medical supplies, food, water, and basic needs when there is a major disaster.

But giving money and helping to build churches is not enough, we have to be willing to share the truth of Jesus. In Mark 16:15-16, Jesus says, "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved." Also in Acts 1:8, Jesus says, "When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere - in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." When Jesus said Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, he was talking about his village (Jerusalem), his country (Judea) and the neighboring country (Samaria) and then he says to the ends of the earth. This means that we are to share the news of Christ with our family members and our friends. We are also to share the news of salvation through Jesus Christ with our neighbors and with other villages and throughout Papua New Guinea. We want all to hear the story of forgiveness and salvation. It is only through the love of Jesus and his gift of salvation that lives can be changed. It is only through the love of Jesus that husbands can love and respect their wives as Jesus teaches. It is only through the love of Jesus that wives can love and respect their husbands. It is only through the love of Jesus that people are able to forgive each other. Jesus said in Mark 12:29-31, "The first command is: The Lord our God is the one and only Lord.  And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. The  second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these."  Jesus is telling each of us that we are to love and care for those around us as we would care for ourselves. We are to treat each other with love, kindness and respect. When we are able to obey Jesus in this way, then he is able to use us as Christians to show his love to others and share his salvation with them.

This is the true goal of missions, to bring the peoples of each land to Jesus; to teach people of his death for our sins, of his resurrection from the dead, and of the forgiveness he offers to those who believe in him. As a Christian, this should be the goal and mission of each one of us.

Being a part of NMI and supporting missions is an important part of who we are as Nazarenes. I encourage each of you to take an active role in reaching out to others about the love of Christ.  As I leave you today, I would like to give you one more scripture, Psalm 28:6-7, "Praise the Lord! For he has heard my cry for mercy. The Lord is my strength, my shield from every danger. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out is songs of thanksgiving." I am truly thankful to serve a living God; a God of love and forgiveness, but also a God of holiness, who expects my obedience to his Word. This is a great honor for me and for you.

Thank you again for allowing me to speak to you, I pray God's blessings on each of you and your families.

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Tales from Scot

"Another Day in Paradise" pretty well sums this place up. The weather is near perfect every day. The nights are cool and comfortable (just right for sleeping), and three or four nights a week it rains.

The practice of medicine is another story! I am very busy. They have put me in charge of the labor & delivery floor. Most days, there are 10-12 deliveries and a C-section or two. The nurses do most of the deliveries and repair the simple lacerations and episiotomies. They do a good job most of the time, but could stand some improvement. So far, I have had 8-10 C-sections, a breech delivery and have repaired a half dozen bad lacerations. The nursery does not have a ventilator and that is a great frustration to me. I have had an emergency C-section where the baby was resuscitated, but expired for lack of a way to provide any long term ventilator support. I am currently waiting on a delivery of a 28-29 weeker that I know we can't do anything for. Please pray for me; it is very difficult. I do miss all of the nice perks of qualified pediatricians, neonatologists and especially a high risk nursery. The nurses here are addressed as "Sister": Sister Sylvia, Margaret, Mary, etc.

As for Gyn, they do a nice job here. The surgery is well stocked and the personnel seems well trained. Cancers seem further advanced, but I have not seen anything I could not handle, yet. Ectopic pregnancy is a popular diagnosis. I have operated on 5 ectopic cases in the first three weeks. Most are caused by P.I.D. , which is also a popular diagnosis. Last night, I operated on a woman who had a ruptured ectopic for five days and had walked in from a distant village. Her hemoglobin in the emergency room was 3.7 grams. I was able to give her four units of blood and operate.  She had 2600cc of blood in her abdomen.

Aids, hepatitis, and tuberculosis are also very big around here. I have had one HIV positive vaginal delivery and one HIV positive C-section. Most days in the clinic I see fresh cases of tuberculosis, malaria, and hepatitis. My ultrasound machine is in use constantly. I have diagnosed several large pelvic tumors, three sets of twins and several cases of abdominal TB, so far.

Enough about me for now. I miss you guys. God bless you,

Dr. P

p.s. Thanks to Cindy R.'s mom for the hats. They are a big hit.

PNG Adventure Continues

Today is Sunday March 20th, and we have been in Papua New Guinea for more than three weeks. The days are going by quickly, Scot is at the hospital each day. He is seeing quite a variety of patients: many tubal pregnancies, many tumors, 3-4 TB patients every day, 2-3 malaria patients daily, has delivered 2 patients with HIV, several C sections, one set of twins, and has had one fetal demise - there is no fetal respirator. He is also beginning to spend time in the ER stitching up machete wounds. Unfortunately, there is a lot of domestic violence and a machete is often used. Husbands cutting wives, wives cutting each other - amongst the non Christian people there are multiple wives.

Scot enjoyed giving out the baby caps that Cindy Rigdon's mother made. The patients were very thankful to receive them.

Tyronza is continuing to cook, and is amazed that she actually enjoys doing it. The shopping experience is very different. You have to travel about 30-40 minutes into town for groceries at the store and the large vegetable market. There is a small market available just outside the hospital compound, but you never know what will be available. (Actually, that is true in town also!)

The money used here are kina and toea. The exchange rate is currently about 2.5 kina to the dollar. Except for locally grown produce and vegetables, everything is quite expensive. Tyronza bought 6 kilos of ground meat for 125 kina, two small rolls of paper towels for 30 kina.

The electric system here has many power spikes and is sometimes out for a period of time. It has not been a major problem, however. You do learn to keep the candles and flashlights handy.

This past Sunday, was a very interesting day for us. The previous week Tyronza met Isaiah on a hike. He is the Nazarene Mission Zone Circuit president for this area of PNG. He has 28 churches on his Circuit. He became very excited when Tyronza told him that she was the mission president at their local church and invited her to speak in one of the churches on his circuit. She accepted and transportation and translation were arranged. On Sunday morning, we were picked up by one of the missionary families and were taken to the church where Tyronza spoke about Nazarene missions in general and about sharing the news of salvation and forgiveness through Jesus Christ to your family, your friends and your village. After the service, we were given fruits and vegetables as a thank you. It was a wonderful experience.

On Thursday night, Tyronza attended the District Mission Convention for the Western Highland Province. It was an exciting time and very interesting. On Friday afternoon we were able to take some time off and were taken to an orchid garden. It was beautiful with lovely flowers, butterflies and birds. The man and his wife have been working on the garden for fifteen years and he said he has 300 of the 3,000 species of orchids native to PNG. On Saturday morning, we were able to leave the compound again for a hike up to a Catholic mission. It was a gorgeous day and many pictures were taken. The link site is

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Arrival in Papua New Guinea

Praise the Lord after several months of frustrating efforts the Papua New Guinea Labor Department finally sent the work permit for Scot and the entry permits for the two of us. There was one last hurdle with the PNG embassy. I (Tyronza) was not aware that our passports had to be sent with the visa application. When I called on Friday morning, February 18th, I was told they had everything they needed except our passports. We were scheduled to fly out Tuesday morning, February 22nd. To make a long story short, I FedExed the passports to the home address of the embassy employee; she took the visa approval home with her Friday night; she received the passports Saturday morning and inserted the papers into our passport and overnighted them back to me. I received on Monday morning at 9 am and we left for St. Louis on Monday afternoon. I am thankful for overnight delivery and Mary, a flexible embassy employee.

We travelled through Tokyo and arrived in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea on Thursday, February 24th. We arrived with three of our four bags, but amazingly the fourth bag showed up the next day.

Scot began seeing patients on Monday morning in the clinic. He is being used for referral, so the patients are first screened by the family practitioners. Routine deliveries are handled by the nursing staff. Scot has performed several surgeries and has seen one patient with malaria. He's back in the swing of things. Scot is working very hard in the clinic, has already diagnosed one molar pregnancy, two ectopic pregnancies and three large ovarian tumors. One of the ectopic pregnancies had an estimated blood loss of 2,500 cc!
The largest tumor removed was nearly 20 pounds! He has had only limited obstetrical management, but has performed several deliveries and repaired several lacerations. Care here is very basic; sterile technique is not very high. The patients seem to do well and are grateful for the care received. The hospital's motto is "We treat. Jesus heals."

The patient care given here is very different from the states. The nursing staff primarily administers medications and any physician orders given. The patients or their families take care of themselves and their needs. They have to provide their own bedding, food and toilet tissue! I was told each patient has to purchase a roll of tissue, otherwise all manner of substances are used and flushed through the toilet.

I began working in the storeroom yesterday and will probably spend my mornings there helping with inventory. Judy Bennett, one of the missionaries, will be leaving in a couple of weeks on furlough. I am to follow her around while she is still here and take on some of her responsibilities when she and her husband leave.

Pictures are being posted through Facebook. The Internet connection here is torturously slow and unreliable. I can receive but not send emails.

Tyronza W. Pringle

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