On Sunday night, November 1, our Papua New Guinea missionary family and a number of our hospital staff gathered to to pray through the new hospital.
Dr. Bill McCoy, hospital administrator, with wife Marsha, pray with other
hospital staff and friends over the children's ward in the new hospital. Photo
courtesy Erin Meier.
After two years of building, five years of planning, and many years of praying and dreaming of what could be, the new Kudjip Nazarene Hospital is ready to be used for God's service. Bill reminded us of some of the first missionaries to Papua New Guinea who started the work here and had a vision of what God could do here. The work of Nazarene Hospital has been going on since 1967. Now it will just be in new buildings, and by His grace it will continue for years to come.
Missionary doctor Steph Doenges reminded us that the buildings--made of concrete, plaster, paint, and hours of work--are just a building without Christ. But Christ is the cornerstone of this place. We are His hands and feet bringing forth His love and truth with the Holy Spirit binding and uniting us together as we do His work.
This evening was a special time as we prayed through the wards for the nurses, the patients who will occupy the beds, the wasman who care for them, the chaplains and their ministry, the volunteers who come, Dr. Todd Winters and the Nazarene Hospital Foundation and others who support us, the maintenance workers and the work they do, the cleaners, the surgery team, the babies we care for, the ones who will come to know Christ, the doctors who care for the patients, the clerks and business office folks, the pharmacy and the medicine that would heal by God's grace, the machines and equipment that support our work, the lab and X-ray staff and the work they do, those who worked to build this hospital, unity, PNG to be transformed, the love of Christ to be apparent in the lives of all who work here, and much more.
The move will start on November 4 and continue through November 6. Pray for the move and the transition as we get accustomed to doing things in our new hospital. Unfortunately, I won't be around for the move. I am heading to Thailand for a Samaritan's Purse conference with Becky. So Friday on call was my last time to work in the old hospital, and when I come back I will start afresh in the new hospital.
-- Dr. Erin Meier serves as a family practice doctor at the Kudjip Nazarene Hospital in Papua New Guinea through World Medical Mission's Post Residency Program and Project Medsend. This story originally appeared on Meier's mission blog.