Community Based Health Care: Vanuatu trip

I first met my roomie Becky about 10 years ago.  We were both students at the Loma Linda University School of Public Health... Becky was taking classes for her residency in preventative medicine while I was working on my masters in public health.  We shared similar back grounds and a call to missions, so we became instant friends.  Who would have dreamed that we would one day be sharing a house on the other side of the world?  (And God smiled.)

Shortly after completing her residency, Becky moved to PNG and began working with a program called Community Based Health Care (CBHC).  She has traveled around the South Pacific, training and empowering communities to address their health needs.  

Last year Becky visited Aniwa, one of the small islands in Vanuatu, to help the church start a CBHC program.  The traditional birth attendants and health volunteers requested additional training in the care of pregnant women, mothers, and children.  Since obstetrics and pediatrics are not Becky's areas of expertise, she invited some of her Kudjip colleagues to participate in a special CBHC trip.

This coming week Dr. Susan and Jessica Myers, Pricilla Radcliffe, and I will be traveling with Becky to Aniwa where we will join up with missionaries from Vanuatu and Fiji for a time of training and ministry.  This is the kind of stuff real adventures are made of... no electricity, washing with rain water, eating local cuisine, and sleeping on mats under a mosquito net.  And not to mention a wonderful opportunity for ministry.  I am super excited!

We will be leaving PNG on Sunday, March 21 and returning on Monday, March 29.  Please pray for safe travels, good health, and the training that will take place.  And don't forget the docs who will be holding down the Kudjip fort without us!

Thanks for supporting us in this ministry.  And I look forward to sharing our adventures with you when we return.

"And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others."

~ 2 Timothy 2:2