Two new, surprising developments are taking place for us in BYT.
- The government is putting in hydropower that will give BYT and WST permanent electricity! It will be the largest hydropower system in all these jungle mountains. The big bulldozer and skilled workmen have been working every day lately on this project! We are told we will have electricity in one year!
2. The government is also building a tower for phone service in a distant village, BlaBluGlow. This village, though far away is expected to bring us phone service in BYT also. Perhaps in one year this will be available. It is exciting because I have a program on my phone that enables me to have internet when in phone service. This would greatly assist me in the medical work!
3. In other news, PaPe, age 11 broke her arm 2 weeks ago when she fell from her bicycle. Initially someone brought her to the hospital, where they only put a splint on her arm and told her to return for surgery. Well, they did not take her back to the hospital, but decided to do it the devil way. They knew a head devil magic man in BlaGlow who gave special water and “prayers.” He told them about many people in the past that had bad fractures and they are all fine now because of his ceremonies, so they believed him. They did not want to travel that far to the hospital anyway.
Last week we visited PaPe at her home in LaGlah. She was still in a lot of pain. I examined the arm and figured out it was both the ulnar and radius that were broken and in order for healing to take place those bones needed to be set. I figured that if the other hospital said return for surgery, than those 2 bones must be displaced. I was praying as I pleaded with them to let us take her to the hospital because it would not heal properly on its own like this. Plus she needed relief from pain!
All day long they thought about it, and waited to make a decision. We treated all the patients, ate what they cooked for us, and had worship in another home. When we were ready to leave we asked for their decision – yes, they would let us take her to the hospital the next day. How thankful I was to God for this decision. See the x-ray? See the sweet eleven-year old? She is in surgery now. May her arm be restored but he Great Restorer!
I took a crude picture of the x-ray hanging on the doctor’s view box! You can easily see the deformities!
4. The last Breaking News! We had to really work to get this man, TheyMu, to the hospital. He has been sick for days now. We have taken him to the hospital 3 times in the past! Now he is in the worst condition that I have seen. We finally get him into the truck, but the bumpy roads are too hard on him and he begs us to stop. When he got out of the truck and lay on the side of the road with his son and daughter assisting him, I really thought we would loose him right there – seemed like he was dying! He was in pain and could not breath. His children were crying and asking us to take their father back home. Because of prayer we finally got him back in the front seat, lay him back and prayed. We yet had a long way to go, but God saw us through! He was admitted and tests were run. Upon admission the doctor suspected scrub typhus, (Quite a killing tropical disease). I hope soon to find out what the final diagnosis will be.
