Once again December was a flurry of activities for those missionaries living in Lapilo. Much of the bustle was for the benefit of the students and younger children but, of course, the adults greatly enjoyed the action. It was wonderful to see how relationships were deepened and to take time to honor Jesus’ birthday!
The season began with the drama class’ presentation of:
The play was written by Barbara Robinson and revolves around the production of a church pageant that is taken over by the Herdmans, the worst kids in the world, who initially come only for the snacks. They are given lead roles in the play after intimidating the other children from auditioning and, while they think the Wise Men are dirty spies and Herod needs a good beating, they teach the entire church about the true meaning of Christmas. The church begins to see them as Jesus sees little children.
Next on the schedule was the school’s Christmas Concert which began with a presentation by the kindergarten class. The elementary students followed with a presentation of “Getting’ Ready for the Miracle” written by Linda Rebuck with music by Tom Fettke. The musical combines humor, new songs, and traditional carols to reveal the great value of God's Christmas gift to us - His Son.
To complete the night, the school bands and choir performed.
The Lapilo Winter Music Recital was also a great opportunity to see the talent of the children in our mission school.
The Christmas Festival was a wonderful time of shopping to buy Christmas gifts. It was great fun to see the creativity behind the items to purchase. There were even “street” entertainers who collected money in their violin cases for a worthy cause.
There was a special time for carol singing and church services on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. We ended the year with a center-wide party on New Year’s Eve.
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Meanwhile, we were busy keeping our ministries going. I was able to implement our fingerprinting system which was needed for a variety of complex reasons. PNG citizens may have a traditional name and an English name. Individuals might vary the spelling of their name or change their name entirely at different times. For example, a woman’s entire name 
is sometimes changed when she is married. The husband’s family will select the new first name and provide some type of payment (such as a chicken and money) to the wife’s family once the name is agreed upon. Wives typically take their husband’s first name as their last name. Men may have more than one wife. Children typically use their father’s first name as their last name. Some individuals may not have a last name. Children at times are given to and raised by another person and the child’s name might change. Babies are not named until they are approximately one month old. Most PNG citizens do not know their date of birth or how old they are.
is sometimes changed when she is married. The husband’s family will select the new first name and provide some type of payment (such as a chicken and money) to the wife’s family once the name is agreed upon. Wives typically take their husband’s first name as their last name. Men may have more than one wife. Children typically use their father’s first name as their last name. Some individuals may not have a last name. Children at times are given to and raised by another person and the child’s name might change. Babies are not named until they are approximately one month old. Most PNG citizens do not know their date of birth or how old they are.These circumstances can lead to a loss of continuity in patient care when separate medical record files are implemented with different names for the same patient. There have been times when a chart is pulled on the wrong patient due to the confusion surrounding names. To resolve this issue, we began to search for an identification system using fingerprints. The systems were either too expensive or not sophisticated enough for what we needed. God crossed our paths with a biometric company in the United States owned and operated by a man who
was raised as a MK (“missionary kid”). He agreed to provide the software (the main expense) for free and we bought the hardware. Some of his previous work has included a contract with the state of New Jersey to track their homeless population. He has been a tremendous blessing to us! The software is extremely user friendly and the process is going quite well. In addition to the fingerprints, we are able to capture their photograph using a web camera. One other huge benefit is the ability to capture the number of visits provided to PNG citizens. This is a statistic that the PNG government is interested to know.Now that we can identify patients by fingerprints, we are in the process of converting “family” medical records to “individual” medical records and using the same folders that were acquired last year for our missionary population. The results have been greatly appreciated by our physicians and staff. Records are no longer loose and falling out. They are divided into sections and it is much easier to locate specific reports.
We also conducted our end-of-year inventory in the clinic. The process was much easier and quicker than last year. Apparently the organization of the pharmacy and other areas of the clinic paid off in more ways than one!
On the 12th of this month, the government of PNG was declared illegal. The prime minister was taken to Singapore last June for heart surgery and during that time his family announced his resignation. A new prime minister was elected by the Parliament and put into office. Since that time, the previous prime minister has maintained that he was still the country’s leader and that he had not vacated the position. PNG’s Supreme Court ruled that the election of the second prime minister was unconstitutional and restored the previous prime minister to office by a narrow 3 to 2 decision. Needless to say, this situation has caused quite an uproar in the country but there has been no violence to my knowledge. Violence resulting from political issues is not uncommon.
On the 14th of this month, I experienced the strongest earthquake since my arrival 2 years ago. It had a magnitude of 7.1 and the epicenter was about 80 miles from here. The clinic building shook and swayed quite a bit. Drawers were opened and medicine fell from our pharmacy shelves. Thankfully, there was no damage or injuries.
I will close this lengthy entry for now, but please be watching your email for a special prayer request that I will be sending.
“In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.” Luke 2: 1-7
