Indy NMI Blog

About 2 months ago, while playing basketball I felt some pain in my shoulder.  Having dislocated it 5 times in the past, I wasn’t too worried about it.  I took some normal precautions of rest, ice, antiinflammatory medicine and PT exercises to strengthen my shoulder.  After a month, it was still hurting me, and so I started to wear a sling on my R arm while at my house for some relief from the pain.  The sling did help at night, but my shoulder was still bothering me during the day while working.  I tried to rationalize that I needed my R arm to work, but finally, I broke down and started wearing the sling full time and have now become a one handed doctor with helpers. We have a volunteer family here and their 19 yo daughter wants to be a doctor, so she has agreed to be my scribe. Marissa joins me on rounds and in the clinic, writing my notes for me.  In payment for being my scribe, I try and teach Marissa a little something about medicine – what I am hearing, doing, feeling, and thinking. She seems to be enjoying the chance to be in the hospital and learning about medicine, and my shoulder is enjoying the rest of being able to be immobilized throughout the day. Ben and Jim have also volunteered their surgical services to cover my C-sections when I am on call, which is a blessing as well.           I have had…
Source: When one hand is not enough from Erin Meier – Asia Pacific

Southern Taiwan:  I know that it’s been a long time since we have posted on our blog – and I apologize.  As we were climbing into the van for departure to the next church on our visit schedule today, we realized that our bodies are getting a bit tired. In March we were full-speed ahead, getting ready for home assignment and the busy speaking schedule in the US and Canada.  After traveling thousands of miles and sharing with so many of you, we returned to Manila June 23rd and by the 25th of June, I (Todd) was headed to Indonesia with our team. Arriving back in Manila on the 1st of July, just 9 days later found Connie and I flying to Taipei to start a 10 day teaching and training tour across Taiwan. Pastors Conference We were so very blessed to share with the Yang Mei Church on Sunday the 12th, and then teach communications and Nazarene Mission International workshops for the Taiwan Pastor’s Conference during the week. Aboard the High Speed Rail from Taipei to S. Taiwan. Friday afternoon saw us climbing aboard a High Speed Rail from northern Taiwan to southern Taiwan, reaching speeds of 186 mph! Taiwan High Speed Rail Wow…covered in 96 minutes what would have taken more than 5 hours by car.  We’ve never gone that fast on the ground and not gotten airborne! Today has been a 15 hour day, traveling to and visiting with pastors and church members in 6 churches from…
Source: Teaching, Traveling, Trusting God in Taiwan – Thanks For Your Prayers! from Aebischer – Asia Pacific

For years, we have wanted a dentist.  At times, there have been visiting dentists who have come for a few weeks or a month – long enough to try and treat the staff, but not long enough to care for the Papua New Guineans who live outside of our station.  About a year ago, we learned from Samaritan’s Purse that they had a dentist that was suppose to go to Liberia, to the heart of the Ebola outbreak, and wondered if we could use her instead.  We quickly said yes, and began working on creating a dental clinic for her to work out of. In January of this year, we had 2 volunteers who came and helped to get our clinic set up and help us (non dentists) know and understand what we need and don’t need.  After they left, we have been trying to get our clinic ready for our dentist – Sheena.  Well Sheena has now arrived.  She got into country a few weeks ago, and has been getting acclimated to the culture and doing some language learning.  She is getting close to be ready to see patients, and we are excited. Initially she will continue to see our staff here on station, as there are still many for her to see and it will give her time to adjust and figure out how things in PNG work.  After that, she will start to see PNGers from out of station.  There really hasn’t been a good dentist in…
Source: We have a dentist from Erin Meier – Asia Pacific