Recently we received an emergency call to medevac a laboring mother experiencing dangerously high blood pressure and having seizures as a result (eclampsia). When we arrived on the water’s edge, Jessica was unconscious, and we feared the outcome. We loaded the two into the plane and whisked them back to Wewak Boram Hospital where her baby girl was born after a complicated delivery. Jessica has slowly improved but has been left with partial paralysis to her left leg requiring the use of a cane to walk. Her baby’s progress has been tenuous and slow.

On one of our many visits with Jessica in the haus sik she shared that nearly 12 years ago she found herself in a similar circumstance, and that Samaritan Aviation’s CEO/Co-Founder, Mark Palm, had saved her life and that of her child. She had labored for days with no progress and her baby had been in distress. The village health worker had called Samaritan Aviation for help, and Mark had flown Jessica into Wewak where she safely delivered a little girl via C-section.  

Now 12 years old, Jane is quite obviously the joy of her mother’s life and a testimony to answered prayer. As Jessica fondly shared memories of Mark and his wife Kirsten visiting with her in the hospital, showing love and compassion in her time of need, we were overwhelmed by the legacy of Samaritan’s humble beginnings and renewed in it’s purpose: to seek out the hopeless, to love them like Christ, and to make Him known among the forgotten.

At our most recent visit, Jessica pleaded, “Can you ask your team to pray for my baby? The doctors say she hasn’t much hope. Will you ask them to pray?’’  Will you stop a moment and pray for Jessica and her precious baby girl, and to praise God for what He is doing in hearts and lives throughout Papua New Guinea?

-Chris & Sarah Cooke