The emergency phone rang and pilot Nick had our “standby floatplane” quickly heading to the Sepik river.  When Nick arrived, he discovered that there were 2 snake bite victims:  One of the victims, George, was conscious with severe symptoms.  The other patient was a young girl who was mostly unconscious as her father placed her in the plane.  Because our aircraft is quite small, Nick could only take the girl’s mother and not the father.

A few minutes after takeoff, the mother started crying out. It was clear to Nick, the mother had just seen her little girl die. Nick messaged Chris and had him meet the plane at the airport. Chris met them and confirmed that the little girl had indeed passed on.  It was heart-rending to hear the mother cry out, “Lord God, I am your servant, why have you taken my only child from me?”

You’re probably wondering why we’re telling you this tragic ending of the little girl’s story? In all honesty, we wouldn’t be telling the truth if we only showed the success stories. This story lets all of us know how large the need is in Papua New Guinea and the urgency to bombard Heaven for even more positive ends to our patients’ stories.

We are glad to report because of Nick’s and Chris’s hard work and God’s grace; George, the other patient survived. Within days, George was on his way home to his family.