Baby Menum
For the past couple weeks, we have been updating our friends and family on our Facebook page about a PNG family we have been taking care of at the local hospital. We have only been able to share bits and pieces as we go, so we have decided to update you all as much as we can.
However, this story has to end on a cliff hanger because it does not have a conclusion yet. The end of the story is in God’s hands.
In the Ramu valley there is an Ethnos360 missionary team working among a very remote people group. This location is helicopter access only, as it takes 12 hours to hike to the nearest road with another 5 hour car ride.
In August, a 5 month old baby was accidentally struck in the back of the head by an iron rod. It was a very bad injury.
Praise God however, the next morning a helicopter was coming to their location to bring in leadership for the missionaries’ next culture and language evaluations! So the missionaries sent the mother, father, and baby to Madang.
The helicopter landed right on our base in Madang, and another missionary and I drove them to the Madang hospital.
The baby received care, and the wound was healed. We all are not sure of the details of their stay and what they were treated for. They stayed in the hospital for 2 months then the family traveled back to their home at the end of October.
After a couple weeks though, Menum’s conditioned worsened again with pressure building in his head. He stopped nursing and the family brought him to the missionary team for help.
The team consulted with our mission doctor and began treating him, but it became clear that if he was going to live he would need to be evacuated again, as they feared he had meningitis and hydrocephalus.
The missionary team decided to send them to the Goroka Hospital, hoping he would be able to receive more advance care there.
However, it’s traditional that when a family member is in the hospital, the family takes care of them and brings them food. So in Madang, some family living in town helped bring them food and take care of them.
But in Goroka, they wouldn’t know anyone as they have no family or friends in the area. So the missionary team asked our area leadership if anyone would be willing to look out for them.
We volunteered to help. I had taken the family to the hospital before in Madang and we felt it might be good for them to see a face they recognized as they’re adjusting to all the newness of Goroka town.
So the next day, Tuesday, December 14th, me and a national friend went into town to gather supplies for the family. We then picked up baby Menum, his mom, dad and a nephew from the airport at our hangar. We got them to the hospital as fast as we could, and they were admitted into the emergency room.
We all were hoping that they would be admitted into the hospital quickly, they could get a CT scan, and if he needed it they would be able to do surgery quickly.
That night I went back to the hospital and they were still in the emergency room. After talking with the doctors, we found out that pus had been collecting in his brain and his skull had eroded. He would need surgery.
The next day they were still in the emergency room, still waiting to be admitted. He was also having seizures so they began giving medicine for this. Later that night I stayed until the doctors said there was a bed available for him in the surgery ward.
After 3 days Menum got a CT scan, and on day 4 the doctors told us he would need to go to Port Moresby to see a neurosurgeon. Only one family member, the mom, would be able to travel, and she is very shy and we were told does not speak Tok Pisin (the national trade language) very well. Despite this, the father was happy to send them, wanting whatever the doctors felt was best.
We were thinking they would be able to fly that next Monday (day 6) but they have hit delay after delay. Logistics with the airlines has taken time, then he needed a blood transfusion, and then on day 9, we thought we had hit the end of the road.
It looked like his condition was getting worse, and it was communicated to us that he needs to stay on oxygen to live. There was a conflict with the airlines, and it looked like there would be no way of getting him to Port Moresby.
But that same afternoon the Doctor told us that they would be able to figure something out, but they would have to wait a little longer.
So each day, I have travelled to the local hospital to take care of the family, bring them food and other necessities. I have been able to get to know the doctors and nurses caring for the baby, and have been able to advocate for Menum on the family’s and missionaries’ behalf. Each day I stay in contact with the doctors, the missionary team, and our leadership in how best to care for them and get them to Port Moresby.
Kelsey too has been able to come a few times, which we have all been grateful for. She has the gift of getting people to come out of their shell. Some doctors were worried that the mom doesn’t speak good Tok Pisin, but Kelsey has been able to get her to talk and even laugh.
So now, day 13, we are still waiting and praying. We are waiting for this little baby boy to be sent to Port Morseby for surgery and praying that there hasn’t been too much damage done to his brain. We are praying that the little boy lives, but that ultimately God’s will might be done.
The missionaries in this remote location are still learning the tribal culture and language and have not yet presented the Gospel to these people. Every day we are praying that, when they do hear the Gospel for the first time, God would shine a light on this time and they would understand and see the depths of His love for them. We pray they would believe that “…God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” -Romans 5:8
UPDATE ON BABY MENUM:
When we last updated you, Menum was still scheduled to go to Port Morseby for surgery.
The next day I got a call from the doctor who asked me to come to the hospital in the afternoon. He told us that after reviewing CT scans and talking with many other doctors, there was nothing they could do for Menum. He would not be going to Port Morseby. They said his brain hadn’t developed well, he had a lot of water in his brain, and the drainage for his brain was blocked so his head continued to swell up. They said even with surgery his chances of survival were low. The doctors told the family they could take baby Menum back to their village.
They kept the family in the hospital for a few more days. On Wednesday we brought the family and the baby to come stay at a guest house on our mission base for a couple nights. We planned to send them back to their bush place on Friday which would involve a 3+ day journey for them by bus and hiking.
But on Thursday December 30th around 1 pm, Menum died.
Since the day Menum arrived in Goroka, he was very sick. We always knew this was a possibility, but it doesn’t take the sting out of death, especially the death of a child. But God’s grace is greater than any tragedy of this world. And it is in His great and boundless grace that we place our hope.
That afternoon, Kelsey and a close national friend went and stayed with the family, mourned with them, prepared meals for them, and helped dress the body in some of our kids’ old clothing. I went to the workshop to build a coffin with the help of some friends. Our leadership helped arrange a place to bury him here, and the papa ground (local government) agreed to bury him in a cemetery close by. That evening some national friends came to the guest house and stayed up with them all night long (a cultural norm here after one dies.)
The next day we prepared for the funeral. I went with the men and the local community to dig the hole while Kelsey and other national women prepared food and flowers. We buried Menum in the afternoon, then fed all who had mourned with the family and helped bury him.
We are beyond thankful for the local community here that has helped us every step of the way. We would have been lost without our brothers and sisters in Christ teaching us their culture and customs. They came alongside us to mourn with and help total strangers through a very difficult time. We hope and pray this display of love, kindness, and grace would have an eternal impact for the family. We are also thankful for our leadership and community here on base who cared for us, too, as we cared for this family.
Please pray for the Kovol people. Soon this family will go back to their place deep in the bush, carrying their stories from town and their grief with them. The Kovol people still do not know the grace of God or have the Bible in their language. The missionaries there are working tirelessly to learn their language so that they can present the Gospel clearly one day soon.
Pray for the missionaries and their families. Pray they would have unity, good health, and plenty of stamina in learning the tribal culture and language. Pray they would learn it well and quickly so that this people group could hear of the everlasting grace and goodness of our God.
