On the subject of being Jesus to the world
Yo everyone. I'm writing you from my hammock tonight. It's a rope hammock, so as I swing it's like free air conditioning.
Let me tell you that I could not be more stoked these past two weeks about our lecturers. You wouldn't get this quality lecturers with this much field experience at an ivy league school. Last week we had an Australian MD come speak with us for a week on blood, vaccinations, and respiratory illness. One night he taught us how to give sutures. He was trained in Australia, served as a doctor in the army in East Timor, and is now practicing in the United Arab Emirates. This week we have an MD from Cairns(a large town north of here) lecturing on more target tropical disease. Yesterday we studied Tuberculosis. Today we studied diarrhea and dehydration. you may ask - "How do you 'study' diarrhea?" and then I might suggest to you: "I dont think you want to know."
Matt snapped a photo of me stitching up misseur piggy's poor little cut-up foot:
For my first few weeks here, I was just having tons of fun playing sports, heading to the beach, hosting parties at my apartment, but lately I've really made an effort to dive into my studies and master everything we are learning. It's been good. I'm confident that I can be of skilled use in the medical clinics we'll be hosting in West Papua. Hey speaking of west papua, wouldn't you all love to hear 'bout the place?
Above is a photo of the Island of New Guinea. The Eastern half is Papua New Guinea, and the western half is technically named "Western New Guinea" but that's a government name assigned in 2000. It's more commonly referred to by NGO's as "West Papua" and then it's known by many people groups as Irian Jaya. The reason for all of the names is a history filled with controversy over who owns the place. As of 1962 the United Nations handed over authority of the country to Indonesia. Since the 1960s, consistent reports have filtered out of the territory of government suppression and terrorism, including murder, political assassination, imprisonment, torture, and aerial bombardments. The Indonesian government disbanded the New Guinea Council and forbade the use of the West Papua flag or the singing of the national anthem. More recent news: In January 2006, 43 refugees in a traditional canoe landed on the coast of Australia with a banner stating the Indonesian military was carrying out a genocide in Papua. They were transported to an Australian immigration detention facility on Christmas Island, 2,600 km (1,400 nmi) north-west of Perth, and 360 km (190 nmi) south of the western head of Java. On March 23, 2006, the Australian government granted temporary protection visas to 42 of the 43 having determined all 43 were bonafide refugees. A day later Indonesia recalled its ambassador to Australia. (BBC & Wikipedia) Another problem in West Papua is the Indonesian transmigration program. For years, the Indonesian government has been moving Muslims from densely populated areas into less populated areas. West Papua was traditionally christian, and this movement of muslim people groups has caused great controversy. It's widely thought that the transmigration program was a strategy to discourage political separist groups(west papua is still trying to seperate), and there is now a huge problem with violence between native people groups and transmigrated Muslims.
There is quite a lot of problems in West Papua. So we as a YWAM team want to go help. A logistical aspect we can address is the lack of health care provided for West Papuans. Most jobs are given to Indonesian muslims. Native papuans are pushed out into the country and subside largely on agriculture for food and income. Health care is far away and expensive, and also Indonesian controlled. So we are going to provide health care.Our lead nurse has been to west papua earlier this year doing the same thing we will be doing, so we have contacts and accomodations lined up and anticipating our team's arrival. Now may I introduce you to most of our team? There are two missing in the photo are Matt and Amanda, although you'll find them on other photos in this journal.
From left to right we have: Vern, Benji, Hannah, Mark, Casey, Stacey, April, Arli. It was a nice day for a fish & chips picnic.
So what will our team be doing?
When we get there we will be:
1. Working alongside existing community development programs, providing health care for their patrons.
2. Establishing day clinics in remote villages
3. Hosting health care seminars to educate local health care workers
4. Hosting school seminars on HIV/AIDS. (West Papua has the highest HIV rate in all of Indonesia)
5. Address medical needs as they are found, providing any needed curative care.
I'm on this medical mission because I want to help the needy people in this world. Here is my philosophy: Jesus came to the world to enable us to live life freely and to the fullest. Everybody should be given that oppurtunity, but poor health gets in the way. Being a follower of Jesus and being led by his example, I want to help by being Jesus's hands and feet to heal the sick.
I need help financially. I've never asked for money before(excluding parents) so this is akward for me. But it's not just about me needing money. I think that once people are aware, many want to help to solve social injustice issues in this world, but they don't know how. If you give, Your money will be used to buy our team transportation into the country(which is expensive due to the state of turmoil the nation is in), and only the most necessary provisions for myself and teammates while we are there(food, shelter). Also the money you give will be put toward medical supplies, food, vaccines, and other health-related materials for these people. Medical supplies are readily available and relatively cheap in these countries. But when people don't even have enough money for groceries, they don't worry about buying medicine when they are hungry. We will be purchasing and distributing such things as vaccines, antibiotics, de-worming pills, wound care products, etc. A few drops of oral polio vaccine can prevent a child from being a cripple their whole life. A single ten-cent de-worming pill can save a child that is dying from malnutrition due to worms. A proper wound dressing can prevent a bacterial infection that might cause someone to lose a limb. It's all just as simple as that. The list goes on but I think you get the point. Our team budget is looking to be about $30,000. My responsibility in this is $3000.
If you'd like to help out, here are two options:
1. Send me a check. I'm having my parents be my banker while I am overseas, so if you would like to write me a personal check make it out to:
Mark Johansen
14661 SE 172nd AVE
Clackamas, OR 97015
USA
2. Donate online with your credit card. This can be done by going to the following address and filling out the online form, putting "Mark Johansen/IPHC" in the 'person' box. It will take you to a seperate banking website to fill out credit card information, and then bring you back to the Reef To Outback website.
http://www.reeftooutback.com/payments.aspx
ok I don't want to talk about money any more. So here is a picture of me feeding a little joey(a baby kangaroo):
and that's all for now folks. We leave on December 26th. We are all very excited. I'd leave tomorrow if I had the chance. But our indonesian visas only allow us 60 days inside indonesian borders so we chose to have christmas in australia.
Selamat Tinggal! (goodbye in Indonesian)
-Mark
Let me tell you that I could not be more stoked these past two weeks about our lecturers. You wouldn't get this quality lecturers with this much field experience at an ivy league school. Last week we had an Australian MD come speak with us for a week on blood, vaccinations, and respiratory illness. One night he taught us how to give sutures. He was trained in Australia, served as a doctor in the army in East Timor, and is now practicing in the United Arab Emirates. This week we have an MD from Cairns(a large town north of here) lecturing on more target tropical disease. Yesterday we studied Tuberculosis. Today we studied diarrhea and dehydration. you may ask - "How do you 'study' diarrhea?" and then I might suggest to you: "I dont think you want to know."
Matt snapped a photo of me stitching up misseur piggy's poor little cut-up foot:
For my first few weeks here, I was just having tons of fun playing sports, heading to the beach, hosting parties at my apartment, but lately I've really made an effort to dive into my studies and master everything we are learning. It's been good. I'm confident that I can be of skilled use in the medical clinics we'll be hosting in West Papua. Hey speaking of west papua, wouldn't you all love to hear 'bout the place?
Above is a photo of the Island of New Guinea. The Eastern half is Papua New Guinea, and the western half is technically named "Western New Guinea" but that's a government name assigned in 2000. It's more commonly referred to by NGO's as "West Papua" and then it's known by many people groups as Irian Jaya. The reason for all of the names is a history filled with controversy over who owns the place. As of 1962 the United Nations handed over authority of the country to Indonesia. Since the 1960s, consistent reports have filtered out of the territory of government suppression and terrorism, including murder, political assassination, imprisonment, torture, and aerial bombardments. The Indonesian government disbanded the New Guinea Council and forbade the use of the West Papua flag or the singing of the national anthem. More recent news: In January 2006, 43 refugees in a traditional canoe landed on the coast of Australia with a banner stating the Indonesian military was carrying out a genocide in Papua. They were transported to an Australian immigration detention facility on Christmas Island, 2,600 km (1,400 nmi) north-west of Perth, and 360 km (190 nmi) south of the western head of Java. On March 23, 2006, the Australian government granted temporary protection visas to 42 of the 43 having determined all 43 were bonafide refugees. A day later Indonesia recalled its ambassador to Australia. (BBC & Wikipedia) Another problem in West Papua is the Indonesian transmigration program. For years, the Indonesian government has been moving Muslims from densely populated areas into less populated areas. West Papua was traditionally christian, and this movement of muslim people groups has caused great controversy. It's widely thought that the transmigration program was a strategy to discourage political separist groups(west papua is still trying to seperate), and there is now a huge problem with violence between native people groups and transmigrated Muslims.
There is quite a lot of problems in West Papua. So we as a YWAM team want to go help. A logistical aspect we can address is the lack of health care provided for West Papuans. Most jobs are given to Indonesian muslims. Native papuans are pushed out into the country and subside largely on agriculture for food and income. Health care is far away and expensive, and also Indonesian controlled. So we are going to provide health care.Our lead nurse has been to west papua earlier this year doing the same thing we will be doing, so we have contacts and accomodations lined up and anticipating our team's arrival. Now may I introduce you to most of our team? There are two missing in the photo are Matt and Amanda, although you'll find them on other photos in this journal.
From left to right we have: Vern, Benji, Hannah, Mark, Casey, Stacey, April, Arli. It was a nice day for a fish & chips picnic.
So what will our team be doing?
When we get there we will be:
1. Working alongside existing community development programs, providing health care for their patrons.
2. Establishing day clinics in remote villages
3. Hosting health care seminars to educate local health care workers
4. Hosting school seminars on HIV/AIDS. (West Papua has the highest HIV rate in all of Indonesia)
5. Address medical needs as they are found, providing any needed curative care.
I'm on this medical mission because I want to help the needy people in this world. Here is my philosophy: Jesus came to the world to enable us to live life freely and to the fullest. Everybody should be given that oppurtunity, but poor health gets in the way. Being a follower of Jesus and being led by his example, I want to help by being Jesus's hands and feet to heal the sick.
I need help financially. I've never asked for money before(excluding parents) so this is akward for me. But it's not just about me needing money. I think that once people are aware, many want to help to solve social injustice issues in this world, but they don't know how. If you give, Your money will be used to buy our team transportation into the country(which is expensive due to the state of turmoil the nation is in), and only the most necessary provisions for myself and teammates while we are there(food, shelter). Also the money you give will be put toward medical supplies, food, vaccines, and other health-related materials for these people. Medical supplies are readily available and relatively cheap in these countries. But when people don't even have enough money for groceries, they don't worry about buying medicine when they are hungry. We will be purchasing and distributing such things as vaccines, antibiotics, de-worming pills, wound care products, etc. A few drops of oral polio vaccine can prevent a child from being a cripple their whole life. A single ten-cent de-worming pill can save a child that is dying from malnutrition due to worms. A proper wound dressing can prevent a bacterial infection that might cause someone to lose a limb. It's all just as simple as that. The list goes on but I think you get the point. Our team budget is looking to be about $30,000. My responsibility in this is $3000.
If you'd like to help out, here are two options:
1. Send me a check. I'm having my parents be my banker while I am overseas, so if you would like to write me a personal check make it out to:
Mark Johansen
14661 SE 172nd AVE
Clackamas, OR 97015
USA
2. Donate online with your credit card. This can be done by going to the following address and filling out the online form, putting "Mark Johansen/IPHC" in the 'person' box. It will take you to a seperate banking website to fill out credit card information, and then bring you back to the Reef To Outback website.
http://www.reeftooutback.com/payments.aspx
ok I don't want to talk about money any more. So here is a picture of me feeding a little joey(a baby kangaroo):
and that's all for now folks. We leave on December 26th. We are all very excited. I'd leave tomorrow if I had the chance. But our indonesian visas only allow us 60 days inside indonesian borders so we chose to have christmas in australia.
Selamat Tinggal! (goodbye in Indonesian)
-Mark