Mobile Dental Clinic – Papua New Guinea
When the Wewak based Caravan, piloted by Paul Woodington, shut down its engine at April River‘s airstrip the five passengers on board were not only greeted by the hot and humid reality of the jungle but also by a group of local people. They had come as willing helpers to carry the passengers‘ many boxes to the village of Niksek, a good 30 minute walk on muddy paths and a 15 minute ride on a dugout canoe upriver. One of the boxes actually weighed about 50 kg and contained a small cupboard of equipment, part of a mobile dental clinic.
The people at Niksek had never been to a dentist before. When facing toothache or a mouth infection they just had to hang in there or treat it the bush way to get the aching tooth out somehow or get used to it. Now, in January 2018, two German dentists had brought a mobile dental unit to the people.
Gerhard and Brigitte Stamm, missionaries for nearly 30 years with Liebenzell Mission, had planned this dental outreach to Niksek and Moropote for about a year. Immanuel Funk, a friend of Gerhard from when they were at Bible College, who later became a dentist, was keen to spend his annual leave in Papua New Guinea. He wanted to run a dental clinic for these remote communities, where the Stamms usually go twice a year to do biblical teaching and to encourage the churches there. Immanuel was accompanied by his wife Susanne and Stefan, one of the Stamms’ nephews who had just finished his diploma as a dentist.
Months ago, with assistance from the Swiss Evangelical Brotherhood Mission, Immanuel shipped a mobile dental clinic with all the essential tools to clean teeth, do basic fillings and remove teeth. The kit also included a suction unit and a compressor. The mobile clinic travelled from Germany, via Switzerland, to Papua New Guinea.
On the evening the team arrived at Niksek, the people gathered for a lotu (church service) and asked Gerhard to do some teaching on the following days. Gerhard hadn‘t expected to do any teaching as he had initially thought he was going to be the dentists’ assistant and translator.
However, the dentists didn’t really need him as their dental nurse or translator. Brigitte, Gerhard’s wife, who is also a trained nurse, assisted the dentists allowing Gerhard to be free to do discipleship training as wished for by the community.
While one patient after another was seen by Immanuel and Stefan, those waiting for their turn had time to listen to Gerhard’s teaching. He taught eleven sessions in total about the prophecies of the coming Messiah and that all these prophecies were fulfilled in Christ Jesus.
Immanuel and Stefan, professionally dressed in their white uniforms, head torches and special dentist’s glasses, set up their clinic at the community’s health post, which Gerhard helped to build about 30 years ago when he first came to Niksek. They were also assisted by Aiko, the local health worker.
With the sweat constantly running down their faces, Immanuel and Stefan examined a total of 65 patients and extracted 102 teeth, most of them being roots where the tooth had either half rotted away or had not been removed professionally. These pulled out “souvenirs“ were neatly packed in small plastic bags and given back to the patients to take home. Some patients who weren’t Christians were afraid that these relics might be passed on and used by local witch doctors for animistic harm against them.
Word went out and patients also came from nearby Bikaru to have their mouths inspected by the dentists. Bikaru is a small village nestled in the mountains about a two day walk east of Niksek. Samuel, usually a strong and proud man, suddenly became very small and fearful when he entrusted himself to the white men with their unknown goggles and tools. Often the patients came to the clinic in pairs to hold each others‘ hands during their examinations.
Brigitte not only assisted the dentists translating from Tok Pisin to German, but was frequently engaged with villagers in giving biblical counselling and guidance to overcome life’s challenges.
The community showed their appreciation for the team’s effort by preparing a big mumu, a traditional feast of meat and vegetables cooked in the ground on hot stones.
After a week, the team jumped into the MAF Caravan again and transferred to Moropote to continue the dental clinic there, a comfortable 15 minute flight compared with a tremendous three day journey by canoe and on foot.
At Moropote, many people from Kagiru, Bitara, Hanasi, Sarunapi, Hepide, Mapue, Maposi, Lariaso and Sio were already waiting for the team; some of them had walked three days to get there. Gerhard was so pleased not only to see the older generation gathered together, but also many young men and women joining the crowd, about 100 alone from the village of Bitara. “They didn’t come to see the dentist,“ Gerhard said, “they came to have ‘open heart surgery’ and wanted to hear God’s Word. I taught 12 sessions, sometimes three sessions a day.
On top of that, Brigitte and I had many personal meetings to counsel people and to pray with them. We were shocked by what we were told as people were deeply stuck in animistic beliefs and bondage; women, young and old, told us how they get maliciously and nastily treated and raped. It really made us sad.“
All of the team were sick at some point. “We really felt a spiritual battle going on around us, especially at Moropote,“ continued Gerhard “but as a matter of fact we also could feel the presence and strength of the Lord within us. I had a hard time speaking to the crowd and was fighting a cold and a sore throat, but I taught my sessions with great joy. On Sundays Immanuel did the preaching and Brigitte and Stefan gave testimonies.“
Before Immanuel and Stefan began their dental clinic, they had to fix the community’s generator so as to have power to use their electrical dental equipment, for a total of 56 patients at Moropote, extracting 68 teeth.
After working hours, they also tried to repair the old tractor which the community uses to cut the grass on the airstrip. However, just as one part began working again, an essential cable broke. Brigitte now needs to find this spare part in one of the many workshops at Mt Hagen and send it on a MAF flight to Moropote. This means, for now, the airstrip has to be cut by manpower and machetes only.
At Moropote, the people farewelled the dentists with traditional bilums (hand made bags out of natural fibres) and feathery headdresses, bows and arrows and even a garamut, a bush drum carved out of a tree trunk.
Exhausted and ready for somewhere a little more comfortable, the team was glad to hear the sound of the MAF Caravan in the circuit of Moropote to take them back to Wewak for a few days to enjoy some coastal scenery. But there as well, Immanuel and Stefan offered a dental check to the Wewak mission community and saw another 14 patients, removing 2 teeth and doing 6 fillings. What a blessing!
For the fifth and last time in three weeks, the team boarded the MAF Caravan to be flown back to Mt Hagen, where Gerhard and Brigitte live and run a small Bible School at Aviamp. Here, Immanuel and Stefan were seen again in their shiny white uniforms, setting up their mobile dental clinic under the Stamms‘ carport and offering their skills to more than 50 patients from the area there, extracting 24 teeth and doing 26 fillings.
This certainly wasn’t a holiday for the dentists, but an eye-opening experience in serving remote communities in a unique physical and spiritual way. This was especially so for new graduate Stefan who having seen a total of 186 patients and having removed 236 teeth in those 3 weeks, now stands out among his colleagues from university having grown amazingly in his dental knowledge and surgery skills.
“It was so worth it!“ stated Gerhard. “It was draining at some points, but to see so many people walking hours from nearby villages to Moropote, being open and hungry to hear God’s Word and coming to us for counselling and advice really lifted our hearts.“
“Preparing for this kind of ministry was not easy. Too many factors remained unknown and yet preparations still had to be made and a lot of money spent at least on the part of the dentists. Bad weather, a sick pilot or broken aircraft, a closed airstrip or break down in wireless communication, all of this could have messed up our plans. But the Lord was gracious to us and granted us success. This holistic ministry was worth all the effort. It left people very happy and thankful to be without nasty toothaches. At the same time it gave the communities very much-needed biblical teaching and joy that the long-promised, God-given redeemer, Jesus Christ, also came to call people from remote areas of PNG into God’s kingdom. For future planning we have to consider similar ministries to bring the love of Christ to people otherwise quite forgotten by the outside world.“
While at Niksek and Moropote the Stamms sold a huge amount of Tok Pisin Bibles and solar powered audio Bibles as well as Christian literature and solar lights, supplied by CRMF and Christian Book Melanesia.
“We are so appreciative of MAF and all their staff who made this ministry possible,“ Gerhard expressed. “We are so grateful for all their assistance, safe and timely flying and the highly subsidised flights. We could not have done this without MAF as Niksek and Moropote are nestled between the foothills of the highlands and the plains of the mighty Sepik River.
Last but not least, our pilot even blessed us with a freshly-baked cake by his wife when he transferred us from Niksek to Moropote and a load of brownies when getting us back to Wewak. I wonder how many truly can understand our appreciation of this MAF in-flight service after almost three weeks of intensive work in the jungle of PNG. Thanks, dear brothers and sisters from MAF, that all of you made this ministry successful.”
The blessing continues as the German dentists personally donated lots of their dental equipment and unused medicines when visiting the dental clinic at the Nazarene Hospital at Kudjip.
MAF has already flown the mobile dental unit, with all its attachments, and the suction unit back from the Sepik to the Highlands. It has found its new utilisation at the Enga Baptist Health Services’ Kompiam District Hospital, and it arrived at just the perfect time. Dr. David Mills reports: “Actually we had only just taken the decision late last year to begin to set up a dental service here in Kompiam and with patrolling to outlying areas. We have secured a dentist from overseas and she is now in the process of applying for registration. So we were already starting the hunt for equipment. It couldn’t have been more timely. We are very grateful and trust this equipment is going to be very well used.“
Story by Mandy Glass. Photos Gerhard Stamm (GS), Susanne Funk (SF)