YWAM Medical Ship Visits An Unforgettable Village

YWAM’s Medical Ship arrived in Gauri today, the first stop along this year’s six months of outreaches.
The village of Gauri sits on the coast of the Aiai River, tucked away in Papua New Guinea’s Gulf Province. The logging camp across the way would indicate to some that this village would be well off, given the opportunity for employment of locals.
On the contrary, the 300 people living in this picturesque spot are without any aid post, community health worker, or school teacher. Poverty and health concerns abound and in some ways there is little hope.
And yet the message today as YWAM Ships CEO Ken Mulligan and Medical Coordinator Hannah Peart, along with visiting minister and volunteer, Reverend Bruce Cornish, Moderator for the Uniting Church Presbytery of North Queensland, was exactly that – a message of hope.
“Your coming today reminds us that we have not been forgotten,” one local leader said. 
Though the stop in Gauri was not part of the original plans, it seems that perhaps it was destiny. Gauri was the first stop last year as well, during the ship’s maiden voyage to PNG’s Gulf Province.
And so it was this morning that the village leaders woke up to see a little bit of hope sitting on their river by way of a Medical Ship and paddled over in their dugout canoes decorated with freshly picked palm leaves.
They welcomed three doctors, three nurses, a dentist, a dental assistant, and a stack of primary health care workers to set up clinics and begin assisting.
The energy of the volunteer medical crew was outstanding. The muddy banks of Gauri, lined with worn down huts, filled with gorgeous people are exactly why they have come.
Gauri, indeed, has not been forgotten.