Woodleys Around the World

The Path to Kudjip

At age 14, the communion-bread-stealing pastor’s kid that would one day become my husband, found himself sitting in yet another missionary service, with no idea about the story God was about to begin in his life. After listening to Dr. Joe Harvey speak of his medical missions work in Congo, Matt felt deeply inspired and left with a calling to medical missions. While high school exams, soccer games, and chess took the forefront of his mind, the future goal remained the same…medical missions.

Via a circuitous, and seemingly senseless path, Matt ended up at Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, MA. He quickly became known for three things…his cafeteria pizza-making abilities, his skills on the soccer field, and that he would someday be a missionary doctor. It was at ENC that Matt would meet his amazingly talented, breathtakingly beautiful, highly intelligent, and not at all sarcastic wife.

Our common interest in serving others resulted in spending our Saturday mornings and nights with fellow college students, handing out sandwiches and clothing to homeless men and women on the streets of Boston. The T rides to and from the city and the walks on cobblestone streets to warm subway vents, recessed doorways, and park benches where the homeless gathered, provided ample time for talking (and flirting). However, it was while listening to the stories of the men and women, during the prayers spoken with them, and in the moments of laughter shared with people who were accustomed to being ignored, that Matt and I truly got to see each other’s heart for God and people. It was there, serving side by side, that “we found love in a homeless place,” forever re-writing Rihanna’s lyrics when her song comes on the radio. (Just to ensure you of my true missionary status…I had to look up who sings that song, and I only know that one line…because real missionaries only listen to Michael W. Smith.)

So to make a long story slightly shorter, let’s fast forward through ten years…we graduated, got married, moved to Kansas City for med school, Matt went to Haiti to help with the 2010 earthquake relief, we moved to southeast PA for med school rotations, had a baby, Matt graduated again, we went to Hospital Loma de Luz in Honduras, moved to Erie, PA for four years of residency, had another baby, went to Tenwek Hospital in Kenya, and finally, Matt graduated yet again.

7 is Your Number, God

In 2016 we were accepted into World Medical Mission’s Post-Residency Program and felt God leading us to serve at Kudjip Hospital. In November of 2017, we moved our family to the other side of the world. Elana was 5 and MJ was 3. Kudjip would become the only place our kids associate with the word “home.”

For the next 7 years we did our best to show the love of God to the people of PNG. We had some really tough days, months, and years. AND we had some really great times too.

A mental picture of our lives in PNG…rugged mountains, grass huts & corrugated metal stores, giant bugs, fluffy marsupials, bamboo, earthquakes & landslides, the scream of cicadas alerting us to the start of a new day, serious faces followed by wide smiles, banana trees & pineapples, strong women, election chaos, mud…so much mud, well-trodden paths in dense tropical forests, devastating violence against women and children, the sounds of tribes clashing, the new life of C-sections, emergency room traumas, advanced cancers, the sounds of wailing at a haus krai, the joy of kids laughing & pigs squealing, the smell of smoke, the call of the helmeted friarbird – loud, persistent, & repetitive – refusing to blend into background noise, kids collecting kindling sticks after a big storm, bold flowers, “Wait meri, wait meri!” (white lady, white lady), backyard rainbows.

The Kudjip missionaries became our family. We celebrated birthdays and holidays with them. We ate countless meals together, played games together, marveled at God’s miracles together, and endured the frustrations of life in PNG together. We shared our sorrows and our joys with them. They grew to love our kids, and we grew to love theirs.

We lived life alongside our PNG national brothers and sisters. We learned their language, their customs, their individual pursuits and goals. We came to admire their deep connection to community and their ingenuity. Even as we witnessed the dark realities of a fallen world, we also witnessed God changing lives.

We thought we would be serving at Kudjip for the rest of our lives. When our national friends would ask how long we were staying for, we would confidently answer, “Oltaim, oltaim” (forever and ever).

An Unexpected Goodbye to the “Land of the Unexpected”

However, the Bible reminds us in Proverbs 19, “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” We had many, many plans in our hearts for a lifetime in PNG, but God had / has something different in mind.

God has been so patient with us and gracious enough to slowly ease us into a place of agreement with each other and with Him over the past year. He has made it clear that He is calling us to something new now…to leave our roles as long-term missionaries to Kudjip and to return to the States where we can establish some stability for our family and discern what God has for us next.

In addition, we continue to feel a call to medical missions, and Kudjip in particular. We are hoping to maintain an ongoing connection with Kudjip through shipping medical supplies, promoting various needs, supporting the missionaries and MK schools, and eventually with regular short-term trips to help in the hospital.

We have had the sincere privilege of being a part of the work God is doing in PNG and we will forever be grateful that God gave us this opportunity, even as we count the cost of these past 7 years. To sum it all up, we have immense gratitude, immense sorrow, and immense peace.

In the midst of processing and wondering why God has orchestrated our lives the way that He has, I read this quote from Pete Greig in a Lectio 365 devotional:

“Life is not a short story, and I am not its star…I contribute what I can to the odyssey of God, but I am not its central character. I am playing a part, however small, in an epic tale with many actors, vast battle scenes, a million interweaving subplots, and countless twists and turns. I am not in control. I can’t possibly understand the whole story. And actually, that’s okay.”

The Next Chapter

Our family will spend the next 3 months working, packing up, saying goodbyes, and doing our best to leave well. Please be in prayer for both our family and our Kudjip community as we walk through this time of transition together.

We will return to Pennsylvania in mid-December and camp out there for a few months as we grieve leaving our home in PNG, reacclimate to American culture (and temperatures!), and attempt to rebuild a life in the States. We honestly don’t know where God will lead us to settle which is to say the least…unsettling. In many ways, returning to the States feels like a bigger leap of faith than moving to PNG. Please be in prayer for us as we continue to discern God’s will for our future.

Last week, when we tearfully announced our impending departure during a hospital staff chapel service, we were blessed to be prayed over by our PNG brothers and sisters, those who have faithfully served alongside of us. As Sister Vero began praying, she said, “Seven is your number, God,” pointing us to the biblical importance of the number seven – symbolizing completion, healing, and the fulfillment of promises. While we corporately grieved that our number of years at Kudjip wasn’t more like 27, we were reminded of God’s sovereignty and that 7 is His number. Surrounded by our missionary and national colleagues, we were released back into God’s hands and powerfully, albeit ironically, being sent, commissioned as missionaries to America, to serve God in whatever capacity He has planned.

As we head out on this new frontier of our lives, this unknown destination and (now) unfamiliar culture, we will carry with us memories of the beauty, the stories, the faces, the customs, the lessons we encountered in PNG. America has changed a lot since we left seven years ago, and so have we. Our family will forever hold a piece of PNG in our hearts and minds.

Kudjip, PNG…ples bilong mipela.