American missionaries plan journey to PNG

 AMERICAN couple Chris and Sarah Cooke and their children are embarking on a 25-hour journey to Papua New Guinea.

The Cookes from Monroe are new missionaries with New Tribes Mission and are moving to PNG for four years through their church Monroe Missionary Baptist. 

Chris is a nurse and Sarah is a stay-at-home mother to four daughters – Riley, 10, McKenna, eight, Amelia, seven, and Lucy, five.

“( We) felt the Lord moving overseas missions in our hearts,” Sarah said.

“We found out about a need for a nurse for a clinic there.”

Cooke spoke to the doctor, who’s been serving in PNG for 13 years. They had a good rapport. Then, after investigating several mission organisations, the couple found New Tribes Mission, which seemed a perfect fit for the position.

“God worked it all out,” Sarah said. 

Next came two and half years of planning. Their house had to be sold and most of their possessions had to be given away. Family pets needed new homes and all six family members had to get visas. Cooke had to get a PNG nursing licence, which alone took a year. 

Typhoid and hepatitis A shots were necessary and money had to be raised. 

But the Cookes believe all the work is worthwhile, as medical personnel is greatly needed in the country. 

Cooke will work with two clinic doctors, doing whatever is needed for PNG residents and its more than 300 missionary families.

Cooke worked for Prizm Pain Management in Canton, but had been a trauma nurse in a Detroit emergency room. 

“That really prepared him,” Sarah said.

He will receive no pay for his work. Missionaries are fully donor-supported. Help came from local people and churches, especially Monroe Missionary Baptist. 

Their departure date is uncertain, as plans must be worked about with the embassy, but soon, the family will be living in a place vastly different than what they’re used to. “It’s seriously the other side of the world,” Sarah said. 

“When I first looked into it, I cried for about a week.” 

The weather is humid, and about 850 languages are spoken in the country, which is the size of California. 

All food must be cooked from scratch and many fresh items must be soaked first in bleach water to prevent disease. 

“There are no road systems. All tribes are secluded,” she said. “(Our home is in the) absolute middle of nowhere. 

“Food, equipment, medical, etc. all has to be flown in. (It’s) just like in National Geographic.”  

But, then she learned her home, while simple and secluded in the mountainous highlands area, will have electricity and a washer. That news brought a change of heart. 

“It’s such a blessing. We will have a lot of changes to get used to, but (we won’t be) in a mud hut,” she   said. 

“(God) will give us what we need.” 

Sarah  plans to help her husband in the clinic, but not full time. 

“(I’m going to) try my hardest to work just a couple days a week,” she said. The girls, students at Stateline Christian School in Temperance, will attend classes taught by fellow missionaries. Children for all different countries attend the school. 

The girls are a bit apprehensive. 

“The youngest is five and is excited. The older ones are scared,” she said.