Angels of Seigu Baby Ministry

HEALTH

American missionary couple William and Lori Smith give loving service in education and health in a remote Unggai-Bena village community of Eastern Highlands

By MELYNE BAROI
THE nation’s population records show that the maternal mortality rate here is an ongoing issue where 211 deaths occur in every 100,000 live births.
With over 80 per cent of the population situated in the rural areas and having limited access to health care services, many of the vulnerable mothers are left to go through unsafe childbirth processes.
That is why any assistance or service provided to save lives of children and adults in these remote locations is very valuable. Often, in parts of the country where the government is unable to reach, it is selfless missionaries and other volunteers who serve the unfortunate communities.
American missionaries, William and Lori Smith have been providing medical care and homes for unfortunate babies in Eastern Highlands’ Seigu village for about 30 years through an evangelical initiative called Seigu Clinic and Baby Ministry.
The ministry serves under the Baptist Church where William works as a teacher at the Seigu Baptist Bible College and his wife provides nursing services at the local clinic.
William and wife Lori, parents of eight children, moved to PNG in 1990 with a teaching and nursing background respectively to work in the newly-established Seigu Baptist Church.
They built the clinic in 1991 as they began to see the growing need for medical help to the local people of Seigu.
Doing what Jesus did
“We wanted to help the people both spiritually and physically, modelling the body of Jesus Christ to follow what he was doing when he came down to this earth by talking to, feeding and working with the people,” William said.
The clinic began as a general outpatient health center from which the locals accessed free medical care and treatment.
“We have been using this old staff house which we have turned into a health facility which we use to serve over 3,000 patients per month,” William said
“We are looking to get donors to help us upgrade our clinic facility as we are seeing an increase in the number of patients.
“We treat broken bones, pneumonia, communicable diseases and now with coronavirus we have ordered testing kits to test and treat our patients,” he added.
Even as a not-for-profit organisation with limited resources, the Seigu Baptist Clinic and Baby Ministry has tapped into different areas of health care.
Volunteers

“We are always busy as we have 15 local staff where only three are certified nurses and the rest are volunteers,” William said.
In 1999 the Baby Ministry was created to cater for displaced babies who were affected by illnesses, tribal fights and domestic violence.
The couple operate from home where they provide medical care to infants whose mothers are either seriously ill or have died during the birthing process.
“We bring them into our home and care for them until they are healthy enough then we arrange homes and families who can adopt them,” William said.
“One of our babies is one-year old Dawa who is sick with epileptic seizures and whose mom died of tuberculosis. She was blessed to have been adopted to a PNG family on her birthday this year,” he added.
William said they held prayer sessions and fellowships with the babies’ families to tell them about the beautiful gift of life that God has given them.
“We have a way of introducing the families of the precious life that has a purpose and plan given by God,” he said.
William told The National that they received support through donations of medical supplies through the Baptist Church organisation called Association for Baptist World Evangelism.
“We buy our medical supplies directly from the Government and provide these supplies and services free-of-charge to our patients,” he said.
“Our church organisation in America helps us to find donor businesses to partner with us and help out wherever they can,” he added.
William said that regardless of the financial issues they were an enthusiastic group that made sure that the people in and around Seigu village accessed free medical care.
“We also do outreach mobile clinics where we go out into the villages high up in the mountains and remote places where there is no access to medical care and treat people in tents.
“Upon our visits we do one-on-one marriage and family planning counselling…to help our people know the beautiful gift of life that God provides for us and how to honouir that blessing through self-care,” he added.
William said that through this clinic, they have reached so many people in the village with the gospel.
“In our camp ministries we train young people in basic life skills and the clinic ministries we train our volunteers who work with us in the clinic. Our gospel presentation has seen at least one person get baptised each week,” he said.
William and Lori have been promoting their services on their Facebook and website platforms to touch lives and spread the gospel.
“We realised that people do not care about what you know until they know that you care,” William said.
The clinic serves different groups of people as Seigu village is located in between the Bena and Ungai sub districts of Eastern Highlands.
The Baby Ministry has registered over 60 children in the programme and William and Lori are continuously working around the clock to provide appropriate care for them.