Sr Raymond’s 51yrs service in PNG

SR Raymond Von Tils while preparing to board her flight to her native country Germany after 51 years in the country said she will miss Papua New Guinea.
Christened Anna Elisabeth Katarina Von Tils, she was born on April 9, 1940 at Steden Jetzt Holste in a small village in North Germany and was the eldest of 10 children in her family.
Sr Raymond completed her schooling and qualified herself in dentistry, but while in school, she heard about the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
She was inspired by their work in faraway mission lands in Oceania.
And so in 1961 she joined the congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at age 21.
But it was in 1968 that she was appointed to PNG as a Dental Technician because one was needed in the Dentistry at Vunapope Hospital in East New Britain.
Sr Raymond spent 12 years in the dentistry working with the young women in the hospital who were known as nursing-aids as they did not have any training at the time.

She said by doing that they started the training of professional nursing-aids which has now developed into the Community Health Worker Training Centre that is based in Lemakot, New Ireland.
She went on to handle the finances of the MSC Sisters in the province without any experience in the field, but while working she managed to do some studies by correspondence through Australia. “This would not mean a job behind a desk in the office with paperwork,” she said and added that part of her responsibility and duty was attending to the needs of Sisters and staff at the outstations.
Sr Raymond worked in the office in Rabaul for 10 years, then three years in Gerehu, Port Moresby and went on to spend another six years in Vunapope.
In 1978, she was asked to start a new community station in Gerehu as the community leader because of her experience in many different fields.
After seven years, she was appointed to start a new station in Lorengau, Manus in 1986 but unfortunately the work there only lasted a year.
“My time and ministry work here in Papua New Guinea was interesting and challenging.
“I enjoyed working with the young ladies and interacting with them.
“I developed a close relationship with businesses, friends and people I met.”
Sr Raymond says she returns home thanking God for the years of ministry, the enjoyable experience she has had and the many people she has interacted with in Papua New Guinea.
Sr Raymond left Port Moresby last Monday together with Sr Mechthild Schnieder, MCS, both carrying with them their bilums filled with fond memories of the wonderful years they had in PNG.