Posted April 14th

We’ve almost come to the end of our stay in Malaysia. It’s been a fruitful & productive time, but we’re now in a bit of a tight spot as our departure date is drawing close but right now I (Peter) can hardly walk!

Almost 2 years ago, I developed a hernia from our charity work: carrying boxes of educational books to give to village schools. Since that time, we’ve tried to get it operated on but there was always some obstacle that prevented it. To start off with, Sue didn’t want to get it done in the government hospital in Suva, (capital of Fiji), as there have been quite a number of disaster stories with patients dying after being given too high a dose of anaesthetic…..!

Note: at the above Rotary Club meeting, we met an English Rotarian that introduced us to an organisation called ‘Books Abroad’. If all goes well, they’ll be sending a large shipment of school & library book to Fiji!

 

Next, we tried to do it in England on the National Health Service where it would be free of charge. The problem here though was that there would be a long wait of probably 4 to 6 months or even more, by which time we would be long gone!

After that, we decided to do it at the government hospital in Penang, Malaysia, but they wasted our time with long delays & finally recommended that we try another hospital that could get it done straightaway! (Why didn’t they say that in the first place?)

With time running out on our visa, we finally got the operation done at the expen$ive Adventist Hospital: fortunately the hospital gave a 20% discount & the worldwide missionary group that we belong to, (TFI or The Family International), donated 50% of the costs.

Please pray that I recover speedily as at the moment, (one week after the op), I’m housebound & can hardly do anything without a lot of pain….I’m not allowed to lift anything remotely heavy for at least 3 months, (preferably 6 according to the doctor), & yet we’ll be travelling to Europe in only 2 weeks! After that we’ll be conducting free smoking & drug-awareness programs in the Caribbean for 3 months….a major challenge, even without any medical problems! Then back to Fiji.

If you’re reading this & believe in the power of prayer, please send a few of those prayers in our direction as we prepare to get on the plane in 2 weeks…..thanks!