Imagine riding in a vehicle that you can see the road under your feet. The cars we had on our base were just a bucket of bolts. Rotted floorboards were the least of their troubles. They all broke down regularly and were on life support more than on the road. Riding down jungle roads in marginal vehicles was always a security concern. We just did not have the money to buy new transportation. We put our limited funds into medicines or building...

I do not know if you will see this the way I do—but when 1,100 fruiting trees were planted around three years ago on the base property I could see a change coming. It would take some time but it was coming. It is like the tide changing. These trees will turn a tide in providing some of the food needs we have had and even provide some income in the sale of the surplus.The bananas (eating and cooking), rambutan, pineapple, papaya, sirsak, mango,...

The doors to our hospital are scheduled to open in about two months. This will be a great day when the sick can get long-term care at this facility. The hospital is small (compared to Western facilities) but it is a place where the poorest of the poor will get free medical treatment. We already see over 10,000 a year at our clinic just a hundred feet from the door of the hospital. We will have an out-patient facility and an in-patient facility...

Kasih, 11 months old, was brought to the IFC clinic in remote East Indonesia. She had a badly deformed face with a severe cleft palate (a Tessier Cleft) deformity. Dr. Nichole Anderson and Lisa Robinson examined her and felt she needed professional care–she was is bad shape and the risk of infection was high.. That care is being sought in Australia with renown surgeon David David. Please remember Kasih as she will need passport, visa, a...

Peter Scarborough, IFC Field Director recently wrote, “We are looking forward to the patient ward (hospital) being finished in just over 2 months from now. We are also looking forward to the day when the ambulance arrives. We squeezed three guys onto the floor in the back of the car – would you believe that they were found in this state (broken bones, head injuries, and bleeding) by the road! We had another two inside the clinic...

Our team had three consecutive days of flights canceled. It was not frustrating because we looked for the good and filled these days meeting people. These three days were filled with divine appointments. I have learned not to get up tight or fretful but walk through the doors that open.It was during the three day pause in our travels that we met a woman who taught us all about life and death. Her name is Hawila and she was the mother to Gloria....

The smell was overpowering as Esther Scarborough, IFC Medical Director, searched for where it was coming from. She walked to a shed behind a home in that remote village in East Indonesia. There she found a badly burned boy near death. He was weak and his burns that covered both legs from his hips to his feet were molded and infected. His burn was so bad that his family had given up on this 17 year old boy. They had “put him out” to die.Anto had...

Vino was brought to one of our clinics. I remember seeing him and wondering what could be done to help him. He had been badly burned in a kerosene spill accident. His right arm, right hand, chest and neck were scared and he needed expert reconstructive surgery. He was presented to the Children’s Burn Foundation and Grossman Burn Center. He came to the U.S. to be treated. He has made wonderful progress and is now free of the burns...

New bricks are setting ready for the beginning of the foundation for the next leper house. This new building will be the third house at the Tamarista. These are all four-plex units which will provide homes for the lepers and their families to live. We are in the process of filling the two other buildings with lepers from remote villages in this region. There are several lepers who have asked to come to the Tamarista. This is the stormy time of...

Yulen’s story in her own words:”I remember the time and date the 22nd of February at 7 o’clock at night Iwanted to light the kerosene lamp at our house. I put more kerosene in thelight then I went to put the container of kerosene back but I was stillholding the light when all of a sudden my hair and face was on fire. At thetime my hair was long and it was falling off onto my body, hands and legs asit burnt. I screamed and...