Good-bye from AFM
Leonda George: I first met Wendy Guptill, a registered nurse, during one of our furloughs while she was preparing to go to Nepal to help set up a clinic. We spent some time discussing how to set up a clinic in a new location, and though it didn’t end up working out, we were excited at the prospect of my going to Nepal to help her get one started there. In the summer of 2003, we got word that Wendy was free for another assignment due to political unrest in Nepal. Would we be interested in her joining us? Would we! I had been running the clinic alone for over a year along with my family and many other project needs and demands from the Palawano people. I was stretched pretty thin. I was more than ready for some help. So arrangements were made, and Wendy arrived in July.
Wendy had some experience in Nepal, but ours was a busier clinic than she was used to. She also had to adjust to the new types of diseases and treatments and the other peculiarities of our situation. At first, she was appalled at the filth, the ignorance and the rampant disease. Living conditions were considerably rougher here than anywhere else she’d lived, and so the adjustments to hard beds, few vegetables and fruits, little privacy or personal time and many more hardships began. As time went on and she started learning the language, she came to love the people, and they came to love and trust her. She grew in her understanding of the Palawano culture and her knowledge of how to treat diseases. As her first year came to an end, I was very pleased when she informed me that she was willing to stay another year if we’d have her. And so her work continued for five years.
During her time here, Wendy has given of herself to help the Palawano people and us. She has gotten up in the middle of the night to assist with childbirth. She has hiked untold miles of rugged trails to reach ailing patients. She has led the small children’s Sabbath School for several years and has loved all the babies she could get her hands on. She has spent hours treating patients during the day and hours at night administering medicines to in-patients. When a mother who had just delivered her sixth child died on the way to the clinic, Wendy kept performing CPR on her long past the point of hope. She just wasn’t willing to give up on her.
She has stitched up stab wounds, cleaned and dressed smelly tropical ulcers and amputated gangrenous toes. She has fasted and prayed and ministered to those oppressed or possessed by demons. She has taken on the challenge of ministering to a specific family, teaching them the Word of God each Sabbath and leading them bit by bit ever closer to the Lord.
Wendy has become a prayer warrior through her trials and challenges. It has been thrilling to witness her personal spiritual growth. She has been willing to spend time listening to Palawano women discouraged in their spiritual walk or having struggles in their homes, praying with them for victory in their lives and in the lives of their loved ones. I know that God brought Wendy to us to make a real difference, loving and serving the Palawano to His glory.
In September 2007, a young man arrived—a pilot who literally dropped out of the sky in a helicopter—and Wendy’s life began a new chapter. April 27, 2008, Wendy married Dwayne Harris in Montana. They are currently completing their honeymoon/furlough before returning to Palawan. Though Wendy’s official work with AFM is over, she will continue to volunteer her time and give of herself to serve the Palawano people for as long as Dwayne is employed in this area. If and when the Lord calls Wendy and Dwayne to another arena of service, we and the Palawano people will long remember her smile, her laughter and her love. It sometimes hurts to give of one’s self, but Wendy keeps working for the ultimate reward of seeing her beloved Palawano people in heaven.
Thank you, Wendy. Thank you for coming. Thank you for persevering through the hard times and long hours; through the times you couldn’t get enough sleep or enough to eat; through the incessant demands on your personal space; through the times you thought a medical case was over your head and you couldn’t possibly do anything to help; through the loneliness and infrequent communication with the outside world; through the many bouts of malaria and ensuing sleepless nights; through the times of self-doubt and fear. May God richly bless you and Dwayne in your new life together as you work hand in hand to serve His people.
Leonda George
(This article was reposted from the AFM site)
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