The  Laity Mobile Health Service was commenced around 1999 initially as a brainchild of Trevor Robinson, then director  of the Adventist Aviation Service. Currently there are 15 bush clinics and aid posts regularly serviced within a 70 mile radius of Goroka. The needs are many but the workers are few. Resources are limited and the devoted nurses are working as volunteers with about 40 kina allowance for their effort each week. Some of these volunteers were employed at Sopas Adventist Hospital before it was closed due to tribal fighting and the threats of death and injury to staff.

At that time in most remote villages without road access, infant mortality was in the order of about 60% in most villages, this has now been plummeted to 5% in the villages which have a regular health screening and education service. The mortality rates for all illnesses are still quite high, due to the problems with not having sufficient medical access or easy access to radio communications to call an aircraft in to do a medevac.

Due to the remoteness of much of New Guinea, many villages are only able to be accessed by air, which poses many health care problems.  People live in a existential existence, many just expecting at any major illness that they may die. Adding the visitation of a nurse with medication & 2 way radio communications to any village, raises the morale and hope so much, it is so important to them. To us in western civilization, 15 minutes drive in a car from high standards of hospital & medical care, we take this all for granted, & not being in the environment described above, we are so sheltered and do not think of the third world circumstances others live in.

This excerpt from an email sent September 30, 2004 to Jack Sample, really tells the LMHS story the best:

Trevor Robinson writes:  I think the best thing I got out of the commercial program that we had running Jack, was the insight into a brilliant and exciting field of missionary service. It opened new vistas of mission endeavor to my mind. So many missionary opportunities came to light as we went down that road. Making regular daily contact with people in remote areas opened our eyes to the spiritual and physical needs of the people. We picked up for instance that in many of the villages 60% of the kids were dying before reaching maturity. We went back to Goroka and I mentioned this to a few people and before long I had nurses coming to me and asking if they could help as volunteers. A meeting was held and the Laity Mobile Health Service was born. They raised their own funds - which I thought was a miracle. They have done an outstanding job in providing basic health care to remote villages.

Most of the government health services in remote areas are non functional these days. This provides a fabulous opportunity to Adventists to prosecute their missionary outreach. It has been so effective. Today is the day of opportunity for mission in PNG.  LMHS has been one of those ministries that God has blessed in spades right from the start. Today we have several permanent clinics in remote villages. LMHS volunteers man these outposts and Adventist Aviation Service was carrying the supplies given by government and NGOs to immunize and treat the people. They run flying clinics to areas where they do not have a permanent presence and immunization patrols with vaccines from the WHO. 

Jack, the results from their work are staggering. The death rate amongst the kids has dropped from 60% down to 5% in a lot of villages. The nurses are running clean up campaigns in villages, helping the people to fence out the pigs and teaching mothers the principles of hygiene. They are teaching the proper construction of pit toilets and many other public health issues to try and combat disease and bring the abundant life promised by the gospel. Their work is very openly and frankly missionary. They carry their picture rolls with them and always take a bit of time out to share the gospel story with the villagers. It means so much more when they hear about the healing Jesus to see people bringing healing to them. I had one old village elder tell me "mipela harim harim harim gut nius tasol nau mipela lukim" (We have heard the good news over and over but NOW we SEE it!) He shook his index finger with a lot of conviction as he said it.

There are 2 new villages who once were hostile to Adventists. They are Kapi and Wabo. When I first went up there I was told never to go into Kapi because they hate Adventists. The Kapi people asked me to take in a coffin one day. When I got there I asked about the mortality rate amongst their kids. They were a 60% village. They were enthusiastic about a team of nurses coming. I will never forget the experience we had the first day a team went in there. They had tried to kill one of our missionaries just a few months before. Now there is a permanent clinic there and recently I sent Pr Jessley the money to send a church approved Layman in there to answer the people's request for a minister to help them to become Adventists. Is Medical missionary work still the right arm of the message? It sure is.

STOP PRESS. I just heard that we now no longer have a nurse at Wia Wia. The reason is that there are no longer any flights out there. All AAS aircraft have been grounded since about May (2004) I think with maintenance issues. We desperately need to obtain an aircraft and restore hope to these people. There are many other communities suffering terribly now that our medical work has hit a brick wall. Another operator occasionally does a little flying for our nurses but charges an obscene amount of money for doing so. I am praying that God will open the way for me to get a plane and to get some people who want to be involved in this project any way God is calling them to do that and get this thing started before what was built collapses altogether.

It astounds me how God has blessed the Nurses work there in Eastern Highlands. They had measles completely eradicated in Eastern Highlands there at one stage. Now as the flights have stopped they will not be able to contain the disease problems. I am inspired by God's leadership and blessing of this humble group of Christian workers who get no or very little pay for their efforts (About $55 US per month) and do what they do for the love of Jesus. People have really responded to this. What they have developed is the most effective tool of Gospel ministry I have seen in my time up there in PNG. For the moment the Devil has stopped it in its tracks by the grounding of our aircraft. They still have some clinics they are able to work by road. They took on some of the Sopas nurses when the hospital closed.

Jack I have a burden which I feel to the point of desperation some times that this work must not only get going again around Eastern Highlands but that the model of ministry that they have developed, must be transplanted into other areas of the country as well. e.g. Sepik. This is not possible with the limits the church is now working with in Aviation i.e. 2 guys and 1 aircraft with perhaps a back up plane, cannot exploit the potential for mission that God has put in our hands. I want to get into the dark areas in the Finnesterres. I want to get into the areas around Poppondetta too and there is a vast area of need out west of Hagen. There are all the remote areas in the Sepik. The church's clinic at Tumolbil on the border has influenced the starting of new churches over in Irian and lots of new groups our side as well.

Once our project is re-launched we will include pictures and stories on this page that will keep you up to date with all our health workers in the various villages.

If you would like to help get the plane in the air again, please click on the "Contacts" or "Projects" links for more information regarding donations.