As we haven’t posted since our trip to Honduras in 2013, we
wanted to give you a little update on what’s going on with the Woodleys.
What we’re up to…
Our family
currently resides in Erie, PA where Matt is in his third year of an Emergency
Medicine residency at UPMC Hamot Hospital. We continue to feel led to serve
overseas following Matt’s completion of residency in July of 2017. We are
excited to share that our family has the opportunity for another stepping-stone
into a life of full-time mission work. In June of 2016, our family will be
serving at Tenwek Hospital in Bomet, Kenya for a month! This trip will count as
an elective rotation toward Matt’s residency, as well as give us the
opportunity to learn more about medical missions while serving at a
well-established mission hospital.
A little bit about
Tenwek…
We will be traveling to Tenwek
through Samaritan’s Purse. Tenwek Hospital is a 300-bed mission hospital
located in Bomet, Kenya. Bomet is approximately 100 miles west of Nairobi in
rural Kenya. Tenwek serves a population of approximately 800,000 people! Matt
will mostly be working in casualty (the emergency department) where he will
treat medical conditions common to those in the U.S., as well as diseases
specific to Africa. Tenwek’s motto is, “We Treat, Jesus Heals.” This statement
gives testament to the fact that whatever knowledge and technology doctors
utilize, God is the one true healer of our bodies and souls. Tammy will also
have the opportunity to serve while in Kenya. There is an abundance of
volunteer positions available, including caring for babies in the NICU, helping
teachers at the missionary school, babysitting for missionary families, and
volunteering at nearby orphanages. Matt, Tammy, and the kids are excited to see
how God will both use them and mold them as a missionary family in Bomet,
Kenya!
For more information about Tenwek Hospital click here: http://www.tenwekhospital.org/
What happens after Tenwek…
In addition
to our trip to Tenwek, our family is preparing for where God will take us after
residency. In May of this year, we will apply to be a part of the Samaritan’s
Purse Post-Residency Program. This program sends medical missionaries to
hospitals across the world and works as an avenue for doctors to enter into the
mission field. Through a number of personal connections and a lot of prayer, we
are presently feeling called to serve at Kudjip Nazarene Hospital in Papua New
Guinea through this program. As it is a Nazarene hospital, we are also in the
process of applying to be global missionaries through the Church of the
Nazarene. It is our hope that God will open doors for us to serve at Kudjip
beginning in the fall of 2017.
For more information about Kudjip Hospital click here: http://nazpng.org/
We plan to use this blog as a way to provide updates about
where we are and what we’re doing, as well as share prayer requests and ways
that we could use support.
Thank you for joining us on this adventure! We can’t wait to
share how God is moving across the world!
