ABOUT US AND OUR MINISTRY
God has called our family to participate in His work at the Kudjip Nazarene Hospital Station in the highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG). We have served at Kudjip from 2016-2018 (Daniella was the secondary school teacher), and 2021 to the present (Lukas is working for Nazarene Mission Services).
Lukas is the Director of Corporate Services and Development for Nazarene Mission Services (NMS). He is responsible for NMS’ finances, IT, staff training, and many other roles. Really, anything to provide technical, IT and mechanical support to keep the hospital and other ministries running. NMS supports various ministries in Papua New Guinea, including the Kudjip Nazarene Hospital, ten Rural Health clinics throughout PNG, the Melanesia Nazarene Bible College, the Melanesia Nazarene Teacher’s College, the Nazarene College of Nursing, and other ministries as the need arises. (For more information about NMS and their ministry scroll to the next heading.)
Daniella is the primary care giver for their three kids and volunteers as she is able. She is involved teaching different levels of Spanish at the middle and high school, teaches the boys math and will be starting to teach Gabriella for her pre-school and kindergarten years. Daniella also leads the event planning for Member Care, as well as contributes to the stations housing team (for missionaries and doctors).
ABOUT NAZARENE MISSION SERVICES (NMS)
Nazarene Mission Services or NMS is a non-profit organization that focuses on providing stable environments for Nazarene ministries in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Some of the main services we provide are construction, maintenance, security, and IT support. We currently have around 105 full-time employees. During major construction projects we also hire locals to help with the manual labor. This can range from 10 employees to almost 100 employees.
Due to the location of Kudjip and the lack of reliable and trustworthy contractors, NMS is in charge of new construction and maintenance for the hospital, college of nursing classrooms, and the 180 houses on the Kudjip station. The plumbers, carpenters, and electricians are constantly kept busy with work orders and keeping up with the infrastructure to support the staff and ministries.
Due to the higher volatility in PNG, all businesses and ministries have private security. The Kudjip hospital station (that includes housing for a large percentage of our staff) is quite large at about 130 acres. It is more affordable for NMS to hire and retain our own security than to go through the few trustworthy companies found in the nearby city of Mt. Hagen. NMS is also hired to provide security for our Tuman Campus (see more details below). Security deals with anything from petty theft, disorderly contact, or people trying to harm hospital property or staff.
NMS also provides IT support for all the ministries. There has been quite a jump in IT infrastructure over the last 8 years. When we first arrived in PNG in 2016 there was “the sneaker net”…people would copy files onto a flashdrive and walk it over to the person or building that needed it. As you can imagine it was difficult to know how many copies there were floating around, which was the most recent, etc. Now, Kudjip has some fiberoptic cables, an Electronic Medical Records System (EMR), digital X-Ray, and over 100 connected users on our own personal network. Lukas and his IT team continue to work hard to bring the hospital and other ministries into the digital age.
ABOUT THE KUDJIP NAZARENE HOSPITAL
“CHRIST’S COMPASSION. QUALITY CARE.” This logo is at the heart of the Kudjip Nazarene Hospital’s mission. We believe that every patient and family member that comes through our gates should encounter quality medical care as well as the chance to hear the Good News.
The Kudjip Nazarene Hospital is found in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. We are about a 45-minute drive from Mt. Hagen and a 3-hour drive from Goroka. In order to travel to the Hospital station you either fly to Mt. Hagen or drive up from Lae. (Take a look at the map below to see where the hospital is in Papua New Guinea.)
The Kudjip Nazarene Hospital is the only private, Christian Provincial Hospital in all of PNG. It is the ONLY hospital in Jiwaka Province. This means that our hospital, along with a few clinics, services over 400,000 people. And our quality of care and the fact we are consistently open means a lot of patients come from other provinces and pay extra to see our staff.
As of the beginning of 2025 we have nine missionary doctors (three are surgeons), five PNG doctors (one is our dentist), and over 250 staff (nurses, cleaners, business/finance employees, etc.) We are also a training hospital and work with Rural Registrars (doctors in a rural health training program) and medical students from the University of PNG (the only medical school in PNG).
2022 HOSPITAL STATISTICS:
- 57,579 outpatients
- 7,244 admissions
- 2,866 deliveries (341 were C-sections)
- 1,008 major surgeries (not c-sections)
- 473 minor surgical procedures
- 6,722 nutritional feeds
If you want more information click here: nazhealth.org
ABOUT OTHER PARTNER MINISTRIES
TEN RURAL HEALTH CLINICS
The majority of the Highlands in PNG are very remote and nearly undeveloped. To serve the people living in these areas, we have ten clinics that provide more attainable health care. Only three of our clinics can actually be accessed by vehicle. The rest can only be accessed via small airplane or helicopter – and that is only if the weather cooperates. The hospital tries to support these clinics with medicine and staff and NMS helps keep their radio running (and has started to install solar power systems to run vaccine fridges). And, if there is a critical patient we partner with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) to fly the patient to our hospital.
MELANESIA NAZARENE BIBLE COLLEGE
There are not a lot of opportunities for higher education in PNG. The Church of the Nazarene has a Bible College situated on the Tuman Campus (about 20 minutes away from Kudjip). This college currently provides a two-year diploma and is enrolling students in a new four-year bachelor’s program. A big hurdle to getting this new four-year bachelor’s program off the ground is internet access to enable remote learning from other seminaries in our region. We are excited about the future of this college and the impact it will have on new Pastors and their congregations.
MELANESIA NAZARENE TEACHER’S COLLEGE
The Teacher’s College shares Tuman Campus with the Bible College. This institution partners with the PNG government to train and equip teachers for service around the country. Becoming a teacher is one of the most lucrative and stable professions in PNG. We always have more applicants than space at the college.
NAZARENE COLLEGE OF NURSING
And finally, the Nazarene College of Nursing is located at Kudjip, just a stones-throw away from the hospital. They train and equip students to become nurses. These students get a lot of practical, quality, and hands-on experience at our hospital before they graduate. Some graduating nurses find work at our hospital or one of our clinics, whereas others go and work at the few hospitals and clinics around PNG. Regardless, they are fully equipped in compassionate medical care and the importance of sharing Jesus.
Around the World with the Woltjers 