Faith, trust, and the friend of a friend of a friend who saved the day
My sister, Caryn, is a missionary in Papua New Guinea. This is what she calls, “My Wicked Cool Prescription Refill Story.”
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As you know, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis about five years ago. When I came to PNG, I brought a one-year supply of my medication with me, intending to bring another year’s worth when I came back to the US this summer for a short visit. After I realized that I wouldn’t have the money for a trip home, I knew that I would have to find another way to get the meds. So, for the past three months, I’ve been attempting to find a way to get a one-year supply of my MS meds into Papua New Guinea. What a nightmare!!! Since the medication comes in pre-filled syringes that have to be refrigerated, I knew it would be complicated, but I had NO IDEA of the various details involved with transporting this much medication internationally.
First, I tried contacting my insurance company to find out about shipping directly to Ukarumpa, the missionary community where I live. No one there seemed to understand the special circumstances. You can’t just FedEx a box to the jungle and expect it to arrive in two days! Ukarumpa is REMOTE. There is ONE (count it, ONE) unpaved road about 12 meters at its widest point that connects Ukarumpa to a town of any substantial size. In some areas that road is completely washed out by the rain (as in the pavement is just GONE). Sometimes that road is blocked by armed men (with bows and arrows) who won’t let any vehicles pass. Sometimes a tractor trailer jack-knifes on the road, and it’s closed for two or three days while the truck is pulled out. Just forget about the box arriving by ground transportation. And, in any case, boxes shipped to Ukarumpa via FedEx or DHL or UPS would have to go through customs in the capital, Port Moresby, which is NOT connected to Ukarumpa by any roads at all. That means that our aviation department would have to find the package in Port Moresby (imagine a scavenger hunt in which half of the items do not actually exist) and fly the box up to me in Ukarumpa.
So, I asked the aviation department if they could handle this “scavenger hunt” and if they would be able to bring the box of meds to me in Ukarumpa should they be able to actually locate the box at all. They asked what material would be used to keep the box cold in case it was made from hazardous materials. My thought was, “They’re regular ice packs. . . that keep stuff cold. . . for a long time. . . ” But, I emailed the specialty pharmacy that would be filling the prescription to ask about any hazardous materials inside the cold packs. Their reply was something like, “Yes, ma’am, we just use regular ice packs made out of gel.” Apparently, they didn’t have any idea what chemicals were used inside their cold packs either. Without a firm answer, I was forced to put this option on hold.
For a few weeks, I completely gave up the idea of shipping the medication to PNG, let alone Ukarumpa. I didn’t have the money to go back to the US, but I looked for a cheap flight home anyway. I figured that I could just bring the medication back with me the same way that I had carried the medication to PNG last August. But, the cheapest flight I could find would total somewhere around $3000 round trip. After a few weeks of internal struggle, I decided there were better ways to spend my money. (ie. the money people had given in support of my missions work in PNG.)
Then I thought about having the medication shipped to a Wycliffe contact in Australia. I couldn’t afford a flight back to the US, but maybe I could swing a flight down to Australia to pick up the medication. I started looking at flights again, and I emailed some Wycliffe contacts to gather more information. . . until someone mentioned the import tax on that volume of medication into Australia. After a little research, I found out that the import tax would be approximately 10%, or $2000 to $2500 dollars. Plus my co-pay, plus my flight to get to Australia, etc. And so, yet another one of my bright ideas fizzled into nothingness.
While I was pursuing all of these other options, I decided to ask the clinic here in Ukarumpa about getting the medication through an Australian pharmacy. I imagined that they could just bring my prescription up to Ukarumpa with vaccines and medication for other patients. I found out that the clinic staff regularly orders specialty medication through Cairns, Australia, and they could practically guarantee the “cold chain” of my medication. I was thrilled and figured this route would be the easiest until I researched the financial side of things. Just on a whim, I asked my US insurance company about co-pays if I filled the prescription in Australia. I found out that it would be about a $2000 co-pay for a one-year supply. In the world of missionary-frugality (I live on less than $900 a month), that is ASTRONOMICALLY different from the $300 I paid to have a similar prescription filled before I left for PNG. Also, I would have to find a US “benefactor” who would lend me the $20,000-$25,000 to pay for the medication out-of-pocket while I waited for reimbursement from the insurance company.
So much for that brilliant plan.
Meanwhile, the my insurance company and the specialty pharmacy that would fill the prescription were sending me emails saying things like, “Once the medication leaves our office, it is your responsibility if it is lost or ruined on the way. . . ” and “If it gets held up at customs, is confiscated, or becomes lost, you would be responsible.” My favorite one said, “If not refrigerated properly, the medication may not be useful and, again, this would fall on your shoulders.”
Good grief.
So, all of my fantastic schemes had worked out as follows:
- The medication couldn’t be shipped directly to Ukarumpa because of the terrible track record for delivery that FedEx has in PNG and the fact that the cold packs would be completely warm in the 10-14 days it would take for the package to arrive.
- The medication couldn’t be shipped to Port Moresby and brought up to Ukarumpa on one of our missionary flights because I couldn’t figure out what material (hazardous or innocuous) was used in the cold packs.
- I couldn’t afford the $3000 to fly back to the US to pick up the medication myself.
- I couldn’t afford to have the medication shipped to Australia for me to pick up because of the $2000-$2500 import tax.
- I couldn’t afford to have the clinic here in Ukarumpa fill the prescription in Australia because of the $2000 co-pay AND the fact that I would need to find a person to lend me $20,000.
At this point it was the beginning of June. I had been dealing with this stupid prescription refill for about two and a half months, and I was nearly in tears most days because I didn’t know what else to do. I needed the medication by September, and I was no closer to getting it than I had been when I started the process back at the end of March.
One morning I was at school reading YET ANOTHER email stating that one of my big plans wouldn’t work. I gave up. I decided that it wasn’t worth the hassle. I figured that I would just go without the medication for a year. Of course my US neurologist would have a genetically-modified COW if I went off my medication, but what else could I do?!? I even thought gleefully, “If I have to be med-evaced because I have an MS episode and go numb from the waist down, I’ll get to go to Australia, a land of drive-throughs, convenience stores, and shopping malls!!!”
In between classes that same morning, another English teacher at school saw that I was really struggling. She pulled me aside and told me to “spill it.” After listening quietly, she hugged me, and then she prayed for me.
After she walked away, I prayed. It’s not that I hadn’t been praying along the way. I had been praying, “Lord, please help my plans to work out to get this medication here.” But, this time I prayed, “Lord, I can’t do it. You have to work it out because I’m all out of plans.” Complete surrender can make a person feel entirely helpless and even weak. But I also felt free. I didn’t have to DO anything else because I’d already tried EVERYTHING I could think of to DO.
So I waited.
I graded projects. I wrote final exams. I created PowerPoint presentations for Awards Night at school. I emailed my two sisters, told them what was happening, and asked them to pray. I did everything except come up with another way to get my meds into PNG.
A week later my sister Laure responded with a possible idea. Two years ago, she and I had gone on a short missions trip to Haiti with a guy who “just happened” to know another guy who was coming to PNG on a short trip and who “just happened” to be a pharmacist. I emailed the “guy who just happened to be a pharmacist” (G) only to discover that he was actually the Director of Pharmacy Services at [redacted: a prominent] Hospital and would be working with Wycliffe for a few weeks on a construction project about 6 hours away from Ukarumpa. After hearing my request, G immediately agreed to hand-carry my medication into the country.
At first I was a bit nervous about asking G to carry a large quantity of medication prescribed to another person (me) through customs, but my other sister K agreed to make some calls for me. She started by contacting the embassies for Australia, New Zealand, and PNG to find out about customs and import tax requirements.
Here’s how things stand as of today:
At the end of last week, K found out that all G will need to get my medication through customs is a letter from my prescribing physician. Amazingly, I won’t have to pay a single dollar in import tax either!
This afternoon my refill was processed in record time by the specialty pharmacy in the US, so G will have the meds just before his flight to PNG on July 6th! I was also able to share how the Lord worked everything out with the pharmacy representative who I’ve been emailing for the few months. 
The one-year prescription refill will only cost me a $300 co-pay, just like it did last August.
Another Wycliffe family will be driving the six hours from G’s work location in PNG to Ukarumpa at the end of July, and they “just happen” to be traveling with a cooler that can be used to keep the medication cold during the drive.
WOOHOO!! Praise the Lord for having His own plans! He works out everything for HIS glory!
I guess I ought to give up on my plans and big ideas a little sooner next time. It might save me from a few sleepless nights and weeks of stress-filled days!
This whole prescription refill mess is Isaiah 55:8-9 in a way that I’ve never experienced it before.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9
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We’re in this boat again of not knowing how the Lord is going to work. But we’re trying to trust. Caryn’s account at Wycliffe Associates is in the red, and her monthly giving isn’t bringing her account into the black. She has no money for food or supplies for her final 6 months… Can you help? Do you know someone who can?
Tags: caryn, faith, funding, medication, mission, missionary, papua new guinea, prescription, sister, trust, wycliffe
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