I was born on 18 June 1924 at Yorketown in South Australia into a family with a long background history of involvement with the church and mission work. My maternal great-grandfather was a missionary amongst the Tamil people of India before coming to Australia. My paternal grandfather was sent out to Australia from Germany by […]

I was born on 18 June 1924 at Yorketown in South Australia into a family with a long background history of involvement with the church and mission work. My maternal great-grandfather was a missionary amongst the Tamil people of India before coming to Australia. My paternal grandfather was sent out to Australia from Germany by the Hermannsburg Missionary Society.

I was the fifth child of Pastor Clemens and Vida Hoopman. As the pastor moved around rural South Australia, I received my primary education at Brinkworth, then Mannum.

It was in Mannum that music teacher George Truss fired up my long involvement in Lutheran organ music.

After receiving secondary education at Concordia College Adelaide, I obtained a position as a library assistant in the State Library in Adelaide and commenced study part time for a Bachelor of Arts degree.

I had heard rumours that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Australia (ELCA) was thinking of obtaining the services of a doctor for our Australian New Guinea mission field. When it came to my attention that Commonwealth grants were being offered to suitable applicants to study medicine I decided to apply, thinking I had little hope of being successful. To my surprise my application was in fact successful, and I found myself embarking on a career in medicine with the idea that I might eventually be employed in the mission field of the ELCA in New Guinea.

During my six years at university, I also found time to become the organist at St John’s in Unley.

By the time of my graduation, the New Guinea Mission Board had decided that the services of a doctor in the Rooke Siassi Islands were not warranted. It was suggested however, that the services of a resident doctor might be warranted in the Western Highlands mission field of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS).

In the meantime, the American Lutheran Church was anxious to obtain a doctor for the hospital at Jagaum, near Madang, as Dr Theodore Braun (who had worked in the area since World War II) was due for furlough after 7 years of service in the field.

In 1951, after a year as a resident medical officer at the Royal Adelaide hospital, I proceeded to Jaguam where I spent a very enjoyable 6 months working with Dr Braun and gaining valuable experience in tropical medicine, general medicine and surgery. I was subsequently in sole charge of Jaguam – a 300 bed native hospital associated with a 14 bed European hospital for mission staff.

When a bushman came in with a spearhead lodged in his groin, I converted a kitchen table into an operating table into an operating table and operated on the spot. That man was so impressed with his treatment that he and several others returned to Jagaum for training as medical orderlies.

On one occasion, a native was brought to the hospital on a stretcher dressed only with leaves in the fashion of a bush native. He was literally only skin and bone and was unconscious. We subsequently drained an extremely large amoebic liver abscess. The next morning, I paused at his bed and said in an offhand manner “how are you this morning, old chap”, not expecting any reply. To my amazement, his words came back spoken in perfect English, “I’m very well thank you doctor”! It was music to my ears, and he made a full recovery. It transpired that he had for many years been a cook boy for Sir Raphael Cilento, noted authority on tropical diseases, whose textbook I had on my shelves, and to which I frequently referred, and father of the film star Dianne Cilento.

On another occasion a native ran into the hospital shouting “One fella balus e fall down long bush” i.e. “a plane has crashed in the jungle”. We set out first by ambulance and then on foot to the crash site and fund the 2 pilots relatively unhurt. One had a gash over his right eye, which I sutured. Years later, my wife called my attention to the television program “This is your life” which she was watching. The guest of honour was a World War II ace, who had survived 9 plane crashes. A faint scar was just visible over his right eye. Sure enough, when the name was mentioned, it was that of the pilot whose laceration I had sutured many years ago.

While at Jaguam I visited the LCMS mission field in the Western Highlands of New Guinea. Medical mission work is, in my view complimentary to the task of bring the Gospel to indigenous people. Practical Christianity demands concern for the physical needs of people, just as Christ showed compassion for the sick. The Enga peoples of the Western Highlands comprised a large, isolated population which did not have ready access to hospital facilities and a doctor. There appeared to be scope for the LCMS to provide these services if the government was unable to do so.

Following the return of Dr Braum, I returned to Australia, where there was at the time a desperate shortage of doctors. I worked with my uncle Dr FW Hoopman, a Nuriootpa GP, on the understanding that I would return to the Highlands when funds became available for the building of a hospital.

I drew up hospital plans modelled to some extent on Jaguam, but of a less ambitious nature. My cousin Gerry Noack of Gawler, South Australia, agreed that he would be willing to proceed to New Guinea to take charge of the building project, and detailed plans and specifications and costs were submitted by him to the Mission Board.

In 1954, word was received that the sum of $40 000 had been allocated to the project. I placed orders with the New Guinea Health Department, which had indicated willingness to supply much of the equipment required. This, however, did not include major items such as X-ray unit and autoclave. Arrangements were made to obtain these from firms in South Australia and Victoria respectively.

In the meantime, two nursing sisters, Wanda Fricke and Audrey La Frenz had been sent to the mission field and established a clinic at Mambisanda, a tiny and remote settlement two hours’ drive from the nearest town and the site chosen for the proposed self-sufficient hospital. Lou Heppner, a qualified Sister, also conducted a clinic at Yaibos. In addition, 4 Highland natives had received training as medical orderlies (Dr Boys) at Jaguam. They were subsequently to prove a valuable nucleus for the training of additional workers in the Highlands.

Before leaving Australia, I obtained a motorcycle especially geared for New Guinea conditions. This proved to be a valuable asset. It enabled me to make regular weekly visits to Yaibos to assist Mrs Heppner with her patients there and to visit other stations as required. My longest trip over the slippery mountain roads was 70 miles each way. It might have been a pleasant trip had it not been for the continuous pouring rain. Other excursions had to be made on foot to Yarramunda or further down the Lai River valley, as a kind of barefoot doctor.

Some of my time was spent training native medical staff. Gradually all the equipment that had been ordered began to arrive, but unfortunately there was no appropriate hospital building in which to put it and in the absence of this and any power supply, I was in fact severely handicapped by what I could do.

In view of the cost of bringing fuel by plane to the Highlands, it had been decided to build a hydroelectric plant to provide power to the hospital. Weeks and months dragged by and 1954 became 1955, and I still did not have the facilities to do much of the work I had come to do. Eventually for this and other reasons, I advised the Mission Board towards the end of 1955, that I would not be staying indefinitely, and to find another doctor to take my place.

Shortly after I had taken this action, the hospital site at Mambasunda received an unannounced visit by an officer from the Health Department, who produced a report that was rather less than flattering. From recollection, it painted a picture of the doctor at Mambisunda being conspicuous by his absence and of equipment being unused and still in its original wrappings.

I was in fact taking some annual leave to which I was entitled, to obtain a supply of detonators from a friend in Finschhafen. Work on the hydro-electric plant had come to a complete halt due to the unavailability of detonators and my obtaining them in person appeared to be the only way of getting the work resumed without further delay.

My reaction to the report was to give 6 months’ notice of resignation and then to do everything in my power to get the hospital established as a functioning unit, so that my successor would at least have the necessary back-up facilities on arrival.

Within the 6 months, the hospital in fact became a functioning unit with the theatre in use, theatre staff being trained, the labour ward in use with the equipment stored in its proper place, classrooms in use, laboratory in use etc.

Shortly before I left, we had the first confinement at the hospital, of the wife of one of the mission workers. Electricity, however, only became available sometime after my departure and I was pleased to hear that eventually another doctor had arrived.

I recall at least 5 occasions dealing with serious situations involving mission personnel or the families of missionaries. I was thankful to God that these were all satisfactorily resolved. In retrospect, it might well have been different.

While in New Guinea I met Lotte Mueller, who was secretary to the Manager of the Mission Supply House in Madang. I returned to Australia intent on marrying Lotte but discovered I had contracted tuberculosis in the Highlands. I was bed-bound for three months and unable to work for six months.

We became engaged on 28 May 1957, were married in Albury, New South Wales on 28 December 1957, and have three children, Stephen, Phillip, and Mark. We settled in Nuriootpa in the Barossa Valley of South Australia where, in addition to my work as a general practitioner until 1992, I have been able to pursue my interest in pipe organs and church music.

If you would like to consider the opportunity to serve as a volunteer in mission, serving in practical ways, teaching English, teaching in the seminaries and institutions of our partner churches, or in local churches, you are invited to phone LCA International Mission on (08) 8267 7300 or email lcaim@lca.org.au. For more information, go to https://www.lcamission.org.au/join-gods-mission/volunteer/

Read more stories about volunteering at www.lcamission.org.au/category/join-gods-mission/volunteers/