Dorothy Elsie Degnitz

1. 8/13/1936 Town Holland, Wisconsin USA

 

Dates of Service Field Call Assignment

1966-70 Nigeria Medical Missions

1971-86 Papua New Guinea Medical Missions

 

Biographical Summary

 

Dorothy Degnitz attended the Evanston Hospital School of Nursing/Northwestern University Bachelor of Science in Nursing program, receiving her B.S.N. degree in 1959.  After graduation, she worked as a staff nurse in a psychiatric unit from 1959-60 and then as an instructor in psychiatric nursing from 1960-66.  In 1966, she became interested in foreign mission work, spoke with the Board for Mission Services and was commissioned as a missionary.

 

Unfortunately, Dorothy’s arrival in Nigeria was delayed because a rebellion broke out in the northern part of the country in that year.  Because she was serving in the south, not the north, she was eventually able to enter Nigeria in August 1966.  Dorothy was assigned to the village of Eket, where she worked as part of a team of missionaries in Immanuel Lutheran Hospital of Eket, supervising some of the wards.  The hospital cared for both inpatients and outpatients, and the outpatient clinics they hosted three or four times a week often served 300-350 patients a day.  During these clinics, mission nurses used protocols for triaging patients, ordering lab tests, and ordering standard medications.  Serious illnesses, puzzling symptoms, or unusual lab results would cause those patients to be seen by the medical doctor.  The medical staff used translators in most of their work; since there were people of at least four different language groups who sought treatment at the hospital, it was impossible for missionaries to learn the languages of all those they treated.

 

In May of 1967, after Dorothy had been on the field only a few months, fighting arose in the south part of Nigeria in what would come to be called the Biafran War.  A few weeks later, the families of missionaries were evacuated, but missionaries themselves remained for a time.  Therefore, Dorothy and those she worked with were not evacuated until August 1967.  When the order to evacuate did come, her group had to travel by car out of Eket to Onitsha (to cross the river) and then to Lagos, the capital, for a flight out of the country.  They had to pass through several roadblocks along the way, some set up by the government and some by the rebel groups.  They were fortunate to have one missionary with them who spoke the Igbo language well and could explain who they were, and although the situation was understandably tense, even the fighters were respectful of the missionaries and recognized that they were simply trying to return to their native country.

 

Once in Lagos, Dorothy, along with other missionaries, flew back to the United States.  The missionaries hoped to return to Nigeria soon, but while she was waiting for further developments, Dorothy was told by a friend about the Frontier Nursing Service in Hyden, Kentucky.  This provided her the opportunity to learn more about particular illnesses and about work with mothers and children.  At the time, Frontier School of Nurse Midwifery only taught Midwifery, a 6-month program at the time. But the Hospital at Hyden and the nearby clinics treated the many poor people of the hills of Kentucky, and some of their medical problems were like those seen in developing countries. The FNS was founded to treat and teach especially mothers and babies but always cared for whoever was ill in that area.  Dorothy was happy for the chance to do more training in these areas and enrolled in the program, earning a Midwifery Certificate in 1968.

 

Finally, after several months in the U.S., some of the LCMS medical missionaries were able to return to Nigeria.  The administrator of medical missions for the Board for Mission Services had connections to the International Red Cross, and Dorothy and others returned to Nigeria as Red Cross workers, with a primary goal of assisting with post-war relief efforts.  In this capacity, Dorothy served with a mobile medical clinic based in Port Harcourt.  Each team had a doctor, at least two nurses, a driver, and a mechanic, and teams traveled to surrounding areas to diagnose and treat illnesses and to assist with medical needs and to distribute food.  Dorothy served with the Red Cross for eighteen months.  After that, she was due to begin work with an LCMS clinic farther to the west.  She returned to the U.S. for a visit first, in part because of family events (two weddings, of a relative and a close friend) and in part because she had developed an infection which could be better treated in the U.S. than in Nigeria.  After about six weeks in the U.S., Dorothy prepared to return to her mission work but was unable to get a visa from the Nigerian government.

 

This development was a major disappointment for Dorothy, but it was not long before she learned of mission opportunities in Papua New Guinea (PNG) through one of her colleagues at Frontier Nursing Service.  Dr. Bulle of LCMS medical missions thought that this was a well-timed opportunity and encouraged Dorothy to take a call to PNG.  It seemed this must indeed have been the Lord’s will for her, as everything worked out very quickly!  By May 1971 she was in-country and ready to begin her medical mission service.  She worked in a hospital training program, serving both as nurse in the hospital and as a teacher for the training classes, which were conducted in Neo-Melanesian (Pidgin English).  Young men who had some education were trained to understand and treat common illnesses, injuries and medical needs.  This allowed them to return to their villages with enough medical knowledge to make a real impact on people’s lives and well-being.

 

Dorothy worked in this dual role for several years, and as time went on more of her instruction was in English, since schools in PNG were beginning to teach English to all students.  In 1982, however, LCMS needed at nursing teacher at the Lutheran School of Nursing in Madang, so she was called to serve there as a full-time teacher.  Dorothy worked both as a nursing instructor and as deputy principal of the school, and she helped train a co-teacher who both observed and assisted with her classes.  The idea was that he could take over the teaching once she left, so that the school would not be dependent on always having a missionary teacher.

 

In 1986, after about fifteen years of service in PNG, Dorothy began considering a return to the U.S.  Her mother had had a series of strokes and her father was experiencing vision problems, and her family had asked if she might return to assist with their care.  After consideration, Dorothy decided to resign from mission service, and just before Christmas of 1986 she returned and settled in Watertown, Wisconsin.  In January to June 1987 she was called to Long Service Leave, a time to complete medical tests and other termination requirements.  During this time and through the fall of 1987, she did presentations about medical mission work and missions in Papua New Guinea as a speaker at Lutheran Women’s Missionary League rallies in nearly all the zones of the South Wisconsin District.  In addition to caring for her own parents, she then began working as a nurse at Bethesda Lutheran Home, a home for mentally and physically disabled people.  At the time, the home had over 300 beds, although the numbers declined as time went on because of the move toward placing people with disabilities in group homes.  Dorothy served at Bethesda until the early 2000s.  She received a parish nursing certificate from Concordia University, Wisconsin, in 2003 and began working part-time as a parish nurse, a ministry which she has continued until the present.  After years on the mission field sharing the Gospel and enriching the lives of many through her love for Christ and work of healing, Dorothy continues to make use of her training and love for nursing care, serving God in faith and through service to others.

 

Nota Bene

While in Papua New Guinea, Dorothy was awarded a diploma in Nurse Education from Armidale College in Armidale, Australia in 1981, as well as an M.A. degree in Social Science from Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, California in 1986.  She earned her degree from Armidale College by taking intensive courses (7-10 days) on the campus each semester and then completing assignments while still working in PNG.  In a similar vein, her work for her master’s degree involved intensive course sessions with professors from Azusa Pacific University who came to the mission field to teach for a week or two and assigned students projects to work on for the rest of the semester.  In this way Dorothy was able to earn two degrees while continuing her mission work.

 

Dorothy and other medical mission staff produced teaching tools and books both in Pidgin English and, for the Lutheran School of Nursing, in English, which were not widely published but were used locally for medical instruction.

 

Phase 2 Information

 

Biggest missiological issue faced?

The question of whether Medical Missionaries were “real” missionaries.  Particularly when funding problems were forcing the LCMS to make cutbacks in the field, there was an underlying question among some missionaries regarding who should be sent to a mission field – evangelists, teachers, medical missionaries, or other support staff.  In Papua New Guinea, it was difficult for some of the evangelistic missionaries and teachers to observe the arrival of new medical missionaries after some pastors and teachers had been recalled from the field.  The issue did not create much of a problem for Dorothy’s work, and she was able to develop good relationships with missionaries on the field, but the circumstances did provoke reflection and some concern among missionaries.  From Dorothy’s perspective, although the mission nurses and doctors had to focus on their medical work, they did bring the love of Christ and sharing the Gospel into that work.  In that respect, she didn’t feel that their mission and work was very different from the rest of the missionaries’ ministry.

 

Most significant contribution during missionary service?

Dorothy writes, “The many young men and women we helped learn how to do basic medical work and use the medication and local things they had available to them to help others. As much as possible we linked the idea that Jesus loves us and cares for us, which is why we want to help others.”

 

Connection to today’s mission?

Dorothy writes, “I am a member of the Papua New Guinea Mission Society and read the LCMS, Lutheran Bible Translators, and other mission reports about the work in PNG. I also hear from missionaries currently still active in PNG and Australian friends who keep in touch with the people there.

 

“I also find that working with Lutheran Women in Mission (LWML) is a way to try to help people in USA understand a little more about other cultures and the need to reach out to all people with the Love of the Lord.”

 

Lessons Learned

• “When God calls, he often does not call the people with all the gifts, but he teaches you what you need to do and what he calls you to do.”

 

Best Practices

• Because of the nature of her work, Dorothy herself mostly lived on mission compounds with other missionaries.  However, she noticed that missionaries who were able to live among the people of the areas they served and who were therefore able to build close friendships with local people seemed to have a different, perhaps deeper, feel for the ministry and the sharing of the Gospel than those who lived apart from locals.  It seemed to mean a little more when missionaries were living in circumstances similar to the people with whom they were sharing the Gospel.

 

Phase 3 Information

 

Inspiration for entering foreign missions?

Although the idea of being a missionary did not come into Dorothy’s mind when she was young, she was always interested in travel and in faraway places, and she did a lot of reading.  She recalls a time when her family traveled to California for three weeks – her parents were farmers, so saving the money and finding a way to be gone for that length of time was difficult.  However, her parents were determined and did make the necessary arrangements to make the trip, and their dedication to being able to travel and to give their children the experience of that trip made a big impression on her.

 

Regarding her call to mission work, Dorothy writes: “I was a member of the Medical Mission group here in the USA, the Chicago chapter.  Rev. May would offer to pick up any nursing students at Evanston Hospital School of Nursing for Sunday worship and other activities at his church, Grace Lutheran Church in Evanston.  He also offered to take any of us interested in Medical Missions to the meetings in downtown Chicago.  When I graduated, I continued to attend the meetings on my own. I remember a slide presentation by a nurse about the work at the Immanuel Lutheran Hospital in a remote rural territory of Papua and New Guinea. She challenged us to consider whether God might be calling us also.  After praying about it, I contacted LCMS in St. Louis and was put in touch with Dr. W. Bulle, who was in charge of the medical work at the time.  A short time later I went to St. Louis for interviews and was accepted as a medical Missions Nurse assigned to Nigeria.”

 

Quotation by/about or brief story:

 

• Dorothy writes, “The LWML publication Dreams Dawn in Africa includes a chapter about our Red Cross Nurses during the Nigerian civil war.  My notes from the field to my parents back home were part of the background information the editor used in preparing that chapter.”  (This publication was narrated by Bernice Bunkowske, coordinated by Louise Mueller, edited by Janice Kerper Brauer and design and layout by Lois S. Hudak.  It was published by the Lutheran Women's Missionary League, St. Louis, Missouri, 1999 and is available from LWML.)

 

• Another book that tried to preserve the history and stories of medical work of many churches in PNG is called That They Might Live by Ellen Kettle M.B.E.  It is published by F.P.Leonard, 110 Bathurst St. Sydney, Australia, 1979.