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 We’re Moving to Papua New Guinea!

First, why does this newsletter look different? The answer is simple: Less ink! Also, procrastination is part of my writing process and so every time I sit down to write a newsletter I first have to tinker with the format before I start writing. Janice says it’s a problem, I say it’s part of the process.

The big news is that, as of December 23, we’ve been officially accepted onto the Samaritan Aviation team! I’ve casually mentioned Samaritan Aviation several times before in previous newsletters but people (including myself) tend to forget these things so I’ll go over it again, quickly…

Samaritan Aviation operates on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG) flying air ambulances up and down the 700 mile Sepik river transporting critically ill people from remote river communities with no other hope of emergency medical access to the only hospital in an area the size of Mississippi. If it wasn’t for Samaritan Aviation, critically ill  patients would have to travel by canoe for 2-3 days down a river full of crocodiles and malaria infested mosquitoes to reach the hospital! Many would never make it. The life saving flights are free of charge and presents us with an opportunity to introduce patients to the greatest physician of all: Jesus Christ! We’ll do this by visiting the patients during their stay providing hygiene products, Biblically based trauma and grief counseling, toys (if the patients are children), and friendly faces during times of crisis. The ministry has been very successful, to the point where even the PNG government is requesting an additional presence on the southern side of the island. We’re excited to help Samaritan grow their capacity so they can seize these opportunities!

Lord willing, we’ll be moving to PNG in September of 2022. We’ll be stationed in the city of Wewak beside the hospital where I’ll be helping to maintain the fleet of three amphibious Cessna 206s. Janice and the kids will be participating in the hospital visitation ministry and working to build relationships in the community.

Cultural Training

In February we traveled to San Diego, CA to attend some cultural training classes with two other families that will be moving to PNG about the same time as us; the Vissers and the Condons.  Tim and Dianna Askew led the classes. They served in PNG as Bible translators for fifteen years so their insight was valuable. I also learned my coworker at MMS is right when he says, “California is full of fruits and nuts and not all of them grow on trees.” We did get to dip our toes into the freezing Pacific Ocean and see a few sea lions one evening. Other than that, it was all business! After three days of classes we drove six hours to Phoenix, AZ so we could be part of Samaritan’s 20 year celebration. During this time we had a commissioning service for the new missionary families and the newest airplane. It’ll be flown to MMS Aviation in the fall where it will be disassembled, containerized, and shipped to PNG.

Oliver Gets COVID

Now go back before all this California business happened, to the beginning of January. Actually, go back to Christmas vacation. We visited my parents in Pennsylvania and all got the new and improved version of Covid. It’s improved because it’s not as bad, right? Anyway, my mom tested positive for Covid on Christmas day. Then the next day Janice came down with the same thing. We spent the rest of our time in Pennsylvania quarantining in my parent’s house. It seemed like the next month we all took turns getting sick with the popular neighborhood plagues. So when Oliver got a fever it didn’t seem like anything to panic over. But after it kept coming back over a course of three days we became concerned. Janice called the pediatrician and she immediately started screaming about Emergency Rooms and sepsis and things like that. I have an aversion to spending large amounts of money and so to me going to the ER is only something you do when your bleeding from your eyes or internal organs find themselves becoming external. Still, being that Oliver was so young (about 10 weeks old) he required more specialized care. So we went to Akron’s Childrens Hospital and were admitted for an overnight stay while they ran blood and urine cultures. Their concern was that the fever was coming from an infection and not a virus. Poor Oliver got a catheter (for a urine sample), an IV (for fluids), and a COVID test. He seemed to hate the COVID test the most of all, which sort of surprised me although I can totally relate. I hate those tests. I was tempted to feel sorry for us. “Come on God,” I prayed, “I don’t need an expensive hospital bill yet.” We were buying tickets for our cultural training trip to California and I was feeling some financial strain. I complained and bickered until I began seeing a lot of other kids in the hospital who were living in their rooms for months on end because they had a rare genetic disease or cancer and I realized that my problems were small. After all the drama and dust settled, it was determined that Oliver had COVID and not a bacterial infection. We still haven’t received the bill and so you caught me at the best possible time; Oliver is healthy again and it hasn’t cost me a thing… yet. We’re grateful for medical access, especially with the perspective that joining a medical mission like Samaritan brings us. We know that not everyone has access to this kind of care. Children die from preventable diseases all the time. I’m glad mine don’t. I don’t want other kids to be dying either, that’s why we love Samaritan’s ministry. Praise God that Oliver is healthy, happy, and weighs nearly 14 pounds already!

Judgment Day Approaches

Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself because really I can’t do any of this missionary stuff until I get my mechanic’s license with my Airframe and Powerplant ratings. Those tests are coming up in March. I’m about 150 hours away from getting the 4,800 maintenance hours required before the exams and so my sights are set on textbooks and test prep software – though life seems to be intent on preventing me from preparing. I need to file my taxes, prepare for a missions presentation to a school in Virginia, write a newsletter (almost done with that one), and counsel several emotionally fragile appliances in the garage. I’m preparing for three written tests in each of the following categories: Airframe, Powerplant, and General. Then I will have an oral and practical test after that. Once I survive that barrage, I will have the privilege of writing and signing off my own logbook entries. Pray that I can retain the information I study so that I can pass my exams.

Airvan Project

Currently in the hangar I’m working on an Airvan. This plane has 17,000 hours on it (that’s a lot!) and it comes from Belize where it’s humid and salty, a great environment for corrosion and boy does this airplane have a lot of it! Oh well, it’s preparing me to deal with corrosion in Papua New Guinea where we’ll have similar  environmental conditions. This Airvan will support missions and disaster relief in Haiti. Pray for my supervisor Jay Shearer and I as we prepare this plane for the Lord’s service!