| From Trevor:
April 27, 2006
Hi Jack,
I have a bit of time free today and wanted to keep in touch and update you
with happenings here in PNG.
Hope you guys are well and that God is blessing you abundantly. We have been
getting so much rain here that it is causing real problems with the
airstrips. Damon and I have bogged the airplane 3 times in the last week and
one strip was so soggy that we nearly nosed over!. So we are praying that the
Lord will moderate the rain a little so that we can go help the people who
need it so badly. There are several guys waiting to go to isolated areas where
no one else can help them but us and we are having to keep deferring flights
until things dry out a bit more. Some of the strips have not had a plane in
there for nearly 3 years and there is no way of telling what condition the
strips are in. You fly over the top and everything looks just fine but when
you put the wheels on the ground, they just sink in the mud and you slosh
around with very little control.
Damon is a fine fellow and yesterday I was able to finally send him out on
his own. Roger is on holidays and will be back May 24. I get to go home for
a couple of weeks after that. Loretta is having her 50th birthday and we
have our 30th wedding anniversary around the same time so we have wantoks (friends and family) coming in from all over.
It has been really moving to start getting out around the villages again.
Things are in such a mess. MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) lost a plane a few weeks ago and even though the accident was a long way from here, it was the Cessna 206 that was based here and so there now no longer is one here. The twin otter comes in for a few days a week but hardly scratches the surface of the need out there. MAF does not help
suffering people who cannot pay either so the people are really crying out for
us to come to their aid. I got into Maimafu day before yesterday. That is
the place that has adopted me and given me a village name and where my house
is. They had a welcome ceremony with floral lays etc. (I'm still trying to get
the stains out of my shirt from the yellow flowers) One of the village elders
told us that MAF had been asked to come many times. MAF had told the people
that they needed to cut the grass which they did. They did this 5 times and
the plane never came. Too busy. They have not had a plane in there for 3
years. They told me that last year 8 men and 3 women and 7 kids died because
they could not get a plane to come and take them to the haus sik (hospital) in Goroka.
Their clinic has not been able to get medicines and the people have really
suffered. They have not been able to get their crops out to market either so
there is a dearth of the basic necessities there. They began to doubt that I
would come back. I was moved by their plight and have redoubled my efforts in
prayer before the Lord since then. I told them that God had not forgotten
them and neither have we. This is a time of hardship for them and an
opportunity for their faith to grow while God opens the way for their needs to
be met. It served as a good illustration about the return of Jesus. I told
the people that they must be faithful and believe God’s promises even when the
way is hard. Jesus sees their need and will certainly come for them in
accordance with His Divine plan.
Their case is similar to many in the areas where our plane circulates. The
mission work has been going backwards at many locations. Kapi needs our
prayers. There is a new missionary going in there but the health worker is
being pulled out. I am praying that we can get a regular service going so we
can revive this very needy clinic. I have not been to Wia Wia yet but am
apprehensive as to what I might find. As soon as things dry out a bit I am
planning to go in there. It is so hard to feel so strongly that you want to
help and yet to know that the door is not yet open for you to do that. I want
more than I can tell you to be able to give these people some hope. I am sure
the answer will come but I need to keep my faith strong too. I think
sometimes God wants us to really feel the burden of people’s need and cry to
him from broken hearts and really share His deep concern for them. Perhaps
this is why the way is still not completely clear for us. I am not sure. One
thing I do know is, the experiences I am having up here are really propelling
me to my knees and I am imploring God to intervene on behalf of these
forgotten souls and bring them hope and salvation.
Simon is still negotiating obstacles in the purchase of a plane we might be
able to use. It is becoming apparent to me that AAS (Adventist Aviation Services) is going to want to use that plane a significant amount of the time when they get all their pilots up
and running. For that reason I am continuing to pursue the purchase of a
plane as well.
The local mission treasurer here came and had a long chat to me yesterday
afternoon. I had been in tears that morning imploring God to give me some
help in working out how to go forward from here. I am so conscious of the
fact that if we set this up wrong it could cause a lot of problems. Derek
used to work for the BSP bank before he came into church work. He knows
personally one of the top managers in Morseby. They were church officers
together in one of our churches in Morseby. Derek is going to speak to him
and see if we can negotiate a lease agreement of some kind to get into an
aircraft of our own and start providing the kind of service this local mission
needs. He also has contacts which can help us set up a business structure
that will have the right tax characteristics. We have set a deadline of the
end of July to get a plane and get started. That’s about when my contract
with AAS finishes up here. I want to be able to continue on then. I am
hoping that the BSP bank will have mercy on us and go the second mile to help
us get this happening. They can have the aircraft as security if they need
it..
Would love to hear from you again soon.
God bless
Trevor
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