| From Trevor:
June 1, 2006
Hi Jack,
It is nice to be home in Australia for a while. Have been catching up with car repairs etc. We had our 30th wedding anniversary the other night. My sister in law had her purse stolen and my son had his car stolen on the night! A night to remember in a few ways. Some drug addicts pinched his car. As he reported it, a police patrol located it. The guys could not restart it. We were very thankful to God that it was recovered in one piece. Had to replace a couple of windows that’s all.
The ground is drying out up there in PNG and we were starting to get into some more of the remote strips that I have been really keen to go and see the people at. Still did not get into Wia Wia. We had one woman in labor and another pregnant lady who was bleeding on board plus a trainee pilot and both husbands. We were too heavy to get off there so we had to skip it. Their radio is broken down and no one has heard from these poor villagers for 2 years plus. I am hoping the Lord opens the way for me to get in there soon after I return to PNG next weekend. I got a just over 3000 kina into Ninas hands the other day before I left to keep the nurse's volunteer stipends going. We are having challenges with ADRA at the moment. The 28,000 that they allocated to Nina's group a couple of years back was not used because the planes were grounded. Now it is no longer available. We are praying that the Lord will open the way to kick start this program once more. Once the work is starting and builds momentum, I don’t think there will be a problem with funding once they are up and running and have reports coming in on their activities. It will be so much better when the second aircraft is on line and able to respond in a timely way to the medical needs of the villagers.
Simon is telling me that MAF have told him the aircraft should be released the first week of June. It is then to be flown to Mareeba just west of Cairns where MAF have a maintenance base. He will fly across and inspect it there and make a final decision regarding whether he will purchase it or not. He expressed interest in one of their planes before but due to some confusion, it was sold to someone else. He has told me that he has indicated to them he is very interested and has secured first call on the aircraft. He will need to do some work on the plane when he gets it so I don’t know exactly when it will be ready to go to PNG.
I have done all the paper work now (that I know of) to get the corporate entity registered in PNG. Had my palm, thumb and finger prints taken etc. I have paid for courier of the police report application to go to Moresby and back. It has to go past Interpol representatives down there. I sent an envelope for them to courier the certificate back to me. I went in and signed a whole lot of papers with the accountant the day before I came down to Australia. I understand that we need the police report to come back first then the application paper work is complete and it can go down to the IPA (investment promotion authority). The accountant does not think there will be a problem with getting it passed by them. Then he can go ahead and register the company. He says that all the official formalities of the company, eg. Company meetings etc can be done on paper by the accountants office because there is currently only one person who is, share holder, director, secretary etc. He can do all the tax stuff for us he says and it should cost around 1500 kina per year. That is a load of my mind. I was concerned that I would have endless hours doing all this paper work and looking after company formalities. I would much rather be out there flying and providing services to the desperately needy.
When I get back I have some cash to send to Madang Manus mission to send a Sonoma trained layman to Simbai which is near where the people are who were recently discovered. SIL have sent a translator in there and now there are a few of the people who can communicate with the outside world in Tok Pisin. So I am excited about the possibility of getting some work going in this area.
I am hoping that Martin, the missionary we are sending into Yu will be ferried across to Haia while I am away. He is very keen to get started. It is another new work area where the District Director is keen to get a congregation started. The people have requested a missionary and I feel we should be moving forward where God is opening doors to us. Who knows how long those doors will be open. I have a feeling that the moral bankruptcy of Australia may change one day if there is a crisis of some sort here. I picture that the PNG people will need to come down here and help us to get the work done when the doors open here. But for now we need to be helping them and strengthening the work of the church where the doors are open.
Stop press! Simon has just rung. He is going to Cairns tomorrow to look at VH- AEE. (Aircraft we are considering) It is having maintenance at the moment, so will make it easier for him to have a look at the moving parts etc. He then will negotiate price with them. They are wanting 175 Australian plus 10% tax. He hopes to get the price down a little as it is a bit more than he had planned spending. But this plane is not as worn as the previous one they were interested in buying. He hopes that the plane will be ready by the end of June. His Dad who is an ex MAF pilot will fly it up to Moresby and I will pick it up from there.
He is going to fit the Flint tanks after it arrives. He is moving to Cairns soon and will be doing contract work there which will make his time flexible and he will be able to come up and do chores on his plane when we need him. This seems a good way around the maintenance issues to me. It is in his interests to keep the plane flying as he needs the cash flow to pay the repayments. It saves us the finance burden at start up and saves us the headache of finding maintenance for the aircraft.
Simon and Linden Millist will be in Sydney next week doing a course and I hope to connect with both of them there and may be have dinner somewhere. I will need to buy a good GPS for the plane. I am thinking of a portable one which will be able to be pulled out and put into another aircraft when we buy one if it does not have one already.
God is good. Simon says he will ring me tomorrow after looking at the plane. They are planning to put Blue black and gray stripes on it. That sounds nice enough. I think I would take purple polka dots right now just to get started anyhow!!
God bless
Regards
Trevor
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