Medevacs Galore!

Not sure if it's because we're so short on pilots right now, or just because there's been an increase in accidents and sickness interior, but recently it seems like I've been doing a ton of medevacs.  Usually, the number of people that show up from the village to see the person off, is directly proportional to how critical his/her condition is.  This one was about average.

This poor fellow had a severe nose bleed that wouldn't stop for several days.  I won't go into all the gruesome details; the picture may already be more than you wanted to know.  But it got much worse during the flight.  I didn't know a nose bleed could be so serious, but he was definitely not in good shape...couldn't even walk on his own, having lost so much blood, and was barely conscious.

Recently there was an outbreak of measles in two small villages near the Malaysian border.  It was hitting almost everyone who lived there, and hitting them hard!  There's a really tiny, marginal strip about a 1 1/2 hour hike from the one village.  We flew a bunch of loads (2 or 3 people at a time b/c the strip is so marginal we can't even load the airplane half full) to Long Bawan for treatment, but eventually it became clear that it made more sense to fly the medical team into the village to treat the people on site. There were just too many!  Here's a picture from above.  It's surrounded by mountains on all sides.

Wednesday afternoon we got a call late in the day for a double medevac from Long Nawang.  In the past few years they've been pushing some roads through the rugged jungle down in that area for logging and whatnot.  They're all but impassible by anything but the most rugged 4x4s and heavy equipment.  And very slow and extremely dangerous!  There's often landslides and the roads are very steep and slippery.  But that doesn't stop folks from trying.  In this case, their truck went over the edge and rolled down about 75 feet to the bottom of a ravine.  When I got there, most of the village was waiting...indicative that this one was pretty serious.

For what they went through, they were fortunate to be alive.  Others have done this and not been so fortunate.  Still, they weren't in good shape.  Especially the one.  Multiple, complex fractures of legs, arms, and unknown internal injuries, plus head injuries.  It took about 40 minutes for me to configure the plane and load everyone up and then we were on our way.

This would have been a very difficult load for a 206.  Actually, impossible from that airstrip, because the 206 isn't capable of carrying that much weight from Long Nawang, not to mention the number of people (family) that accompanied the patients.  But the Kodiak handled it no problem.

An hour and ten minutes later we were landing in Tarakan where two ambulances were waiting.  We've got a great team here in Tarakan, mechanics, office personnel, logistics, etc.--and they are always ready to do whatever is needed to help.  I may be the one on the front lines, but without them, and YOU, none of this would be possible.  I'm thankful to play just a small part in showing the love of Jesus to the people we serve on the wings of MAF!

Thanks to Ben Eadie for seeing my camera sitting there and taking the initiative to snap the last two shots in this post.

What it Takes to Get a Family Photo!

Every few years we have to take a new family photo for a "prayer card" to send out to our ministry team.  Unfortunately, I missed the chance to have my good friend and awesome photographer, Tripp Flythe, take our picture before he left on home assignment a few months ago.  And time is short these days, as we're busy packing.  So I wound up taking the picture myself...which is easier said than done.

None of these are staged.  In some, I was checking lighting, or focusing, or the camera remote.  In others...well, I have no idea.  I just kept snapping away, and when we got back to the house we just laughed and laughed at the number of pictures where someone, or everyone, was looking away, or doing odd faces.  Each of these crops below is from a different picture, in the order they were taken, during out little 10 minute photo shoot as we raced the setting sun behind the MAF hangar.  Interestingly, the one shot we wound up using was the very last picture we took (and the very last one here on the post), but we had no idea that it was "the money shot" until we got home.  

And here's the one we used...the very last one we took!

Smiles and Tears

On Wednesday I was accompanied by the most beautiful co-pilot ever!  I was thrilled to have Joy ride along with me for a day in the Kodiak, but the real reason she came along was to have a chance to say goodbye to many of her friends interior.  

There were many smiles and much laughter as we shared stories and memories of various times our family has spent the night in these villages.  But there were also many tears.  In fact, Joy and I had a good laugh later, as we reviewed the pictures at home and saw that in seemingly 90% of them, she was bawling her eyes out.

But I think that's a good thing really.  Tough, but good.  It's indicative of the close and meaningful relationships that she/we have developed here with our friends interior.  And that makes it hard to say "goodbye."

These are friends and memories that we will always remember and cherish!

I only wish that we'd have had the time to go to each and every village that day.  But as it were, we only got into a few--in no small part because of the "heavy" weather that threatened to trap us overnight in the Krayan.

We're so thankful for the opportunity we've had to serve the wonderful folks of East Kalimantan, and we look forward to keeping up with them as best we can through our MAF  friends here who will continue to serve, and when possible through Facebook and e-mail.

More Random Shots

Here's some more recent random shots.  Our newest Kodiak, PK-MEF at the top of the strip in Data Dian.

It gets nice and muddy there after a rain!

Unloading a bunch of supplies including pipe for a village water project, chainsaws, grass trimmers, and a bunch of toilets.  Who said being a missionary pilot was glamorous?

A medevac flight with two boys who had a bad bicycle accident (they were on the same bike).  The one who's asleep in the seat only had surface injuries.  But the one laying on the floor in the middle of the plane, being attended to by his mom, well he had his achilles tendon cut clean through by the wheel or spokes--a pretty serious injury by any standard.  Without MAF flying him to the hospital, he would have had no hope of ever walking on that foot again.  As it turns out, they were able to re-attach the tendon in a lengthy surgery, and hopefully he'll make a good recovery.

Delivering much-needed rice to the village of Long Sule.

Loading up a VERY HEAVY generator for a flight to Long Ampung.   The "mesin lampu" (light machine) will provide electricity at night for a small village near Long Ampung.

BIG NEWS!

If you get our quarterly newsletters, you may already know that in a few months (July) our family will be leaving Indonesia for a much-needed, six-month furlough in the U.S.  However, what you probably don't know is that we've accepted a new assignment to serve with MAF International, Africa Region, and that early next year we'll be joining the MAF team in Uganda, East Africa, where I will continue to serve as a pilot, and our kids will have some great schooling options going forward!

We've seen God open a ton of doors to make this happen, and although we're sad to leave Indonesia, we're excited about the opportunities that lie ahead!  It's been a very difficult decision for us to make!  We moved to Indonesia in the fall of 2005, and have developed deep relationships with both the people we serve here, and those with whom we serve.  This has become home to our kids, and we've invested a lot into our life and ministry here.  It will be tough to say goodbye!  

But we've seen God's hand in this and are excited to be stepping into a program that's in need of an experienced pilot, and that has a lot of great educational opportunities for our kids as they get older, and ministry opportunities for our family.  And there's a bunch of great families on that team to boot!  So early next year we'll be taking what we've learned here and putting it into practice in a totally different country and culture as we join another one of MAF's dynamic and exciting teams, this time in Africa!

To say that many things will be different is probably a huge understatement!  But some things will be the same--we'll still be serving the same God we serve here, doing relatively the same types of things we do here, and for the same reasons that we do them here.  And that sure gets us excited!  MAF is meeting critical needs through their ministry in Uganda, and we're so thrilled to be joining them!  We look forward to sharing more and more of that ministry with you in the months ahead.  

Be on the lookout for our speaking schedule this fall--we'll be sharing at quite a few churches throughout the U.S., and we'd love to see you at one of those events if possible.  WE/ll be sharing all about what God's been doing in Indonesia over our eight years here, and we'll also share some more about our upcoming move and future ministry to Uganda. 

But until then, we're committed to finishing our time here well!  To that end we appreciate your prayers...these last couple of months here in Indonesia promise to be very, very busy!