Unexpected weekend in Australia
We enjoyed some luxuries in Australia, like shopping at a supermarket and brunch! It was a great opportunity to get away.
The MAF Mareeba Engineers did a great job on P2-MAF!
We’re back in PNG!
It was an emotional journey, but we made it on 4 flights and we’re in Mt Hagen, where MAF’s HQ is. Thank you so much to everyone who spotted our urgent call for prayer, God answered, we made it all the way with all 7 of our suitcases!!!
Farewell Canada…
This evening we start our long journey back home to PNG. We take off out of Calgary just before 8pm and are due to arrive in Mt Hagen late Monday night Alberta time, which will be Tuesday lunchtime, PNG time, after 4 flights! We can’t wait to get home!
Click to read our prayer requests!
We’re back in Canada!
It’s so great to be back home in Canada. Our time in the UK was too short, always, but we are glad to have this time in Canada now. We are looking forward to seeing many of you in the coming months!
Holiday on New Britain Island
We couldn’t make it all the way to Britain this year, or even manage to leave PNG, but our holiday on New Britain Island was so much better than we expected.
We snorkeled, walked on a volcano, visited Japanese military sites from World War 2, drank fresh Kulau (young coconuts), relaxed loads and even swam with dolphins!
Weekend up the Mountain
After a busy month of May, preparing the house next door for our new neighbours, we were really grateful to get away for the weekend with some of our friends in Mt Hagen.
New Street Lights in Mt Hagen
When we were in Mt Hagen last week, we drove home from the airport to town one evening to discover the brand new, solar street lights which line the road to the airport, were actually working!
The newly completed road leading to the Highway, which they are still working on, is so smooth to drive on, it’s such a treat compared to the pot-hole filled side roads. Let’s hope it lasts!
We are home in Telefomin!
More than 8 months after we left, and more than twice as long as we expected to be away for, finally we have returned to our little cabin in the mountains!
We were greeted as we landed on Thursday afternoon, with flower petals thrown over us and flower necklaces draped over us. It was such a welcome reception, we felt so blessed…
First visit back to Telefomin!
Ryan got to visit our home and friends in Telefomin yesterday, as part of his observer flying before he gets back in the Captain’s chair.
Sadly, he couldn’t stay, he only got an hour on the ground, just long enough to pop to our house and pick up a few things to bring back to Mt Hagen, but he was so encouraged to be able to see the village which we call home!
Shiv has to wait until October to see Telefomin again.
Breakfast at 6pm???
We had a restful sleep in the Airport Hotel in Doha and now we’re having breakfast before we get onboard our next flight, to Kuala Lumpur. This is the first time either of us have stayed in a hotel during a layover, but as we were stuck here for 27 hours, we are super glad we did as we feel so much more rested than we would have felt on a reclining airport chair.
International airports are not cheap places to visit so we’d like to say a massive thank you to the lovely people who have sent us financial gifts recently, you have reduced one of the stress factors of travel for us! Thank you!
Two Flights down, two to go…
We have safely made it to Hamad International Airport, Doha, Qatar! We’ve been up for almost 24 hours straight, but we’re trying to get our body clocks on PNG time.
We have a 27 hour layover here in Doha before we catch our next flight to Kuala Lumpur, so we’re heading to the airport hotel shortly. We don’t have to collect our baggage here, but that means we have no guarantees that our bags made it here with us…
Please keep praying for our journey and our luggage! Thanks!!!
Rush, panic, wait!?
Our first flight sadly got us into Montreal more than an hour later than planned. Also, our domestic flight was booked on a separate ticket to our international flight, which meant when we landed we had the rush of collecting our baggage and checking-in again, but this time with lots more checks to ensure we were allowed to transit in Doha, Qatar. Thankfully we were on all the right lists and after being given a very fetching face mask, we are now sitting on our flight out of Canada.
One step closer… Thank you for journeying with us and praying for us!
Checked-in for our 1st flight, Calgary-Montreal.
We’re checked in and through security in Calgary airport. Our first flight is due to depart at 11:55.
It’s such a relief to be taking this first step home, towards PNG!!!
As internet allows, we will try to keep you updated along our journey, both on our blog www.RyanAndShiv.net/blog and also through Facebook.
Please continue to pray for us as we travel over the next 4 days until we reach Mount Hagen on Wednesday 19th August (God willing!) and start our quarantine in the MAF accommodation. Please pray that all of our baggage travels with us on each leg of our journey!
We are also still waiting for our COVID test results to come through… Please pray!!!
Making the most!
We have roughly 36 hours left before we check in for our first flight on Friday. In the past couple of days we’ve been saying goodbye (again) and trying to make the most of our final days in Canada.
We had our 4th (!!!) COVID test on Monday morning (we’re still waiting for the results). Shiv visited a Chiropractor to try and help some more with her on-going back pain. We had dinner with some lovely friends, who are also family, and played a final game of Carcassonne with Ryan’s sister. (Shiv won!)
We have asked our Travel Agent to re-confirm all of our flights, just to be sure none have cancelled at the last minute, and unfortunately we are still waiting on our COVID test results.
Please keep praying!!!
Our Flights are Booked… Again!
Despite many challenges over the past few days our wonderful Travel Agents in Australia have been able to book us new flights. We depart Canada this Friday, routing:
Calgary-Montreal-Doha-Kuala Lumpur-Port Moresby
More than 3 whole days of travel with over 32 hours of flying!
Click on Read More, below, for more details including our flight numbers.
An update on our Travels…
We have a booking to fly from Malaysia direct to PNG on a humanitarian Charter flight departing Tuesday 18th August. We also have our 4th COVID test booked for Monday 10th.
Our prayer points now are:
1) Our COVID test results would be negative and we would be able to get a print-out before we leave Canada.
2) Our flights to Malaysia would be booked this weekend at MINIMAL additional cost to MAF!
3) That we would be on these flights!!!
Thank you for all the encouraging words and prayers we have received, it’s so great to know we are not standing alone through this frustration!
Latest COVID-19 Test
We took our 3rd COVID test this afternoon, not because we’ve had symptoms, but because PNG requires a negative test result within 7 days of departing Canada. Our previous tests were negative, but they were too long ago to be valid.
Please pray these results come through by FRIDAY as we can’t enter PNG without a print-out to say we are negative! Thanks!
Update: Our return to PNG
We are still in Canada!
Sadly we were bumped off our flight from Doha, Qatar to Brisbane, Australia. We are trying to re-book our tickets, but we may have to wait another month.
The Cole Special Communiqué
This Newsletter was sent out on Friday 10th July - sorry I didn’t link it through our Blog immediately, I’m still learning all the tricks to our new website.
Click on the picture, left, to watch a video of our friend, Nurse Rhema, one of the local health care workers who MAF supports and we fly out of Telefomin.