Stuart King - Legend!
Mission Aviation Fellowship co-founder, former RAF Flight Lieutenant and Normandy Landings veteran Stuart Sendall-King, who died over the weekend, aged 98, was one of the early pioneers to take light aircraft to the remotest parts of Africa in the aftermath of World War II.
It was my (Shiv’s) privilege to meet Stuart King and follow in his footsteps, leaving my service with the Royal Air Force to join Mission Aviation Fellowship!
Read more about this legend on the MAF-UK Obituary page https://www.maf-uk.org/stuartking
Half way through Quarantine!
We’ve been in quarantine for a week, just 7 days left until we can go for a walk outside and Ryan can start flying again!
We left Canada a week ago!
And what a busy week it’s been, traveling around the world!
We are now comfortably in quarantine where we will stay until midnight on 1st September. We’re still suffering from jet-lag, despite staying in hotels en-route, but Ryan has started studying for his flight tests and Shiv has started some of her work too.
Thank you all again so much for your amazing support and encouragement over the past couple of months!
We have arrived in Papua New Guinea!
With ALL of our baggage! :-D
Thank you all SO much for praying us around the world, there we’re so many things which could have gone wrong, but nothing did and we are finally home with all of our luggage. Amazing!!!
About to start our UN Charter Flight.
We met up with our colleague, Fiona, (Pictured with us, socially distanced, of course!) in Kuala Lumpur and we’re all waiting to check in for the UN Humanitarian Charter flight to Dili, Timor Leste and Port Moresby, PNG!
We are so close now! Please continue to pray that there will be no problems on this leg, that our bags will all make it onboard and be offloaded at Port Moresby!
When we get into PNG, we won’t be able to post any details as we need to respect the PNG regulations, but we will let you know we are there as soon as internet access allows. We should be landing just after 3pm PNG time, 6am UK time, 11pm Alberta time!
We’ve Arrived in Kuala Lumpur!
Our 3rd flight, from Doha, Qatar to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was very comfortable. Only 8 hours and only approx. 26 passengers on a Boeing 777 which has a capacity of over 300!!! It almost felt like a private jet!
We have met up with our colleague, Fiona, so it’s great to know, despite all of our various travel challenges, we will be getting on the next flight together! We have a 20 hour layover here before we get on the UN Humanitarian charter flight.
Thank you for praying us around the world, only 1 more flight before we are back in PNG soil!!!
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!!!
One step closer…
This morning we finished packing the last bits and pieces into our suitcases and said goodbye to Ryan’s childhood home. This afternoon we piled into 2 cars with Ryan’s parents, his sister and her 2 daughters, and headed to Calgary. We’re spending tonight together in a hotel so we don’t have to leave the farm at 5.30am to check-in at 9am! Plus, it’s a fun trip out for everyone; they are going off camping after they drop us at the airport tomorrow!
Everything is on schedule, but we still don’t have our COVID test results yet! Please keep praying they will come through and our journey, starting tomorrow, will be uneventful.
Thank you!!!
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.
Face Masks for MAF!
This is our friend, Kim.
Kim has been making these fun and funky face masks and selling them to help raise money for MAF! We so appreciate her time and effort to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to help fund Mission Aviation Fellowship.
As MAF is a charity, we rely on kind gifts from people like Kim, from all over the world, to be able to provide help and hope to some of the world’s most isolated people. Since the start of COVID, we all have a better appreciation of what isolation feels like, but the world’s most isolated are struggling more than ever!
We can’t wait to get back to PNG and continue to serve these people. Thank you Kim, and all of our supoorters, for helping to make that possible!
Brownfield Baptist Church
Although we were disappointed to not be traveling to PNG today, it was really great to be able to worship with our friends and family at Brownfield Baptist, Ryan’s home Church. And we were super blessed to be prayed for by the whole Church.
After the service, many people echoed our loving hope that we would NOT see them again next weekend! ;-D
Peter & Grace make a Difference
Peter & Grace Make a Difference is a movie filmed in Arawa, Bougainville, by kids and youths from 'Voice in the Wilderness.' The film addresses 'Sorcery Accusation Related Violence' (SARV) and follows two kids, Peter & Grace, as they find out more about SARV issues in their village and community.
This movie is in Tok Pisin (Melanesian Pidgin) with English subtitles. It is suitable to watch as a family to learn more about the topic of sorcery and sanguma (witchcraft), its threats, and how to respond. Sorcery Accusation Related Violence is sadly still a significant problem in areas of PNG.
MAF PNG’s partner and our friend Anton Lutz was part of the production, in front of and behind the camera!
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!
BAD NEWS!
We just heard from our Travel Agent that our long-haul flights between Canada and Australia have been CANCELLED. We don’t know why.
We are totally gutted, again! We know the need for us to return to Telefomin and serve the communities there as MAF is so short of pilots in PNG right now. Plus, we are really missing our home!
Our Travel Agent is trying to rebook us for next weekend, but it’s a long-shot…Please continue to pray with us that our flight will happen very soon. Each rebooking costs MAF money and we don’t want to waste those limited resources! Our colleagues in PNG also have to go to a lot of effort to get us new permissions each time…
Enjoying some Simple Pleasures!
We went to the city today for me (Shiv) to have acupuncture, another effort to try and reduce my daily back pain.
On the way home, we thought we’d indulge in drive-through ice cream! Just one of the little things we won’t be able to have once we return to PNG. But it’s ok, I know how to make home-made ice cream! :-D
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.