Preparing for New Neighbours
We had a super busy month of May, getting the house next door ready before our new neighbours arrived. We are very blessed to have had so many people come to help us.
Munbil
Munbil is a village with its own airstrip and some Missionaries who work for “New Tribes Mission” on a Bible Translation and literacy project. Ryan recently has a flight in there where he took in a new Community Health Worker (CHW) and brought out a couple of people who had to go to hospital, they were unwell but not emergencies…
Name the Fruit…
You might expect me to show you some rare or exotic Papua New Guinean fruit, but no, name this fruit…
It’s not what you think!
Sending the Love!
Thank you! For every one of our dear friends, family & supporters who have ever sent us a piece of mail, thank you so much!
As much as I miss mail, I would still advise to not send us post this year, but I just wanted to say a really warm & heartfelt thank you to all of you who have made the effort to go the extra mile in the past, it really made the distance between us feel less! Thank you and God bless.
Wewak Base Visit
Some piccies of Shiv’s first “official” Base Visit to Wewak, on PNG’s north coast, back in March.
Happy 70th Birthday MAF PNG - TODAY!
Thank you all for enabling us to serve in PNG through your prayers, your kindness and your gifts to our work. You are all a part of the 7 decades of help and hope which has been flown to some of the world's most isolated people. That's such an amazing legacy, we are privileged to be a part of it with you all! Thank you!
Ray the old-man Puppy
Ray turned 15 earlier this year, that’s very old in dog years! So we thought we’d share some piccies of our loyal friend, particularly as he looks so funny after he’s had a haircut.
The Bible Box
Most of the time when Ryan is flying to bush strips, he carries with him his trusty Bible Box, which contains Tok Pisin (Melanesian Pidgin) Bibles, Audio Bibles, small Bible Dictionaries and even a few pairs of reading glasses.
Recently, our friends, Mandy & Mathias, were given some Bible Concordances which had been translated into Tok Pisin. They asked Ryan to distribute them to some bush pastors…
More Telefomin Rainbows!
Ok, so I (Shiv) do a lot of blog posts about rainbows, but they really are quite spectacular here in our home of Telefomin!
Sadly, our cameras will never fully capture for you, the beauty that our eyes can see. You will just have to come visit us and see for yourselves! Or click on this blog post for a peek…
Books for Bak Primary School
In our Easter Newsletter, we included a story about Mr Donifry, the Principle of Bak Primary School. Ryan also took a video of his short interview with Mr Donifrey, so we thought we’d upload it for anyone who may be interested to “meet” this bush-man who has a vision to improve his community at the grass-roots level through education of the children!
By supporting our work with MAF you are enabling books and teachers to reach some of the world’s most isolated communities so their children have a chance at a decent education! Thank you.
2021 Marks 70 Years of MAF in PNG!
The first flight of an MAF aircraft happened in May 1951, 70 years ago next month! We had planned many celebrations to mark such a milestone, but sadly COVID has gotten in the way. But we will still be doing some celebrations via social media and news outlets in PNG to remind this country, which we are privileged to serve, just how long we have been here for…
Happy Easter Newsletter!
Our Easter Newsletter went straight to inboxes just before Easter. If you would like to receive our Quarterly Personal Newsletters direct to your inbox, please sign up using the form at the very bottom of the page!
School Books for Telefomin High School
The High School has around 400 students, and a beautiful purpose-built library, but the shelves in the library are quite bare. These school books I helped to deliver will go a long way towards encouraging the students to read to improve their English.
Training Ground Staff in Telefomin
Last week was super busy as we hosted 7 members of the Ground Operations Department (Shiv’s new/old department) who came to Telefomin to do some refresher training. Everyone had previously passed each course they were receiving a refresher in, but to squeeze 5 courses into just 1 week was quite a challenge for Nawi. Shiv even took an hour of their time to share a devotion and explain the latest PNG COVID prevention measures.
Everyone passed each of their courses, so the week was a great success, even if it was very busy!
First Base Visit as D’GOM!
Two weeks ago I conducted my first “official” base visit as the “Acting Deputy Ground Operations Manager” (D’GOM). It feels great to be starting to get to grips with this new/old job!
Ryan flew me to Kiunga so I could meet with the 2 Traffic Officers who work there, find out their current struggles, and look into some issues at the Kiunga airport.
The First Neighbours Return!
After 4 months of being the only pilot family, we were thrilled to welcome our Aussie neighbours back to Telefomin last week!
Some of our local friends came out to welcome them with flower necklaces.
Telefomin’s Ambulance
Last month a helicopter lifted a new Ambulance into Telefomin. Previously, the closest thing that the Telefomin hospital had to an ambulance was a flat-bed truck. Although the vehicle, pictured, is not what you might imagine in the UK/Canada, for PNG this is a fit-for-purpose Ambulance, complete with stretcher, oxygen, 4-wheel drive capability, siren and flashing lights.
Ryan took these photos on the day he brought in a Medevac patient, the first time the ambulance was used for it’s true purpose.
Rainbow over the Balus
Balus is tok pisin (Melanesian pidgin) for airplane. In Telefomin we are often spoiled with beautiful rainbows around our home and our “balus”. Here are a couple of photos Ryan took recently… (Click to see more)
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.