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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…
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Wewak Base Visit
Some piccies of Shiv’s first “official” Base Visit to Wewak, on PNG’s north coast, back in March.
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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!
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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…
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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.
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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…
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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!
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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!
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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.
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Washing the Balus
Even when he’s on the ground and not flying, Ryan is busy.
Although Mondays are his “office” day, he doesn’t usually spend more than a few hours sitting at his desk doing paperwork and emails. His aircraft (Balus) has to have its engine washed once a week to keep it in good working order. This takes about an hour or so, with the help of our trusty Traffic Officer, Steven, pictured.
Today he also climbed up the tree next to our water tanks to chop its top off again.
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Last flying before Christmas…
On their last flying day before Christmas, Ryan and his fellow pilot Mathias, stopped to pose for us in front of their airplanes!
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Rainbow over Telefomin
On one of my (Ryan’s) last flying days before Christmas, I was on a turn-around, having just dropped off a load of passengers in Telefomin and about to take another load out again, when I spotted this rainbow hanging over our home!
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Merry Christmas from PNG!
Ryan, Shiv & Ray would like to wish you all, wherever you are in the world, peace, joy and God’s presence this Christmas time. May 2021 be filled with love and hope for you and all those you care for!
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Wewak Aircraft Visiting
Although we have our own aircraft in Telefomin, our colleagues based in Wewak, on the north coast of PNG, fly passengers and cargo down to us on a weekly basis.
Here they are taking off with a full load of passengers, heading north, back home to the ocean breeze.
Ryan is just about to load his passengers to head south-west to Kiunga to drop off passengers and bring fuel back to Telefomin.
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It’s hot work!
Whilst you, in the northern hemisphere, are all pulling on your gloves and woolly hats, here in the tropics the weather hasn’t changed much!
In Telefomin it often gets up to around 28 degrees C in the middle of the day, but we’re almost a mile high in the mountains. Our local friends call Telefomin “cold place”. Ryan daily flies to airstrips lower in altitude, the lower he gets, the hotter it gets, and sadly he rarely gets the pleasure of landing by the ocean and enjoying a nice sea breeze.
In the picture you can see him chugging back water, with a very sweaty back. This is the same for him all-year-round in PNG!
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Christmas Newsletter - Out Now!
Our Christmas Newsletter has just been sent direct to inboxes!
If you are not signed up to receive our quarterly Newsletters, use the sign up form at the bottom of this page.
To view this newsletter now, click on or copy & paste the link below:
https://mailchi.mp/5343f1c6c640/cole-communique-dec2020
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Advanced Airstrip Training
There are only 2 training pilots currently in PNG and, thanks to COVID, it is really hard to get any others in country. As such, we didn’t think Ryan would be able to get his Advanced Airstrip Training (AAT) done this year. However, Ryan’s boss, Brad (pictured), the Flight Operations Manager, decided that getting Ryan through this training and able to fly into a few more airstrips was high priority.
Brad kindly left his family in Goroka and came to Telefomin for 2 nights to train Ryan towards the end of Nov. So now Ryan is able to fly to more locations and help more remote & isolated people. Thanks Brad!
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Unexpected Guests
Last month, we had Fiona, our Finance Manager, plan to pay us a visit in Telefomin for 2 nights. As we had 2 members of our Maintenance Team staying in the MAF transit house, I arranged for Fiona to stay in one of my absent neighbours’ houses. We like to provide a meal to our MAF visitors, and as Fiona is Gluten intolerant, I made Pumpkin Soup & Gluten Free bread. Then, mid-afternoon, Ryan called me over the radio (the mobile reception was out!) to tell me that the Wewak pilots (Brad & Andy, pictured) were stuck on the ground in Eliptamin waiting for the weather to clear up. Their flying programme had them coming to Telefomin next and as they had been on the ground for so long, it was likely they would run out of daylight and not be able to make it home to Wewak…
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New Ground Power Unit
When we landed in Mt Hagen, we were greeted by our old friends and neighbours, Paul (pictured, front), the Fuels Coordinator, and Nawi (pictured, back), the Ground Ops Trainer, who were ready and waiting to plug the new Ground Power Unit (GPU) into our aircraft and help with the loading. What awesome team work, helping out when things get busy at the MAF PNG HQ!
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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.