MACS TRACKS

Our last blog was at Easter. We told of the great need for us to be here supporting “Front Line” ministries. We would like to tell you of some of the front line stuff we know about first hand and what we hear about. For Easter we had several people share our meal including Wes and Esther Dale. Wes is the son of a pioneering missionary who was killed by cannibals here in Papua in 1968. His devotion to the people of Papua despite those circumstances is legendary. (Like Nate and Steve Saint, in Ecuador) Wes and Esther live among the people of Mamit and live a very simple life. Their diet is the same as the natives of the area, greens and sweet potatoes. Lest you say, “Yum, sweet potatoes” let me tell you they are pretty dry bland lumps here. He is teaching at a Bible college in the small village of Mamit. Esther teaches the children of those students while they are in classes. She is constantly looking for and making toys for the 70 plus children in her care. She recently wrote and told me that while they were here in Sentani, they acquired a bike and a trike to help. The needs of those people are simple and basic to us but life giving for them. Soap, clothes, vitamins, and glue for Esther’s art projects. I think I need to share a “paste” recipe with her! J

Our pilot friend David Holsten tells this story: Had the privilege today of crewing an evacuation flight for a missionary doctor who has been stranded at an interior village plagued by recent unrest. After landing, we shut down the plane, loaded our passengers, and were back in the air about 5 minutes later. Her tears of appreciation, and subsequent reunion with her husband, were sweet to behold .
Pilot David Holsten, with the Dales and villagers villagers in Mamit

While Miles was working In Wamena he did a ride along for a medical evacuation of a boy who had fallen out of a tree and sliced open his abdomen. It was 4 days before he got to an area to be picked up. He was flown to the closest hospital which was in Wamena but that hospital couldn’t care for his intensive wounds. He was then evacuated to Sentani the next day.

MAF is here to serve so that lives can be transformed by the Love of Jesus! We feel blessed to be a small part of it!

Wamena is the largest city in the world accessible only by air. Everything must be either grown there or flown in by airplane. We visited there before Miles worked on an airplane for a week and a half. The MAF staff there was great. I only stayed for the weekend then had to get back to school. They fed Miles the entire time he was there. The team took turns (they call it meal sked - schedule). The weather there was terrific! It reminded us of summer in the Northwest, warm days and cool nights. We were told that we would get cold there. I wish! It was however very comfortable and we actually sat in the living room of the guest house there. There are no air conditioners necessary so we didn’t have to stay in our bedroom like we do here in the evenings. The Harris family guys took us on a hike to a cave while we were there. The hike was great! The cave mouth had shifted since their last visit there so we didn’t actually go into the cave. Here are a few pics from that day. As usual Dion picked up some kids on the way back. They seem to flock to her everywhere we go. They followed us all the way back to the suspension bridge which was quite a ways from their huts. They giggled when Dion took their pictures and showed them. They took great delight in returning the “tickles” that Dion gave to them. We tried to use some of our new limited Indonesian vocabulary with them and they just laughed. Matt Harris told us that they speak Dani, yet another tribal language. We work with translators who took part in bringing The Bible in Dani to these special children of God.

Dion's groupies! :) The tall one is a girl named

Diana. She smiled when I told her my name. (pronounced Diona) Miles on rickety suspension

bridge

On Miles' trip back fromWamena they had a live pig that was loaded into the belly pod of the 206 he flew back to Sentani. Picture. Can you see the snout right behind the handle of the umbrella? The Papuans use umbrellas all the time to shield from the hot equator sun as well as the flash rain storms that crop up regularly.