It's All Making Sense

Today, I (Corey) got to go on another flight in our new Kodiak airplane. At this point, I have gotten to fly in a Kodiak three times since we landed here two weeks ago. Two of those trips were for RTS (Return To Service) flights which are typically done after a big service is done on the aircraft and today's flight was simply an opportunity to see what MAF does. Unfortunately, my pictures were quite limited because the weather was pretty bad but I thought I would share a couple and share a little bit about my experience.

We left around 6:30am this morning and we were scheduled to take a load of food to a particular village which is roughly an hour flight from our base. As we were flying, so many thoughts flooded my mind. One was, how in the world did people groups get through hundreds of miles of thick jungle only to eventually live on the side of a mountain in what would seem to be the middle of nowhere? Another was, why do the people need the food that we are taking to them right now? What did they do before there were airplanes? Anyway, there were about five hundred others but the reality is, I had no idea how these people could have ever even been found without the use of aircraft and my appreciation for our ministry here skyrocketed today. In addition, my respect for our pilots increased greatly as I really got to see first hand what kind of courage it takes for them to do what they do every day. There are hundreds of variables and though they are VERY well trained, they still have a risky job. Many of the villages that we serve have airstrips that go up hill. FYI, when a plane lands, it usually goes down so when a plane is descending and is approaching an uphill climb, it basically looks like you are flying into the side of a mountain at 100 mph. The pilots have to do some pretty wild things to keep that plane from losing it and keeping it's passengers safe. Very impressive. I've seen video and hundreds of pictures but to actually do it is a whole different story.

Back to the story. For about 45 mins, it was fairly flat but the jungle was dense. Picture a head of broccoli, a large one as far as you can see in every direction. After the 45 mins, we began to approach the highlands. This is basically just a bunch of mountains that can make you feel about 3 millimeters tall. As we were going through the highlands, unfortunately it began to rain and the clouds were coming in and it was beginning to become difficult to see where one mountain ended and another began so we had to abort our planned delivery. So we began to go back but thought we would land on one of the strips which was out of the bad weather just so I could experience it all. At this point, I was quite confident in our pilot so even though we were going 100mph into the side of a mountain, I knew he would pull up and make a very smooth landing out of something most pilots would never even attempt. We couldn't stay at the village because the clouds were rolling in so if we got out of the plane, we would have been there a while, maybe all night. But, while I was there, I took a couple pics of the people that our organization serves on a daily basis. The fist photo has a couple very malnourished children in it which you can see in the lower left corner. It was then made clear why we need to bring food to these villages. Even though they have survived over the centuries without us, many die because all they eat is roots and leaves. We can load up a plane full of basic foods that will prolong their lives so that little children don't have to die so regularly. Unfortunately, it is a very common thing for parents to bury their children and in some ways has become less tragic because of that. In the mean time, we get to play a role in giving them an opportunity at life, not just physically but spiritually as well. Thanks so much to all of you that play a role in our ministry. I am so thankful to be a part of this and I hope you are too.