“Commit
your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established.” Proverbs 16:3
That verse is
definitely one that I have had to keep in mind over the past 4 months. With
everything that has been happening and all the preparations in progress I would
probably go crazy if I was not constantly taking everything back to the Lord
through prayer. Looking back now, I can see all the blessings and provisions
from God that made the way forward possible and also made it a little easier.
And for that I am truly thankful. With all the stops that had to be made,
sometimes it felt like I would never get here. But I had faith that God would
not take me to the threshold and then close the door, although sometimes He may
work that way. Now we get to see the fruit of the faithfulness of your support
as we anxiously anticipate what He will do here.
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| Working in the Arnhem Land hangar December 12, 2015 |
As I write
this letter I am finally in Papua New Guinea! It has been quite the journey
thus far. Back in December I was still in Arnhem Land, working hard and
sweating every day. After a month and a half there I was getting a little worn
out, not so much from the work but more from the hot and humid climate.
Fortunately, the Engineering staff took a week off over Christmas, so I was
able to take a nice break and catch my breath. For Christmas I was invited to
spend the day with one of the MAF families and a few other of the MAF staff. It
was a good time. Then towards the end of January I wrapped up my time in Arnhem
Land. After saying farewell to everyone there I flew back to Cairns on the
21st.
After a
restful weekend in Cairns, the flight standardization course started that
Monday in Mareeba. Mareeba is a small town west of Cairns where MAF has their
main training base in Australia. The standardization course was a mix of ground
school review and flight exercises. It was a very intense 4 weeks. Because I
hadn’t flown an airplane since October, my flying skills were a little
unpolished.
 |
| Taking a break during flight training in Australia February 17, 2016 |
I was also
learning to fly a new airplane in a new area, which can be interesting. What
you might not know is that each country has their own rules and regulations for
conducting a flight, in addition to MAF’s regulations. The rules in Australia
are similar to Canada, but there are also some significant differences that I
had to learn. At the same time that I was learning all of this I was also
studying for the Air Law regulations exam for Papua New Guinea. While also
trying to organize the shipping of most of my belongings by air freight to PNG.
Needless to say, sometimes I felt like my mind was running in circles and not
knowing what to focus on. But it was a beneficial and successful course, and it
helped to prepare me for the flying that I’ll be doing here in PNG. Thank you
for your prayers and support during the course, I really appreciate it. On the
weekends I was able to get out and see the Australian countryside. It was good
to have that time to hike and swim and relax for a brief moment. And I hope to
have the opportunity to do more of the same in my downtime here in PNG.
Then I
continued onward with my journey. I stopped in Cairns again for a weekend to
wait for my flight to PNG. Being a poorer country, the internet in PNG is not
the greatest. So I was hoping to connect with my home church in Brownfield,
Alberta before I left Australia. Their support has been amazing all throughout
this ministry and I am so thankful for it. It worked out that I was able to
Skype into the church service on February 21st. I was able to update them on my
situation and answer some questions in the short time we had together. Although
it was a little tricky to organize it due to the time difference. At 11:00am
that Sunday it was 4:00am Monday morning in Cairns. But I was able to get a
little sleep before my flight to PNG later that morning. 8 hours after that
Skype call, I left Australia for the time being.
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| The countryside in the Enga Province during my first weekend in PNG February 27, 2016 |
After a brief
stop in Port Moresby to write the PNG Air Law exam I continued onto Mount Hagen
in the Western Highlands province. The exam went well, thank you for your
prayers and support in that. MAF has their main PNG base here in Mt. Hagen and
I’m currently living in a housing compound a stone’s throw from the airport, so
it’s a nice walk to the hangar in the morning. There are 12 other houses on
this compound. It is both expat and national families, but all working with
MAF. There are a few other compounds around the area that house the rest of the
MAF staff. A few weeks before I arrived I was contacted by some of the younger
staff and they invited me to join them on a weekend trip that was scheduled for
the weekend after I arrived. It was such an unexpected blessing. For me, one of
the hardest issues is making new friends and connecting with people wherever I
go. So to be invited along on their trip was a good answer to prayer. So after
a few days of initial orientation I was able to go with them on a short road
trip into the mountains. It was a nice weekend of getting to know some of the
other staff that I will be working with.
So looking ahead.
At the beginning of March I will be starting language lessons for Tok Pisin,
which is the main common language here. At the same time I will be studying
different aspects of PNG culture. Those classes will run for approximately 4
weeks. That time will also include a week of living in a village towards the
end of March. It will help me to get a better understanding of the culture and
language. Although the thought of being in a village with no other “whiteskins”
around is incredibly intimidating. After I return from the village orientation
I will be wrapping up the language training before turning to flight training.
The flight training will be a long process of
learning the specific MAF procedures here in PNG. Once the initial training is
taken care of, I will be going along on flights as an observer to become more
familiar with the operations. Then I will be able to start flying the charters
with another pilot to supervise me until I am checked out on various different
airstrips and routes that I will need to be able to fly solo. Perhaps the
biggest hurdle in learning to fly here is the weather. Most people would say
that flying in the steep terrain is the hardest part to learn, but since I have
done some flying in the Rocky Mountains, the terrain flying is not completely
new to me. The tropical weather here changes extremely fast and can be quite
intense. But on the other hand, it is very localized so you can often fly
around the storms without too much difficulty. After the flight training is
complete I will possibly be moving to one of the outlying bases for a period of
time. I am looking forward to the day when all the training is complete and I
will be able to fly full-time.
Thank you for all you support,
Ryan
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