The Village The World Forgot

Some places on this earth face the unique phenomenon of having been frozen in time. Whether it be a small collection of huts deep in the Amazon rainforest, a small town on the great plains of North America, a remote village in Africa, a quaint little country village in Europe, or an isolated village in a remote corner of Papua New Guinea. In these places it seems that at some point in time, for no particular reason, the clock stopped moving. You can go to these places and see what life may have been like decades, or even centuries, ago. Of course it may not seem that way to the inhabitants of those places, but from an outsider’s perspective it feels like you found a key to a time machine. That is certainly the way I felt recently.

Kaiam village and airstrip

Having arrived in PNG in March to work as a pilot with Mission Aviation Fellowship, I had the opportunity to go and live in a remote village for one week as part of my language training and cultural orientation. An MAF volunteer, Samuel Haab, also went with me. We were fortunate to be able to spend the week with the people of Kaiam, which is located northwest of Mount Hagen and on the northern edge of the PNG highlands. On April 12th we flew to the Kaiam airstrip and were greeted by the few families that live in the immediate area. Then we watched with detached fascination, and a little anxiety, as the plane flew off and left us to manage as best we could with our limited understanding of the Tok Pisin language.

Kaiam airstrip during its building phase

The story of Kaiam, its people, and its airstrip is certainly an interesting one. The story of the airstrip, from marking it out to its first landing, had taken 15 years of back-breaking toil for the Lutz family and every member of the community. The late Doctor Steve Lutz, Wapenamanda-based Gutnius Lutheran missionary, marked the centre line with his family back in 2000. He sadly never got to see the finished result, so for his wife Julie and son Anton it was an emotional moment on the 10th of February 2015 when an MAF plane made the first landing at Kaiam. Sebastian Kurz, one of the MAF pilots on that first landing, explains just what the new airstrip means to the community; “I knew that it was special for the people in Kaiam to see a fixed wing aeroplane landing for the first time, but I hadn't any idea how extraordinarily special it was for them. I have been there several times now and only slowly do I get a glimpse of what it means for those people to have access to the outside world through this airstrip. They were totally excited and tried to explain bits and pieces of history. Sebastian continues, “They had to travel down the Kaiam and Karawari Rivers if they wanted to go to the next airstrip at Munduku. This journey took them two days and was very exhausting. It was especially critical in medical emergencies. If they wanted to evacuate somebody they had to charter a chopper, which cost them a fortune.” Along with the airstrip there is a small aid post overseen by Yapis Petro, the local MAF agent, and supplied by the Gutnius Lutheran mission at Wapenamanda.

Yapis Petro in his garden

Even with the airstrip, Kaiam and its people are still very isolated. So much so that they do not have any significant avenues with which to earn income. They are forced into subsistence living and taking what they can from the jungle. Whether it’s saksak, a food made from the sago palm, or bananas, or hunting wild pig, all the food they have is taken from the jungle, and if they can’t get food from the jungle then they go hungry. If they can manage to collect some money to buy supplies from Wewak or Mount Hagen, they must still have it flown in, or else travel three days downriver to the nearest road and bring it by canoe. To earn a little money, each family searches for gold in the Kaiam River using a small improvised sluice made from tree bark. However, they work for hours to only find a fraction of a gram of gold. But that gold only has value if they can sell it, which is almost impossible in the middle of the jungle. And so they live virtually disconnected from the outside world.

Gold panning in the river

During our week in Kaiam, Samuel and I had the unique opportunity to see a side of PNG that most people never get to see. We toured the village, talked with the people, ate with the people, worshipped God together at their small church and went on walkabouts into the jungle surrounding the village. We saw how they build houses, grow gardens, and how they pan for gold. The most striking aspect that we witnessed was how grateful they are to have the help of MAF and other missionaries. But also how desperate they are not to be forgotten by the world.

Sitting and talking with some of the local men

Even being in a remote corner of PNG, Kaiam and its people are in some ways more connected than hundreds, if not thousands, of other villages, simply because they have an airstrip. Many other villages that do not have airstrips are extremely isolated, and in many ways forgotten by the world. Kaiam, and other villages like it, may be forgotten by the world, but they are not forgotten by Jesus and His church!


Thank you for all you support,
Ryan

More Info:
www.mafc.org
http://maf-papuanewguinea.org/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/281213732064928/

Completion of the Commencement

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich. And in this I give advice: It is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and were desiring to do a year ago; but now you also must complete the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to desire it, so there also may be a completion out of what you have. For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have. For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened; but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may supply their lack, that their abundance also may supply your lack, that there may be equality. As it is written, ‘He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack.’”    2 Corinthians 8:9-15

It’s surprising how hard a few verses can hit you when you are not ready for it. These ones in particular threw me for a loop recently and I am still trying to sort it all out in my mind. Through His words God spoke very strongly to me in regards to my time here in PNG as well as MAF’s mission here. But His words also speak to each of us individually, whatever circumstances He has put us in.

The initial few months here in PNG seemed like a very slow buildup to what has become a very busy flight schedule. The last gasp before the plunge. The calm before the storm. Since I wasn’t a part of the flight operations in March and April, I was trying to build a solid foundation for what I hope will be years of effective service here in PNG.

In March I was busy taking classes to learn the Tok Pisin language. I can read and write the language with only a little difficulty, but learning to speak it clearly will take some time. Mostly when I try to speak it I just fumble my way through it and hope I get my point across, usually with lots of animated hand gestures. But all in all the classes were a good learning opportunity.

I was fortunate to arrive here just a few weeks prior to the annual MAF PNG conference weekend. Once a year all the ex-pat MAF staff get together for a time of rest, relaxation, teaching, and to update everyone on the direction that the PNG program is headed in. So at the end of March we all went and spent the weekend at the conference center at the S.I.L. base in Ukarumpa. It was a good weekend of getting to know some of the other staff and socializing in a relaxed atmosphere.

After the conference weekend, my schedule started to get a little busier. I wrapped up the Tok Pisin classes at the beginning of April. Then in preparation for joining the flight operations I began to study the manuals for the Twin Otter and for MAF procedures. But before I could start flying I had to complete the initial orientation.

Arriving at Kaiam

April 12, 2016

One crucial part of the orientation process is learning to comprehend the lifestyle of the people who live in the remote bush. Serving the people in the remote villages is one of the main reasons we are here. So to try and better understand them, since their way of life is so vastly different from those who live in town, every new MAF family goes to a remote village for one week to live with the people. I had that opportunity in the middle of April when I went to the village of Kaiam. A MAF volunteer, Sam Haab, also went with me. Kaiam is located northwest of Mount Hagen and on the northern edge of the PNG highlands. On April 12th we flew to the Kaiam airstrip and were greeted by the few families that live in the immediate area. Then we watched with detached fascination, and a little anxiety, as the plane flew off and left us to manage as best we could with our limited understanding of the Tok Pisin language. During our week there, Sam and I had the unique opportunity to see a side of PNG that most people never get to see. We toured the village, talked with the people, ate with the people, worshipped God together at their small church and went on walkabouts into the jungle surrounding the village. We saw how they build houses, grow gardens, and how they pan for gold. It was strikingly obvious just how grateful they are to have the help of MAF and other missionaries. After fifteen years of work, MAF was able to do the first ever landing on the brand new airstrip at Kaiam just over a year ago. Since then there have been a couple of lifesaving medevacs, and medical supplies and other important items have been flown in and out. Anton Lutz and his family (Lutheran missionaries) have been involved in the development of this area for over thirty years, building the airstrip and bringing in medical supplies. You can read more about that week in the posted story “The Village the World Forgot.”

At a Bush Village During My First Day of Flying

May 2, 2016

After I got back from Kaiam I started flight training in preparation for joining the flight operations. Since I have flown the Twin Otter before in Alberta, I was able to do an abbreviated training course at the end of April. Then on May 2nd I flew my first flights and officially joined the MAF PNG flight program. Because I needed to be trained in the day-to-day operations here, the first two weeks in May were spent flying out of Goroka instead of Mount Hagen so that I could fly with an experienced captain and he could teach me some of the details that allow us to get our work done. Those first two weeks were very busy and intense with my brain working on overload most of the time. So that I would be able to get up to speed as quickly as possible, I only had a few days off the rest of the month. It was very fatiguing, but God sustained me and enabled me to learn what was needed, particularly during those first two weeks. Fortunately, on the last weekend in May I was able to take a break and get some much needed rest. Some friends and I took a road trip to a lodge in the mountains on Lake Kutubu and spent the weekend relaxing and having fun. We had a good time.

Now that the initial month of flying is over, there is only a few more details to take care of before I can settle down into the day-to-day flight routine. In June I will be doing a few flight tests to show that I meet the standards required by MAF. Then on June 17th I will be doing an oral exam about the PNG aviation regulations. I would appreciate your prayers for a successful outcome for all those tests.

Here are a few links to photos so you can see more of what I've been up to. Enjoy!

MAF Flying in May
Building a Health Center in a Remote PNG Village

Thank you for all you support,
Ryan

More Info:
www.mafc.org
http://maf-papuanewguinea.org/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/281213732064928/