Isol's friends carrying him to the clinic

We were hard at work today on the second of two annual inspections on the aircraft here in Palawan when we received a call at quitting time from some of our tribal missionaries on the island. They had a seriously injured man in their clinic and needed an emergency flight first thing in the morning. Below is the prayer request from the missionary team:

“About 4pm, we got word that some guys were carrying Isol to us, a young man, who had stepped into a pig trap in the jungle. The traps have a spring-loaded bamboo blade, which had gone right through one of his calves, and into the other calf. This happened in the morning, and it was 3pm before he was able to crawl to the nearest people for help. They carried him here. We think he probably lost a fair bit of blood, but praise the Lord, the bleeding had stopped by the time he reached us, though he was in terrible pain and kept passing out.

Julie and Ginny calmly took care of him, and though he was crying out in pain earlier, he is resting well now, well medicated. Dave called the plane for the morning, but it’s undergoing a regular service. The pilot and mechanic are going to work through the night to get it finished in time to leave to come here early in the morning. Please pray for them that they will be able to finish putting the engine back together without having a really late night, and that they are able to get an early test flight. Also for clear, calm weather. And of course please pray for Isol, that he will be comfortable as possible tonight. His family will look after him at the clinic building tonight, and we’ll be on call.”

We were able to finish the inspection at a reasonable hour and the plane is ready for the flight tomorrow. Please pray for Ben as he will be negotiating the unpredictable rainy season weather in order to pick up and fly this tribal man to a hospital. Due to the difficulty level of the airstrip in this tribe, he cannot land if it is raining. Also, the airstrip gets very slippery, so pray for a nice surface to land on, and no rain.

The team working with this tribe runs a clinic that helps meet the physical needs of the tribal people. It is our prayer that through this clinic and the love displayed by the missionaries, that the tribal people will hunger for Jesus as they see His love displayed by the missionaries. The team is learning the language so that they can teach and disciple the people of this tribe. We pray that Isol and others will be able to get the care they need so they can live to one day know their Savior.

We arrived here in the Philippines last August and as we approach our one year anniversary our heads are already spinning with how much has changed since we first boarded a plane to come here. When we left California we had a set of plans that seemed like a very reasonable thing to shoot for. We decided to go with what seemed clear at the time and even signed a 14 month lease on our apartment.

And then everything started to change. Originally we were planning to go to Palawan in January when we are finished with language school and begin the “checkout” process there and work alongside our friends and co-workers, Ben and Suzy Hart. At the time that was the most urgent need and the reason we hurried to get here and the reason we hurried through language study.

A more pressing need has now arisen and it is really good that we hurried here because we are now in a position to fill a need we would have otherwise been unable to fill. We had no idea, but God knew. We plan to finish Tagalog study on September 4, and then move to Mindanao where they speak Cebuano. Bummer.

Currently our missionaries are receiving their air-support from SIL (Wycliffe Bible Translators in the Philippines). SIL has graciously covered for us while we have been shorthanded, but they have accelerated their timetable and are moving out of Mindanao in January 2010. Currently we have no program there to fill in when this happens.

The plan is for Bailey and I to move to Mindanao and help our chief pilot, Garry and his wife Cynthia, with administration tasks and the set up of a program while we also go through the checkout process on Mindanao. Once checked out, I will help fly for the program while Garry travels off and on to Luzon to assist the start of a helicopter program. SIL currently does our flying on Luzon as well, but will be leaving the country in April of 2010.

The opening of these two flight programs will be our primary job for the next year. This is a huge task and one that we are not sure how we can accomplish with so few resources and so little time. Please pray as we are brainstorming solutions and plans to cover all these needs.

This is a big change for us. It is a bit discouraging to think of learning Cebuano as we work on Mindanao, but we are going to do our best to learn and fit in to the local language and culture as we work. No more language school!

Once these two flight programs are opened up, we will plan to move again. This time to Palawan to relieve our other pilot team, Ben and Suzy Hart, so they can go on a much needed furlough. We are trusting the Lord for wisdom as we venture into a sea of unknowns and make plans as best we can.

All these changes are working toward the same goal that we were sent here to accomplish. Get the Gospel to places it has never been. It is absolutely critical that we get these flight programs set up without causing a gap in the flight service for our missionaries. They rely on the airplane because of their remote locations, and we don’t want to see their works delayed because we can’t transport them. This is not only important for our missionaries, but also for the SIL missionaries who we will now fly for until their Bible translations are completed.