On November 28th rainy season started here with a round of weather that made flying nearly impossible. We were also alerted by Chris and Lynne Strange and Albert Castelijn that they had an emergency medical situation in their tribal location. The most critical patient was a man whom they were not certain if he would make it through the night. The other was a 16 year old girl who was dying of Tuberculosis. We woke up early the next morning and I headed to the airplane while it was still dark. Bailey started getting weather reports and coordinating with the missionaries at the airstrip. Weather was terrible and we knew we had our work cut out for us.
Just before lunch, it appeared that we had a window of opportunity in the weather and I took off and headed for the tribe. I never saw the ground from shortly after takeoff to the time I was overhead the airstrip. I could see the airstrip down through a very small hole in the clouds but I was nearly 9,000′ above the airstrip and the clouds were moving too fast that to descend through the hole among the mountains was not possible. I spent a considerable amount of time exploring the area for holes in the clouds to get down to the airstrip. I made it close, very close but had to call it off as the hole I descended through started to close me in. I had to get out while I still had options. I returned to our home airstrip after Bailey called me on the radio to report that the tribal location was experiencing heavy rain and overcast skies.
We watched the weather all day and never again had an opening to get to the tribe. It was the worst weather I had seen yet. We all went home a little discouraged and prepared to try the next day. We woke up and Bailey ran “communications central” again and I started down the dark one hour commute to the hangar. Along the way we learned that the man had in fact died and that everyone in the tribe was incredibly thankful that he died at home where they could have the funeral and his family could care for the details. It was a sad time, but we had to move past it quickly because Aysa, the 16 year old, was still in need of care.
The weather pattern from the day before had carried over into the morning and we knew we were up against some nasty weather again. Thankfully a large enough hole opened up in the clouds that I could get out of our home airstrip and into the tribe. It was a fight with weather the whole way, but we made it. The weather was closing in quickly so I didn’t waste any time on the ground. We loaded up 5 passengers – three patients and friends to take care of them. We took off just as the weather was closing in and made it back home and got the girl on her way to the hospital. She only weighed 57 pounds!
This is the video of the flight to get Aysa to the hospital…
One week later we loaded the airplane with Aysa’s dead body. It was a tough week, two deaths and the stress of the busiest flight schedule I’d worked through to date mixed with these emergencies. It worked out that we could fly Aysa’s body back to her family which was a huge testimony to her parents who were not believers. She had only recently placed her trust in Jesus as her Savior during an outreach by the Banwaon church leaders – the tribal church runs the outreaches now. The weather was still giving us challenges and we were delayed a couple of hours before we could takeoff. I tell you what, a two hour delay with a corpse in your plane is a LONG delay!
Finally the weather cleared and we flew back to the tribe. The believers there met us at the plane. There were over 100 of them. They took the body and had a sweet funeral service for her which was, again, a testimony to her parents who know nothing of hope beyond the grave. There was still more flying to be done that day so I hopped in the plane and flew the rest of the day’s route.
Just this week I learned that Aysa’s parents are now attending the teaching in the church and are eager to learn about the Savior their daughter came to know just before her death. The love of the missionaries, the efforts of the flight program, and the comfort and counsel of the Banwaon believers have impacted them greatly. We are praying that the Lord will bring her parents to Him and that God will use her death to bring eternal life to the village she came from. It is a display of Love that the unbelievers have a hard time reconciling and are looking for explanations. Let’s pray they find their answers.
1 Peter 2:12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.