When we first arrived here in the Philippines I hiked with a couple of other NTMA guys into the Isnag tribe to do some repairs on the solar panels and other odds and ends. It was a couple years ago but if I remember right we drove a car for 8 hours, rode a bus for 6 and slept 2 hours in a gross hotel. Keep in mind this wasn’t freeway driving, but crazy Philippine 2-lane provincial highway driving through the mountains. We then rode a van on a dirt mountain road for 5 hours before hiring a 4×4 for 4 hours – the 4×4 overheated prematurely so we started hiking. Then we hiked roughly 8-10 hours crossing the river about 37 times in flood stage. Once we arrived, I was dehydrated and hadn’t slept since we left Manila – the hotel was too gross to sleep! The next morning we had to get to work right away because our time there was limited.
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When it was time to leave, we hiked 30 minutes up to the airstrip (crossing the river several times) to meet the plane. We flew 40 minutes back to where we had parked the car. What a difference! Now, with the addition of the helicopter, missionaries can land in the tribe, 20 minutes after leaving the hangar. It nearly brought me to tears to see the missionaries moving back to the tribe after being without a flight program for so long. Praise God for such an amazing provision.