86 miles—48 minutes or 24 hours??

If you had to chose between two routes to travel 86 miles, would you choose the quick 48 minutes or the adventurous 24 hours? We got to do both. It was great to get back to the village for a 10 day visit. Ryan, a new missionary to the our area, and I were able to fly to the village by boarding our mission’s Cessna 206, flying 40 minutes to a remote airstrip, and then taking an 8 minute helicopter flight. Such a quick, easy trip! However, on our return trip it was a much different story. We hired a village boat, started our return trip late in the afternoon and spent the night in a village down river. Early the next morning, we continued our trip down river and out onto the ocean following the north coast of New Britain for 5 hours. At one point in the trip we were about 15 miles from any land, so the really calm seas were a huge blessing. After our ocean travel was over, we waited an hour to catch a PMV (Public Motor Vehicle) to continue our trip. On our rough, 2 hour long truck ride to town we passed the PMV we missed getting on earlier that day. They had a flat, without a spare! Both Ryan and I were very thankful not to be stuck on that truck. That afternoon we connected with our supply buyer in town and caught a ride to the mission center. Would you believe, just 5 minutes from home we felt the bump, bump of a flat front tire? The 4 of us guys (2 very determined ones) changed that tire in just a few minutes. Ahhh! Home at last!