So last week I asked you to pray about the upcoming audit on
the flight program here in PNG; the one that would determine if and when the
Kodiak could start flying and serving the missionaries and people of Papua New
Guinea. We can now praise the Lord together that it is now finished!
The aviation authorities arrived on Thursday to begin the
three-day in depth look at the manuals, procedures, and program here in PNG. Amazingly,
it went so well that they were able to finish in only 2 days! If it wasn’t clear
before now – God’s blessing is definitely on this airplane!
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| This is the NTMA-PNG team - finally finished with the inspection, and ready to begin serving with this newly-approved airplane! |
The Kodiak will have its first flight before the end of
November, and officially carry passengers the first week of December! There has
been a lot of time, work, and prayer that has gone into this airplane in order
to get it ready to begin serving; and countless hours of labor at both the
training center in Arizona, USA and the hangar in Goroka, PNG.
This is the official green light to get this airplane off
the ground and begin the work that it was created to do – bring the Gospel to
the hardest to reach places in the world. It’s not about glorifying the
airplane, but praising the Lord for what He will do through and with it, its
pilots, and its mechanics.
Our pilots will soon begin training so that they can
continue to transition our flight program from 206 to Kodiak. You can pray that
the transition and training will be smooth and quick. If everything goes
according to schedule, Josh should be up and flying by April or May at the
latest.
How appropriate that this has all happened the same week as Thanksgiving - just one more thing to add to the list of things to be thankful for! We are so excited that everything has gone as quickly and
as well as it has, and that in just a few short days NTMA’s first Kodiak in
Papua New Guinea will be flying, serving, and fulfilling the purpose it was
created for. Thanks for being a part of that with us!
Labels: adventures, aviation, husband, josh and erin verdonck, missionary aviation, missionary life, new tribes mission, new tribes mission aviation, ntma, papua new guinea, quest kodiak, thanksgiving