Three years ago,
New Tribes Mission Aviation’s quest for a Kodiak for Papua New Guinea began. It
was one based on the need to replace our older, less efficient 206 program with
the newer, more efficient (and let’s face it, much cooler) aircraft, the Quest
Kodiak. This is an airplane designed by bush pilots with missions in mind. It
can take off heavier and faster, and land shorter than the 206’s we were
flying, plus it’s big squishy tires means it doesn’t tear up the grass strips
our missionaries work so hard to build and maintain.
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Josh and I standing with Kodiak #3 |
The decision was
made to replace the six 206’s with just 3 Kodiaks. This would use the same
amount of pilots, but with two man crews and increased payload, it would be
more efficient and ultimately cheaper for our missionaries. At 2.5 million
dollars an airplane, this was not a cheap goal… but nothing is impossible for
our God.
NTMA sent a
pilot to PNG to begin flying another mission’s Kodiak, building his in-country
hours, increasing his training, and kickstarting our own Kodiak program. The
drawback? NTMA didn’t own a Kodiak, and only had about $10,000 towards the
first one. But the Lord honored their step of faith, and within months of
sending Jon Leedahl to PNG, the first Kodiak was purchased. You probably
remember the rest, that Jon was in a life-threatening accident which resulted
in his leg being amputated above the knee. This was disheartening and humbling,
reminding all of NTMA that everything, including airplanes, personnel, and
training is in God’s hands.
In order to
drive that reminder home some more, God brought along some generous donors who
bought the second and third Kodiaks for Papua New Guinea! Now we had 3 brand
new Kodiaks ready to be outfitted and ferried across the Pacific Ocean to Papua
New Guinea.
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Our team! |
On May 5, 2016
the third and final Kodiak landed in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, ready
to begin serving the people and missionaries we love so much. It was a time of
worship, thankfulness, excitement, and relief that it had finally made it (and
there would be no more headache of importing an airplane). Within just a few
days, it was up and flying along with its two sisters.
It’s humbling to
be a part of this small piece of history… the quest for a Kodiak, and the
closing of one program to open a new one. It’s very clear that God was in these
airplanes’ journeys from the beginning, and He will continue to be there as
these aircraft fly personnel, groceries, building materials, Bibles, medicine,
and other supplies in order to support our missionaries planting and building
churches in the some of the most remote places in the world.
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Three answers to prayers!
Photo by Ryan Farran |
On a completely unrelated to aviation note... Here's a couple more fun things:
- I love Downton Abbey, and so do a lot of other ladies here. Unfortunately, due to our location it takes a long time for us to actually see stuff. But one of my dear friends' mum gifted her (and us!) with the final season of Downton. We watched them all over a couple of weeks, and then had a lovely tea so we could watch the finale together. There were all sorts of sandwiches, dainties, and of course, tea. It was such a fun evening pulling party "crackers", drinking with our pinkies out, and being dressed up in our best Downton garb! :)
- Yesterday I celebrated my 25th birthday! It was pretty low key, which is just how I like it.
- Today I was supposed to fly into one of our bush locations with some of our medical staff in order to run an immunization clinic for their village. Unfortunately, due to bad weather on both ends, we had to reschedule our flight for tomorrow at dawn.
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My Downton inspired outfit. |
Labels: adventures, aviation, bible, celebrations, husband, josh and erin verdonck, missionary aviation, missionary life, new tribes mission, new tribes mission aviation, ntma, papua new guinea, quest kodiak