Long Metun

This week I got checked out in another new to me airstrip. It is possibly the most challenging airstrip that I fly to. The length is 1200 feet and it has an average slope of 11%. Even though the average slope is 11% about half of it is 23% slope. In other words, you touch down in a fairly flat area, but just as soon as you do, you start climbing a massive hill. You actually have to add power after you land to make it to the top.

What season is it?

In America there are four seasons, summer, fall, winter in spring. There are also many seasons in Indonesia. We have summer, summer, summer, and summer. We also have wet season, smokey season, and now snake season.

Spitting cobras are now in the middle of their mating season. In the past few weeks, our next door neighbor has killed one in their yard. Another neighbor has killed two, and yet another neighbor had 4 in their yard and one in their house in the past month. I've personally seen only one and it was at our neighbors house. We would have killed it, but it got away.

I know that Laura's mom won't like reading this blog because she doesn't like snakes, but we do feel like our dogs keep the snakes out of our yard. The spitting cobra is a snake that would much rather go somewhere and hide as opposed to attacking people.

The top picture was taken from the internet to show the type of snake. The bottom picture is a cobra that our neighbor killed.

Follow Up on the Blog About the River Drowning

I blogged a few days ago about the mission trip tragedy, but it turns out the true story is a little bit more dramatic that what I originally wrote. Below is what really happened.

Tim and seven others decided to bathe/swim in the river. They were not in the boat at the time, but were taking an afternoon break. Tim said that he was one of the first one’s in the water. He was standing about knee deep in water, when he stuck his head under to get wet. When he came up he was only a few feet away from where he was just standing, but he could no longer touch bottom. So he started swimming back to where he was just standing. After swimming for a minute or two he realized he wasn’t getting any closer to where he had been. Actually, he was working really hard to keep his head above water. The reason why is because there was a continual down current in this area. It was basically a very large, subtle, swirling eddy typical of a Borneo jungle river. At this point he realized Tim was in trouble so a couple guys swam toward him to give him a hand. Before they knew it, they too were struggling to stay up. They started yelling for help, but the people on shore thought they were all just horsing around. So they jumped in as well to join the fun.

When the locals realized that this mission team was in trouble the ran to get their big 30 person boat. The locals knew the dangers of the river, and they knew to not take their normal 8 person boats to that part of the river. They knew they needed the big one. Pretty soon they were able to rescue all but one of the guys.

The body of the guy who drown, whose name is actually Jerry, not Phillip, was not found until 2 days later. You would assume that the body would have been found somewhere down river, but it actually surfaced in the exact area that he drown while swimming with the rest of the mission team.

His funeral was on Tuesday. I mentioned that his mother was not taking the news of her son drowning very well, and the reason why is because she just lost her husband to a stroke within the past month or so.

The other people that I mentioned were unconscious actually turned out to be just fine. Of course lots of people are very shaken up by this event.

Tim is exhausted. Every day since the event he’s been busy with something regarding the event. Initially, he was questioned by the police, which was mostly a formality. He’s had a part in the funeral, and several memorial services. Every night since the drowning he’s been busy, and he’s had lots of work/stress in the hangar at MAF as well because we’ve been so busy lately. He could use your prayers.

Mission Trip Turns Into Tragedy

A few hours ago, we heard from one of our fellow American MAF'ers, Tim, who is on an Indonesian river boat returning from a weekend mission trip interior. I’m not sure how many people are on the trip, however I do know that Julia’s pediatrition, Dr. Franky, and our general doctor, Dr. Herrison, are there. We know both of these doctors fairly well. Everyone on the trip is Inodnesian except for Tim.

There were eight people in Tim’s boat. It overturned suddenly in a swift moving part of the river. Tim, an experienced SCUBA diver, struggled and struggled to stay above water. He finally resorted to the fact that this was probably his day to be with the Lord. Not too much later, another one of the boats came by and plucked him out of the water. The sad news is that one guy named Phillip did not get pulled out soon enough and drown. Another man is still unconscious. Thankfully, there are two doctors there, but I’m not sure if the group is even back to a town with any kind of hospital.

I’m sure the group could use your prayers right now. Apparently Phillip’s mother is reacting very strongly to the situation. Her friends and loved ones are quite worried about her.

Lawn Mower Repairs......AGAIN

I really enjoy cutting my own grass every week. Some of the other MAFers hire someone to mow their grass, but I find that mowing the grass myself is very enjoyable. The only problem is that it seems like my lawn mower is almost always broken down. I think I spend more time fixing it than I do mowing. This is a problem here, because there isn't anywhere that sells parts. In order to get parts I email my brother-in-law in the States and he throws them in the mail for me. So, this week, I spent two days of my vacation fiddling with this mower trying to get it to run. The good news is that I got it running again.....hopefully, it will go several weeks again without giving me any more problems.

Would You Mind Bringing Some KFC Chicken When You Come back?

This is Surang. Surang lives in the village of Mahak Baru, which is quite deep in the heart of Borneo. Actually, it is exactly an hour and a half of flying from Tarakan (on the coast) to get to his village. Surang loves airplanes and is always eager to help load stuff into the airplane or help fuel the airplane. You can see the truth of this fact in the picture above. He’s also a really outgoing, friendly guy. Last time I landed there, I opened my door and the first thing that he did was reach in and punch me in the shoulder. That was his way of saying, ‘Welcome back, friend.’

On Wednesday, I flew straight to his village to do a med-evac flight. A man had been in a logging accident, and he desperately needed to get to a hospital. We couldn’t get there until about 18 hours after the accident, but we got there as quick as we possibly could.

My plan was to fly the hour and a half back to Tarakan and meet an ambulance that would take this man to the hospital. I would then make a second trip to his village to pick up some more people that wanted to go to Tarakan.

So, after I got everything ready to go to Tarakan on the first trip, Surang says to me, “Hey, bring us back some KFC chicken!” I said, “Ya right, if you want chicken, I’ll bring it back, but you have to arrange it with someone else in Tarakan to have it waiting at the airport.” My assumption was that Surang was just joking. Little did I understand his determination.

When I got to Tarakan, I met the ambulance, and then reloaded the airplane. To my surprise, there was an order of KFC chicken all ready to go into the airplane. Surang was very happy when I landed again in Mahak with his order of KFC!

I figure that I broke a world record for the longest distance to deliver KFC. By the way, in Indonesia, it is very common that KFC delivers to your house. So, KFC delivered it to the airport, but then I brought it another 1.5 hours by air to the heart of Borneo.

As a missionary pilot, I never know just quite what I’m going to be hauling next.