Correction:

It's been brought to my attention that my blog the other day wasn't really clear. I talked about two different people in the blog. The guy in the above picture is Riki. He is our MAF airstrip agent. He is not related in any way to the family whose house burned down. The gas stored in the house was not MAF gas. It was gas the family sells to cars and bikes along the side of the road. The wife was preparing the gas for the next days sales when it exploded.

Sorry for the confusion.

Dealing With Death

One of the things that I have had to deal with over and over again since coming to Indonesia is people dying. Yesterday, the family of Mrs. Turi called to tell me that she had passed away. Also, within a short time of that, another man, who we brought to the hospital from interior just a couple days ago, died.

As for the rest of the Turi family, she left behind four young children. They lost all their worldly possessions and her husband could be permanently handicapped due to the burns he received on his hands. It’s amazing how in just a matter of minutes their world was turned upside down.

People here, for the most part, do not have any hope. They are quick to give up when it comes to providing medical care for a close family member. It’s so different than our culture in America where we spend millions to prolong life. Sometimes it’s hard for us Westerners to deal with these issues. Pray especially for our new pilot as he is experiencing this for the first time in his career. It’s amazing how being here for just a few years has helped me to trust in God for these issues. I’ll try to help as much as I can, but in the end I leave it in God’s hands. That one fact gives me hope.

Please pray for my close Indonesian friend, Abetnego. Since January he has had four close family members die suddenly. On top of that his wife was having pains in her abdomen. After a long time of not knowing the cause, her appendix almost ruptured, and she was very close to death. Had not a few MAF’ers interfered and paid for her to fly to Jakarta for a better check up she probably would have died. On the same day, that her appendix was removed Abetnego had a motorcycle accident. He was able to walk away, but was in a lot of pain for quite a while. They are both doing much better now, but they still need your prayers.

We are so glad to have the privilege of living here in Indonesia. It’s a privilege because we get to serve our God and help these people with their deep heart felt needs. Sometimes we wish we could do more, but we know that God is in control.

Please Pray For the Turi Family

This is Riky. He helps us with the float plane whenever we come to his village. We like to store a few drums of Avgas next to his house for our airplanes. He can haul six jerry cans of Avgas on his motorcycle with only one board and transport them between his house and the river where we land.


On Thursday, we got a call to come this his village for a medical emergency flight. At first, the weather didn't allow us to land, but after landing at another place downriver and waiting for the weather to clear we were able to go back and pick up the Turi family.

The night before they had a candle lit near where they keep gasoline. It exploded and the wife tried to put the fire out. In the process her clothes caught on fire. The husband managed to save his wife but his hand was burned severely in the process. The wife has burns that cover 100% of her body. Their young children managed to save themselves by jumping out of the window to safety.

Today, I visited the family at the hospital. His wife is in the intensive care unit, but is still alert enough to talk to me. I sat with the husband and rest of the family for a long time and what able to share with them why I came to Indonesia, and why MAF does what we do here. Please pray for their recovery. They also lost all their possessions in the fire so they will be facing financial hardships once they get out of the hospital. We hope and pray that the wife can even survive. The next couple weeks will be critical as they try to help her to fight infection.

River Shrimp

The other day I was off waiting in the village of Kuala Kurun, and I had some time to kill. So as I was chatting with this man, who was fishing, he "reeled" in this shrimp with his fishing pole. The thing was massive. It was about 9 inches long with it's antennae another 12 inches added to that. Although I thought this was big it is actually a very average size shrimp for someone to catch on a river in the middle of Borneo.

There be orangutangs in them trees...

Today as I was taxiing my airplane down a river, I looked up and saw two figures climbing in a big tree. My first thought was that it was a person, but it turns out as I looked closer that they were actually orangutangs. My first question to Darrell, my instructor pilot, was, "is this an orangutan preserve area." He wasn't sure, but not far from their tree we saw a sign that actually did announce that this was an area where they release orangutang back into the wild. How cool is that? Borneo and Sumatra are the only places in the world where there are orangutang in the wild.

My float check out is going well. It's all still really new to me. Hopefully soon I'll get up to speed enough that they can turn me loose to go solo.

Laura goes back to the doctor on Tuesday. At that time we will know how her sinus infection has progressed, and whether or not she can come back to Indonesia soon. Please keep praying for her.

My niece Hannah had her brain tumor removed. The surgery went well and she is now back at home recovering. They should know within a week or so if she will have to have continued treatment for it.