“One lady told how she had lost three boys and two daughters to malaria, another man spoke of the three children that he had lost to malaria . . . the stories went on and on.  One chap said that until the missionaries came to Malamaunda, they had no access to any medicine due to their remote location, and the death toll each year was in the thousands.  Even now, the villages “close” to Malamaunda are a number of days walk away, and Bob Kennel told how a man had tried to bring his child sick with malaria to the village where Bob was - a three day walk.  After a day’s hike, the child died in the man’s arms and all he could do was return home to bury his little child.  This is happening right now.  As I write this, people here in PNG are dying from malaria . . . only a very short flight away from Australia.  This should not be happening . . . this must not continue to happen.”

Imagining myself as that father carrying his sick child rammed home the impact that malaria has.

Lets not ask “What would I do?

Ask “What can I do?“

On Saturday, 27th Mar 2010, the weather forecast predicted Cyclone Paul would hit Elcho Island around 10pm. MAF pilots on Elcho evacuated and flew their aircraft 90 miles to the new MAF hanger at Gove. At 11pm Saturday night, Cyclone Paul hit Gove, not Elcho Island.

Two days ahead of forecast and missing Elcho completely, the category one Cyclone passed overhead sending debris everywhere. Windows rattled, trees came down, and anything loose became an airborne projectile, but no real damage thankfully. The next day, Sunday 28th Mar, Cyclone Paul continued to develop into a category 2, hugging the southerly coastline, and eventually settling for two days over Yilpara, a homeland of 150 Yolngu people, 80 miles south of Gove.

The previous Wednesday, 24th Mar, was a big day for Yilpara. Yilpara launched the Garrangali band (http://garrangali.bandcamp.com/) a Yolngu band, playing to raise money for the homeland. It was to be a big day; Yolngu came from everywhere. We were to fly in everyone important, and “not so” important, for this big event. The Cyclone however built up near Darwin and despite being over 300 miles away at sea, the Yindi Waltjan big winds – and rain was building up. At 10am and half way to Yilpara, I turned the plane around and headed back to Gove. The rest of the fleet did likewise, there was too much rain.

The leader from the Yilpara homeland, oblivious to the bad weather conditions in Gove, called the office and said, “Send all the planes down now. We are waiting for you. I’m in my long trousers and it is getting hot”. At 11am, two planes set off again: Brett Nel and me. We were off to Yilpara with full passenger loads. At the halfway point, where just an hour ago we turned around, there was enough visibility to pass through and onto Yilpara. That was to be the last opportunity for the day; the rain came in over Gove closing the airport all day. Brett and I were to enjoy the Garrangali band, so we thought.

The atmosphere at Yilpara was electric. The band was tuning up their Didgeridoos; people huddled together with excitement, speakers getting ready, leaders dressed in traditional clothes rushed around. Then the rains came, followed by the winds. A desperate attempt to save the band’s gear stopped all festivities. Temporary shelters built as a sunshade bulged with rainwater to near collapse. Our passengers were ready to go home. Two hours later a speck of blue sunlight gave brief hope of getting back to Gove.

I was first off the chocks in the Airvan followed by Brett in the Cessna 206. However, ruin was in store for Brett. Water had crept into the tubes which measure airspeed, forcing him back to Yilpara to make repairs. I made steady progress until reaching Garthalala homeland, where rain and cloud forced us to land.

We enjoyed mixing with the local Yolngu, sharing stories and predicting if we would make Gove that day. God opened up clear skies once more, giving us one opportunity to get into Gove. Sadly, for Brett, the storms south of Garthalala forced him back to Yilpara where he was to spend the next few days. We squeezed into Gove at low level, giving all passengers great material for a good yarn.

The weather the next day, 25th Mar, did not improve. I had two tries at getting off to Yilpara before success, but yet again, the remainder of the fleet could not get out of Gove due weather. I met up with Brett, who seemed to have survived an overnight with the weather; he flew to Groote Island for more fuel and to drop off passengers. I flew people to places nearer Gove. The cloud was very high and very low at the same time, creating a clear middle corridor. We were flying at 6,500 feet to drop passengers just 20 miles away. Usually we stay at about 2,500 maximum for these short journeys. Again, I could not immediately get back to Gove and once again stayed at Garthalala before a late dash home. Yet again, Brett could not get out of Yilpara after his flight to Groote Island, so he remained a second night at Yilpara.

The next day, Friday 26th Mar, the weather worsened, but Brett did get back from Yilpara, the only flight he made that day. As the Cyclone approached on Saturday, flying became impossible as was for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. By Wednesday 31st Mar, Yilpara was devastated by two days of whipping by the category-two Cyclone, which had remained overhead. Over forty trees came down over the access track; the local billabong overflowed creating a lake. The once vegetable garden became a vast water feature. Sewerage had mixed in with drinking water, and the diesel generator’s electrics had blown on the Sunday leaving them without power for four days.

Wednesday morning, 31st Mar, while flying an Airvan, I headed off towards Yilpara. I had no idea what to expect or what the weather would be like. Everything on the aircraft was at maximum; I had full fuel, four emergency engineers: a diesel engineer, a water engineer, an electrician and another “all sorts of jobs” man. With every spare cavity stacked with emergency food for the Yolngu, the plane was heavy.

On the way down, we flew low-level passes over other homeland airstrips to assess their condition. We inspected vehicle tracks for water and fallen trees. We had to close several airstrips and impose restrictions on others. We found many roads blocked. At Yilpara, the airstrip looked half-underwater, but on closer inspection, much of the water was in the turning area, leaving three quarters of the runway available. At the other end was a washout, where water had eroded the runway. This was also full with water, reducing the runway length to half- just enough.

People lined the centre of the airstrip as we came in on final approach. The Cyclone had moved on just a few miles, and the rain had stopped for the moment. However, the wind was still creating problems. As we flew over the “new water park”, turbulence and windshear made a landing difficult. The increase in speed for these conditions meant a longer airstrip was required, and with the aircraft at maximum weight and the airstrip much shortened and uncertainty about the actual surface condition for landing, I chose to go-around and have another go.

With full power at low level, the noise would have been deafening on the ground. We could see the anxious Yolngu panicking at the thought of the aircraft not able to land, meaning no water, no food, and no electricity. I felt for them. I could imagine the disappointment and was pleased to give it another go.

This time the wheels touched down, the crowd surrounding the plane wanting food and news was extraordinary. Our immediate task was to unload the food and provide some protection for the consignment until local leadership could organise an orderly distribution. My first reaction when looking at the homeland was, “that’s new”, pointing to an enormous lake which once had been a field with a flagged lined path though it for the Garrangali band visitors. I remember a drop-dunny toilet around here too – I did find it later. It had been blown away to the other side of the homeland.

A house/shack had blown down. People were milling everywhere, fixing things, moving trees, tending children and searching for the next thing to do. It seemed to me that at times like this the Yolngu people really do work well together for a common good, in what is usually a dry hot shanty style township, with not a lot going on.

The engineer worked on the generator without much success. An electrical circuit had blown and a new one from Darwin would be required. We would fly this new part in the next day. Nevertheless, they managed to fix the water supply. We could see Yolngu scurrying away from the distribution point with food and water, and the people felt more confident after the plane had arrived.

More planes now came in, more food on its way. Medical supplies arrived, as did doctors and nurses. We now started evacuating the sick and the elderly back to Gove.

The devastation caused by Cyclone Paul continues three months later. More rain has come with tracks getting worse rather than better. Transport vehicles attempting access to the homelands have ripped up the otherwise good roads into boggy swamps. Once the rains stop, there will be much needed repair work done before the tracks are back to normal. Damaged airstrips keep several homelands closed. MAF continue to provide essential service flights, reaching out to the remote people of East Arnhem Land.

Please pray for these amazingly resilient isolated people.

Paul Woodington, MAF Pilot, Arnhem Land, North Australia

www.maf.org.au

While in PNG I met with:

• PNG Bible Society
• Leaders from the Baptist Union of PNG
• Staff from the Christian Leaders Training Centre (CLTC)
• Staff from New Tribes Mission
• Staff and management committee of CRMF (Christian Radio Missionary Fellowship)
• MAF Papua New Guinea Board
• John Kupp, Senior Pastor PNG Christian Centres
• Staff from MAF Papua New Guinea

The MAF LT component of my visit was to share with various groups of people the ministry of MAF Learning Technologies. It is important at this stage of the ministry in Asia Pacific for our staff and those connected closely to us, that it is clear what MAF Learning Technologies ministry looks like so they can communicate to others and potential partners the ministry services and vision.

The most common need described to me was for resources. Learning materials (printed or digital), Bible studies, courses. When I talked about audio resources such as sermons, books, Bibles there was a great amount of interest. The barrier here appears to be access. For example, many of the MAF national staff can afford an MP3 player, but cant access audio Bibles or teachings – and want to! Internet accessible resources are not an option to them – dial-up is slow and unreliable, broadband is new and very expensive, VSAT remains the best option for the near future although Telikom now provides a 3G/CDMA USB modem wireless service which is providing good speeds, but still an expensive option for people in PNG, internet cafes where the public can get online are as rare as a coconut in Antarctica. Christian bookshops have music CDs but not teaching. Digital audio players called the ‘Proclaimer’ are being distributed by the PNG Bible Society (on behalf of Faith Comes by Hearing), but no-one I talked to had heard of them or seen any such device around Goroka or Mt Hagen. Feeding resources for ministry is certainly a service being sought by the Church there.

Philip Bungo, CLTC TEE coordinator, was very interested in DEScribe/DEViewer to put some of his TEE material into a digital format. He gave me some of his learning material so that it could be put into DEViewer as a demonstration of concept – this may become a project for the CRMF Learning technologies position holder. CLTC have over 1000 students doing their TEE courses (each under K40 in cost) and believe they would have many more if others in remote, poor communities could afford the fees.

I gave Richard Wali from Papua New Guinea Bible Society a GoBible (audio NIV NT in English, with scripture, stories, key verses available from the menu) which I bought while in the USA. I was prompted by their desire to reach out to the youth of PNG with audio New Testaments, and to develop audio NT in Tok Ples (mother tongue languages) for people in remote areas.

Richard Wali with GoBible

The church leaders I met host conferences annually for their pastors and typically cannot have all pastors come into the conference – both groups of church leaders I met with showed interest in the concept of recording conference speakers and distributing via MP3 or CD. Again their need was for resources – audio or written. John Kupp is running a Bible College in Mt Hagen for a small number of students, but the college lacks formal structure, course curriculum planning and material, and is probably typical of many small Bible Colleges being run by churches in PNG.

Nikolai Ballin (wife of MAF pilot Brad) attended an STS Workshop in 2009 in the USA and has since run a brief introduction to orality teaching technique with her home group. She is very keen to co-ordinate an STS Workshop in Mt Hagen once suitable dates for the program are advised by program management. Other MAF staff were also interested in learning oral teaching strategies.

MAF learning technologies can certainly meet some of the needs in Papua New Guinea. Whether by equipping the isolated church or equipping our staff in order that they may provide spiritual leadership within their communities. CRMF have budgetted for a Learning Technologies position on their staff and I believe this person will assume responsibility for co-ordinating MAF Learning Technologies ministry projects within PNG.

Please give thanks and pray with me:

• For continued contact with people we can serve and minister to in Papua New Guinea
• For the future MAF LT country co-ordinator for Papua New Guinea
• For the enthusiasm and excitement showed by many who heard of the various MAF LT ministry services
• That we can connect people in PNG to other ministries willing to serve the people in PNG

In this joint project with the Faith Comes By Hearing ministry, staff from the PNG Bible Society distribute the Proclaimers to isolated churches through the four ministers fraternals operating in Papua New Guinea.

What is a Proclaimer?
The Proclaimer is a digital player dedicated to playing God’s Word in the local heart language.

• An installed microchip contains Scriptures in the heart language; the chip will not erase or wear out from frequent playing.
• The battery will play for 15 hours and can be recharged enough times to play the entire New Testament more than 1,000 times.
• The Proclaimer has a built-in generator and solar panel to charge the battery.
• The solar panel, in addition to charging the battery, will run the Proclaimer even without battery power as long as there is sunlight.
• The sound is digital quality and loud enough to be heard clearly by groups as large as 300.

The Proclaimer was developed primarily as a playback device for poor and illiterate people who may not have any other source to hear God’s Word.

PNG Bible Society Vision

The PNG Bible Society has a vision and a passion to see more young people involved in reading and hearing the Scriptures – especially in their own language or ‘Tok Ples”.  They have plans to build a studio in their existing warehouse in order to make audio recordings of the New Testament.  There are over 800 different languages in Papua New Guinea and they have determined that the best place to start is with the Enga region tok ples, which amazingly is spoken by the one people group.

On Friday I visited the Christian Leaders Training College (CLTC) in Banz, Papua New Guinea.

I met with Mr Philip Bungo who is the co-ordinator for the TEE (Theological Education by Extension) program being run by CLTC.
CLTC has designed this program to cater for lay workers, elders, pastors, local Bible school teachers, and church leaders to study towards their “Certificate of Christian Foundations”.

“The need for sound Biblical teaching and training of Christian leadership is one of the most urgent issues in our country and the South Pacific Islands today” says Mr Bungo.  Mr Bungo came to Christ through studying a TEE course when in prison many years ago.

The Certificate of Christian Foundations is a course which is designed to integrate Biblical knowledge to equip and enable a student to become a true disciple of Christ.  The courses also equip a student to minister to their churches and families.  Students are able to learn in their home community and not leave home or travel across PNG to study.  This also allows students to remain active in ministry while they study.

There are three main components of TEE study:

1. Home Study – a goal set of one unit per week (approx. 4 hours) with students studying at home using learning material provided by CLTC. Workbooks contain learning notes, questions and revision tasks
2. Practical Assignments – Each unit of study has a project or practical assignment to be done i order to put their learning into practice.
3. Regular Small Group Seminars – these provide opportunity for students to share together what they have been learning.  Led by a tutor, these groups are occasions of mutual encouragement, fellowship and spiritual growth.

He currently has over 1000 students across the country studying various courses on topics including:

• Discipleship
• Worship
• Marriage and Family Life
• Life of Christ
• Childrens Ministry
• and 11 other topics

Each of these courses costs less than PGK40 (40 Kina is about AUD$17) and yet despite the low costs many Papua New Guineans in remote areas simply cant afford to take the courses.  If you are prompted to help support the training of isolated PNG church leaders by covering their costs for some or all of their TEE courses contact me.  The courses are made available in both English and Tok Pisin and can be studied in a group of 7 – 12 led by a tutor or in isolated student mode.

As these students grow spiritually, the Church in Papua New Guinea becomes more spiritually mature and better equipped to be used by God to reveal Himself to others.

Pray that all those wanting to study, learn and grow will be able to with the removal of whatever barriers they face.

Their goal is to be PNG’s leading mobile data service provider.  At the moment Digicel mobile web data is available on GPRS enabled handsets and Digicel charge this data at the rate of PGK1.99 per MB (equivalent to AUD$0.82/MB)

To compare this to what option we have in Australia right now – Virgin Mobile offer 3G web access plans AUD$15 for 1GB of data (AUD$0.015/MB or 4toia per megabyte)

Mobile Web services currently available in PNG for mobile web access:

Digicel Web Access – GPRS – PGK1.99 per MB, to GPRS handsets or Digimodem (USB)
at PGK2 per megabyte, Im not even going to try this one out…….

Telikom X’Cess – 3G-CDMA – PGK0.20 per MB, to X’cess EVDO (USB)

I picked up a Telikom Xcess CDMA modem from Telikom Mt Hagen a couple of days ago and did some speed tests around Kagamuga (Mt Hagen, WHP, PNG) using www.speedtest.net (with nothing else running in the background, and connecting to the Brisbane server).

The modem itself is an ADU-510c (pictured right), and came with a USB extender and software disk.
I had to install  run it on Windows 7 in compatibility mode for Windows XP.

Results from speed tests so far:  (fastest download – 2270kbps at POM International airport)

May 25 Tuesday 530pm
Kagamuga Airport, Mt Hagen
Download – 40Kb/s Upload – 10kb/s
latency 453ms

May 25 Tuesday 545pm
Kagamuga Airport, Mt Hagen
Download – 310kb/s Upload – 10kb/s
latency 276ms

May 25 Tuesday 6pm
Kagamuga Airport, Mt Hagen
Download – 40kb/s Upload – 10kb/s
latency 1333ms

May 25 Tuesday 850pm
couldnt connect – verifying, terminated

May 27  Thursday 410pm
Raining
Kagamuga Airport, Mt Hagen
Download – 350kb/s Upload – 40kb/s
latency 244ms

May 27 Thursday 415pm
Raining
Kagamuga Airport, Mt Hagen
Download – 710kb/s Upload – 50kb/s
latency 244ms

May 27 Thursday 420pm
Raining
Kagamuga Airport, Mt Hagen
Download – 850kb/s Upload – 50kb/s
latency 284ms

May 27 Thursday 600pm
Kagamuga Airport, Mt Hagen
Download – 980kb/s Upload – 60kb/s
latency 229ms

May 27 Thursday 610pm
Kagamuga Airport, Mt Hagen
Download – 1290kb/s Upload – 60kb/s
latency 224ms

May 27 Thursday 710pm
Kagamuga
Download – 320kb/s Upload – 50kb/s
latency 235ms
May 27 Thursday 745pm
Kagamuga
Download – 860kb/s Upload – 50kb/s
latency 206ms

May 29 Saturday
Mt Hagen Squash Club
Time          Dwn (kbps)     Up(kbps)
400pm      1240                50
405pm        540                50
410pm       1460               60
415pm       1160               50
425pm      1740               60

May 30th

POM International Terminal

515pm     1430     70
520pm    1870     80
530pm     2270    80

Will this update from the air????

30 minute flight instead of 5 hours hard driving.

Sending blog post from WordPress iPhone app, over Digicel mobile network.

MAF Pilot Clint Smith with the GA8 Turbo Airvan in Toowoomba

Toowoomba’s airfield received a special stopover from an aircraft on a mission yesterday.  A newly developed turbo charged airvan or GA8, designed and manufactured in Gippsland, Victoria, was on its way to Papua New Guinea to take on the world’s most difficult flying conditions.

The plane was built for Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) to carry out medical and missionary work in developing PNG.  MAF pilot chief Clint Smith said PNG was a country of difficult terrain with few sound roads.

“PNG is a struggling, developing nation hindered by isolating terrain and there are places where there are no roads or where the roads can only be used for a few months each year,” Mr Smith said.

“Some of the airstrips are shocking and weather patterns can be really, really unpredictable.”

The $775,000 plane will take pride of place in MAF’s PNG fleet alongside 15 other aircraft.  The big difference with this latest edition is the addition of a turbo-charger that will allow the plane to soar to greater heights faster.  Mr Smith said a United States military assessment of flying conditions worldwide found the standards required to fly safely in PNG are the highest in the world.