Just a quick thought and request right now.
Like at JAARS, the SIL airport is located close by. Not as close as the one at JAARS, which runs parallel to the area where all business is conducted but a couple of kilometers out the center gate and down a road to the village of Aiyura, still in the same valley.
Each morning I see aircraft mechanics, pilots, air instructors and the rest of the aviation team heading past our house and out the gate, many on motorcycles. Often each morning I also hear the planes taking off and climbing above the surrounding highland hills and above the normal morning cloud cover. The planes make quite a racket because they need lots of lift in a short distance.
There are almost two hundred translation projects underway in PNG, and pilots and planes are one of the critical links in Bible translation. Planes are how translators get to their villages. Planes also deliver supplies and provide medical evacuation for translators and PNG nationals alike.
Some translators live here in Ukarumpa. Even then, planes are how translators get back to the villages to maintain relationships and check the work with their village translation team that they've done here. Sometimes their translation and literacy teams are flown to Ukarumpa for advanced training,
When at JAARS, the planes I heard were being used to train pilots heading out. Now I'm that much closer to where the work of Bible translation is actually happening. This is the "field white with harvest."
Every time I hear a plane taking off in the early morning hours, I offer a quick thanks to God for the pilot's skill and dedication and for what that plane means to the people spread across this big land of unreachable valleys. I also pray for the safety of that particular flight and look forward to learning how that flight has helped meet God's goal of spreading the knowledge of His son, Jesus, across PNG.
Will you pray as well?
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