Kodiak Lands in Dinangat

“For the first time -- last week our brand new KODIAK airplane came into Dinangat!!  Thank you Lord for your provision!!”  wrote missionaries Ralf & Ellie Schlegel in a Facebook post.

The Dinangat tribal believers didn’t have Facebook to express their joy.  Instead, when the Kodiak landed, they presented a big bag of vegetables to pilots John Mark Estelle and John Meerstra.

The Dinangat people were justifiably joyful.  Just eight years ago, they were confused, despairing, hopeless unbelievers.  Now many of them are confident believers with a sure foundation. 

Can you picture how such a remarkable transformation happened?  In 2003 the Dinangat team moved into this isolated village.  They learned the complicated language and culture, created an alphabet, produced literacy materials, taught these illiterate people to read and write, translated Scripture, wrote culturally understandable Bible lessons, and taught God’s message from Creation to Christ. 

And – impossible as it seems -- they did all that initial work in five years!  How could they have put in the massive amount of time needed, all the while living and raising their families in a primitive, isolated, nearly inaccessible jungle setting?

Without God’s provision of flight service, it wouldn’t have happened.  During those long hard years of learning and teaching, NTM Aviation’s Cessna 206 was the supply bridge in the sky.  It was the support line to bring everything the team needed to keep them on task.

Now the supply line job is handed off to the Kodiak -- just when it seems the mission is accomplished among the Dinangat.    

But is it “mission accomplished”?  In many ways, it is “mission just beginning.”  The Dinangat team will keep working to equip the believers with thorough teaching and a New Testament in their language.  The job will not be done until a thriving church is reaching out to the next village and the next tribe.