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No easy task

Joe Evans is finding his new ministry to be "a nice little challenge."

Joe buys supplies in a city in Papua New Guinea to be flown to missionaries who live in remote locations. If the missionaries had to travel out of their villages every time they needed supplies, planting a church would take much longer.

Instead, they send Joe a list of food, supplies, parts and more that they need, "and I’ve got to try to find all the stuff in town," Joe wrote. "I typically will have to go to almost every single store in town. Twice. And still won’t have everything."

Next Joe has to keep the load within the weight limit for the plane that will carry it to a tribal village.

"After all, an airplane can only carry so much, and it’s hard to estimate the exact weight of a grocery list," Joe wrote.

Making the load fit usually requires contacting the missionaries who ordered it to revise the list, substitute things or remove some items. And if the load turns out to be less than the plane can carry, the missionaries will likely want to add some things, which will send Joe back to the stores in town. The missionaries pay the same amount for the flight whether the load is full or not, so they might as well have it bring a full load.

"After getting everything bought, packed, weighed, billed, and ready to go, it’s time to get it to the airport," Joe wrote. And that means very early mornings for Joe. Many of the villages where missionaries work are in the mountains, and the pilot needs to fly in before clouds develop. That means they usually prefer to leave at dawn, so Joe has to be up and going so they can be ready in time.

"I’ve spent a number of mornings loading airplanes at 6 a.m.," he wrote.

Thank the Lord with us for people like Joe who work in the background to make planting tribal churches possible.

Tags: Aviation, Mission News, Papua New Guinea,
POSTED ON Jan 20, 2011 by Ian Fallis
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