Greetings All,

It is hard to believe this is already the first day of summer…..seems like just a couple of weeks ago I was getting home from Asia Pacific!

School break just started for our school kids in Asia Pacific so they have all headed home for the short summer break which only lasts for about 3 weeks. This summer they received an additional week of vacation due to the Muslim Idul Fitri holiday which was the first week of June. They then had to return to take their exams and are now off again to their respective villages. We now have three dorms running and would appreciate your prayers as we are in desperate need of some of the tribal families to come out and be dorm parents to care for the needs of all these children (Jr. & Sr. High).

We will also appreciate your prayers that our helicopter could get back in the air soon. It has been down for some major maintenance. Parts have to be shipped in from outside the country and there is often some hang-ups with this. Hopefully it will be up and running this week – we have one of our Wana missionary families waiting to use it to get to their place of ministry. They have a newborn baby and it is a 3-4 day trek to get there over land – too much for the newborn!

Along with the helicopter we would ask for your prayers for some airstrip construction. With the Kodiak airplane comes the need for better airstrips so we are starting the process of upgrading one of our Wana airstrips to accommodate it. It involves digging out a quite a section on the one end which is too soft, filling in with river gravel, and then putting soil back in over the top. All this to solidify it for the heavier airplane. We are hoping to have this finished by the end of September as we have 2 large conferences planned in this village.

And talking about travel……when we do not have aircraft we go the slower route by taking vehicles and boats. Below are a few pictures of one of our consultant trips to a neighboring island on my trip in April.

 

The boat we take from the main island out to a smaller island where we have one of our missionary teams.

 

They carry not only people but ALL kinds of cargo as well

 

Motorcycles squeezed in along the walkway

 

Some missionaries get to travel first class (Jesse Baso – one of our Wana missionaries)

Thanks so much for your prayers and being a part of our team!

Blessings,

Ed n Jeanne