December 10, 2019

Greetings all,

We trust you all are enjoying this Christmas season! The last few months we have had a thrust to get new airstrips opened up in the Wana tribe, so I thought I would share with you a new airstrip we are presently constructing. The government is in the process of putting in some crude roads into parts of the interior regions of Wana. At present a bulldozer is in the Wana village of Paramba so our Bible Church there has asked for help in constructing a 600 meter airstrip just below the village which will be able to be used by our mission Kodiak airplane. The bulldozer can do in a few days what it would take them months to do by hand.

By having the airstrip we will be able to connect this village to a couple of other villages in Wana not to mention open up travel to sister churches on other islands. This will be a huge help in getting our churches together for teaching, conferences, and seminars. As I said the government is putting in some “crude” roads. These are usable during the dry season but often impassable during rainy season. Even when the roads are passable the Wana region is so vast that it can take literally days to get from one village to another, as the villages themselves are not all connected by these roads. So yes, mission aviation is still very much needed and appreciated. Besides using these airstrips for the expansion of the gospel the aircraft are also used for emergencies and getting folks out to a hospital in a timely manner without days of travel over bumpy roads. Below are a few images of work that is going on right now as I write this email.

View of the east part of the village of Paramba – airstrip site is the two black lines in the upper part of the picture

Three days ago construction began
The caption reads “At this point we will have to add plus or minus 1 meter of fill.” The airstrip is currently dozed out to a point of 540 meters in length. To make it a two way airstrip we will need to add 60 meters to the length which will require the 1 meter of fill.
The top caption reads, “here we will need to add 1 meter of fill”, the bottom caption reads, “540 meters long and 15 meters wide.”

The total estimated cost of putting this in will be plus or minus $1000.

Update!!

Greetings ministry team,

Yesterday I sent out the email below regarding the construction of at Wana airstrip in the village of Paramba. I just wanted to let you know that I received a phone call this morning and the Lord has provided the $1000 we are estimating the cost to be!! So thank you for praying! If perchance the cost goes beyond what we have estimated we let you all know. “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus – Phil. 4:19” Thank each of your for your prayers for this project!

God Bless you all!

Ed n Jeanne Casteel