PAMAS News: God Provides Again

Dear Family and Friends

From Dwayne: Things have been a little busy lately.  We have been working like mad to get one of the container houses finished so we could move down and start living at the hanger. We just moved down yesterday and like our new house and surroundings very much. All we can hear at night are the crickets and Carabao, a welcome relief from traffic and dogs in our previous residence.  Finishing the airstrip here is our next big job now that it is starting into the beginning of dry season and we have airplanes to use on them.

A couple weeks ago I got a call on a Friday afternoon informing me a check ride had been scheduled early Sunday morning.  So Saturday evening I boarded a bus and rode all night down to Plaridel where the check ride was to take place. Sunday morning I took the check ride and fixed a helicopter for the flight school that had arranged the check ride. It worked out well and the flight school shouldered all the costs of the check-ride since I fixed their helicopter.  Monday morning I arrived early in Manila and picked up the certificate of airworthiness that I was waiting on, and  was able to fly our C172 back up north here on Monday afternoon.

Gary Roberts left California for Hawaii in the Twin Comanche last week.  He made it with no problems other than his HF radio quit working so he was not able to communicate easily with the Air Traffic Control service.  He was hoping to be in Indonesia by Friday so we are praying God will give him good winds and weather the rest of his flight. We don’t know yet when he will arrive here.

From Wendy:

Yes, it has been very busy lately, but so much fun! It was hard to leave Santiago and all the patients and friends that we were visiting, but thankfully I was not working alone and Tanya continues to nurture all of them. We’re loving our new place. We are still working on it even as we live there, but every day things get better and it’s so much fun at this stage. The weather has been so cool and nice, and it almost feels like winter! We don’t have internet yet, so we are writing this quickly so we can send it in town.

It is so nice having a clean, new place to live, on our own again, for the first time in a long time. The container houses are amazingly very nice and it doesn’t seem too small yet (without any furniture!) We only have one gecko so far and we have managed to hide from the ants too (it’s only been two days!)

Here is another story that is not uncommon, but it shows how God answers prayers and provides for His work. At the beginning of this month we checked how much money had come in for the month, and realized without a miracle we would have to halt all our projects and half all our missionary and Bible worker stipends. We informed our team (and didn’t tell anyone else) and we all continued to pray, without any complaints, that God would provide somehow if it was His will. Within a week, God had answered our prayers! We “happened” to find out that someone had sent a large donation that would be arriving in time to GMI so that we could arrange for it to be sent with the rest of the donations for the month. We are still rejoicing at God’s goodness!

Many of you were asking about the Typhoon that hit the Philippines recently. We were not affected by the storm, but, as often happens, we had requests for help. One friend called to say her whole seaside town where her parents still live was destroyed, and after two days she finally got word that they were alive but had no supplies and all the bridges were washed away into the area. Unfortunately we have no helicopter yet, and the airplane can only do so much, especially if there are no airstrips in the affected areas. There are so many stories like this, but all we can do is keep praying!

That brings us to the next news. A generous family has offered us a basically new R44 helicopter at half price if God provides another $200K. This is really a great offer and a very good helicopter for these areas. Thank you for your prayers for this.

Thank you also for your continued prayers and all your faithful support that keeps this project going!

Enjoy the pictures.

Dwayne and Wendy

Philippine Adventist Medical Aviation Services www.pamasmission.org