Dear friends and family,
I wanted to share with you all about a flight that I did on Thursday that helped remind me what a blessing it is to have an airplane available to access these hard to get to places in the Amazon.
The flight was originally scheduled for Wednesday but as often happens here in the rain forest, it rained and I had to delay the flight until Thursday. Thursday morning dawned bright and rain free but with some low clouds hanging around and with the satellite picture showing the weather over the village slightly worse but slowly clearing. The flight was scheduled to takeoff at 8:00am and go first to the Jamamadi village with a load of cargo and 40 liters of aviation gas to store out in the village “just in case”. From Jamamadi I would fly over to the village of Agua Branca and pick up 3 Jarawara young people and bring them back to Porto Velho to participate in course being put on by Youth With a Mission. With clear weather on my route I was enjoying the flight and was only about 25 minutes from landing when Julie, who was flight following, called me on the radio and gave be news of a possible medical evacuation in Jamamadi. I told her to tell Steve and Robin, the missionaries to the Jamamadi, that yes we could fly the sick person out and to be ready to meet the airplane at the airport in Labrea at 11:00.
I arrived over the Jamamadi to find the runway covered with a layer of clouds about 650 feet above the ground. That may not seem low but our normal landing pattern is at 800 feet above the ground so I needed to adapt the pattern down to 600 feet to stay clear of the cloud layer. A smooth landing in the village was followed by some quick maneuvering on the runway as suddenly three chickens appeared in the foot high grass in the very middle of the runway. Fortunately it was at the widest point in the runway and I was able to swerve slightly to the left and just miss them before getting on the brakes and slowing to a stop. After unloading the cargo and asking for the sick person to be brought to the airplane I started calculating how much fuel I would need for the additional leg to Labrea. As it turned out, the fuel that I had brought along to store in the village as a “just in case” was God’s provision for that very flight. I refueled the airplane, stored what was left of the avgas and waited for the sick patient, who I assumed was probably old and frail, to be brought to the airplane. A few minutes later I looked up and saw group of young teen boys coming down the runway. As they came up to the airplane I could see they were carrying a hammock between them with another boy’s head barely visible sticking out the top. Now this was a shock. I have flown sick and injured people before but usually they are very old or very young. How could this boy, named Soki, be so sick that he needed an evacuation flight? But he was very sick. He mustered enough energy to climb into the seat of the airplane, but as I helped him with the seat belts he was more winded than if he had just run the length of the runway and mist of sweat had broken out on his face.
We took off headed for Agua Branca, ten minutes away, where we would pick up the three Jarawara headed for the course in Porto Velho. Labrea is only 25 miles from Agua Branca, about 15 minutes by airplane or a whole day by boat. Because the flight was so short I opted to stay below the lower layer of clouds which was now about 1,800 feet above the ground. One thing staying below the cloud layer does is it lets you see if there is any rain starting to fall anywhere nearby. What I saw was that while the route to Labrea and then Porto Velho was still open much of the surrounding area was starting to rain. When I landed in Labrea, Steve and Robin were waiting to pick up Soki and get him the hospital. I checked that I had enough fuel to return to Porto Velho and after chatting with “Big Paul”, the local pilot, for a minute about the weather I jumped in and headed with my remaining three passengers for Porto Velho. By the time I was climbing through the first layer of clouds I knew that the weather was definitely starting to get worse. I could see that I was boxed in by rain but with Julie’s report of good weather in Porto Velho and no storms showing up on the satellite chart I decided that it was safe to take the plunge and head in to it. The flight home was filled with dodging in and out of clouds and rain, climbing, descending, and detouring around the worst stuff and finally arriving back over the runway in Porto Velho to a nice landing on a dry runway just twenty minutes before the rain arrived (and did not stop until this morning!)I called Steve this afternoon and asked about Soki. He said that Soki had been suffering from pneumonia for over two weeks. By the time he arrived at the hospital one of his lungs had almost stopped working and that he was put on IV antibiotics. As of this afternoon he was doing much better and looks to be in good shape to make a full recovery. It was a great reminder to me of what a blessing it is to be used by God to touch other peoples lives here in Brazil. Normally we do not carry extra fuel or seats with us in the airplane, just enough fuel and enough seats for the planned flight. Yesterday I decided to carry an extra seat and some extra fuel just in case something came up. I didn’t know I would be using that extra seat and fuel but God did. In fact even though I had no idea at the time I am sure that it was part of God’s plan that I the extra seat and fuel. It reminds me how blessed I am to serve a sovereign God who always has a plan even when I don’t and always has a reason even when I can’t see it. Pray with me for Soki’s continued recovery and thank God for His great planing and timing that I got to witness on yesterdays flight.Romans 11:33, 36 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
In Christ,Jeremiah