~ By Nick Swalm~
MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) was recently blessed with a new GA8 aircraft. As I was asked to recount some of the effect it has had on our ministry, four days jumped out at me.
June 17, 2011
A good day’s work. Flew a total of 4.6 hours with ten landings, providing general service for communities in the Jimmi River area north of Mt. Hagen. Flew a medivac from the newly opened Pyrulama airstrip for a lady with a retained placenta. Five-minute flight to Kompiam hospital saved four days of walking (carrying the patient on a stretcher).
June 18, 2011
Loaded up family and headed to Rumginae (Western Province) to provide a week of coverage in the area for a pilot on leave. After trip to Rumginae headed back to Muluma airstrip to bring another mother with a retained placenta to the Rumginae hospital. This young mom had lost the baby three days earlier and was still bleeding. She had been carried for four hours to get to the airstrip that afternoon. As we loaded her on the aircraft we noted that in addition to the problem of blood loss she also had a fever from the toxins in her body. I flew her and her husband fifty-five minutes to Rumginae Hospital. The doctors at Rumginae commented that they were glad I had brought her in as she was in very bad shape and would probably not have lasted much more than another day in the bush. The trip to the hospital by ground would have required over a week of trekking and crossing two major rivers that terrify even able-bodied travelers. It was a relief to see her husband at the aircraft a few days later reporting that she was well and looking for a flight home.
June 19, 2011
Enjoying a quiet Sunday afternoon at Rumginae when a radio call came in for a medivac from Suabi. A French anthropologist and her boyfriend from New Zealand were studying in the area and he had been attacked. The initial report was that he had been stabbed, had lost a lot of blood and was having a lot of trouble breathing. I readied the aircraft for the forty-five minute flight as Dr. Daniel and Dr. Sharon from the Rumginae Mission Hospital boarded the aircraft with their medical equipment. Upon arrival at Suabi we found the young man had been speared in both lungs and in the stomach as well as having been beaten in the head with a rock. As the doctors assessed him and stabilized him for the flight I provided the aircraft oxygen tank and pilots oxygen mask from the plane to help him breath for the fifty minute flight to Kiunga Hospital. We left Suabi with two doctors, the anthropologist, and the patient on a stretcher. By God’s grace there were doctors, surgeons, a pilot, and a capable aircraft all in the right place to save this young man’s life that day. The doctors commented on the way home that evening that had we been an hour or two later he would likely not have lived.
June 20, 2011
Flew three pastors and their wives from Rumginae to Obo; the pastors and their wives had just completed a course on marriage (something very rare in PNG) with about fifty other couples. At Obo there was another patient in bad shape. The day before, this young mother who lived about five hours up river from Obo had successfully delivered a baby, but its twin was still stuck inside and refused to come out. With no other options she canoed five hours down river to the Obo aid post. The community health workers there could do little to help her, so called for the aircraft to take her to Rumginae Hospital for surgery. Upon arriving at Rumginae doctors spent over seven hours in surgery to remove the unborn baby and repair the damage inside.
As the doctors worked on her, I flew another plane load of pastors and their wives (who had completed the same course at Rumginae) to their villages at Suabi and Hesalibi. As I left Rumginae I was advised by the doctor that a lady had been bitten by a death adder at Hesalibi. As he had been unable to get radio contact with the community since the initial report that morning, Doctor Daniel said, "Examine the patient when you get there and if she shows any signs of envenomation, bring her in." As I flew from Suabi to Hesalibi I was relieved to hear via radio from Rumginae that the patient was doing much better and I would not be required to bring her into the hospital, or examine her for symptoms.
After Hesalibi I picked up missionaries Tom and Salome Howey and flew them from Mogalu to Kiunga where they were to depart on an international flight for Australia the next morning. With them I also carried four Papua New Guinean teachers and health workers who were headed out to Kiunga for supplies for the next term at the remote school at Mogalu.
These were the first four days of this new aircraft’s service in the Western Province in Papua New Guinea. Not all days are quite this action packed (though many are), but you can see that in the course of only four days, we were able to provide an invaluable ministry to national pastors, teachers, health workers, missionaries, and save the lives of four people in serious need.
Our ministry here is very much about partnership. Over the course of a week we fly a huge variety of passengers, enabling their ministries whether they are teachers, health workers, Bible translators, or missionaries. They tell us time and time again, "Thank you, we couldn’t be here without you!"
In the same way we are extremely grateful for your partnership with us in this ministry. Without you praying for us and supporting us we couldn’t be here, sharing Christ’s love in Papua New Guinea. Thank you!
Nick and Paula Swalm, along with their children Kayla, Malachi and Meegan, have served for five years with MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) in Papua New Guinea, and are originally from Central Alberta. CrossRoads helps to support these missionaries. Please feel free to contact them at nick.paula@gmail.com.
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