Resurrection Cookies and Emergency Flight

Making "Resurrection Cookies" at Ladies Fellowship

On Saturday morning (Mar. 27) I took part in the Ladies Fellowship with the women from church.  Suellyn (MAF) led a devotional based on the Easter story while we mixed ingredients to make Resurrection Cookies.  It was a unique way to remember the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us at the cross.  (You might want to try this recipe with your kids.  Look up "Resurrection Cookies" on the internet.)  These women cook their meals over an open fire and don't own ovens or electric mixers so they were amazed at what happens to egg whites when they're beaten!

Emergency Flight to Duramin

Later that afternoon, a radio call came in about a woman in a nearby village who was in need of medical help.  She had delivered twins that morning.  One of the babies hadn't survived and the mother was retaining the placenta and losing a lot of blood.  We "happened" (one of God's happy "coincidences") to have a doctor here at the Telefomin clinic who just arrived last week, so Dale & Keith took him along and made the 15 minute flight to the village of Duramin.  After stabilizing the patient they tried to make her as comfortable as possible on the floor of the Twin Otter for the flight to Telefomin.  Upon arriving here they loaded her in the back of the Ute (small truck) for the extremely bumpy 5-minute drive to the clinic where she is receiving care.

Along with the patient came the woman's husband and several other relatives to help care for the woman.  Of course, the tiny baby girl, not yet named, came along with Mama too -- all cozy and snug in a "bilum" (woven bag).

What a privilege to be a part of preserving precious God-given life!

Shopping, snakes and snorkeling

On Thursday, February 18 we hopped on the MAF Caravan, on our way to the MAF base in Goroka where Dale would be helping out with the flying while some of their pilots are away.  But before we could fly to Goroka we had to spend the weekend in Mt. Hagen until the Monday morning flight would take us to Goroka. While in the town of Mt. Hagen (MAF's main base) we took the opportunity to do a big grocery shop to stock our pantry for the next few months (which we stored in someone's spare bedroom until we could take our cases of groceries back with us to Telefomin on our way back, 3 weeks later.)

All day Saturday and Sunday Arianna was running a pretty high fever which had us a little concerned. So on Monday morning when we piled into the MAF Twin Otter for our flight to Goroka we were anxious to visit the clinic at the New Tribes base, which is just a 20 minute drive from the town of Goroka, to get her checked out. Dr. Bud (from Pennsylvania) concluded that her white blood cell count was very high and that she had a bacterial infection which was quickly remedied by a course of antibiotics. We were grateful that God placed us in Goroka just when we needed medical care.

In Goroka we had the pleasure of getting to know the other MAF families - Greg & Jacquie Falland-Will (from Australia) and Richard & Susan Ebel (from Alberta). The kids were fascinated by Josh Ebel's collection of critters -- especially the snake!

Since Goroka is not far from the coast, we also took the chance to spend a few days relaxing in Madang where we did a lot of swimming and snorkeling.

On Tuesday morning we flew from Madang back to Hagen where Dale helped with the flying program on Wednesday and then we were up bright and early Thursday morning (March 11) for the weekly MAF flight on the Twin Otter back to Telefomin.  Happy to be home!

(Will post a few more photos on Flickr, link is on the right hand side of this page.)