The loving four-month restoration of the house that MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) missionary Nate Saint built on the edge of the jungle in 1948 is nearly complete. Hundreds from Ecuador and abroad are expected to attend the ceremony to dedicate the historic building at 3 p.m. Oct. 30.
Two men from Bendigo (Vic) are preparing for a world-first circumnavigation of the globe in an aircraft totally designed and manufactured in Australia.
And MAF will be one of only two organisations to benefit from funds raised by the epic journey.
Ken Evers 33 and Tim Pryse 51, will depart from Bendigo Aerodrome on a day to be determined in May bound for Norfolk Island.
Tim Pryse and Ken Evers
They will continue their journey across the Pacific to California via Hawaii then on to Arizona and New Orleans. From there they will touch down to refuel in Jamaica and Barbados before heading south to Brazil, then due east across the Atlantic to Africa, on to India, Vietnam, the Philippines, PNG and back to Australia.
GA8 Flight Plan
The history-making flight commemorates Australia’s Centenary of Flight when the famous contortionist Harry Houdini conducted Australia’s first controlled, powered flight in March 1910, changing the landscape of flying in this country forever.
GA8 TC Airvan
Ken and Tim will fly a GA8-TC Airvan over 26,740 nautical miles in 230 flight hours. The eight-seat Airvan is manufactured by Gippsland Aeronautics in Morwell (Vic).
The flight aims to draw attention to malaria, the world’s most common infectious, mosquito-borne disease, claiming over a million lives annually. Most victims are those least able to afford preventative drugs or treatments.
The pilots hope to raise one million dollar
s
to combat the global impact of malaria by inviting donations via the millionsagainstmalaria.com website to two nominated charities – Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) and the Australian Foundation for the Peoples of Asia and Pacific (AFAP).
People in many of the tropical and sub-tropical areas the pair will fly across suffer from malaria including Papua New Guinea where Ken Evers grew up as a teenager and was deeply impacted by the Work of MAF.
“MAF pilots are my heroes”
“For me, MAF was the epitome of aviation. MAF pilots are my heroes,” he said.
“Living in PNG and watching the work of MAF taught me the lesson that you can use the gifts you have been given to do the right thing. And of course in the case of MAF it is using the gift of flight to help people.
“I watched what MAF did in PNG. I saw my friend’s life saved (by a MAF flight) and now I want to offer my support. I think MAF is such an unsung group. People fail to see that MAF is saving countless lives every year. ”
For further details about Ken and Tim’s epic journey and an opportunity to donate online to MAF, go to www.millionsagainstmalaria.com
A former Kiwi missionary to Papua New Guinea is riding a motorcycle across the length of New Zealand to raise funds to buy an aeroplane to serve the rural people of PNG. Interestingly, the motorcycle that Frank Carter, 76, is riding to raise funds is the same one – a 1955 DOT Scrambler– he used while serving in the Western Highlands province in the late 1950s.
Carter Family and the DOT motorcycle - 2009
Mr Carter rode into Dunedin on the South Island on Wednesday and was expected to ride into Gore yesterday, before reaching the town of Bluff today – clocking up 2,220km in 14 days. He plans to end the ride at an annual motorbike rally called the Burt Munro Challenge at Oreti Beach near Invercargill this weekend.
So far, he has been able to raise more than NZ$20,000 (K40,000) on his road trip – far short of the NZ$1 million (K2 million) needed to by a new Australian-built GA8 Airvan and donate it to the Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF) for its work in PNG. Mr Carter was reported by the Otago Daily Times as saying that he was praying hard for more funds.
The DOT tackles a rough stretch of road in PNG
Mr Carter bought the motorbike in 1959 and shipped it to Mt Hagen where he and his family were doing missionary work. He said the DOT (devoid of trouble) was ideal for the remote and rugged conditions he encountered in the Western Highlands province, and it was his only mode of transport for the seven-and a-half years he lived and served God there. When it was time to return to New Zealand, the motorcycle was “a wreck”, so he sold it to the mission and left it in PNG.
Thirty-eight years later, Mr Carter had retired and was keen to relive a small part of his youth by buying another 1955 DOT Scrambler. After a long search, he found one and, to his astonishment, it turned out to be his very own old 1955 model – refurbished. “I was convinced that God was part of this reunion and I made the decision to ride the DOT from Cape Reinga to Bluff, as a fundraising venture towards the purchase of a new Mission Aviation Fellowship plane for Papua New Guinea,” Mr Carter said.
PNG men admire the DOT
Source: PNG National newspaper
