A long overdue update

Where does the time go to? So much has happened since the last update that it's difficult to know where to begin, but I'll give it a go. Here are some pictures showing the story of the past few months.

Road trip time - some Yolngu friends showing us their homeland

Gerard shows us how it should be done

That's one for later

My turn

The fish being cooked over the fire. We had one full fish each and were all stuffed .. great!

This is our newly built hanger with the MAF fleet out the front

We had a dedication service inside

One of the kids looking at the memorial to Hadleigh. It's been just over a year now since the accident. For those that prayed for the aircraft search back in Aug when the specialist equipment arrived, unfortunately nothing was found and all search efforts have now ceased.

My new ride (a 206). I call it the sports car. I've been flying it the last few weeks and now alternate between this and the Airvan.

Catching up on some reading during a sit & wait. Contrary to popular belief it's not "flying for dummies" ;-)


Some passengers on a typical flight

My Wawa (brother) on a flight down to his homeland for the weekend

Some local kids

My bike and swag at a local area where i go for some alone time with God. Away from all distractions and a great opportunity to star gaze.

One of the many beautiful beaches. Pity about the crocs, sharks and stingers

Some of the kids at the kids club

More friends at kids club

More friends from the Bible study

Me reading at Gerard's baptism

Gerard being baptised. It was a wonderful day and we got to hear Gerard tell all his family and friends about how Jesus has changed his life and could do the same for them. Praise God!

Can you pray for me?

Prayer points

Christmas - The local Yolngu believers have taken it upon themselves to do a Christmas play with the kids for the kids club. Please pray for the preparations for the Christmas Eve service. The kids are learning the true meaning of Christmas and recently some asked to know more of the story. Praise God for their interest and hard work of the Yolngu believers.

Weather - The build-up season is well and truly here, that means temperatures 0f mid 30's and high humidity. My shirt is generally soaked by 8am and like that all day (gross I know). Please pray for strength and endurance. Pray also for decision making as the airplane performance is lower and quite noticeable on shorter strips.

Ministry - The kids ministry and Bible study is really encouraging. God is at work in both of these ministries and it is amazing to see people hungry for truth and sharing what they learn. Pray the Lord continues to bless.

Language - I'm presently trying to expand my vocabulary of the local lingo. Pray that I can remember what I study and put into practice with the local Yolngu people. My aim is to know 120 local words by the end of the year.

Praise points

Thanks so much for those that have been praying for me. As I look back there have been so many answers to your petitions ... thank you. Some examples recently include ..

Time off - I was recently blessed to have some time off relaxing and recharging the batteries. I thank God that I am now refreshed and ready for some new challenges.

Finance - With the exchange rate and a few other circumstances, my finance had dropped off from where it needed to be to keep me here. Praise God that at the same time he worked in the hearts of people back home and supplied my needs once again.

Relationships - I am so blessed to be getting to know and form great friendships.

Prayer letter online

My latest newsletter is now uploaded and available at by clicking here

Prayer Letters

Although I mainly communicate via blog sites these days you can still access my prayer letters using the links below ...

Most recent prayer letter
June 2009

Acrhive prayer letters
July 2008
June 2006
Sept 2005
July 2005

Just another day ..

It was lunch time at one of the outstations on a typical hot day and I was on a "sit and wait" with some physiotherapists. I love sit and waits as its a good opportunity to actually sit and chat with the locals until my passengers are ready to go. Unfortunately it doesn' t happen that often, but on this day I was going to be waiting around for about 3 hours. Anyway, while the physio's were doing their thing, myself and the school teacher went to the river with the kids. After quickly checking for croc's in they went. A few minutes later, one poor little kid started to cry and crawled out clutching her foot which was bleeding. We carried her back to the village thinking that she had just stepped on a sharp stone or stick.
About an hour after that the physio's had finished and we were just starting to head back to the plane when word arrived that the little girl was still in a lot of pain. It turned out that she had actually been stung by a fish (a member of the sting ray family) and now needed reasonably urgent travel into hospital. Praise the Lord that we were already on hand and ready to go, and a 5 hour trip by jeep (assuming the roads are open) was done with the plane in 35 mins. God is good.

Just another day at the office in Arnhem Land ;-)

Some more pics

Yirrkala Aboriginal town where I live

Some of the fleet - Airvans, 206's and a 210

A wet day a few weeks ago

My office

My house

Life up top

Well it's now been a few weeks since I got up here and I'm starting to get into a bit of a routine. The first few weeks I spent getting orientated and settled in before beginning around 20 hours of ICUS (In Command Under Supervision). I couldn't believe how quickly that went and after around 4 days of flying with someone else it was time to fly with the Chief Pilot to see if I was up to standard to head off on my own. All went well, and I'm still not sure if I was glad to be going solo or still a little daunted to be loading up an airvan and flying off to one of the many outstation. That was around a week ago now and thankfully things are starting to settle down a lit. It's still long days, loading and unloading cargo, moving around 20 people a day to and fro from one place to another. The scenery is varied and I could find myself over water, mangroves or most often tree covered bush with not too many options to land if needed (definitely improves your prayer life!).
Just when we all thought the dry season was here the weather turned and confirmed that it is still in the transition period. Typically we carry an extra 60 mins of fuel to weave in and around some of the rain showers and be able to hold in an area to allow the isolated storms to push through. Its all great experience for me and I've very grateful to be working with a great team of people who are teaching me how to operate in such an environment.
Anyway, here's a few more pics of life up here ...

beautiful dry season weather

great scenery

typical view of flying over lots and lots of trees

I'm always glad to be back over land again

Not so dry season

On the ground at one of the many homeland airstrips

It even had a terminal building

My new set of wheels (going cheap, one careful owner .. that sort of thing)

Some of the local kids (yes thats my bike jacket)

dinner ;-)

God closes the page of another day with a beautiful sunset