Tuesday, 7 July 2009

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

Tuesday, 23 June 2009

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 ;-)

Monday, 22 June 2009

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

Can you pray for me?

Prayer points

Decision making -
Please pray for my decision making as I fly around Arnhem Land. We have busy workloads, changing schedules and weather pressures that make mistakes a real possibility. Pray that I honour God by practicing good sound judgements keeping both myself and passengers safe.

Strength - The heat and workload just saps your energy. Pray for physical and mental strength from day to day

Ministry - Pray for opportunities for me to share Christ. May I be a willing vessel that the Lord can use. Pray also for the kids ministry that I help with here in Yirrkala

Relationships - Pray for my relationships especially with the Yolngu (Aboriginal) people, specifically the adults. This can take a LONG time to develop. May I form real and deep friendships with those I am here to serve.

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.

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 ..

Relationships - I recently was adopted into a Yolngu family and already I have seen a drastic improvement in relationship building. Thanks for praying.


Ministry - I have plugged straight into a kids ministry that some of the other pilots have started. Its a great opportunity to have fun with the kids, get to know them and tell them about Jesus.

Monday, 20 April 2009

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

Monday, 6 April 2009

Contact Details

Please feel free to contact me while I'm in Australia. I'd love to hear from you. My details are:

Nevin Urey
MAF
PO BOX 821
Nhulunbuy
NT 0881
Australia

Present Timezone: GMT + 9.5 hrs

Mobile: +61 (0) 458 168 177
Web phone*: 02891 898 553
Skype: nevster316

* This web phone number is a UK local number that uses the internet to transfer the call. If you phone from the UK you will only pay as if you are calling an 02891 number. The call will be transfered to wherever I am in the world for no extra charge. Please check the timezone before calling.

"If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of
the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast."

Ps 139. 8-10