Wings for Humanity

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Guyana reportA SpecialChristmas DayWe have an ongoing general statement here:“The only thing constant is change.” I know thatis not a new concept, but it certainly holds truefor us.As we plan our events and particularly our transportation,we simply cannot know for certain in advance exactly howlogistics will work out. Christmas Day was no exception.I was up early and rode the motorcycle to the boathouseto get the boat out into the creek before the tide droppedtoo low. Later we planned to deliver a few Christmas carepackages to families living along the river. Jake and Zackwere also up early and full of that youthful enthusiasm andunsuppressed anticipation for sharing and opening giftstogether.Family celebrations here are important because theyrecognize significant events. But they also add reference tothe passage of time that just somehow becomes a green blurwith no real seasons or familiar holidays.Christmas morning was special for us with unique andcreative gifts, traditional music, a little horde of candy and aspritz of holiday potpourri from Pier 1 that took us home forat least a little while.The call came at 8:45 a.m.—an emergency at Moruca.Since early morning a woman had been in labor, and forthe last hour the baby’s head had been out, but there wasno progress. I was airborne at9:07 a.m.; this is why we live inan interior village. Organizinga departure from Georgetownwould take a minimum of onehour and generally longer bythe time you deal with groundtransportation, flight planningand security.It was very quiet on the radioand I was actually surprised tohear another flight in the air.We were probably the only twoaircraft in Guyana’s domesticairspace.As I descended over thevillage I could see the old LandCruiser coming up the road tothe airstrip with its back doorThe “high and dry” boat.open to allow for the stretcher tohang out. With remarkably goodtiming we both rolled to a stop at the same time (9:39 a.m.)on the edge of the red dirt airstrip. Of course the womanwas in a great deal of pain and distress. As we were aboutto slide her into the plane from the stretcher she vomitedover the side. Thankfully, that occurred before she was in16airways | Winter 2012www.FlyAWA.org
guyana reportthe plane. I secured her husband in the front seat while thenurse buckled in beside her. Together we prayed a shortprayer asking for God’s protection, comfort and healing. By9:47 a.m we were in the air again.As is nearly always the case, there was little I could do tohelp aside from flying the plane. The woman was screamingthe majority of the flight while the nurse did what she couldto comfort her.The husband was clearly distraught; I couldfully understand the helplessness he was feeling.I remembered how I felt when our kids wereborn; here we are in a situation where almostcertainly the baby is not going to survive and themother’s life is definitely at risk. Getting her tothe main hospital hopefully would save her life.We are in the midst of the rainy season andduring this flight the weather wasn’t too severe.However, while flying through a rainstorm wedid hit some turbulence, which sent us all upagainst our seatbelts and caused the IV bag tofall off the hook in the ceiling. I managed to getit back up again, since the nurse wasn’t able toreach it.During this day the logistics worked out perfectly. Welanded at the city airport at 10:26 a.m. and were met bythe ambulance already out on the ramp with a midwife toaccompany the patient to the hospital. Quickly they wereon their way, and the ambulance siren was soon fading inthe distance.It was a difficult case for the nurse. She wasclearly upset as we climbed back into the plane to headback. Perhaps the helplessness was too much for her, andthen this happening on Christmas day added to the distress.Regardless, I was impressed with her empathy, and beforedeparture we prayed again for healing and the peace thatonly Jesus can bring.The fuel bay was closed for the day; so after filing myflight plan we were on our way back at 10:24 a.m. I droppedthe nurse back at her home village and was back on theground in Mabaruma at 11:50 AM, where Danielle, myniece, picked me up with the motorcycle.Our plan was to pick up where we left off. We headeddown to the boat to do the Christmas hamper deliveries onlyto discover that I hadn’t tied the boat so it would stay outin the creek enough; instead, it was high and dry. We wereforced to defer the delivery until the next day.We did enjoy a wonderful get-together with all of ourfamilies here. We each dug into our stores for some specialingredients to combine with locally available items to createfestive dishes that were as good as what we might have hadat home.A typical home in Guyana.The next day we did make the deliveries along the river.Many of the families live up little channels or creeks. Sincethey only have tiny dugout canoes, they would have toeither paddle out to us or slip slide through the mud to getclose enough to accept the package. The Christmas hamperdelivery originated with the LaBores; but it has grown andthey have graciously included the rest of us in the programthis year.Because of the many needs here, we have learned overthe years that we must focus on what we know we cando, and do our best in those areas. Showing care andcompassion sometimes is the limit to our capacity. But byfaith our prayers can go beyond what we can do, and forthat we are grateful.–The Wickwire Familywww.FlyAWA.org Winter 2012 | airways 17
Page 1 and 2: The Official Voice of Adventist Wor
Page 3 and 4: across my desk asking, “Can AWAhe
Page 5: What Makes a Plane Fly?NUTS & BOLTS
Page 9 and 10: Report from AWA-PennsylvaniaFLIGHT
Page 11 and 12: ALASKA reportto many villages where
Page 13 and 14: Doors are Opening Wideguyana report
Page 15: guyana reporttried to call me. He w
Page 19 and 20: CJ and Nora KellyCJ and Nora KellyG
Page 21 and 22: Thank You, Gloria!Adventist World A
Page 23 and 24: plannedgivingAdventist World Aviati

Wings for Humanity

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?