Amanda, Grace and I had just finished studying the language and were finally ready to move to Helimission’s Wamena base.  We arrived and were greeted by our new teammates and were brought to our “new home”!  Amanda and I had planned before hand to go on a Vision Trip to Ngginim, (a mission post Helimission supports) only three days after our arrival to Wamena.  We thought it would be a good way to instill in us the vision of why we are here.  To remind us that it is not just about flying or maintaining helicopters but that it is about getting the Bible translated so that people may be saved!  So we unpacked, and packed at the same time.  We were supposed to be in Ngginim for 3 days.  We boarded the Heli and Tom and

This was the first believer in Ngginim

Tim were our pilots.  As we were passing a lake Tom comes on the radio to us and said, “just so you know, if the weather isn’t good on Monday, you will have to wait until Friday for a pick up as the Heli needs maintenance”. Amanda and I laughed and said, hope we have enough diapers for that! (For Grace of course).  We landed and were introduced to the local missionaries (Craig Schaffer and Jeff Palmer and family).  Over the next 3 days our vision was instilled.  We got to worship with the local believers on Sunday and got to see and hear the Bible read in the local language.  We got to meet the first believer and hear his story.  We got to shake hands with an elderly man that walked days away to hear this “creator’s talk” and he walks around with a walking stick and a solar MP3 player listening to all the recorded “lessons” from Craig and Jeff.  We met another elderly guy who was full of joy because he was blind, depressed and ready to die, but after Craig brought him to get cataract surgery he could see again!  We

met a sweet little girl who had a stroke very young and could barely walk but still held my daughters hand and tried to help her everywhere we went.  We got to look into the eyes of people being changed by the gospel!  We got a glimpse of Revelations where every nation, tribe and toungue will come and worship our God!  We got to focus our perspective on why we are serving with Helimisson.  Amanda and I started praying for bad weather so we could stay until Friday, but then the night before we were to leave a young man showed up.  He had hiked all day from the neighboring village with report of a boy with a broken femur that needed a medevac.  Suddenly our prayers changed from bad weather to good weather.  The next morning we heard the sound of the heli and rushed to the landing spot.  Gunter and Micha picked us up and we flew to the neighboring village to pick up the injured boy and his family.  It was a young boy and his leg was definitely broken.  He was screaming as his mom tried to show us the boy.  We got them loaded and tried to keep the boy as comfortable as possible.  We flew back to wamen and were able to get the little boy to the hospital for much needed medical attention.  The trip to Ngginim was life changing for both Amanda and I and will be a good anchor for us to look back on!