"Peace, be still." - Jesus

Mark 4:41  "Who is this man?" they asked each other. "Even the wind and waves obey him!"

It has been quite the unexpected week for us. We are back at the Madang center, a little discouraged, but confident that God has the situation well in hand. Frankly the flying conditions were so bad that our helicopter pilot was literally waking up in a cold sweat at night (yes, literally). The guys were able to be in Pal for a couple of days but we were unable to bring the necessary supplies in for the families to be able to some in as well. We are praying and planning for when we can try again, trusting the Lord that His timing is perfect and His love for the Pal people is great.

Please pray with us for the Pal people that they would not be discouraged. Pray for us too as we plan our next steps – we’d like wisdom as we determine when might be a good time to try again.

Thanks,

Nate for the Claasens.

If you’d like a little more detail…

With everything in place at the shuttle spot on Wednesday morning, we were excited to see the helicopter come , bringing with it a team of guys who would be helping us get the houses in shape for our families’ arrival in Pal. The clouds over the mountains were very thick and so we waited a while to see if they would break up at all (the helicopter must have visual contact with the ground or the horizon for safe operation). When things seemed to clear up, four of us loaded up along with a few tools and we headed into Pal. The clouds were still fairly thick over the mountains where we needed to go, but we decided to try it anyway. When we were over the correct location, there was nothing to see below us but thick cloud cover. We were about to abandon the trip altogether when a little opening appeared and through it we saw the glint of our tin roofs (picture – can you spot the houses?). Joking ‘You can’t do that in a [Cessna] 206,’ our pilot dropped several thousand feet almost straight down through the rapidly closing gap.

We had to disembark rather quickly as he needed to get back up through the hole. A couple of hours later, the rest of the work team made it in with about half of our tools. After that the clouds closed in, opening for a little while in the late afternoon – but, with no radio, we had no way of getting word to the loading team at the shuttle point.  It wasn’t until night fell that we began to notice the wind.

The wind steadily increased in forcefulness over the night to the point where our houses were shaking and the bamboo siding began to peel back. At Mason’s house, rain was washing a wall that is protected by a 12’ overhang and a bamboo fenced railing. When we asked the people the next day, they told us that January is characterized by high winds (hmmmm…). The helicopter made it in on Thursday morning with the rest of our tools and a few essential pieces of building material. Our pilot stayed on the ground for the next four hours, waiting for the wind and the cloud cover to dissipate. Although he did make it out that day, he had to fly 14 miles out of the way to find a clear spot to lift above the clouds.   

Here is Ray, the helicopter pilot, posing in front of the ‘hardest place to get into’

The winds and the clouds did not diminish that night, if anything they were worse. The helicopter made it in Friday morning, but only after adding 10 minutes of extra flight time to the trip and a very risky landing. It was clear that the helicopter would not be coming back after that trip. We held a conference with the Pal leaders and let them know the situation. They seemed to understand  - I’m sure they could see the disappointment on our faces. After quickly taking stock of what needed to be done, cleaning up as much as possible, and saying our goodbyes to as many people as possible, we piled into the helicopter and took off.

PS. If you know how strong a wind it would take to snap our 5” thick hardwood windsock pole, please let us know… (yes, it snapped and had to be replaced.)

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