This week for us has been an exciting one.
Ben is almost finished with his private pilot license and will start the instrument course in May.
We are getting the apartment ready for our friends Paul and Beth, who are coming all the way over from England. We are really looking forward to seeing them!
Also this week, our church, Crosswalk Community Church, here in Titusville has decided to support us in training for missions! This is such an awesome testimony to God's faithfulness and yet another confirmation that we are headed in the right direction. We are so excited to be headed towards careers in missions.
I have been studying hard with Covenant College's The Chalmers Centre and am in the third (and final) Microfinance/enterprise course module. Hope to complete the entire course (last assignment is a ministry plan) by September. Then I will get a nice little certificate from the Center. Yippee! This is a great course, I am learning so much about indigenous savings groups and how smart and clever the 'poor' really are! Would recommend taking the class if you are going to work in missions. Even if your role within the ministry will not be financial based you should still take the course because of the insight into the incredible ways the poor handle financial hardships. After this class, I would like to study French at the local community college, but those plans are up in the air because we don't know where Ben will get an instructing job after his course his finished. We shall see.
In bunny news, the Roast and Stew are going to the vet next Thursday to see if they are ready to be neutered. I can hardly wait till that day! The buns are really great and I enjoy them, but Stew has a bit too much hormone induced behavior going on. Look forward to when he goes back to the same temperament he had before the testicles took over...Roast on the other hand is pretty much the same as he has always been...a gentle, friendly rabbit who enjoys a good rub between the ears. Hope that doesn't ever change. Oh yes, both rabbits have now discovered the mysterious land that is the plywood top to the cage. They are strangely fascinated by it, probably because it serves as an excellent lookout post. Silly rabbits...
The latest news from the Hopkinsons. On our journey serving with Helimission.
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Sunday, April 03, 2005
Helimission update - Indonesian earthquake
Helimission is updating their website with more English stories so its worth taking a look.
There website is: http://www.helimission.ch
Click on the usa/UK flag on the bottom of the page.
Helimission on Nias within 24 hours
Earthquake on Easter-Monday night, March 28, 2005 (8.7 on the Richter scale).
Earthquake on Easter-Monday night
Our helicopter, the Bell 206 L4 (PK-HCT), was still based in Meulaboh on the West-Coast of Sumatra. That’s why Helimission was one of the first to help on Nias, the Indonesian Island most affected by the earthquake. Our Pilot, Brian Smith, together with our Indonesian co-worker, Jan Tulaseket, flew to Nias on March 29, 2005 only to find a devastated place. There was no fuel on the only airport “Binaka” on the island.
Our team quickly organized themselves with the organization Samaritans-Purse with another helicopter, with MAF and other small fixed-wing operators. The heli brings the insured to the airport Binaka where there is a place for triage done by small aid organizations which are part of the “family”. From there the airplanes take the patients to hospitals on the main island of Sumatra (Medan, etc.). On their return flights they bring the desperately needed fuel for the helicopters.
This way we can make a big difference in this latest tragedy. Nias was not hit too hard by the Tsunami in December 2004, but this second earthquake destroyed most buildings on the island, burying many hundred people underneath.
The UN has a hard time to get the aid-efforts organized. One handicap is that only SAT-phones work on the island.
Here are the reports from Luana Smith, the wife of our pilot there:
March 31, 2005 Day 3:
11:15 am Thursday: Brian called as he had a break. He said he was about to take off again on a flight and he had to shut down as the military ordered all aircraft to remain on the ground as the president of Indonesia was visiting. Brian had just returned from a flight bringing a little girl who had a broken arm, leg and ribs to get flown out to the main island. There were about 16 injured there waiting for the next flight to the hospital. He had taken a team of French doctors out to a village to treat and triage the injured that needed to be flown out. He was quite impressed with the French team (as with the OBI team) as they just rolled right into action and very organized, not a common site with so many others still standing around dazed.
Fuel still remains a problem. MAF was able to supply him with two drums and the Indonesian military with one. Part of the problem is to make sure the fuel is there the next time he gets back to refuel.
His voice on the phone sounded better but he said he was two days away from a shower and three from a shave! The tent he slept in last night was muggy to say the least. It was starting to rain again, he said the people sure need a break from that.
March 30, 2005 Day 2:
Brian is remaining on the island of Nias helping out with the injured. He waited part of the morning on the UN as things were chaotic trying to put some order after such a great disaster. Someone approached him and asked him to please come help with injured they had. There were also requests for flights to the west of the island and to the south but with fuel still not organized so he decided to do what was in front of him first. For the rest of the day he flew some 20 injured from the outer areas to the airport. Most were crush type injuries. At the airport there was a medical team from OBI (Operation Blessing Indonesia whom we have been working with). They helped the injured before they would get on airplanes to the hospitals on the main island of Sumatra.
He called me Wednesday evening as he was telling me of his day and that he was not sure where he was going to sleep for the night. He said please pray he would not get bit up by mosquitoes with malaria as his belongings had not caught up with him yet. He ended up sleeping in a tent.
Bell 206 L4, PK-HCT
Pilot & Mechaniker: Brian Smith aus USA
Flughelfer und Übersetzer (langjähriger indon. MA der HM in Papua): Jan Tulaseket
Helikopter: Bell 206 L4, PK-HCT
Any financial support will be much appreciated. Thank you.
USA: For a tax-deductible receipt, please make checks payable to “Helimission” and mail to:
Helimission, P.O. Box 1100, Montreat, NC 28757.
There website is: http://www.helimission.ch
Click on the usa/UK flag on the bottom of the page.
Helimission on Nias within 24 hours
Earthquake on Easter-Monday night, March 28, 2005 (8.7 on the Richter scale).
Earthquake on Easter-Monday night
Our helicopter, the Bell 206 L4 (PK-HCT), was still based in Meulaboh on the West-Coast of Sumatra. That’s why Helimission was one of the first to help on Nias, the Indonesian Island most affected by the earthquake. Our Pilot, Brian Smith, together with our Indonesian co-worker, Jan Tulaseket, flew to Nias on March 29, 2005 only to find a devastated place. There was no fuel on the only airport “Binaka” on the island.
Our team quickly organized themselves with the organization Samaritans-Purse with another helicopter, with MAF and other small fixed-wing operators. The heli brings the insured to the airport Binaka where there is a place for triage done by small aid organizations which are part of the “family”. From there the airplanes take the patients to hospitals on the main island of Sumatra (Medan, etc.). On their return flights they bring the desperately needed fuel for the helicopters.
This way we can make a big difference in this latest tragedy. Nias was not hit too hard by the Tsunami in December 2004, but this second earthquake destroyed most buildings on the island, burying many hundred people underneath.
The UN has a hard time to get the aid-efforts organized. One handicap is that only SAT-phones work on the island.
Here are the reports from Luana Smith, the wife of our pilot there:
March 31, 2005 Day 3:
11:15 am Thursday: Brian called as he had a break. He said he was about to take off again on a flight and he had to shut down as the military ordered all aircraft to remain on the ground as the president of Indonesia was visiting. Brian had just returned from a flight bringing a little girl who had a broken arm, leg and ribs to get flown out to the main island. There were about 16 injured there waiting for the next flight to the hospital. He had taken a team of French doctors out to a village to treat and triage the injured that needed to be flown out. He was quite impressed with the French team (as with the OBI team) as they just rolled right into action and very organized, not a common site with so many others still standing around dazed.
Fuel still remains a problem. MAF was able to supply him with two drums and the Indonesian military with one. Part of the problem is to make sure the fuel is there the next time he gets back to refuel.
His voice on the phone sounded better but he said he was two days away from a shower and three from a shave! The tent he slept in last night was muggy to say the least. It was starting to rain again, he said the people sure need a break from that.
March 30, 2005 Day 2:
Brian is remaining on the island of Nias helping out with the injured. He waited part of the morning on the UN as things were chaotic trying to put some order after such a great disaster. Someone approached him and asked him to please come help with injured they had. There were also requests for flights to the west of the island and to the south but with fuel still not organized so he decided to do what was in front of him first. For the rest of the day he flew some 20 injured from the outer areas to the airport. Most were crush type injuries. At the airport there was a medical team from OBI (Operation Blessing Indonesia whom we have been working with). They helped the injured before they would get on airplanes to the hospitals on the main island of Sumatra.
He called me Wednesday evening as he was telling me of his day and that he was not sure where he was going to sleep for the night. He said please pray he would not get bit up by mosquitoes with malaria as his belongings had not caught up with him yet. He ended up sleeping in a tent.
Bell 206 L4, PK-HCT
Pilot & Mechaniker: Brian Smith aus USA
Flughelfer und Übersetzer (langjähriger indon. MA der HM in Papua): Jan Tulaseket
Helikopter: Bell 206 L4, PK-HCT
Any financial support will be much appreciated. Thank you.
USA: For a tax-deductible receipt, please make checks payable to “Helimission” and mail to:
Helimission, P.O. Box 1100, Montreat, NC 28757.
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