Pilot's Logbook: Elephants, Accidents, and Photo Ops

We wanted to share with you some of our recent events and photos from here in Northern Mozambique over the last couple of months:

Dave had the opportunity to fly in the Niassa Reserve. One morning before take-off, he actually had to wait for an elephant to get off the runway before he could take off. While he didn’t have his camera ready for that shot, he did get a good picture of some elephants in the reserve from the air.

Can you see the elephants in the bottom left-hand corner?

A week later I got to go on a flight with Dave to bring a missionary, Phil, back to the village of Pebane where he is a part of two missionary families that are teaching the Bible chronologically. The work they are doing is incredible and it was a privilege to fly Phil back in and carry some needed supplies. When we arrived, we needed to wait for the vehicle to arrive before we could unload the airplane. While we were waiting, I asked some of the people who had come up to watch the plane land if I could take some pictures. Once the camera came out, everyone wanted to be in a picture.

Photo op with kids at Pebane

Dave and Phil unload the plane

We often fly to a titanium mine, flying in both doctors and workers associated with the mine. One worker received a head injury and needed to go to the hospital. Seats were removed from the plane and replaced with a stretcher so the man could be flown from the mine to the hospital in Nampula. To travel by car for hours on the bumpy roads would have been much more difficult for a person with a head injury.

Unloading the patient to go to the hospital in Nampula

Our old sign at the hangar was in bad repair and still had MAF’s old logo. When the vision students were here, they removed the old sign (click here to see old sign), sanded it and painted it white. I then painted the new logo on the sign. With some repainting, the new sign went up for a fresh look.

Jill painting the new MAF logo

The new sign in place

Towards the beginning of September, I was returning from the orphanage where I teach martial arts to the kids. Shortly after the turn-off, I drove into a cloud of dust in a construction zone. As I went through the dust, suddenly out of nowhere was a large bus coming straight at me in my lane. We struck head-on, and our Land Rover was totaled. As bad as the accident was, I walked away from the accident with only minor injuries and no one on the bus was injured. In the next week or so, the case will go to court to determine fault. We appreciate your prayers:

That the trial will be corruption free. That the police will give true information to the judge and that the judge will look at it fairly.
That I will be able to understand the questions the lawyers and judges ask and will be able to communicate clearly. That a translator will be allowed if necessary.
That the bus’s insurance company will pay for our vehicle and that we can find a suitable replacement vehicle.


The Land Rover after the accident

We had the chance to show the JESUS Film, the story of the life of Jesus in the village of Namialo, the hometown of the wife our our guard Armando. We invited Alberto, our first language tutor to go with us to show the film. While we have all the equipment, we have not come up with a good frame for the screen yet. In good African fashion, Alberto and some of the men from the village improvised and quickly built a frame out of bamboo with machetes. About 100 people showed up to watch the film.