Himmelsbrücke zu Menschen in Not
What an historical event! Today I’m taking off for the first time from
the Mucombeze airstrip to do a mission flight. Many times after working a full
day in the heat of the African sun, I was standing at the end of the runway 17
imagining taking off one day with our Cessna from this airstrip. Taking off to
another destination to support and minister others. After three days of
preparation for this flight, informing Government, Civil Aviation, Airport
Authority, Police, Pastors and many more, I’m now ready at the end of runway 17
to push the throttle to full power. Pastor Ricardo is accompanying me to Caia where
we will meet about 20 pastors to receive lots of study book. A quick check to
our airspeed indicator shows the necessary speed to pull up the nose into the
sky and the wings take us up like a eagle.
Not very high though, because of the
clouds I decide to stay below them and so are we enjoying our one hour low
level flight to Caia following the purple mark on our GPS. The auto pilot does
now the job after leveling off and it gives me time to look out for elephants
on our way. Pastor Ricardo explains that there are no elephants in this area
only birds which we just past a few seconds ago. Mount Gorongosa is a good
landmark which we have now on our right side. Down there are fights between the
army and rebels, we are both very thankful being in an airplane and not down
there in a car driving through the unsafe area. We still have a little bit time
before I prepare for our approach. To keep Pastor Ricardo awake, it looks like
his enjoying our flight, I start to explain him some of our instrumentation in
the airplane, in Portugues! Now I have a good copilot if I decide to have a
little nap. Soon we see the Zambezi River and we can make out the runway of
Caia on the horizon. Everything is set for our low overfly to chase goats,
cows, pics and maybe elephants from the runway – but there were only people
walking with loads of fire wood or water buckets on the heads. The loud noise
of our engine alarmed the pedestrians and the whole village.
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| Junior Team |
After a smooth landing we are welcomed by 20
pastors from the region, police commandant and the government. We don’t feel as
important but appreciate the welcome. Surrounded by many spectators we start to
unload our precious cargo and Pastor Ricardo hands out the books for the
different schools. I take the chance to share a word of encouraging using small
litchi trees, they still look good after our flight. After three hours on the
ground and of course after taking some pictures, my Copilot and I, we are
getting ready for our flight back. Taxing away to the airstrip we see only very
happy and thankful friends. RPM good, speed alive and the ground releases our
wheels and we are on our way home. Home to Mucombeze, what a successful day we
have had. In only a few hours we did the work it would have taken us two days
by car. Now I can relax as the airplane heads home avoiding rain cells but
unfortunately I can’t have a nap - my copilot, Pastor Ricardo, is already napping.
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| teaching time |
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| my flight attendant |
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