Emergency Flight On Christmas Day

As a family, we were really looking forward to Christmas Day to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We were going to celebrate this special day in church, and I was excited because I had been asked to sing. But things turned out differently. 

At 6 am, as I was getting ready, I received a phone call from my colleague Victor. He told me about an emergency patient who needed to be flown to the hospital as soon as possible. The patient was a mother who had given birth the day before but had not yet delivered the placenta. She had been bleeding heavily since the baby was born. 

I prayed and asked God for wisdom, as I didn’t want to miss the church service. During my prayer God reminded me of my calling and why He had called me to Wamena. I decided to make the emergency flight immediately and rushed to the hangar to prepare for the flight. 

Victor took care of all the flight permits, while I performed a preflight check, filled the fuel as needed, and pushed the helicopter out onto the landing pad. Once everything was ready, we prayed together, and I quickly took off for my destination: the village of Yabenda in the Wolo district of Jayawijaya. 

We had never landed in this village before, so after a 10-minute flight, I flew over the village several times to make sure there was enough open space for a safe landing. Fortunately, the villagers of Yabenda had prepared a suitable landing area at about 2,100m (6,900 feet). 

I hurried out and asked the patient’s family about her condition, then I helped the patient into the helicopter along with her husband, mother and baby and made the short flight back. Dr. Mia was already waiting for us outside the hospital to receive the patient.

I returned to the hangar with a heart full of joy and peace, knowing that this was the ministry God wanted me to do today. 

The next day I found out that the baby had been named Maichel after me. This is the second baby to be named after me!! 

Maichel, Pilot