The Hand Of God - The Story Of The Piper Aztec Airplane Crash

The Hand Of God

prompted SIL to develop

The Story Of The Piper Aztec Airplane Crash

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By Charles Micheals

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The Hand Of God The Story of the Piper Aztec Airplane Crash

In Memoriam Plaque – In the LCORE Administration Building – Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea (Photo courtesy of Lee Wood)

Winter Park, Florida

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© 2019 Charles J. Micheals

Published by the Aiyura Valley Historical Society

Winter Park, Florida

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: Pending

First Printing 2019 (Not for Sale)

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission.

NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.

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Dedication To the men and women who have served the Christian missionary workers of Papua New Guinea so faithfully.

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The Hand Of God The Story of the Piper Aztec Airplane Crash No one comes to the mission field expecting to be buried there, but a cemetery at the mission center at Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea, which is the headquarters for the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) in the country, testifies to those who have given their lives to the work of Bible translation.

Some have died due to illness, some have been killed and still others died in accidents on the highways or in the village. Until 1972 there had never been a loss of lives in an airplane accident, although an airplane crash in Chiapas, Mexico in the early years of SIL with the founder Cameroon Townsend onboard prompted SIL to develop its own air service to train its own pilots and ensure better safety. In 1948, SIL created the Jungle Aviation and Radio Service, now simply JAARS, to oversee this effort.

The lessons learned in this accident in Papua New Guinea would continue to allow SIL and JAARS to have one of the best safety records in aviation today. While some may see the accident in 1972 as a tragic event, the hand of God is seen in many ways. While the loss for the family and friends was and is still real, God has graciously provided healing and peace and has helped propel many others into missionary service.

This book is written to give tribute to these families, to their Christian service and for the glory of God among the nations.

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My thanks go to the following people who helped make this book possible:

❖ Glennis Hunt, wife of Doug Hunt. ❖ Ralph Claassen, Brother of Oren Claassen. ❖ Vida Chenoweth, Usarufa translation partner with Dr. Darlene Bee. She died in December 2018. ❖ Gail Godfrey, Niece of Kath McNeil. ❖ Merle Busenitz, Aviation Mechanic with SIL in PNG who attends the same church as Oren Claassen did. ❖ Ken Wiggers, pilot in Papua New Guinea at the time of the crash. ❖ Ian Davidson, Literacy worker for the Buang New Testament with his wife Doris. ❖ Stan Dudgeon, friend of several of the passengers who died. ❖ Hap and Glady Skinner, SIL members in PNG at the time of the crash. They have both died. ❖ Karl and Joice Franklin, Kewa Bible Translators. ❖ Nancy McBride, friend of Oren and Francine along with her husband Sam who was former Director of Wycliffe New Zealand, but who died in 1984. ❖ Jenny Mackie, Laidlaw College (Formerly the Bible College of New Zealand). ❖ David Cummings, Former Wycliffe Bible Translator President, and his wife Ruth. ❖ George and Georgetta MacDonald, Dadibi Bible Translators. ❖ Annette Martin, Daughter of Sam and Nancy McBride who were SIL members and were friends of the Claassens. ❖ Bruce Hooley, Buang Bible Translator. ❖ Neal and Martha Kooyers, Washkuk Bible Translators, Pacific Island Ministries. They have both died. ❖ Penny Schering (Kooyers), roommate in Lae, New Guinea and friend of Kath McNeil. ❖ Betty Keneqa, SIL PNG Archives. ❖ Brian Moyer, Wycliffe Bible Translator Archivist.

A special word of thanks goes to my wife Barb for her patience with me during the time it took to collect material and to write this book. She encouraged me to keep working on this project and gave advice on many practical things. Without her help, this work would not have been completed. Many others, too numerous to fully name also helped with various remembrances for which I am grateful.

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Chapter 1 Called Home Jungle Aviation and Radio Service (now JAARS), the flying arm of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) has a long and distinguished flying record. Over a twenty five year period of time and thousands of flight hours they had not had one fatal accident before Friday, April 7, 1972. On that day, the JAARS Piper Aztec VH-SIL aircraft’s right engine caught fire and crashed in New Guinea1 near the coastal town of Lae, killing all seven people aboard.

The Aztec had been rolled out of the hangar following a 100 hour inspection and was again on a busy day of service, helping speed the work of Bible translation. Stu Nelson was scheduled to fly this day, but Doug Hunt who had just finished two weeks of vacation felt Stu needed a break and so took over the flying duties in the Piper Aztec that day.

Piper Aztec Aircraft VH-SIL- 1972 (Photo courtesy Glennis Hunt)

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Papua New Guinea became independent on September 16, 1975. Before then it was a Territory of Australia and administered in two parts, Papua and New Guinea. Lae and Ukarumpa were in the Territory of New Guinea.

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Doug took off for the capital city of Port Moresby to pick up four passengers. However, they were not there and so he picked up the waiting cargo and as planned flew to Lae directly to pick up several passengers who needed to fly back to Ukarumpa.

Dr. Darlene Bee, translator for the Usarufa people, had just arrived in Lae from New Zealand. She had tried to get another flight up to Ukarumpa, but was unable to. Instead, after hearing of the Aztec’s early arrival and space, she turned down a ride to Ukarumpa by road. Oren and Francine Claassen were translators for the Rawa people and had been in Lae for a checkup after the birth of a child, who was stillborn a few months earlier and they too needed to get back to Ukarumpa.

Dr. Darlene Bee’s first Usarufa home A new house and separate schoolroom in Usarufa village (Photos from the book ‘Usarufa in 1971’ – Courtesy of Vida Chenoweth)

Two New Guineans, Nore Kepa who was involved in helping Darryl and Lael Wilson on a Bible translation project in his own Suena community and Luke Beb from the Buang language area were also on their way to Ukarumpa. Nore was on his way to Ukarumpa to assist in the translation project while Luke was on his way to say goodbye to Ian and Doris Davidson who were heading back to New Zealand for a year of furlough. Ian and Doris were translators, helping Bruce and Joyce Hooley on the Buang New Testament translation.

Last on the list was Kath McNeil. She was a buyer for SIL in the town of Lae who had joined SIL in 1967 and had also previously worked in an Adult Education program in the Kwoma (Washkuk) language located 11 | P a g e

in the Sepik River area of the country where Neal and Martha Kooyers were doing a translation of the New Testament.

Kath had gotten to know Darlene and her translation partner Vida Chenoweth and so was the ‘support’ team assigned to them. This meant providing practical help such as sending supplies by plane out to the village and to provide spiritual encouragement. If possible a visit to their village was arranged which was something Kath had done in August 1971.

On the day of the crash Kath was on her way to Ukarumpa to make plans for a future assignment after finishing her term of service in Lae. Her plan was to fly to Ukarumpa and live with Bee and then head out to the Kwoma (Washkuk) language area for three months and help her new roommate and friend Penny Kooyers on some education ventures in the area villages. Penny had returned from a year in the USA and had been helping out at the SIL office in Lae by meeting the airplanes and helping drop off and pick up passengers. Just a few weeks before, Penny had become Kath’s roommate.

On that Friday morning, Penny Kooyers loaded the small van at the SIL Guest House where everyone had been staying for a short trip to the Lae airstrip to drop them off. As Kath departed for the SIL plane, she told Penny, “My work is finished in Lae now. We’ll just wait and see what the Lord has ahead for me. You know Penny, I might never see you again. I might go as quickly as Ed Wagner did.” (Ed was a mission worker at Ukarumpa who had recently died unexpectedly.)

In the late afternoon Doug, with his six passengers, took off from the airstrip in Lae and the plane reached an altitude of 6,500 feet. Suddenly Doug saw a brilliant flash out his right window and realized the engine was on fire. Bringing all his skills into action, Doug turned the plane around in a 360°circle and headed back to Nadzab, a World War II airstrip in the area. He also sent a mayday signal picked up by Civil Aviation in Lae and another JAARS plane that was in the area piloted by Paul Carlson.

The plane lost 6,400 feet in two minutes, and Doug leveled off about 100 feet above the ground and was within a minute from the Nadzab runway. Suddenly there was another brilliant flash of light, and the wing of the plane began breaking apart and then the plane turned upside down. In an instant the plane nosedived and crashed. The lives of seven people aboard were gone! God’s invisible hand, which had kept 12 | P a g e

SIL Guest House in Lae where Kath worked (Photo courtesy of Gail May)

Post Card from Lae showing airstrip - 1970s (Photo courtesy of Charles Micheals)

the plane in the air, was now seen in a new way as God called these mission workers to their eternal home.

Back at the Ukarumpa aviation department, Ken Wiggers was awaiting a radio call from Doug about his estimated time of arrival. Instead he received the sad news of the crash just as the missionaries families gathered at the Meeting House for a special service. First Ken shared the tragic news with Doug’s wife Glennis. Then Ken knew he would have to inform the other missionaries so he made his way to the Meeting House where he heard the sounds of the missionaries singing joyfully. He made his way through the door, interrupted the service and broke the news that their friends and family members had died in the plane crash.

As Ken finished sharing, others took over the service as missionaries began to comfort the friends of those who had died. Ken then left the Meeting House and headed to the house of the Hunts to ensure that care was provided for Glennis and her family. However, as he did, out of the shadows burst a man who grabbed Ken by the shirt and wept uncontrollably. It was one of the JAARS mechanics, Craig Nimmo. Craig said, “I was sitting there in that meeting, wracking my brain trying to remember. Now I know. It was my fault. The whole thing is my fault.”

Craig went on to share that he had worked on the engine of the Aztec. He remembered hooking up the fuel line when another JAARS mechanic asked for his help. He had tightened the nut on the fuel line with his fingers and had intended to give the nut an extra twist with the wrench, but forgot to go back and do 13 | P a g e

1971 Aviation Team (L-R) Front Row: Roger Dodson, Craig Nimmo, Jim Baptista, Jim Entz, Doug Hunt, Back Row: Stu Nelson, John Beaumont, John Sahlin, Ken Wiggers, Vic Dickey, Paul Carlson (Photo courtesy of SIL PNG Branch Archives)

it. The lack of that final twist of the wrench meant that a fine spray of gasoline could have escaped, got on the hot engine, and started the fire.

Later on, the investigation showed that it was likely that loose connection that had allowed fuel to spray onto the engine and wing and catch fire while the aircraft was in flight. The JAARS mechanic’s guilt at being responsible for the deaths of his co-workers bothered him. Feeling crushed he did not know what to do. Other JAARS staff tried to comfort him, as did his own family. However, when the family of Doug Hunt was preparing to return to their home in New Zealand some time later, Craig knew he had to meet and talk with them and beg their forgiveness. He sobbed in their presence and could hardly choke out the words of apology as he looked at his hand and said, “That hand there took Doug’s life.”

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Glennis Hunt, Doug’s widow, put her arms around him and held the hand that took her husband’s life as a JAARS pilot sat on his other side showing love, support and forgiveness. There, in that quite moment the hand of God provided assurance to Craig that God was indeed sovereign and that His plans were best.

Sometime later Craig shared with Jamie Buckingham, author of the book Into The Glory where this story is more fully written up, “Except for God’s grace I’d be somewhere cowering in a corner in guilt-ridden despair—the eighth fatality of the Aztec crash.” While he thought he was a failure, God provided the faith he needed to keep going.

The crash site (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

A number of years after the crash, Craig had a lecture every year with new mechanics at LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas describing how careful mechanics must be. Every year he re-lived that incident, but God was good and Craig used this accident to shape the lives of many future aviation mechanics.

This accident also started the beginning of the JAARS Aviation Safety Department and the establishment of the JAARS Aviation Operations Manual. That manual mandates many standard operating procedures 15 | P a g e

for JAARS aircraft worldwide, including the second independent inspection of all fluid carrying lines and the installation of inspector's putty as an external, visible verification.

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Chapter 2 Chosen: 5:35 pm - Friday, April 7, 1972 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am”. John 17:24

And so it was that on Friday, April 7, 1972, seven members of the SIL "family" left them to be with the Lord. They were chief pilot Douglas Hunt, buyer Kathleen (Kath) McNeil, translation helper Nore and another New Guinean Beb, translators Darlene Bee and Oren and Francine Claassen. The crash of SIL’s twin-engine Piper Aztec took them instantly, mercifully, while they were on a routine flight from the port of Lae to the Ukarumpa center.

Ten minutes out of Lae, and about a minute beyond an excellent wartime runway, Doug reported fire in the right engine to the Lae control tower. Pilot Paul Carlson was in the area flying toward Lae, but changed course to follow Doug to an emergency landing at a nearby airstrip. As Doug circled to land, Paul saw the right wing explode and separate from the plane.

The aircraft went out of control about one hundred feet in the air and plummeted to the ground, killing all aboard. Another minute could have seen the plane safely back to the runway. Doug, a very experienced and capable pilot, handled the plane coolly and professionally to the very end.

For the SIL family left at Ukarumpa, there was great sorrow mixed with hope. Glennis Hunt and her four children bravely decided to go on without husband and father. Vida Chenoweth and the Usarufa people lost a loved partner and translator in Darlene Bee who had been working in the country since April of 1958. However, they decided to continue on with the Usarufa Bible translation project. Oren Claassen, who had been working with SIL in New Guinea since March 1965, and his wife Francine, who had been working with SIL in New Guinea since April 1964, left the Rawa people stunned at their sudden deaths.

Yet, shortly afterward, the Rawa people decided that they wanted someone else to come and turn God's talk into their language and help would come sooner than they thought possible.

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For those SIL missionaries at Ukarumpa, God gave comfort in a remarkable way by allowing them to glimpse His sovereignty at work. There were many reasons, humanly speaking, why this crash should never have occurred. Only the day before, it had been decided to sell the Aztec to buy a much-needed larger aircraft. The plane had just undergone a thorough inspection--the sort of preventive maintenance that God has used to give SIL and JAARS twenty-five years of flying in eight countries with not one fatality.

Two other aircraft were in the vicinity; if either had sighted the Aztec minutes earlier, they might well have spotted the fire under the wing before Doug could have been aware of it. This could have given the tiny margin of time needed to land safely before going past Nadzab, the wartime runway.

Most of the passengers were not scheduled for this flight, but since they were all waiting in Lae to return to Ukarumpa, Doug offloaded cargo he was carrying and took them instead. Nore was to have traveled to Ukarumpa by road. Dr. Darlene Bee, principal of the Summer Institute of Linguistics school in New Zealand (held on the campus of the Bible College of New Zealand), had tried to get an earlier flight to Lae. This would have put her on a different plane to Ukarumpa. While waiting in Lae, Darlene and Kath passed by the offer of a car ride to Ukarumpa. Four passengers scheduled to come from Port Moresby didn't arrive; if they had, Darlene and Kath would have flown on a different aircraft with SIL's pilot Paul Carlson. Oren and Francine Claassen were keenly feeling the loss of the baby for which they had waited five years; but if the baby had not been stillborn, they would have left him at Ukarumpa with friends during what was to be a quick trip to a doctor in Lae. Oren decided to go with his wife only at the last minute; now they are a united family.

Doug and his wife Glennis and four children had been in New Guinea serving with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) since 1961, then began to serve with SIL in March 1966. Doug served both organizations as a pilot. He would not normally have been flying on this Friday; he had taken 10 days off to work on the house he had just bought. Friday was his last day, and despite having made the house livable and having moved his family in, there were still things that needed to be done. Doug felt that Stewart Nelson, who had been flying the Aztec for the last two weeks, needed a break. As Chief pilot, Doug preferred to do essential weekend flying himself rather than ask others to do it. Since Doug had Saturday and Sunday flights, he decided to fly Friday as well. Who goes back to work on the last day of their time off? Doug would and did.

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Glennis, Lynda, Janette, Dale, Gary and Doug Hunt (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, Canada Archives)

Ian Davidson and his wife Doris, who had been helping out in the Buang translation project, had been scheduled to fly on the flight before going back to New Zealand on furlough. However, the Buang people wanted to have a farewell for Ian and Doris. Since the village was near the town of Lae, Ian and Doris cancelled their flight and attended the farewell. Luke Beb was on the flight because he thought the Davidson’s had traveled to Ukarumpa and he wanted to say goodbye to them before they departed for furlough.

There are a number of factors that influenced who the passengers and pilot were on the Aztec that day.

God also moved in other unusual ways to prepare us for His perfect plan. First, He arranged for translators who are most dependent (because of distance) on the Aztec to be at Ukarumpa or in their home countries-not isolated in their villages. God also recently guided Doug to procure government waivers and endorsements for two senior pilots.

God had been preparing the individuals affected by the accident as well. As Doug’s wife Glennis reflected on the beauty of that sunny Friday and their wonderful marriage, she thought to herself, “If anything ever happened to Doug, if he were ever to be lost to flying or we had parted, I would rather it would be on a 20 | P a g e

day like this, when we were so together in every aspect of our lives.” Also, Kath McNeil had said to Penny Kooyers just before the flight, “My work in Lae is finished now. Who knows, I may never see you again— the Lord may take me Home suddenly.” At a Bible study a month before, Oren expounded on the sovereignty of God from this outline: God is in control; He knows the future; nothing happens by chance.

A year earlier Darlene Bee expressed thoughts about life and death this way:

A Time for Dying Perhaps the moment after ecstasy; after feeling the full fierce force of life: after knowing love and while love is still warm perhaps that is the time for dying; before everything and one has turned sour; before life is a burden, before the thrill of waking to a new day is gone; before we long for death. . . to die while bursting with life, brimming with vitality, longing to live Perhaps this is the time to die and live.

Feb. 26, 1971 - Henderson, New Zealand (Ecc.3:2)

One of the last entries in Darlene’s note-book of devotional thoughts was, “Longing for His Presence.”

Those who were affected by the events surrounding the Aztec crash of April 7, 1972 clearly saw the Hand of God in every aspect of the day. Some may ask, “Was this an accident?” or “Was this a tragedy?”

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The answer is clear. No. Clearly these were the ones who were chosen by God; it was their time to die and LIVE.

Dr. Darlene Bee (Photo courtesy of Vida Chenoweth)

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Chapter 3 Times of Remembrance After the crash, plans were quickly arranged for memorial services. Two were planned in New Guinea.

Many more would be held in the countries of those who died. A Memorial Service was planned for Sunday, April 9, 1972 at Ukarumpa followed by a funeral service the following day in Lae where the bodies of the SIL members and Luke Beb would be buried. Photos of those who died are noted below.

The SIL Members

Douglas Neil Hunt (b. October 20, 1931) (From Waimauku, New Zealand) Chief Pilot

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Oren Ray Claassen (b .March 3, 1940) (From Newton, Kansas, USA) Mildred Francine Claassen (b. February 10, 1936) (From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) Translators for the Rawa People

Dr. Darlene LaVerne Bee (b. March 4, 1932) (From Port Angeles, Washington, USA) Translator for the Usarufa people

Kathleen Dorothy McNeil (b. July 20, 1912) (From Tauranga, New Zealand) SIL Buyer in Lae

The New Guinea Men

Nore Kepa (From Suena) Suena Translation helper – Buried in Bosadi, Morobe Province

Luke Beb (From Buang) His father was a Buang translation helper

Nore Kepa was from the Suena area and had been assisting with the Suena Scriptures (New Testament completed in 1978). His wife was left with the care of nine children.

Many years after the crash the oldest child of Nore, Bazakie who was 18 years old at the time of the crash, met Joy Atkinson (Wycliffe missionary who worked in Papua New Guinea) at a ‘chance’ meeting in Canberra, Australia in 2006. Joy saw a Papua New Guinean with a bilum and discovered he was the son of

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Nore with wife and seven of their children (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators Archives)

Nore Kepa. He was a Colonel in the PNG Defense Force at the time of their meeting and he spoke fondly of his father. Bazakie recently died in mid-2012 when he was about 58 years old.

Luke Beb (Beb – the b’s are prenasalized [ᵐbɛᵐb], and the final segment is often devoiced) was from the Buang (Mapos) area. Luke’s father had helped Bruce and Joyce Hooley on the translation of the Buang Scriptures (New Testament completed in 1978), but Luke was not involved in the translation project.

Ian and Doris Davidson, who worked for 10 years in Papua New Guinea (five years in the Iwal language and five years in the Buang language doing literacy), were in one of the Buang villages and heard the news by short wave radio in the village on Saturday morning, April 8, 1972. They had traveled to the village before leaving for furlough in New Zealand. Initially they had planned to go to Ukarumpa before leaving, but changed their plans at the last minute and decided to go to the village instead. Their original plans were to have taken the flight that crashed. It is thought that Beb had taken the flight to Ukarumpa to say goodbye to the Davidson’s before they left for furlough, thinking they were already at Ukarumpa.

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Beb’s burial at Malahang Cemetery, Lae (Photo courtesy of Ian Davidson)

Ian broke the news to Beb’s father in the village, which was a very hard thing to do. While Beb’s father was not able to go to the funeral in Lae, the Buang people were happy to have Beb buried with the other SIL people.

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Ukarumpa Memorial Service The Memorial Service at Ukarumpa was held on Sunday, April 9, 1972. Reverend Graham Pulkingham, who had been visiting the center, conducted the service with members of SIL participating.

1965 - Meeting House at Ukarumpa (Photo courtesy of Gail May)

“Graduation Service” – Memorial Service Presiding: Reverend Graham Pulkingham – Rector of the Church of the Redeemer (Episcopal), Houston, Texas Congregation Singing: “If Jesus Goes With Me I’ll Go Anywhere” (Doug Hunt’s favorite hymn) Prayer: Des Oatridge Scripture Reading: Job 19:26 (Skip Firchow) “And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.” (ESV) Special Music: “The King of Love My Shepherd Is” (Dennis and Nancy Cochrane – Song sung at Oren and Francine’s Wedding)

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Sermon: Reverend Graham Pulkingham – “God is not glorified because we go off and do something for Him. He is glorified when we give our bodies to be the habitation of His Spirit.”

Closing Prayer

Lae Funeral Service Early Monday morning, April 10, 1972 twenty five cars traveled from Ukarumpa to Lae for the funeral service. Several airplane loads of SIL members flew from Ukarumpa to Lae and attended the service. The service was held at 2:00 pm at the United Church with Rev. Wally Johnson conducting the service. After the pastor spoke, Beverly Entz sang the song “Each Step I Take”. Unknown to Bev at the time, this song was very special for Doug and Glennis as they had sung that song together many times during Youth For Christ outreach rallies in New Zealand.

Each Step I Take (Words and Music by W. Elmo Mercer) Each step I take my Savior goes before me, And with His loving hand He leads the way.

And with each breath I whisper, I adore Thee; O what joy to walk with Him each day.

Chorus Each step I take, I know that He will guide me; To higher ground He ever leads me on.

Until someday the last step will be taken.

Each step I take just leads me closer Home.

At times I feel my faith begin to waver, When up ahead I see a chasm wide.

It's then I turn and look up to my Savior, I am strong when He is by my side.

Chorus I trust in God, no matter come what may, For life eternal is in His hand, He holds the key that opens up the way.

That will lead me to the promised land.

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After the service, thirty six pallbearers (including five Usarufas) carried the six caskets to the waiting vehicles supplied by the government administrative transportation department) for travel to the graveyard for the burial. (Nore Kepa was buried in Bosadi, his Suena village)

Funeral service at the United Church in Lae (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

Glennis, Gary and Jannette Hunt at the funeral service in Lae

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Travel to the Malahang Plantation Cemetery (Photos courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

Lae Burial Service The five SIL missionaries were buried at the Malahang Plantation Cemetery in Lae, New Guinea. Ellis Deibler conducted the services at the graveside and shared on the theme of “Not here…Risen.” As the bodies were lowered the crowd broke into spontaneous song.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun, We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise Than when we first begun.

Graveside service In Lae - Ellis Deibler (front left) walking, Glennis Hunt in center with dotted dress, Stan Dudgeon (center right) standing behind man kneeling, standing behind Stan with sunglasses is Ken Wiggers and standing right of Stan is Stu Nelson (arms folded) (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

Glennis commented many years later that the graveside service was very peaceful and as Doug's coffin was lowered into the ground, despite the tears deep within her, she was feeling 'Hallelujah’. At the time this feeling amazed her, but even many years later she still finds it quite wonderful as she has known that it was the Lord showing His love to her on one of the sadder days of her life.

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Graveside service In Lae – Caskets (R-L) Kath McNeil, Darlene Bee, Doug Hunt, Oren Claassen, Francine Claassen, Beb (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

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(Photo courtesy of SIL PNG Scripture Language Resources web site: http://www.sil.org/pacific/png/maps/Morobe_small.jpg)

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New Zealand Memorial Service The day after the funeral service in Lae, Kath’s sister Betty Godfrey, and Vida Chenoweth who worked with Dr. Darlene Bee, arrived in New Guinea. They were both in Auckland NZ at the time of the crash and had just sent Bee off from the airport in Auckland the Sunday before the crash. Betty and Vida were friends from New Zealand and so they spent the next few days visiting the cemetery. Then they flew by helicopter to the Usarufa village where Vida and Dr. Darlene Bee lived and worked. Vida explained to the Usarufa people that Betty was Kath’s sister and that Betty was deeply moved by the expressions of sympathy and tears of the Usarufa people.

On Sunday afternoon, April 16, 1972 at 3:00 pm a Memorial Service was held for a capacity crowd in the double lecture theater at the Bible College of New Zealand (now Laidlaw College) in Auckland, New Zealand. The Bible college was started in part due to the efforts of the Auckland Baptist Tabernacle, which was a church Kath attended for a while and where one of the twin sons of Dr. Charles Spurgeon pastored.

At the Memorial Service the theme was Christ Has Triumphed. Scripture reading was by Frank Rayner, Chairman

of

the

New

Zealand

Wycliffe

Bible

Translators/Summer Institute of Linguistics Council. The hymn, King Of Love My Shepherd Is was then sung by the audience after which Frank Rayner opened in prayer. Judy Hunt, Doug’s sister-in-law then sang a solo.

A report from New Guinea was given by Ken Hunt, Doug’s brother after which Mr. Ken Nobbs, President of Missionary Aviation Fellowship, shared a tribute. The audience then sang If Jesus Goes With Me I'll Go Anywhere and Face to Face with Christ My Savior.

August 23, 1971 - Kath visits Usarufa (Photo from the book ‘Usarufa in 1971’ Used by permission of author – Vida Chenoweth)

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The Rev. Trevor Gibb, the former pastor of the Papakura Baptist Church (Papakura, New Zealand) where Doug Hunt was a member then spoke after which the hymn, Love Divine was sung by the audience. Mr. Kay Liddle, a missionary from New Guinea associated with the Christian Brethren Church in the West Sepik Sandaun and Hela Provinces paid a tribute to the Wycliffe missionary staff and the two national men who died. The poem, From Every Tongue, written by Dr. Darlene Bee, was sung by the audience to the tune of O, For A Thousand Tongues To Sing.

Mr. Robert Tilsley of the Wycliffe Bible Translators/Summer Institute of Linguistics Council paid tribute to Dr. Darlene Bee and her work in translating the Usarufa New Testament, her linguistic abilities and the books she had written. Next, Rev. J. Ayson Clifford, principal of the New Zealand Baptist Theological College and an acquaintance for over 30 years of Kath McNeil, gave a moving tribute to Kath’s work. Mr. Neville James, Secretary of Wycliffe Bible Translators, New Zealand then spoke, the audience sang, O The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus and then a prayer was offered by Rev. George Robertson of the Otumoetai Baptist Church, which was Kath’s home church.

The service concluded with the audience singing the hymn, Thine Be The Glory. The organist was Mrs. Helen Maskell.

More Memorial Services: A Memorial Service was held in two Usarufa villages on Thursday, April 13, 1972.

A Memorial Service was held at 2.30 p.m. on Sunday, April 16, 1972 at St. Matthews Church of England in Ashbury, Sydney, Australia.

A Memorial Service was held on Sunday, April 23, 1972 at the Otumoetai Baptist Church, (Otumoetai, New Zealand) which was Kath’s home church.

A Memorial Service was held on Sunday, April 30, 1972 at the C. H. Nash Memorial Hall of the Melbourne Bible Institute, 117 Kooyong Rd, Armadale, Melbourne, Australia.

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(From Bravo, Lord – Poem by Dr. Darlene Bee)

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Chapter 4 The Weeks Following The Crash After the aircraft crash investigation, Hap Skinner from SIL was asked to take responsibility for disposing the aircraft wreckage on site. Hap knew he would need help and so he called on his friend in Lae, Bob Dudgeon. Bob was in Lae, New Guinea developing, hosting and teaching in government workshops. Bob and his wife Verlie knew Hap and his wife Glady because the Skinners had been working in Lae at various times. Bob also got to know Hap due to SIL’s involvement in various government workshops and Bob’s wife got to know Glady due to a Bible study Verlie started in Lae which Glady attended. However, by the time of the crash, Bob was a widow because Verlie had died some years earlier (1965).

Post Courier – April 10, 1972 (Newspaper copy courtesy of George MacDonald)

Bob’s two boys, Jim and Stan, also knew the Skinners and Stan would play a critical role of helping identify the location of the graves many years later. However, the connection with the Dudgeon family went much deeper than just their connection to the Skinners. Jim and Stan Dudgeon spend a number of weekends at Ukarumpa in their late teens and in their early adult life.

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In 1971, the Skinners had invited several times a number of young men from Lae, including Jim and Stan, to come to Ukarumpa to stay the weekend in the cool Eastern Highlands. On one of those weekends in August 1971, Jim Dudgeon had his twenty first birthday party in the Meeting House at Ukarumpa. Doug Hunt served as the master of ceremonies and everyone had such a great time that plans were soon laid for a similar party for Stan and his cousin Bruce when they turned twenty one in 1972. The plan was that Doug Hunt would again serve as the master of ceremonies.

However, God had other plans for Doug.

Hap and Glad Skinner and family (Photo courtesy of Hap Skinner)

While Bob Dudgeon was glad to help Hap Skinner out by arranging for a track bucket dozer and operator to dig the hole in which to bury the airplane, the loss of Doug Hunt and the other members of SIL was a difficult one for the entire Dudgeon family. Bob had enjoyed getting to know Kath McNeil in Lae and along with his boys, the Hunt family. Now he was asked to bury the plane in which his friends had died.

Kath was an SIL member and the Lae buyer for the SIL Branch and her job was to buy anything and everything that other SIL members needed from food to auto parts. Kath had finished her term of service in Lae and her flight to Ukarumpa was to say goodbye to her friends at Ukarumpa before deciding on a new work with SIL.

Once at the plane crash site, Bob, Hap and the dozer (loaned for this work by Ela Motors) operator, David Goldhardt (his father was a Lutheran pastor in Kainantu), began to work at cleaning up the site. The dozer was driven to the site on a Toyota 6000 truck and unloaded there by being driven off the end of the truck.

It was decided to dig a trench type pit in which to bury the plane to prevent scavengers from coming and taking the plane away. Hap worked on stripping the plane of any useable instruments and removed the nose wheel and main wheel (the plane had landed on its back). Later, Hap mounted the Turn/Bank 39 | P a g e

Indicator in a nice timber panel and presented it to Glennis Hunt with a beautiful plaque made by one of SIL’s national carpenters. Bob and the David worked on digging the pit.

In the midst of the scorching heat of the Markham Valley where the plane had crashed, the work of disposing of the airplane, and the depression and sadness of losing close friends and co-workers sapped their strength and their mouths were parched. However, God saw their needs and He sent two national people living in the Markham Valley to present to Hap, Bob and David a large watermelon. As the watermelon was cut up into pieces for all of them, the team or workers felt grateful and refreshed! Eating the watermelon, they spat the seeds on the ground.

Unknown to the workers, God saw their grief. God looked after those watermelon seeds in the midst of a dry spell that was to follow the crash.

After finishing the work of saving what parts of the plane could be saved and digging the pit, the wrecked aircraft was shoved into the hole and flattened and covered with dirt. Once the work was done, to reload the dozer a mound of dirt was pushed up into a pile and the dozer was driven up to get it back on the Toyota 6000.

A number of months later, Bob Dudgeon visited Ukarumpa and hurried to the Skinner’s home. He excitedly said to Hap, “You‘ll never guess what I just saw at Nadzab!” Hap wondered if someone had been hunting for a scrap metal or a souvenir from the crash site, but said, “I can‘t guess!”

Bob explained that he had been by the crash site to make sure everything was left buried as had been done and exclaimed that he had never seen such a crop of watermelon vines. The vines had seemingly miraculously grown. Before long Hap had traveled down to Nadzab and picked the largest watermelon he could find. It was a very immature melon, but it weighed in at 6 ¼ pounds and was growing well.

As soon as Hap saw the watermelon patch he immediately thought of the Scripture that says, “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24. He then thought of the Scripture which says, “Still other seed fell on

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good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.” Mark 4:8

Hap wondered if the Lord meant for him to claim thirty times the workers of those killed on the Aztec, or perhaps sixty times or even a hundred fold? By faith, Hap was led to claim a hundred fold return of those who would go into Christian service as a result of this loss. He used that message and challenge while on furlough the following year in Australia, New Zealand and in the United States.

Several years later Hap talked with a top engineer serving with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) and asked him how he got involved with MAF in New Zealand. His answer was music to Hap’s ears. The Lord had granted Hap one of the desires of his heart and was told, “Remember SIL‘s Aztec crash in ’72? That was my calling.” While not knowing the full impact of his prayer, Hap and others are still claiming a multitude of willing missionaries to come from what Hap has called, Tragedy to Triumph in Christ Jesus!

Don Frisbee, Bob Dudgeon and Hap Skinner at Ukarumpa testing out fire hoses from a fire truck they had just built (Photo courtesy of Hap Skinner)

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Chapter 5 On Wings of Eagles – Doug and Glennis Hunt Doug and Glennis Hunt both grew up in New Zealand. Douglas Neil Hunt was born on October, 20, 1931 in Waimauku, New Zealand. Doug's parents, Alexander Thomas Hunt and Esther Elizabeth Hunt (Matheson), who were strong Christians, were dairy farmers and came from an Open Brethren Assemblies background. Alexander and Esther Hunt had five boys.

Doug Hunt’s parents, Alexander and Esther Hunt at Doug and Glennis Hunt’s wedding (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

As a young boy and young man, Doug enjoyed horses. Growing up on a farm gave Doug plenty of opportunity to enjoy horses and even sleep on them! Doug attended Waimauku Primary School in North Auckland, New Zealand, and after attended high school at Avondale College, Auckland, New Zealand.

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Alexander and Esther Hunt’s five boys – (L-R) Malcolm, Lloyd, Ken, Doug and Ron (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

The Hunt homestead and farm at Waimauku, New Zealand where Doug was born (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

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Doug and his show jumping horse (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

Doug and his horse Bonnie (Photos courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

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Glennis’ parents were Henry Charles Walter Legg (went by the name Charles) and Virgie Legg (Harvey).

They had three children, Ralph, Marie and Glennis. Glennis Legg was born on November, 25, 1930 in Auckland, New Zealand.

Charles and Virgie Legg at Doug and Glennis Hunt’s wedding (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

Glennis, Ralph and Maria Legg (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

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Like the Hunt family, both Charles and Virgie were strong Christians. They attended the Green Bay Mission Church, which later became the Blockhouse Bay Baptist church. Charles was Glennis’ mentor and teacher in the Word. For work, Charles was a landscape gardener and also a Monumental Mason (stonemasonry) and her mother was a home maker.

Glennis attended Avondale and Blockhouse Bay Primary Schools in Auckland, New Zealand, and Auckland Girls Grammar School (College). She did her nurses training at Greenlane Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand. She graduated from her nurses’ training in 1952 as a New Zealand Registered Nurse.

Glennis at age 10 and 12 and Glennis as a New Zealand Registered Nurse (Photos Courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

Greenlane Hospital in the 1940’s and 1950s (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

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Doug and Glennis met through Youth For Christ rallies they both attended in Auckland, New Zealand.

Glennis grew up loving the Lord, but while Doug grew up in a Christian home, the Youth For Christ rallies were instrumental in his conversion.

It was during one of the rallies that Doug had a conversion experience through the teaching and love of Mr. Keith Rimmer of the Auckland Wayside Mission. After Doug’s conversion, Doug and Glennis both became involved in Outreach Teams with the Auckland Wayside Missions. It was during this time that both Doug and Glennis developed an interest in evangelism and a love for mission work. The Outreach Teams held small street services where they handed out Christian tracts and gave out invitations for people to come to the Wayside Mission. During this time Doug and Glennis saw many wonderful conversions from the invitations and two of these people eventually became missionaries in New Guinea.

One of these couples actually stayed with the Hunts when they lived in Wewak, New Guinea while the wife was sick and Glennis cared for their beautiful baby.

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Doug and Glennis Hunt Get Married On March 14, 1953 Doug and Glennis got married and Mr. Keith Rimmer married them. They were married in the Ellerslie Gospel Hall (now Chapel), Auckland, New Zealand.

Wedding Day (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

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Married life for the Hunts began in New Plymouth, New Zealand where Doug worked for Taranaki Bulk Topdressers, agricultural contractors spreading nutrients to farmer’s paddocks by trucks with hoppers and spreaders. Doug’s older brother Ken, who designed and patented truck hoppers and the spreaders on trucks for agricultural bulk topdressing (by trucks), was actually Doug’s boss at one time when Doug worked for Waimauku Top Dressers!

Doug’s company trucks – Wanganui Bulk Top Dressers (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

On February 27, 1954 the Hunt’s first child, Lynda Marie Hunt was born. All the joys of a new baby filled their home and thoughts of life and work in New Zealand began to take hold. However, it wasn’t long after Lynda was born before Doug decided to branch out on his own and start his own agricultural bulk topdressing company. Soon the family moved two hours south on the North Island to Wanganui, New Zealand where Doug set up his own company named Wanganui Bulk Topdressers, complete with a fleet of trucks and spreaders.

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They worshipped in the Wanganui East Baptist Church, where Doug was the Youth Leader. Their interest in evangelism and mission once more came to light and so they became involved in the Open Air Outreach Team, visiting parks and beaches and reaching out to children.

Doug in his own company truck – Wanganui Bulk Top Dressers (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

A little over a year after their first child, the Hunts had another baby. Garry Douglas Hunt was born on May 12, 1955.

An Interest in Aviation Begins Less than a year later on January 8, 1956, news reports of the death of four missionaries (Roger Youderian, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot) and their pilot, Nate Saint, by the spears of the Auca Indians (now known as Waorani) they had sought to befriend in Ecuador reached the Christians in New Zealand. While unknown even to the Hunt family at the time, their life would never be the same again.

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Nate Saint in 1956

Marjorie and Nate Saint (Photo courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship)

In 1958, Marjorie Saint, now the widow of Nate Saint, visited combined church meetings in the Hunt’s small town of Wanganui, New Zealand to tell her story of their life in Shell Mera, Ecuador. As Doug and Glennis heard her speak, they both were very moved by this type of aviation mission work.

In June 1958, Doug began flight training with Wanganui Aero Club. This was also when their church had a visit from Mr. Ken Nobbs who was the Secretary of New Zealand Missionary Aviation Fellowship (NZ-MAF) and from there on they had contact with MAF and their encouragement.

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Doug took up flying with earnest and was gaining as many flying hours as he could and as the pressures of his business would allow. However, by the end of the summer Doug and Glennis were assured that MAF was the work the Lord had called them to.

By December 1958, the Hunts decided to sell their business in view of further aviation training, gaining flying hours and study for New Zealand Commercial Aircraft exams. In February 1959, Doug began his Commercial Pilot Training three month course of intensive study and gaining flying hours and experience.

In May of 1959 it was exam time. Doug had excellent results in flying, but didn’t pass one of the subjects, so he needed to repeat the exam in three months’ time. That meant they could not apply to MAF so Doug had to find work in the meantime.

1959 – Doug flying in New Zealand (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

A month later in June, Mr. Alex Jardine on New Zealand MAF Council wrote to the Hunts telling them of his proposed visit to Melbourne, Australia to meet with Mr. Colin Le Couteur who was operating a

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program, Aerial Missions2. Aerial Missions was a creative solution to mainly assist pilots interested in joining MAF gain their needed flying hours by flying as an agricultural crop duster.

September 1959 - Doug, Glennis, Lynda and Garry Hunt (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

In August 1959 Doug passed the exam subject for his New Zealand Commercial Pilots License. In August Aerial Missions asked Doug to join them in Australia and operate the Geelong Branch of Aerial Missions in Melbourne, Australia since Doug was familiar with crop dusting and agricultural top dressing. It sounded like a good move and so in September 1959 Doug left New Zealand for Melbourne, Australia to work with Aerial Missions.

Glennis and the two children remained in New Zealand where Glennis packed the home and sold their home, vehicles, furniture etc. By November 1959 Glennis and children, Lynda and Garry, left for Melbourne, Australia, to join Doug. The crop dusting was in full season by then which meant that Doug often was away from home and working in the countryside during the wheat growing season.

2

http://www.maf.org.au/assets/pdf/MAFnews/NewLife_2012-05-15.pdf

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By June 1960 Doug took more aviation exams which he passed and in August 1960 he began studies for his Australian Commercial Pilots exams. These were extremely busy months for the Hunt family as Doug was working, gaining flying experience, studying and taking even more exams. They also began to go around to churches and share their desire to move from serving with Aerial Missions to joining MAF.

By February 1961 Doug had completed the Australian Commercial License and all exams were passed.

This meant they could apply to MAF New Zealand. They flew back to New Zealand and then applied with MAF and were accepted. The next few months took Doug all over the North Island of New Zealand to speak about MAF and their anticipated work.

By June 1961, they received enough support to be approved to take up their work with MAF in New Guinea. They left from Auckland, New Zealand and flew via Australia to the town of Port Moresby, located on the Papuan side of the island of New Guinea. Port Moresby was the administrative center for the Australian government who at the time were administering the Territories of Papua and New Guinea.

From there, they flew to the northern New Guinea town of Wewak where Doug would be the only New Zealand pilot working with the Australian MAF as his fellow MAF pilots were all Australians.

1961 – Wewak Beach (Photo courtesy of www.fredandbettyevans.com)

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1963 - The MAF center of oprations in Sentani and the Hunt’s home there (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

1965 – Wewak town (Photo courtesy of the book ‘Many Adventures Followed’ by Roger Young)

Doug and Glennis and their two children lived in Wewak for 18 months, during which Doug spent most of his time flying to remote bush airstrips, mostly unreachable by road, to service the work of various Christian mission agencies in the area. Glennis spent her time raising their family and serving as a hostess for the many missionaries who needed a place to stay as they moved in and out of their remote locations.

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By January 1963 there was an urgent need for a pilot to service the mission workers living on the other side of the island of New Guinea, which was part of the country of Indonesia. Therefore, the Hunts were ‘on loan’ to the United States MAF group which was working on that side of the island.

During the following 20 months they lived in Sentani, Irian Jaya, West Irian, Indonesia (formerly Dutch New Guinea). During this time, on October 21, 1963, their third child Janette Glenda Hunt was born at a mission outstation at Karu-Paga, West Irian, Indonesia.

By June 1964 the Hunts were ready for their first furlough and to go back to New Zealand to meet family, rest from the rigors of field work and report on their work to their supporting churches. However, while the plans were to return to West Irian, due to difficulties with Glennis’ health and also schooling situations for the children they were unable to return there.

In January 1965 they moved to Ballarat, Australia where MAF had their training base, MAF Air Services.

While Doug returned to West Irian for a number of months as they had a pilot shortage, Glennis and the three children stayed back in at Ballarat.

During the time Doug was in Ballarat, he was able to use his experience as an aerial topdressing pilot to help train other pilots getting ready to fly with MAF about flying in short airstrips, sloping airstrips and mountain flying. This training was appreciated by MAF since few had such experience!

After praying and seeking counsel from their churches and the leadership of MAF, the Hunts felt God was calling them to new work and ministry and so in October 1965 they tendered their resignation from MAF and traveled to Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

In Brisbane, Doug began to develop plans to set up there a flying program to fly the large number of Australian missionaries who were working in New Guinea back to Brisbane, Australia when they would be travelling home for their furloughs. It was a plan MAF had previously considered, but decided it was not within their scope of ministry and so they never developed the idea.

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Things looked promising on the furlough aviation service idea. However, the plans were only partially developed when the hand of God directed Doug in April 1966 to go to Ukarumpa, New Guinea with SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics). They had a pilot shortage there due to sickness.

Doug knew the pilots flying for SIL from their time in New Guinea and was also familiar with the areas they would need him to fly in and out off. Thus, Doug and Glennis dropped their plans for the furlough air service and decided to join Wycliffe Bible Translators and applied to serve with SIL (Wycliffe’s major field partnering organization) in New Guinea.

Doug made plans to travel by himself to Ukarumpa first to check things out while Glennis and the children stayed in Brisbane, Australia. While traveling to Ukarumpa, Doug stopped off to overnight in Port Moresby where he stayed at the Mapang Missionary Guest House3. There he met an MAF pilot who told Doug that MAF had reconsidered the furlough flying idea and were going to take up furlough flights to Australia as soon as they could get it going.

That was difficult news for Doug to hear now that as a family they were on their way to New Guinea just as the dream of a furlough air-service from Australia looked like it might become a reality. He wondered what the Lord was doing, but he continued on to Ukarumpa where he shared with the pilots there his disappointment. The group gathered around Doug and prayed that God would guide.

Soon Doug heard that the pilot back in Brisbane, Australia who had decided to join Doug in the furlough flying plan (which had seemed to be closed down due to the Hunt’s move to Ukarumpa) had decided to stay in Brisbane and had found good work there. Doug then notified all their contacts in Brisbane that all the things for the furlough flying plan were ‘on hold’. Sometime later, Doug discovered that the plans with MAF never eventuated.

When Doug arrived back to Brisbane some time later, Glennis discovered that the family had indeed been invited to move to Ukarumpa and help out, becoming Short Term Assistants (STA) with Wycliffe Bible Translators, SIL and JAARS (the air service of SIL). While the plan to develop a furlough flying plan was still 3

To read more about the Mapang Missionary Guest House, please read the book, ‘Mapang, Missionary Home’ by Charles Micheals located here: http://issuu.com/cbmicheals/docs/mapang_missionary_home

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alive, the hand of the Lord directed them back to New Guinea. They prayed that if this was God’s will that funding for their work with Wycliffe and SIL would come in. In just a few months all the funding came in and all in amazing ways and the Hunts soon found themselves heading toward Ukarumpa.

Early 1970s - Ukarumpa airstrip (Aiyura Valley) with Professor Schindler's School in foreground (Photo courtesy of David Carne)

Ukarumpa, located in the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea was home to a growing Bible translation effort

by Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). Bible translation work had been started in the country by SIL in 1956, but with over 850 languages in the Papua New Guinea half of the island, Bible translators and support personnel were pouring into the country. Since many of the languages needing translations were in remote, isolated locations the need for pilots and aircraft was great.

In June 1966 the whole Hunt family finally made the move to Ukarumpa, located in the cool and comfortable Aiyura Valley located near the Bismarck Mountain Range highland’s mountains. There they joined the hundreds of other SIL workers in this thriving center of operations, complete not only with a well-established air service program, but with all the support services needed to make the work move ahead quickly. These support services included a primary and high school for the children, an auto shop,

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clinic, construction department, radio services (for communication with Bible translation teams in remote locations) and even a small commissary where the basics of food and clothing could be purchased.

Ukarumpa center (Photo courtesy of Bruce Hooley)

1960s - Ukarumpa Primary School called ‘Aiyura Primary School’ (Photo courtesy of David Carne)

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The Hunt’s first home at Ukarumpa (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

The Hunt’s first home at Ukarumpa (Photo courtesy of Darrell Lancaster)

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In late 1966, one of Doug’s first job was to check out a new airstrip that was being built in Morobe Province in the Komba language area. That was where 15,000 Komba people lived and where a new Bible translation project was to begin by Neville and Gwyneth Southwell. This began the Hunt’s active involvement in Bible translation work in New Guinea!

The airstrip at Komba Village (Photo courtesy of Bruce Neher)

December 1975 - The Southwell family (Photo courtesy of the Southwell family)

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The “Spirit of Canada,” Cessna 185A. One of the airplanes flown in New Guinea. This airplane was in service from February 1963 to August 1970. (Photo courtesy of SIL PNG Archives)

Building Of Remote Airstrips SIL’s ‘Airstrip Equipment Department’ was formed in 1963 by Hap Skinner to build remote airstrips to help Bible translators easily and quickly travel to villages. There were four men normally working full time to build all the necessary airstrips for SIL and over the 24 years of that department’s existence they had been involved in building twenty two airstrips from scratch in the country and improving eight others, some in the most inaccessible places of the world.

One of the airstrips the team worked on was the Komba airstrip. Once the initial work was finished on the airstrip it was customary to send an experienced pilot to the airstrip to check it out and declare it safe to land on. Willis Baughman, a pilot with SIL, had flown low over the airstrip a number of times and checked it visually and even considered a landing. However, he decided against it due to uncertainty and unsettled 62 | P a g e

winds that day. That led to the proposal that Doug Hunt hike in and check it out. Since access to the area was thus restricted to hiking, Doug and four Komba men hiked in on December 28, 1966.

The hike was strenuous due to the jungle terrain and rugged Saruwaged Mountains to pass over. To reach the airstrip required crossing the raging Gwama River using locally built bridges and climbing the mountains in the area, including the steep eastern slope of the Gwama Gorge Mountain (elevation 5,600ft). They reached the top around 5:00 p.m. and spotted the airstrip still a long ways off.

Upon arrival, on checking the airstrip Doug found a few soft places. That evening and all night about 300 Komba people danced on the sections to harden it. The next morning, a call by shortwave radio to Ukarumpa was made and an airplane was sent to check out the airstrip after the landing strip was hardened.

Doug crossing the Gwama River with Komba guide (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

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An initial landing by missionary pilot Willis Baughman was made in SIL’s small Cessna 185. Everything checked out fine and so Doug flew back to Ukarumpa with Willis and the airstrip continued to serve the Komba Bible translation project, which was finished in 1980.

Airstrip building projects (Photos courtesy of Hap Skinner)

Doug hiking the Gwama Gorge in the Saruwaged Mountains (Photos courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

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Arriving at the Komba Airstrip (Top Right)

Willis Baughman makes the first landing on the Komba Airstrip with SIL’s small Cessna 185 (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

While Doug was flying with SIL, Glennis spent most of her time raising the family. However, she also found time to work in the store at Ukarumpa. Twice a week the store organized the SIL planes to do a ‘Freezer run’. When the planes arrived from the coastal town of Lae with bread and meat, the store staff would fill the missionary’s food orders, which included cutting up the meat for the missionaries. Glennis enjoyed the work at the store in addition to her life at Ukarumpa as did Doug and the children.4

When the Hunts arrived at Ukarumpa Lynda and Garry were in high school and little Janette was in the morning pre-school program. Life was busy with school reports, sports activities and school retreats. Since it looked like the Hunts would be working at Ukarumpa for some time, in 1967 they changed their status from ‘STA’ (Short Term Assistants) to ‘Members’ of Wycliffe and SIL.

Life continued to keep the Hunt family busy, but the Lord increased their number and blessed them on February 25, 1968 with a baby boy, Dale Richard Hunt. He was born at the Angau Memorial Hospital, Lae, New Guinea.

4

To read more about the store at Ukarumpa, please read the book, ‘God’s Grocers’ by Charles Micheals located here: http://issuu.com/cbmicheals/docs/godsgrocers_chapters1-4, http://issuu.com/cbmicheals/docs/godsgrocers_chapters5-8)

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1968 - Ukarumpa Center (Photo courtesy of Max Mabry)

1960s - Commissary Store Glennis worked in at Ukarumpa (Photo courtesy Ken Lowe)

Glennis at work In the Store (Photo courtesy Glennis Hunt)

In late 1968 it was time for the Hunt family to furlough back in New Zealand. There they had the opportunity to actually meet with the New Zealand Council of Wycliffe and SIL. After meeting with them and discussing issues related to their children’s education and other matters, it was decided that it would be best for their family if they took a two year ‘Leave of Absence’ to deal with these matters.

During the next two years in New Zealand, Lynda sat for and gained her New Zealand High School Certificate at Papakura High School and the following year sat for and gained her University Entrance Examination. Garry was enrolled in a local high school and Janette attended Papakura Primary School.

Dale was still a toddler at home. Doug returned to his crop dusting work to keep up his flying hours and help cover the expenses. It was also a time to travel around the area and hold mission meetings, which they did a lot of. They worshipped at Papakura Baptist Church.

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Original Wycliffe Bible Translators Council in Auckland, New Zealand (L-R) Al Pence, Alan Burrow, Neville James, Jean Kirton, Ron Male, Frank Raynor, Bob Tilsley, Margaret Tilsley (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

In 1970 William Cameron Townsend (Uncle Cam), the founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators, came to New Zealand and Doug had the privilege of flying him around parts of New Zealand in a tiny Cherokee airplane.

This was a rich time for Doug as he got an opportunity to talk with one of the greatest missionaries of the 20th century.

Later on in the year Doug flew to the JAARS Center in Waxhaw, North Carolina, USA (JAARS was the air service for Wycliffe and SIL). He stayed there for some time at the request of JAARS, so he could have further orientation to JAARS and issues related to flying in New Guinea. After Doug returned to New Zealand, plans were laid for the Hunt family to return to Ukarumpa. In January 1971 the family traveled back to Ukarumpa and Doug took up his flying, which he absolutely loved.

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Founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators - William Cameron Townsend with Doug Hunt in New Zealand (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

1960s - Ukarumpa Aviation hangar (Photo courtesy of SIL PNG Branch Archives)

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Doug piloting an SIL Airplane which always attracted a large group of people (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

Doug and Jim Entz working on the Aztec airplane at the Aiyura Hangar (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

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One of Doug’s joys was to share the Gospel with the New Guinea employees who worked at Ukarumpa.

Doug held weekly Bible studies in his home and as a result quickly grew close to the national staff working at Ukarumpa.

Doug with national staff at a Bible study in his home (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

Glennis eventually left work in the store and worked part time in the Ukarumpa center Post Office, making sure the mail bags were ready for the next day’s flights. Some of these flights would take mail out directly to the translators either by a mailbag drop or a flight with additional supplies. Some translators reached their villages by road and so the mail would be delivered to the SIL regional centers that had been developed and dotted the countryside and be delivered by those regional staff or picked up there.

At one time, the Ukarumpa Post Office was the second largest Post Office in the country. This was due to the large number of packages arriving from supporting churches and families and the large number of missionary prayer letters and personal letters mailed out monthly.

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Glennis at the Ukarumpa Post Office (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

Lynda and Garry attended Ukarumpa High School, Janette attended Aiyura Primary School which was a slight distance from the main Ukarumpa center and close to the airstrip, and Dale attended the preschool at Ukarumpa in the morning.

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1970s - Aiyura Primary School with the SIL Aviation at the top of the photo (Photo courtesy of SIL PNG Branch Archives)

Aiyura Primary School bus stop and old double decker bus (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

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1970s - Ukarumpa High School (Photo courtesy of SIL PNG Branch Archives)

1970s – Ukarumpa High School - Poinsettias planted by Joan Carne (Photo courtesy of David Carne)

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1970s – Ukarumpa Pre-School (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

1970s - Ukarumpa (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

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Disaster Strikes Bible Translator’s Village In March of 1971 Doug was called on to be part of a rescue for a tragedy that unfolded on March 21, 1971 in the village of Tifalmin, several hours by air from Ukarumpa. Walt and Vonnie Steinkraus were Bible translators living in a local village when on a Sunday afternoon the side of the mountain exploded and the dirt covered the entire village area where the Steinkrauses and other villagers lived.

Doug and other SIL missionaries flew out to the area as soon as possible, but the worst fears were realized.

All the Steinkrauses were buried alive along with a number of villagers and after several days of digging all hope was gone of finding any survivors5.

Village before the Landslide (Photo courtesy of Bruce Hooley)

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To read more about the Steinkrauses and this event, please read the book, ‘Called By My Name’ by Charles Micheals located here: http://issuu.com/cbmicheals/docs/calledbymyname

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March 1971 - Landslide area (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translator, USA Archives)

March 1971 - Doug Hunt at landslide area (Photo courtesy of David Carne)

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November 1971 – ‘The Finger of God’ Just a few months after the landslide, ‘The Finger of God’ was seen with the Aztec airplane that Doug was piloting on November 12, 1971. On that day he took off to bring Glenn and Dorothy Graham and their four children out to a village in Amanab. On the way to the village Doug flew to the coastal town of Wewak to refuel. After taking off he noticed the nose wheel did not retract which was confirmed by the tower in Wewak. While the two main wheels retracted the nose wheel would not and so after repeated attempts to get it to retract, Doug decided to fly back to Ukarumpa.

On the way, he passed another plane who indicated to Doug that the wheel was dangling like a “lame duck”. He tried several times to go into a dive in an attempt to have the force of the dive lock the wheel in place. Nothing worked.

The call was made to Ukarumpa to get a prayer chain started as an emergency landing was necessary.

During the 30 minutes of waiting for the plane to arrive, over 300 people cried out to the Lord for help.

Amazingly the Grahams and their children were at peace.

The missionary children in the small primary school near the airstrip at Ukarumpa quickly noticed something was amiss. First the firetruck from the main mission center arrived at the airstrip, then the ambulance from the Ukarumpa clinic and then the doctor. Then the plane arrived and buzzed over the airstrip several times while the aviation team at Ukarumpa looked at the wheel. As the plane buzzed by, the principal of the primary school, Dick Harder advised the children to return to their seats and pray. And pray they did!

While the children prayed, Doug made one more dive to lock the wheel in place. Finally the green light came on, indicating that the wheel was locked. Minutes later the plane landed. All were spared!!!

After the plane landed the aviation mechanics could not get the wheel to lock. It was completely broken!

By a miraculous touch of the finger of the Lord, the plane and the people in it were saved!

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January 1972 - Doug Hunt reviewing aircraft broken wheel - Sharing Newsletter (Document courtesy of SIL PNG Branch Archives)

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1960s - Ukarumpa Aviation office and hangar (Photo courtesy of SIL PNG Branch Archives)

Three months later in February 1972 Lynda returned to New Zealand to attend Auckland University. Garry began an apprenticeship in aircraft maintenance at the Goroka Air Field, small town two hours by road and further into the interior of the country.

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April 1972 - The Hand Of God It was 15 months after the nose wheel incident that the hand of God was felt with the life changing event on April 7, 1972. On that day, the Aztec airplane that Doug Hunt was piloting crashed and all aboard were killed instantly. Life for the families who survived would never be the same.

That night of tragedy when Glennis was lying in bed, thinking and weeping that she would no longer have Doug with her and that their children would not have a father to love and be with them, she distinctly heard a voice in her ear saying, “Glennis, if you can accept this situation as part of my will for your life and can praise me in it, I will bless you and your life will be a blessing to others.”

Immediately she was at peace and slept through the night.

Many years later when reflecting on the days that have transpired since the crash, Glennis shared that when circumstances and situations were difficult as a result of this loss, the Lord enabled her to ultimately remember those words and allow her to praise the Lord for what she could.

Glennis has been able to find the peace of God as the Scriptures say, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15: 13 1970 Hunt Family (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

In so many ways, Glennis has been able to state that she is blessed, and at such times she has also discovered that as she has been able to share that blessing, others are blessed too. Therefore, each day Glennis has experienced the hand of God carrying her along.

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Life for the Hunts after the Crash As soon as school finished in June 1972 Glennis, Garry, Janette and Dale returned to New Zealand.

Lynda had returned to New Zealand after attending Doug’s funeral in New Guinea and Garry decided to discontinue his apprenticeship in Goroka.

Glennis Upon returning to New Zealand after a number of months Glennis worked in the Wycliffe Bible Translator’s office at Mt. Albert, Auckland, New Zealand. She spoke at a number of women’s groups in church and other places until 1975, when she was given a ‘Leave of Absence’ for one year. Knowing that her work for the Lord involved her home, her children and the ministry of helps that had come through telephone counseling and the practical assistance to women in need, Glennis could see the Lord’s leading to take an absence from Wycliffe. This eventually led to Glennis beginning Bible study groups in her home for women, some of which became other Bible study leaders. One of these groups has continued for over 40 years!

In September 1977 the status of Glennis was changed from ‘Leave of Absence’ to ‘Inactive Membership’ and her official work with Wycliffe came to an end as she began to devote more time to her ministry with women who were hurting in life and needed to discover the love of Jesus.

In 1987 Glennis and friends Joy and Doug Hall began a Christian Care Center. This care center held morning teas, lunches and other activities such as picnics in the parks around Auckland, New Zealand. Ladies from the Baptist church Glennis attended helped out on such outings and at the care center where craft classes, indoor bowls, table games and small group Bible studies were held.

The care center started with just one family attending, but after a year they had 60-70 people coming and the impact began to grow. Not only did the Lord bring several single people to meet their future spouses at the center, but others came to faith in Jesus Christ and were baptized in local Christian churches they attended.

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While Glennis is no longer involved actively in the care center work, the work continues at the Te Atatu Baptist Church, Auckland, New Zealand.

In the years since she left New Guinea, Glennis moved house several times to different places in New Zealand. In each place, the Lord has brought a group of women for Glennis to share the Gospel with. Her last group, which she shared leadership with a friend, Barbara Goodwin, for six years, was at a small community church at Mount Maunganui near Tauranga, New Zealand. However, at age 80 Glennis felt it was time for her to turn over the leadership to others so she could move closer to her family and spend more time with them. She lives in Tauranga and is enjoying the years God has given her.

2010 - Doug and Glennis Hunt Family (L-R) Dale Hunt, Zoe Hunt, Garry Hunt, Donna Hunt, Janette Kell, Glennis Hunt, Rod Kell, Lynda Stephenson, Alan Stephenson (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

Lynda After returning to New Zealand after the funeral, Lynda finished her university years with a B.A. degree in education and soon began teaching at a local school. However, while at the University of Auckland, she met a young man, Alan Stephenson. They attended the same church, Epsom Christian Fellowship, and soon after were married in the Auckland University Chapel.

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Lynda continued her teaching until they had children. Alan finished his B.A. degree at the university and under the tutelage of their Pastor, Owen Wagener, Alan became a Pastor and he pastored a ‘daughter church’, Mt. Albert Christian Fellowship.

Alan was born in Tanzania, East Africa. Alan’s father oversaw several game parks where he loved to buzz around Tanzania and Kenya in a small airplane. Alan’s mother was a school teacher. When Alan was twelve years old, his mother and two brothers returned to New Zealand where he eventually met Lynda.

In the mid- 1980s, Alan and Lynda and their three children moved to Tanzania and built up a center named En Gedi where they have a Pastor’s Bible Training Academy, known as The Joshua Foundation6. African Pastors come for a period of months, are trained in the Scriptures, and then go back to their village groups or churches and teach their people. It has produced amazingly wonderful results of conversions, growth in the Lord and freedom from many sins.

Alan is the Senior Dean of the Bible academy. Visiting teachers come from Australia, England, New Zealand and the United States and teach different seminars from time to time.

Several years ago after Lynda visited existing schools throughout Tanzania and seeing what teaching and educational resources were lacking, she began a Joshua Teachers Training College at the En Gedi location.

Lynda heads up the school and prepares programs and studies for her teachers, some of whom are African. After graduation, students are able to teach at schools which are under the supervision of Lynda or other senior teachers.

Lynda has been instrumental in starting other schools in Tanzania where many Muslim people choose to send their children, knowing they will also receive Christian teaching and the best schooling possible.

Lynda also travels to many other African countries lecturing and encouraging African teachers.

Alan and Lynda’s three children were schooled in Tanzania at International Schools where Lynda taught before their Bible School was up and running.

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http://www.joshuaonline.org/

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Alan’s and Lynda’s three children (Jeremy, Benjamin and Aimee) all returned to New Zealand for the two boy’s university education and Aimee’s hairdressing training (which she has won many awards for). Ben married Claire and they have a daughter Nia and a son Jesse. They live in New Zealand. Aimee married Dan and they live and work in New Zealand. After university Jeremy worked for a time in New Zealand, married Kendra, an American girl who was also reared in Tanzania. After their marriage Jeremy and Kendra moved back to Tanzania, where her parents work with the Maasai people in Tanzania. Jeremy and Kendra are involved in mission work there too.

Garry After Doug’s death Garry made his way back to Goroka to return to his aircraft engineering apprenticeship.

On the Highlands Highway on his way to Goroka, Garry had a serious motorcycle accident and while recuperating back at Ukarumpa made a decision not to return to aircraft engineering. Since there was no future for him in New Guinea, Garry decided to assist Glennis, Janette and Dale as they and he returned to New Zealand.

After several different jobs in New Zealand Garry moved to Australia and worked there for a while. Finally Garry decided to move back to the North Island of New Zealand and serve as a sales representative, selling automotive electrical and thermal control parts. Garry has been one of the ‘top salesmen of the month’ many times in the companies he has worked for.

Garry met Donna McFarlane some time later and they are now married with three children (Emily, Thomas and Alice). They all live about an hour and a half drive away from Glennis.

Janette Janette (Jan) was just eight years old when she came back to New Zealand. She attended Primary School in Blockhouse Bay where Glennis and her family lived. After finishing high school, Lynnfield College, she attended a Technical College in Auckland, New Zealand where she excelled in shorthand and typing and thus worked as secretary for a number of years.

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Jan later attended Faith Bible College where one of her assignments was on the island of Tonga where she went alone to live in a village and stayed with the people there. It was a challenging experience for her in many ways, but her cooking and handcraft skills served her well and she was greatly loved in the village.

Later on, one of the Tongan women came to Jan’s wedding in New Zealand when she was married to Rod Kell whom she had met while in Bible College.

Jan and Rod have six children (Melissa, Joshua, Jamie, Luke, Reuben, Niki). Melissa and her partner Neihana have a daughter Honour. Joshua married Amber. The others are unmarried. They all live in Tauranga, New Zealand. Rod is trained as a landscape gardener and currently works in a plant nursery.

They are involved in the Abundant Life Church there where Rod is assisting in the Pastorate with teaching and heading up the Prayer and Healing Room. Jan heads up the ladies work in the Church.

Dale Dale also did his schooling at the Primary and Intermediate levels at Blockhouse Bay schools and attended Green Bay High School in Auckland, New Zealand. After high school Dale spent three years in a Cadetship program in the Kiwi fruit industry in the TePuke/Tauranga area after which he was put in charge of an orchard and later a Cool Store.

Dale married Zoe Ferrari and they have two young daughters (Sophie, Charlotte). They live as a family in Waimauku, New Zealand and their children go to the same Primary school that their grandfather, Doug Hunt went to. They also live only a few kilometers away from the old Hunt family farm and homestead where Doug was born.

Dale is much like his father and owns his own business, Cutting Edge, with machinery he modified for cutting and mulching shelter belt trees that grow around most ‘Life Style7’ blocks.

Glennis has fourteen grandchildren ranging in ages from Alan and Lynda’s oldest son age thirty five, knowing her work for the Lord involved her home, with her children and the ministry of helps that had

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Life Style Block is a small farm that is maintained without expectation of being a primary source of income.

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come through telephone counseling and the practical assistance to women in need to Dale and Zoe’s youngest daughter age nine. Beside the fourteen grandchildren, Glennis has four great grandchildren ranging in age from three years old to six months.

2010 - Glennis Hunt’s 80th Birthday (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

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Chapter 6 To the Ends of the Earth – Oren and Francine Claassen Oren and Francine Claassen were one of many pioneer missionaries who came to New Guinea as single people from different paths and coming at different times, but who soon married at the Summer Institute of Linguistics’ mission center at Ukarumpa. While they were not the first missionaries to arrive in the country, they were among the early Bible translators to begin work in the newly opened up Territory of New Guinea, then a trust of the United Nations.

Mildred Francine Derk was born on February 10, 1936 in Philadelphia, PA. Francine attended Nyack Bible College and then attended the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) summer linguistic school at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK.

Good friends from New Guinea, Hap & Glad Skinner had fond memories of Francine as a young woman.

We were all silenced in amazing comfort!! Francine was from Hap’s church, Hope Church of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Indianapolis, Indiana. For years I (Hap) had heard that Francine had been saved when 10 years old in her Sunday School Class there.

She went to the same Bible school, Nyack Missionary College, but started after I had graduated in June 1955. I had heard that Francine wanted to be a missionary and so did Armon and Vera Dawson, local farmers and developers of their large farm who had in recent years acquired a zealous interest in foreign missions and Wycliffe Bible Translators at my church. They enthusiastically took a real interest in Francine and Lee Schuler, RN as potential Wycliffe Bible Translators. They sponsored them to take the three months SIL course at the University of Oklahoma at Norman and then the three months SIL Jungle Camp in southern Mexico! At the 88 | P a g e

Jungle Camp training, Bill Hall, a new SIL Bible Translator spotted and pursued Lee Schuler to become Mrs. Bill Hall. Off to the Philippines they went to give the Subanon, in the south, their New Testament, dedicated just a few years ago!

After finishing her training at the SIL school, Francine made her way to Ukarumpa, New Guinea arriving April 1, 1964.

Francine Derk (SIL Norman Oklahoma) with language instructor Moses Poolaw (Kiowa Tribe) (Photo by Cornell Capa, courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, Who Brought The Word Book)

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Francine Derk (SIL Norman Oklahoma) with language instructor Moses Poolaw (Kiowa Tribe) (Photo by Cornell Capa, courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, Who Brought The Word Book)

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A Wedding In New Guinea After Francine Claassen arrived in Lae (in the Territory of New Guinea), she met Marie Chapman and decided to became partners with her to translate the Bible for the Rawa people in Tauta. The Rawa are located in the Finisterre Mountains north of the Ramu Valley. Together, Francine and Marie spent five and a half months during 1965 and 1966 living in the area and made significant progress in starting this new work until Marie married Luke Zylstra and this couple went to work in Nepal.

On a short furlough trip back to the USA later in 1966, Francine met Oren Ray Claassen. Oren was born on March 3, 1940 in Newton, Kansas. He was a nephew of Theodore Epp of Back to the Bible renown and so he grew up with a family who had a great appreciation for the Bible! When Francine first met Oren, Oren was living in Lincoln, Nebraska and he like Francine had studied at the SIL school and decided to serve in New Guinea. He had actually arrived in New Guinea on March 10, 1965, but Francine had not met him there.

They both traveled back to Ukarumpa and there Oren and Francine dated for a short while and then they married on Saturday, November 26, 1966. They were married in a double wedding at 9:00 am in the Ranken Moffitt Memorial Meeting House at Ukarumpa with their friends, Sam and Nancy McBride.

The Claassen Wedding Party: Bridesmaids: Ruth Nicholson, Janet Nurrka Best Man: Gene Nurrka Groomsmen: Dan Harrison George Cummings (who along with his wife Emily were the Guest House hosts and hostesses at the time) ‘gave’ Francine away on behalf of her father.

The McBride Wedding Party: Bridesmaids: Jean Smith and Judy Parlier Best Man: David Underwood Groomsman: Jim Parlier Jim Parlier ‘gave’ Nancy away on behalf of her father.

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Rings Bearer: Donny (Don) Nicholson Candle Lighters: Alan Boughman and David Frantz

Others who helped with the wedding were as follows: Officiating Minister: Captain Ralph Johnson - Salvation Army Organist: John Austing Soloist: Ray Nicholson....who sang two songs Duet: sung by Nancy and Dennis Cochrane Oboe Soloist: Ray Brown

Pre wedding work was done by the following: Flowers and bouquets: Joan Carne and Vonnie Steinkraus Church Decorated by: Val Collier

The Reception was also held at the Rankin Moffitt Memorial Meeting House where a hot lunch and desserts were served.

Reception Duties:

Master of Ceremonies: Karl Franklin Guest Book: Nancy Rosenberg In charge of Reception: Dottie West (later Dottie Weimer) and Gwen Gibson Punch made by: Mrs. Mathieson and Mrs. Wells Coffee made by: Shirley Litteral and Lex Collier Table Settings: Dr. Darlene Bee, Vida Chenoweth and Bev Entz

There were two wedding cakes. It is unsure who made the Claassen’s wedding cake, but the McBride’s wedding cake was baked by Sam McBride’s sister Ruth McBride and sent from New Zealand and decorated

by Betty Schanely at Ukarumpa.

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Nancy McBride noted that at the wedding they had to laugh over the differences in size between the Kiwi wedding cake and American wedding cake!

Later that day, both couples were flown by SIL aircraft to Wau, another small town near the northern coast for their honeymoons. Both couples had dinner together that night, but the rest of their honeymoon they didn’t see each other.

Groomsmen: Gene Nurkka, Harrison, Grooms: Oren Claassen and Sam McBride (Photo courtesy of Nancy McBride)

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Wedding Day – November 26, 1966 – Meeting House at Ukarumpa (Photo courtesy of Nancy McBride)

Wedding Day – November 26, 1966 – Meeting House at Ukarumpa - Dennis and Nancy Cochrane Singing Organist: John Austing (Photo courtesy of Nancy McBride)

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Wedding Parties (L-R) David Underwood, Jaki Parlier, Jean Smith, Jim Parlier, Sam McBride, Nancy McBride, Francine Claassen, Oren Claassen, Ruth Nicholson, Dan Harrison, Janet Nurkka, Gene Nurkka. (Flower Girl - Maree Lowe – Rings Bearer - Donny Nicholson) (Photo courtesy of Nancy McBride)

Wedding Table: (L-R) Des Oatridge, Ruth Nicholson, Sam and Nancy McBride and Francine and Oren Claassen Table (Left - Closest to furthest) Salvation Army Pastor Captain Ralph Johnson, Salvation Army Pastor’s wife, Unknown (Right - Closest to furthest) Jim Parlier, Jaki Parlier, Karl Franklin (Photo courtesy of Nancy McBride)

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The Village Becomes Home After their marriage, Oren and Francine visited a number of possible allocations. They decided to begin work in the 6,000 speakers of the Rawa language in the village of Tauta. They were the 62nd translation project to begin work in New Guinea.

Translation team # 62 (Photo courtesy of SIL PNG Archives)

The Claassens headed out for their first stay in the Rawa language community in June 1967. They stayed in the Tauta village for several months and spent their time learning the Rawa language and doing some grammar analysis. While on this village visit, they discovered a 19 year old Rawa young man who also knew English. He committed to helping the Claassens and over the years proved to be a big help to them.

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Tauta village (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

A challenge to every translation team is first what language group to work in. Secondly, decisions must be made on where in the language community to live. This is not always an easy decision because living too far to the edge of the community may mean the translation team will learn a dialect of the language instead of the more central language used by all.

Oren and Francine chose to live near the Tauta area because the District Administrator was planning further development in the area and he had encouraged the people to work on lengthening the airstrip.

This made travel into and out of the language community much more convenient, saving hours of travel on foot to fly to and from Ukarumpa. However, the airstrip was a dangerous one because of its short runway. Two experienced pilots who flew into the Tauta airstrip would later play a significant role in their lives was Ken Wiggers and Doug Hunt.

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Tauta Airstrip (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

To get out to the area, the Claassen’s depended on the air services of the Madang Lutheran Mission’s Wren STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) airplane to fly them into and out of the Tauta airstrip. However, after the Lutheran’s had an accident with the Wren in September 1966 they stopped flying into the area.

That was after the Lutheran Mission, at the same airstrip, had a plane accident in 1964 in which pilot Ray Jaensch was killed on take-off in his Dornier Do-27Q-4.

That meant the SIL Aviation department at Ukarumpa needed to begin flying into the Tauta area.

Therefore, Lance Woodward, translator for the Maring language community went out to Tauta to help inspect the airstrip in July 1967 when the Claassens were in the village.

The Claassens were anxious to have air service return to Tauta and they estimated that the Cessna 185 could make it in and out with over 700 pounds of cargo. However, SIL had recently purchased a Cessna 206 STOL airplane in October 1967 and so after an official from the Department of Civil Aviation came and certified the newly lengthened airstrip for use, plans were made to pick up the Claassens. Finally on 98 | P a g e

Tuesday, November 7, 1967 SIL Pilot Doug Hunt landed the new Cessna 206 at Tauta and brought the Claassen’s back to Ukarumpa.

While flying was common place in missionary life, not all flights were equal and the Claassens were a couple who made flying enjoyable and pilots liked to fly for. Whenever they went from Ukarumpa to the village or came from the village to return to Ukarumpa, Francine often had a pie for the aviation department to express their appreciation for the service!

Cessna 206 - Short Take Off and Landing - STOL airplane (Photo courtesy of SIL PNG Aviation Archives)

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July 1966 - Oren and Francine Claassen’s newsletter (Photo courtesy Wycliffe Bible Translators USA Archives)

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July 1966 - Oren and Francine Claassen’s newsletter (Photo courtesy Wycliffe Bible Translators USA Archives)

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July 1966 - Oren and Francine Claassen’s newsletter (Photo courtesy Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

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July 1966 - Oren and Francine Claassen’s newsletter (Photo courtesy Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

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A Binding Transaction During the month of March in 1968, the SIL PNG Branch was privileged to have David and Dorothy Thomas and Merrill Piper visit Ukarumpa. The Thomas’ were members of the Vietnam branch of Wycliffe and Merrill was the Candidate Secretary of JAARS.

Oren and Francine Claassen, Merrill Piper, David and Dorothy Thomas (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

The Thomas's were returning to Vietnam from furlough and had just spent three months teaching at the New Zealand SIL Linguistic and Bible translation training school in Auckland. Since New Guinea was on their way back to Vietnam and Merrill was on a trip around the world visiting Wycliffe Councils and those branches in the South Pacific-Asia area they decided to visit the growing work there.

During their visit the Thomas's and Merrill were asked to stay overnight with Oren and Francine Claassen at Tauta. When they arrived at the airstrip about noon, the Claassens said that the people had planned a celebration to welcome the visitors. As the group approached the edge of the village they saw that the

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Oren Claassen, Merrill Piper and David Thomas (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

path was blocked by a small vine which was draped with flowers. The procession stopped at this small gate where the head man of the village led in a brief prayer.

After this the three guests and the Claassens were presented with leis, some made of flowers and others of bird feathers. A man then stepped forward and placed a large arm band on Merrill's arm. It was woven with small white shells and the bark thread had 'been dyed green. A long rope was then brought out. One end was tied to MerriII's wrist and the other end was fastened around the Claassens' arms, thus binding them all together.

With this part of the ceremony completed the young boys of the village who had lined up in two straight rows on either side of the path began singing "Onward Christian Soldiers" in loud marching rhythm and the entire procession moved on through the village. When the procession arrived at the Claassens' house the rope was removed and the party allowed to go inside.

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Oren Claassen, Merrill Piper and David Thomas (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

It wasn't until later that afternoon that they learned the meaning behind this service. The arm band which had been presented had been very ‘big money’ in the days before the Australian government officials arrived and had lost its value since Australian Shillings were used to buy and sell goods. Previously this ‘big money’ was used to buy wives and pigs, their most valued possessions. The binding of the participants together was the ceremony they had used at the actual service of receiving possession of the item purchased.

From the talk that followed in the afternoon and evening when they all met with the village people they gathered the following conclusions. The village people have been overjoyed at having Oren and Francine come and live in their village. They thought that Merrill, being an important man in Wycliffe had the authority to take them elsewhere to work. So they put on this little service where they had ‘purchased’ these two translators as their own to keep them there in their village!

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Awaiting Furlough Soon it was time for furlough and Oren and Francine packed their village house and headed back to Ukarumpa. From there they planned to travel back to the States to report to supporters and churches the progress of their work.

Before leaving for the States their minds were flooded with thoughts and emotions about their previous years in the village and what God had been doing in the lives of the Rawa people.

Francine Claassen (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

They remembered the people's joy when they first came to the language community to begin work. The villagers were so excited that people had come to live in their village. They remembered the time they heard of a headman from another village explain to a man from Madang how the Claassens had worked on the airstrip with the Rawa people and learned their talk and could speak just like them. Then there was the time they took a seven-hour hike up the mountain as they carried the body of a young man bitten by a death adder and they heard the village people mourning, without hope, for their loved one.

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Tauta Village Literacy classes (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

Yes, the Claassens had told the people that God's Word gives assurance of life after death, but the villagers at the time replied, "Ridiculous! Only when we die will we know which road we go on, not now!" Even after the Claassens began translation work and had given a typewritten copy of the Christmas Story in Rawa to the people, there was little interest. Instead, they continued to ask the Claassens to teach them English.

However, God began to work in the hearts of the Rawa people and while the Claassens did manage to teach a few words to the people in English, they began to hold literacy classes in the Rawa language. Soon there were eight villagers who could read and write Rawa and now as they were ready to leave on furlough it seemed as if the village people had a new excitement for their own language! God’s hand was directing their work and the lives of the Rawa people. Yet they waited for the working of the Lord in their hearts of the people and so they asked their supporters back home to pray for the Rawa people, that God would stir their hearts with repentance and faith.

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Awaiting God’s Instructions While living at Ukarumpa the Claassens had many of the missionary children in their home and although they still had no children of their own they loved to entertain them by playing games together and hosting their parents for meals. Over the years the Claassens had prayed that the Lord would give them children.

Oren and Francine decided to adopt using two different agencies in the United States, but were turned down. Then in early 1971 big news was announced that Francine was pregnant! Everyone was delighted for them. The Claassens built a sizable house at Ukarumpa in anticipation of a family and in November 1971 they were in Lae, a coastal town, awaiting the birth of their first born. Everything seemed to go along fine, but then in labor the baby‘s heartbeat was suddenly lost. The attending doctors did an emergency Caesarean operation, but the baby girl never responded.

Oren and Francine Claassen at their home at Ukarumpa (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

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Baby Claassen headstone – Malahang Cemetery, Lae, New Guinea (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

Sadness filled their hearts as they mourned the loss of their child. A few days later, the baby was buried in Malahang Cemetery in Lae. Malahang was a World War II cemetery that was also used for burials of the expatriate community. The Claassens then returned to Ukarumpa.

Back at Ukarumpa, the Claassen’s Bible study group decided to make a study of Heaven, as they felt it would be educational, inspirational and comforting for Francine and Oren as well as for the close friends in the Bible study group. After the first few weeks, Oren and Francine expressed their appreciation of the friends in this group as well as for all that they were learning from the Scriptures. They felt a real comfort of the Holy Spirit. One of the Claassens said, “Now we are looking forward to heaven ourselves, we already feel as though half of us is there!”

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Due to the complications of the birth, in April 1972 the Claassens again traveled to Lae to visit doctors to make sure she could still bear children. They also went to again discuss the possibility of adoption. After the doctor visit, they boarded the Aztec airplane on April 7, 1972 and God’s sovereign hand was seen as the Lord called the Claassens home. Little did they know, but new workers were already on their way to Rawa!

(Photo courtesy of SIL PNG Scripture Language Resources web site: http://www.sil.org/pacific/png/maps/Madang_small.jpg)

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On Our Knees – The Rawa Work Resumes When the village people heard that Oren and Francine had been killed in a plane crash they thought that was the end for them. However, God was beginning to stir the hearts of Don and Norma Toland.

Don and Norma had come to New Guinea in 1972 to do Bible translation work with their two young daughters Arlene age 11 and Laurel Lynne age 5.

They had come with an open mind to the Lord's leading as to where they should begin work and so they began to pray for guidance. In order to pray more intelligently and to learn more about the places they should consider, they talked to several other translation teams working in the country, looked at photos of the various areas needing work and visited several language communities.

Don and Norma Toland and Arlene and Laurel Lynne (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

On their second visit to a language group in late 1972 they met the Rawa people in the village of Tauta.

The Tolands were impressed with everything they saw and experienced. On the basis of this visit and the excitement that grew inside of them they prayed about working with these people. Soon, they felt led of the Lord to accept the challenge of learning the Rawa language and pick up the work of translating the Scriptures for the people.

Quickly plans were laid to begin work among the Rawa people. On February 11, 1973 the family took time off from their present work and school to spend five days with the people, to learn basic phrases and to put names with faces. When the Tolands finally arrived in the village of Tauta the villagers planned a special church service. At the service they welcomed the Tolands and said, “Now God has sent you to us and we are very happy!"

They returned from their visit to Ukarumpa with a deep sense of urgency. Very few, if any, of the women and older men spoke anything but the Rawa language and the question that kept echoing in their minds was, "How many will have a chance to hear God's Word in their language?"

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Bible Translation Checking Session – Al Boush, Don Toland and Rawa language helper (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

Soon, the Tolands decided to take up the Rawa work. By 1975 the work was in full swing and in each step along the way the Tolands were reminded over and over of how the Lord's timing is perfect.

During a preparation workshop in 1975 to produce school primers, it became apparent to the Tolands that their present language helper could not give them the type of help needed in preparing the upcoming literacy program. They began praying and looking for a younger man with the ability to read and write both English and Rawa fairly well. Yet, try as they could, they could not think of even one person who could fill those two simple qualifications. Eventually they felt led to tell their language helper their problem and the next day he brought a young man, Rombo, from a neighboring village.

When Rombo came to the Tolands he said, "I have finished Bible School and now I have just been sitting around the village wondering how I could be of use to God." The Tolands were astonished. They had not known about this man!

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Tauta village and airstrip (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

After a brief orientation to his own Rawa alphabet, Rombo began writing stories in the Rawa language plus helping the Tolands transcribe other stories from tape cassettes which saved them hours of time each day. Besides helping the Tolands in their work, his Christian testimony was a real spiritual blessing for them to work with.

However, as soon as Rombo began his work, he came under attack from his friends who wanted him to quit helping the Tolands and go to work elsewhere where he could make more money. While that was not true, it was a great joy for the Tolands to hear his reply. He told the Tolands, "Don't you worry about me. When I get to heaven, I will get all the pay I am due!"

The Tolands continued their work with translation and literacy efforts. In addition to language work, the Tolands also reached out to help with community development projects. Sewing classes were held with the village women in order to suply the village people with funds needed for schooling and other health care needs. A community center was eventually built to help provide a place where projects and other activites could be held.

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Rawa community center (Photo countesy of Wycliffe Bible Translstors, USA Archives)

Norma with village children –Informal Literacy classes (Photos countesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

Sewing clubs with local village women

Over the years, there were seemingly hundreds of flights back and forth from Ukarumpa to Tauta to ferry the Tolands and their children plus language helpers. The Toland children eventually stayed in the boarding homes at Ukarumpa and attended Ukarumpa High School.

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Rawa village church (Photos courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

The Toland girls and visiting friends in the village (Photos courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

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Despite challenges over the next seventeen years the Tolands continued their efforts. God blessed the work and a Christian church was firmly established and a large number of Rawa people came to faith in Jesus Christ.

Eventually the Rawa New Testament was dedicated in 1992. That was 37 years from when Francine first began to be interested in mission work and 28 years after the Claassens first arrived in New Guinea.

Eventually a Rawa song book was also published in 2001. Work on the Old Testament continues today.

Don Toland holding a copy of the Rawa New Testament (Photo courtesy of the Lancaster Online Newspaper8) 8

http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/259536_Life-took-a-big-turn-for-Donald-Toland.html

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Chapter 7 Bravo, Lord – Dr. Darlene Bee Precious Cargo Found in the Airplane Wreck One of the items that Hap Skinner found in the wreckage was Dr. Darlene Bee’s briefcase which had been wired together and filled with her papers. It contained the work of Darlene who had recently been serving as the Principal of the SIL linguistic school in New Zealand.

Inside the briefcase, which was the only intact article to survive the crash, contained her Bible which she had carried for twenty years, the manuscript for a book on Neo-Tagememics she was writing, a notebook of addresses and reminders, the Gospel of Mark which had recently been translated into the Usarufa language she had been working on, her rings and papers that contained a series of poem, that was published in 1973 in a book entitled, Bravo, Lord! [Author’s Note: Another book of poems written by Darlene entitled ‘Earthen Vessels’, was published after her death]

Alongside the briefcase lying loose on the ground was Darlene’s notebook open to a page that said in large letters “FEAR - FAITH – TRUST” with scripture verses for each word.

Who Was Darlene Bee? (From Bravo, Lord, edited by Vida Chenoweth in 1972 who worked with Darlene in Usarufa.

Used by Permission of Author – Vida Chenoweth)

Darlene Bee was principal of the [Auckland], New Zealand Summer Institute of Linguistics. She was a Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics [University of Indiana], and one of the keenest thinkers I ever met. She analyzed the grammatical structure of one of the difficult tone languages in Papua New Guinea, the 118 | P a g e

Usarufa language. She once described the complexity of Usarufa verbs by making a chart for the forms of one verb; after copying some 7,000 forms onto a six foot scroll, she gave up, estimating that there were 5,000 more.

What Was She Like?

You probably would not notice her in a crowd. She dressed simply and wore her hair short for practical reasons. It was naturally curly, and even a bad haircut could not make it unattractive. People who did not normally notice the color of eyes commented on her blue eyes, noticeable from even the back row of all, auditorium or chapel.

The audience or class of students she was speaking to leaned toward her in anticipation of the next word.

Her speech was never hurried. Sometimes, when she was imparting some information which was exciting to her - and discoveries were always exciting to her - her voice met with a light stammer.

Darlene Bee with Usarufa men (Photo From Bravo, Lord! Used by Permission of Author – Vida Chenoweth)

Her manner was always quiet. Quick movements were out of character with her ordered thinking. Things were done deliberately and purposefully. She was all, American, though not typical. Her temperament 119 | P a g e

was more like that of all, Asian, quite opposite to that of the Usarufas with whom she lived and worked for almost fourteen years. But she was not always in the role of scholar, thinker, or teacher. Recreation had to be forced upon her because she was so conscientious, but once she entered into games or sports, she was as lost in fun as a child would be. She was an expert in table tennis. TV was seen so rarely that it remained a treat and novelty to her. Many times I heard people say that to see her absorbed in drama or comedy was more entertaining than the program itself.

Darlene had very little given to her as a child. Perhaps that is why she appreciated the smallest gift. She made giving a delight, no matter how small the gift, even if no more than a bag of jelly beans. Some treats were regular, such as popcorn to celebrate the end of a week's work, or Chinese food when it was available, (always with chopsticks). Darlene had few valuables but wherever she went she carried a little box of rings, gifts from friends, tokens that she was loved.

Her reputation as a thinker generally preceded her, so that most were not prepared for what they met in her. She was incapable of pretense and made no attempt to cover up her own weaknesses, and it was the latter that seemed to draw people to her. It was because she knew failure, poverty, abandonment, fear, and physical frailty that she could accept others as they were.

All of life is like a series of mountains which represent goals sometimes and barriers at other times. What distinguishes us from one another is the mountains we choose to climb and how we climb them. From early childhood, mountains were present as obstacles in Darlene's life. Hers was the kind of background which, when overcome, leaves a psychiatrist amazed. The trauma of being left motherless at age three, and all the extenuating events because of it, left its mark in recurring fears and nightmares, insecurity and separation. The mountains of fear were scaled many times, until she became a teacher in courage, withholding none of herself.

How did she conquer her fears? Here is an illustration in miniature: As we trekked together in the mountains of New Guinea, a certain phobia began to make itself known to me. She was afraid to jump.

Whether it meant jumping only a few feet down from a cliff or across a stream, she was afraid that her legs would fail her; but if I grabbed her hand and said, "Jump with me," she did not hesitate to do so.

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Darlene Bee in Usarufa and an Usarufa poem she wrote (From Bravo, Lord! Used by Permission of Author – Vida Chenoweth)

I have heard her tell audiences, students, and congregations how God supplied a hand when her own strength failed. This was her secret: The hand she took was God's hand.

Darlene chose the highest mountains to climb. Majestic Mt. Rainier, which was within her view as a child, is a just symbol of her life's aims, which were also high and beautiful. The immensity of her work and responsibility sometimes overwhelmed her to the point of nausea, but it was not in her to retreat. It was the peaks that had not yet been climbed which were a constant stimulus to her creative mind and to her desire to share her God with those who had never been told of Him. In her climbing she never used others as rungs in a ladder and never deserted a straggler. Nothing was done for her own gain. She was not perfect in all things, and I do not mean to imply that she was, and although she would be miserably embarrassed and deny it all, she could never disprove what I have said of her. It is one thing to be sensitive on others' behalf. The first is the poet; the second is the saint.

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She was a fragile person. It is incredible to think what such a small frame could accomplish physically, things which had to be done so she did them. How many girls do you know who have built a house or put a steel top on a Land Rover! The Usarufas called her "carpenter girl" as it was she who taught them to use simple tools for the first time. She shrugged off building as being "just like sewing only with hammer and nails."

Darlene became increasingly dependent as she matured. It was a revelation to me that maturity is a state of dependence rather than independence. If we are dependent, we can receive, and the more we receive, the more we have to give. Though unloved, humanly speaking, for most of her life Darlene developed a tremendous capacity to love others and to please them.

Here is another vignette: On our last holiday in New Zealand we did some sketching. After we returned to the flat where we were staying we proceeded to make a painting of our sketches. She wanted to paint rocks along the shore, but did not know how to go about it. I knew very little, but showed her what I did know about light and shadow on the various planes of the rocks. She listened with such rapture and gratitude that I recall thinking what a pity it was that she had not had any teaching along those lines. Her hands quivered, as they always did when she was intensely earnest, whether she was serving a cup of tea or imparting a linguistic theory, and, after a quarter of an hour had passed, she showed me her rocks.

I was surprised at how well she had done, better than I could have painted them. When she saw how pleased I was she continued to paint. An hour must have passed before she again showed me her picture.

What I saw was both startling and touching, for she had transformed her entire painting. Where there had been only four rocks on the beach there were now twenty three, with dozens of little pebbles lining the water's edge. This was typical of Darlene, this desire to please extravagantly.

How did she happen to write poems? She was that rare combination of artist and scientist, with language as her medium. Her creative mind required times of solitude, even if it had to be stolen from a night's sleep. During these special times, which were frequently in the midst of trials, the Lord gave her a special glimpse of Himself and insights into His Word. She shared these insights in the form of poems which were pertinent to a friend's situation and which directed her friend towards a solution, one that she had found to be unfailing.

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Dr. Darlene Bee’s coffin and Pallbearers Lex Collier and five Usarufa men (Photo countesy of Gail Godfrey)

Just recently Darlene remarked that only God had known her through every phase of her life. She was essentially homeless on earth, and every now and then would be aware of a beckoning to new life. Her poem "A Time for Dying" has been read throughout the world in seventeen memorial services honoring the seven killed in a plane crash near Lae, Papua New Guinea on April 7, 1972. Among the seven was "our Bee" as so many have referred to her.

By a miracle, her briefcase was the only piece of luggage to survive the crash. When we took her to the air terminal at Auckland I noticed the unusual precaution she had taken in binding together the two handles of her briefcase (with elastoplast), and she assured me that she had good reason for it. The contents seem to summarize all she held valuable: her Bible, carried for twenty years, the manuscript for her book on Neo-Tagmemics, a notebook of addresses and reminders, the Gospel of Mark which she had translated into Usarufa, her rings and the poems in the book Bravo, Lord. Darlene wrote other poems which were published after her death in the book Earthen Vessels.

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(Photo courtesy of SIL PNG Scripture Language Resources web site: http://www.sil.org/pacific/png/maps/EHP_small.jpg)

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Chapter 8 Hands That Served – Kath McNeil The Seamstress Turned Missionary Kathleen Dorothy McNeil used her heart and hands to serve the Lord. Gifted in the ability to create and clothe others, Kath as she was known to her friends, not only was able to provide in life the physical clothing needed for those she served, but also help provide to those in need of spiritual clothing to cover a multitude of sin that had left them exposed to the elements of sin and sadness through her work in Bible translation.

Kath was born to parents Amy May McNeil (nee Matthews) and David McNeil. Kath’s mother Amy McNeil came from Mt. Hope, a very remote mining town in New South Wales, Australia. Amy was a dressmaker. Kath’s father David was born in Dumbarton, Scotland. At some point he immigrated to Australia and eventually he married Amy in St. Brendan’s Roman Catholic Church in Sydney, Australia in 1910. David’s job was that of an engineer.

Kath was the second-born child. Hazel Hannah was born 1910 in Sydney, Australia, followed by Kathleen Dorothy born July 20, 1912 in Sydney, Australia, David Arthur, Amy Isabel, Jean and (Marjorie) Betty born August 13, 1921 in Auckland, New Zealand.

Likely Kath McNeil’s 21st Birthday (Photo courtesy Gail Godfrey)

Why they immigrated to New Zealand is unknown, but when the family came to New Zealand, one of the churches they attended was the Wiremu Street (Open Brethren) Chapel. In the 1920’s the family lived in Richmond Road, in Auckland, New Zealand and then moved to a house they rented for 13 years on the

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corner of Dominion Road and Queens Ave, in Balmoral, a suburb of Auckland. Eventually they purchased the property just before Kath’s father David died in 1945.

Not much is known about Kath’s early life. She was a member of the Christian Alliance of Women and Girls which was a group that had broken away from the Young Women’s Christian Association in 1919 and refrained from dancing and smoking. As she became a young adult she became a member of the Auckland Baptist Tabernacle.

For quite a period of time she lived in Ponsonby Terrace, Ponsonby, New Zealand with her friend Nellie Wilkinson. Nellie’s family had been missionaries in India and so at an early age, Kath became acquainted with missionary work.

In 1954, Kath traveled extensively all over England and Europe, leaving from Wellington, New Zealand on the ship RMS Rangitane. Gwen Griffiths, Kath’s good life-long friend, went with her to England and later on Nellie Wilkinson joined her. They had an enjoyable time.

1950s - Kath with her good friend Gwen Griffiths (Photo courtesy of Gail Godfrey)

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RMS Rangitane Ship (Photo courtesy of http://www.ssmaritime.com/rtane-0.jpg)

RMS Wanganella Ship (Photo courtesy of http://3.bp.blogspot.com)

Kath returned from England first to Sydney, Australia and then from there by the ship RMS Wanganella to Auckland, New Zealand in late 1955. Kath was met at the port by family and friends.

Once back in New Zealand, Kath and Nellie decided to move to Tauranga, New Zealand and they bought a little house on the corner of Cameron Road and 13th Avenue, exactly where the Tauranga Baptist Church 128 | P a g e

now stands. At that time Kath decided to open her shop, Lorinda Gowns, located at Gate Pa, Tauranga on Cameron Road. She operated the shop until 1967 when she went to New Guinea.

Lorinda Gowns was a ladies’ and children’s wear shop. Kath was a dressmaker and had her sewing machine set up in the backroom where she made garments for people, including wedding gowns. Kath was known as an amazing dressmaker where she could pick up a zipper in her right hand and the garment in her left hand and in almost an instant would have a perfectly sewn in zipper!

When she lived in Lae, New Guinea she made all the uniforms for her Girl’s Brigade girls in Lae. The young New Guinea woman shown in the photo at the funeral are dressed in uniforms that Kath made for them.

1972 – Girl’s Brigade at the funeral in Lae in uniforms made by Kath (Photo courtesy of Gail Godfrey)

After Kath’s friend Nellie died, Kath moved in with Mona Mackintosh and they first lived in Tauranga off Cameron Road (behind the Fire Station) before moving to 52 Milton Road, Otumoetai, New Zealand.

Kath was active in Otumoetai Baptist Church and many of the Bible class girls used to visit her shop after school. At that time the only high school in town was along the road from the shop, and high school girls used to fill in time between school finishing and catching their bus by visiting Kath in her shop.

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Kath was a very kind person. If she was ever in Auckland she would always drive into the city and pick up her brother-in-law to save him the trip home in the bus, even after the long drive from Tauranga. Kath would drop him off in town in the mornings as well. Likewise, when Kath’s sister Betty had her first cancer operation in 1964 Kath made many trips back and forth from Tauranga to Auckland. She would stop on the way and pick up a sack of oranges from an orchard gate and then with her niece Gail hand squeeze these and take the juice to Auckland Hospital for Betty to have the benefit of the fresh and healthy Vitamin C.

Kath always had a heart for the stranger and so also had many friends. When travelling to Auckland Kath sometimes brought new friends along, especially at Christmas time. One of Kath’s great friends was Jean Jaggers. Jean was an Australian and came at Christmas time to be with Kath and her sister Betty’s family.

Jean was also the Matron at Bible College of New Zealand and as the Matron, Jean had a lovely flat which was on the first floor with a lovely view of surrounding orchards and vineyards. Kath often stayed there with her and at one time Kath stayed with Jean when Kath had malaria at one stage after serving in New Guinea.

The circumstances regarding her decision to join Wycliffe Bible Translators or to serve in New Guinea is unknown, but she joined the organization on April, 8 1967 and soon afterwards headed to New Guinea where she was assigned as a buyer for SIL in the northern coastal town of Lae9.

Kath’s Work In Lae The work Kath was assigned to do in Lae was critical for the overall Bible translation work in the country.

While Port Moresby was the capital city that all visitors and mission staff flew into from overseas, there were no roads leading out of the city to other parts of the country and so Lae was the city of commerce.

9

The exact timeline of all of Kath’s activities with SIL in New Guinea are not fully known. The timeline shared is the most accurate as of the time of publication.

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Kath McNeil (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

Since air travel was expensive, containers were shipped by sea freight to Lae where the Lae office staff would handle the clearance of goods on the wharf. Since Lae also was a growing city, there were a number of shops that carried a wide range of supplies. Kath’s job was to purchase needed supplies in Lae and see that they were transported by road to Ukarumpa or purchase supplies need for the translation teams working in the nearby area.

Lae, also had an SIL Guest House which was often used by the mission staff who needed a break from the work and wanted to enjoy the heat of the tropics (Ukarumpa is nestled in the foothills of the Bismarck Mountain Range and is located at 5,000 ft. elevation. By contrast, Lae is at sea level).

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1960s - Huon Gulf and Voco Point - Lae

1960s - Lae Airstrip and Harbor - Lae

1960s - Lae Town and Government Adminsitrative headquarters

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1961 - Goods Coming to the Store via the Umi River (Photo courtesy of Ken Lowe)

1961 - A Store buying trip to Lae (Photo courtesy of Ken Lowe)

1961 - Goods coming to the store via the Kassam Pass (Photo courtesy of Ken Lowe)

Deliveries headed to the Highlands from Lae (Photo courtesy of Cedric Grace)

Lae coastal shipping vessels and wharf (Photos courtesy of Charles Micheals)

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Lae Office Managers flat and offices (Photo courtesy of Charles Micheals)

1998 - Lae Office - Charles Micheals, Barb Micheals and John Shaw – Lae Center Manager (Photos courtesy of Charles Micheals)

1998 - SIL Lae Guesthouse (Photos courtesy of Charles Micheals)

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During her time in Lae, Kath kept very busy buying supplies needed for the linguistic center at Ukarumpa and for the mission staff working in villages near the coastal town of Lae. Her skills in operating a retail store in New Zealand aided her greatly in her time in Lae.

During her time in Lae, Kath was asked to be a support team for a Bible translation project. Being a ‘support team’ member and partnering up with a translation team meant encouraging the translators by means of letters and contact once a week by means of a short wave radio, helping them in practical ways and if possible visiting the village where the translators were working. Kath took up the duties as the ‘support team’ for two young women, Marilyn Laszlo and Judy Rehburg (now Judy Griffith), who were working with the Sepik Iwam people in the Sepik area.

While in Lae Kath was introduced to Dr. Darlene Bee and Dr. Vida Chenoweth who were doing Bible translation work with the Usarufa people. During this time Kath introduced Bee and Vida to her family in New Zealand.

In April 1969 a new supply store was built at the missionary center at Ukarumpa. The smaller store at Ukarumpa no longer could serve the growing mission population there. Again, due to Kath’s previous retail work in New Zealand she was asked to serve in the haberdashery, clothing and sewing section at this new SIL Members’ Store10. Kath served at the store until the end of 1969.

Kath McNeil serving at the SIL Store at Ukarumpa (Photos courtesy Of Cedric Grace)

10

To learn more about the SIL Member’s Store, read ‘God’s Grocer’s by Charles Micheals http://issuu.com/cbmicheals/docs/godsgrocers_chapters5-8

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Kath McNeil and Pita Kasito store staff serve Jean Smith (Photo courtesy Cedric Grace)

In late 1969 Kath returned to New Zealand for a short furlough. Upon Kath’s return from furlough in early 1970 Kath again took up her duties as the buyer in Lae. However, in October 1970 Kath was able to visit the Sepik Iwam village where Marilyn Laszlo and Judy (Rehburg) Griffith were working. Marilyn and Judy lived in the village of Hauna, about 80 - 100 miles up the Sepik River from Ambunti where the nearest airstrip was located.

To get to the village Kath flew into Ambunti and from there took a motorized canoe up the Sepik River to visit the village. For several days she stayed in the village and was able to see the Bible translation work being done, how the Lord was providing from the women working there and how the Gospel was transforming the lives of the village people.

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Ambunti and Sepik Iwam map (Photo courtesy of the SIL PNG Language Resource Web Site)

October 1969 - Kath in Hauna village in New Guinea – Woman in the background is Judy (Rehburg) Griffith (Photos courtesy of Gail Godfrey)

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October 1969 - Kath in Hauna Village in New Guinea With Judy (Rehburg) Griffith (Photos courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

October 1969 - Kath in Hauna village in New Guinea with Judy (Rehburg) Griffith (Photos courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

After spending a few days in the village, Kath returned to Ambunti and there met Neal and Martha Kooyers, Bible translators for the Kwoma (Washkuk) people. As part of their work, Neal and Martha had set up a training school, called Ambunti Academy. This school was of interest to Kath because not only was it a Bible school, but a school where practical skills were taught.

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Ambunti Akademi (Photo courtesy of Fred Vanderbom)

Kath returned to her work in Lae in late 1970 and during this time became the ‘support’ team for Darlene Bee and Vida Chenoweth. Kath also had an opportunity to connect these two women to her family in New Zealand. This connection with her family in New Zealand would grow into a strong friendship that would be of help and comfort to Kath’s family when the airplane crash happened.

In early 1971, while in Lae, Kath became sick and had to spend several weeks in bed. The SIL Directors suggested she fly up to Ukarumpa and recover there. After spending some time at Ukarumpa she recovered and then began to look at new work in the country.

In the middle of 1971 an opportunity opened up for Kath to serve in the Sepik area at the Ambunti Academy. However, before she took up work there, Kath arranged on August 23, 1971 a visit to the Usarufa area where Darlene Bee and Vida Chenoweth were working.

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While it was a short day long visit, it did allow Kath again to see a Bible translation project firsthand. In the village, the Usarufa people were intrigued with Kath’s hair and repeatedly touched it as her hair was white and quite a novelty to people who had hair that didn’t grow so white! One older man in the village also asked Kath if she was Bee and Vida’s mother!!!

In the later part of 1971 Kath took up her work in Ambunti by helping teach sewing classes to the local woman as part of the Adult Education Program at the Ambunti Academy. The work was a good fit for Kath and again she was able to use her seamstress skills to help give the local Sepik women skills that would be both practical and help earn a living.

In November 1971 Kath had her good friend Gwen Griffiths visit her in Ambunti. Kath was thrilled by her arrival and within a short time Gwen found herself also teaching the Sepik children at the Academy to use a typewriter.

After a number of weeks in Ambunti, Kath and Gwen flew to Banz, which is located in the Western Highlands of the country. Over the Christmas holiday they visited the Christian Leaders’ Training College (CLTC) which had been set up as an extension of the work of the Melbourne Bible Institute (now Bible College of Victoria). CLTC was one of the first Bible training colleges in the country and was beginning to train the first Christian pastors and church workers in New Guinea.

During their time in Banz they also visited the work of the Australian Baptist Mission (ABM) located nearby at the Baiyer River. That mission had begun a Bible school, a primary school and hospital.

On their way to ABM they stopped off at Rugli where the Christian Radio Missionary Fellowship (CRMF) had started a Christian broadcasting station. During their visit Kath met a woman from her church in Otumoetai, Rosemary Brewster who work there. Through the work of Jim and Lonnie Kendall, the CRMF mission had started a ‘School of the Air’ in 1951 to provide technical support services to churches and mission throughout New Guinea. This also involved assisting students who were studying by correspondence through Australia, New Zealand and the USA.

Kath and Gwen returned to Lae in early January 1972 as the work in Ambunti came to an end. After working in Lae for a month as the SIL buyer again, Kath and her friend Gwen decided to take a trip and 140 | P a g e

visit the New Tribes Mission work in the Watut area. They traveled there with the managers of the New Tribes Mission Guest House in Lae, the Pervoisons.

The trip to Watut was much more of an adventure than anticipated. Since none of the passengers had been to the area before, it was assumed the one road they started off on would take them directly there.

Everything was fine until after they passed the small mining town of Bulolo and headed further into the bush. After a while driving they were confronted with an unexpected fork in the road.

Bangalum-Middle Watut road cut on the side of the mountain11

Fortunately they saw a sign which said “New Tribes Mission”, but the arrow was pointing heavenward which seemed appropriate in a way, but didn’t help them with directions on the road! Not knowing what to do, they headed off in the wrong direction and soon found themselves in the middle of a Klinki Pine forest where the road became more of a path. While traveling a short while on the path, they came up to a tree that had fallen across the road which they couldn’t get around. Providentially they were stopped and had to make a decision to turn around.

Since it was beginning to be late afternoon in the part of the world where darkness came up shortly after the evening dinner hour, they decided not to try and go around the tree and so turned around and headed back to the fork in the road where they set off in the other direction. Finally as darkness descended they found the bridge that the people in Bulolo had told them to look for, but not before they had backtracked a bit and followed a narrow mountain road to get to the bridge.

11

http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2012/03/then-and-now-a-tale-of-a-legacy-that-was-lost.html

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After crossing the bridge they headed again to a narrow mountain road which required them to ford several rivers. Not knowing what the rivers were like, they cautiously drove through the rivers in darkness and kept going. The road ahead eventually became a path with tall kunai grass on each side with just two tire tracks to follow and the group was beginning to become concerned. Finally, they met a New Guinea man walking along the path who agreed to guide them the rest of the way.

When they finally saw the lights of the New Tribes missionaries in the distance they were overcome with joy. However, within a short time the lights went out and their joy began to waver as they were unsure if they had missed a turn somewhere or if the generator at the home had been turned off for the night.

Would anyone be there to greet them?

Finally, they saw the lights again! Their joy returned and they thanked the Lord because they knew that God had indeed been with them on such a dangerous road.

They arrived at the New Tribes Mission home unannounced since there had been no way to communicate to such a remote station ahead of time. Fortunately the missionaries were home and welcomed them for the night. The next day they spent the day visiting and talking with the mission staff and enjoying a swim in a nearby river. They stayed the weekend and then returned to Lae.

While plans originally were made for Kath to finish her work in Lae as the SIL buyer and then head back to Ukarumpa to look for new work, those plans changed. The Kooyers daughter Penny had decided to return to New Guinea after spending a few years in college in the USA and help run the Ambunti Academy while the Kooyers were on furlough. To assist Penny at the Academy, Kath was asked to help out.

However, Penny had never met Kath before so it was arranged for Penny to first fly out to Lae and meet Kath and get to know each other before they worked together. However, it was sometime in early March before Penny could fly to Lae to meet Kath.

Penny and Kath became roommates in Lae and got to know each other. Penny helped out at the SIL Lae office and helped handle the drop-offs and pick-ups at the Lae airport of the SIL missionaries coming and going from there. Part of those plan were for Kath to go up to Ukarumpa the first part of April and get settled into Bee and Vida’s home (Bee and Vida were still in New Zealand at this time) which just had a 142 | P a g e

new addition added for Kath to live in while she was at Ukarumpa. The plan was for Penny to then head to Ambunti to meet her parents while Kath would leave for Ukarumpa and join Penny a little later on.

Those plans then also changed the plans for Kath and her friend Gwen. Since Kath and Gwen had the Easter weekend, which was Sunday, April 3, 1972, they decided to fly out to a nearby village on Maundy Thursday and spend Good Friday and the Easter weekend visiting Dottie and Edie West who were working in the Safeyoka (Ampeeli) language.

They spent the weekend in the Safeyoka area and then came back to Lae on Tuesday, April 4, 1972. That gave them just enough time for Gwen to head back to New Zealand and for Kath to pack her bags, say goodbye to her friends in Lae and head back to Ukarumpa for a change of direction in life.

While all these activities were happening with Kath and her friend Gwen, Bee and Vida were in Auckland, New Zealand. Bee had been leading the SIL Linguistic School at the Bible College of New Zealand (formerly the New Zealand Bible Institute and now Laidlaw College) and Vida was looking to remain in Auckland to teach Marimba and also for further study.

On April 3, 1972, Vida Chenoweth, along with Kath’s sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew said their goodbyes to Bee at the Auckland airport as Bee traveled to Lae, New Guinea. As a gift for Kath, Kath’s niece Gail gave Bee a copy of a Bible to hand to Kath when she got to Lae.

The plan was for Bee to travel with Kath up to Ukarumpa. However, due to the passengers who did not show up in Port Moresby and the fact that Doug Hunt’s Aztec airplane was coming to Lae early they turned down a trip by road to Ukarumpa and instead decided to take the 30 minute flight back to Ukarumpa instead of the three to four hour trip by road.

After Penny and Gwen dropped Kath and Darlene Bee off at the SIL hangar in Lae, she returned to the SIL Guest House where she had been staying. Shortly after returning, the news arrived that the aircraft had crashed and the hand of God was seen. God had called His servants home and He gathered them in His hand to carry them to their eternal home. Their work on earth was finished. Kath had been in New Guinea exactly five years from April 8, 1967 to April 7, 1972.

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Kath’s Pallbearers – (L) Ken Davis, Barry Baker (R) Bill Groot, Vic Faulkner (Photo courtesy of Gail Godfrey)

After the crash, Kath’s sister, Betty, traveled to Lae with Vida, arriving a day after the funeral. However, the scene of the crash site was still being cleaned up and so Betty and Vida decided to visit the site. While they were walking through the grass Betty thought she saw the word ‘Tauranga’. She bent down and retrieved Kath’s Driver’s License!

After spending a short time in Lae and visiting the cemetery, Betty and Vida traveled by helicopter out to the Usarufa area. Vida went to tell the villagers more about what happened to Bee and Kath. When Vida explained to the Usarufa people that Betty was Kath’s sister the Usarufa people were extremely touched and were filled with tears of sorrow. Betty was also moved to tears by their great love for her sister. After the visit to New Guinea, Betty and Vida returned to Auckland, New Zealand.

Sometime later Stewart Hillman, who was the manager of the Bible College of New Zealand Bookroom and the college’s press, was introduced to Vida. Stewart helped Vida publish Bee’s poems in the book, Bravo, Lord (it has since been republished). Later on, Vida published a second volume of Bee’s poems in the book, Earthen Vessel.

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Later on, Vida returned to New Guinea and continued translating the New Testament into the Usarufa language. The New Testament was finished in 1980.

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Chapter 9 Malahang Plantation Cemetery - The Burial Place

The burial area was in the Malahang (Malabang) Plantation Cemetery in Lae at a place called ‘Second Seven’. It was the area where the 2/7th Australian army camped during World War II and where the US 9th Division took the Malahang airdrome on September 15-16, 1943. The area had been occupied by Japanese troops who landed at Malahang on March 8, 1942. The cemetery after the war was the final resting place for a large number of expatriate people who died in New Guinea.

Thanks to the sharp eye of Stan Dudgeon who attended the burial, he noted that the burial area was near a granite headstone of a Chinese man, Seeto Kui (founder of the Seeto Kui stores in Lae). This reference would prove critical years later when the grave site had become overgrown and the grave markers removed and friends and family needed to remember the location. However, the location of all the bodies noted on the new headstone erected at the cemetery sometime later is incorrect as the body of Beb was actually buried at the cemetery and not in the village as indicate on the headstone.

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1943 - The location of the Malahang Cemetery (Photo courtesy of Australian War Memorial)

1944 - Malahang Hospital and Lutheran Church (Photo courtesy of Australian War Memorial)

Initially the graves were marked with wooden Christian crosses with simple plaques noting the names and the date of their death. The wooden crosses were replaced a year later and granite headstones were added, each with a bronze plaque with inscriptions for each burial plot.

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1972 - Oren and Francine Claassen and baby Claassen (Died November 24, 1971) and Kath McNeil’s initial grave markers (Photos courtesy of Annette Martin and courtesy of Gail Godfrey)

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Photos of the plaques which were later removed from the headstones by graveyard thieves (Photos courtesy of Gail Godfrey and SIL PNG Branch Archives)

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Preparing the headstones (Photos courtesy of the SIL PNG Branch Archives)

January 1973 - Grave site - Francine Claassen was buried next to their baby who died some months earlier - Order of graves (L-R) Kath McNeil, Darlene Bee, Doug Hunt, Oren Claassen, Francine Claassen (Photos courtesy of Stan Dudgeon)

Sadly, sometime between 1973 and 2000 the brass plaques identifying the exact location where each person was buried were taken off from the granite headstones. Likely they were removed and sold to scrap merchants who had come to Lae and started a business of paying for scrap metal. Equally discouraging was the fact that in 2000 A.D. all the records for the cemetery burnt up when the original Morobe Council building holding the cemetery records burnt to the ground.

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Maintaining the SIL Graves - 2000 In 2000, Stan Dudgeon and his wife Gwen took their second trip from Australia back to Papua New Guinea after they were married, taking with them Vic Faulkner, (Jim and Stan’s cousin), who had also lived in Lae for twenty five years and a friend, Bob Knie, who had also worked in New Guinea with the Lutheran Mission.

2008 - Stan Dudgeon and Vic Faulkner (Photo courtesy of Stan Dudgeon)

They first went to Papua New Guinea to attend the Bukawa New Testament dedication. Bukawa village is half way between Finschhafen and Lae and so after the dedication the group traveled to see the SIL graves in Lae.

When they arrived at the Malahang Plantation Cemetery where the crash victims are buried, they discovered that the wood crosses which were placed on various burial sites were mostly burnt down due to fires that were set to clear the kunai grass that had grown too high. The mowers that had been used to mow the grass had broken down and funds were not available to fix them, so burning the grass was used to clear the brush around the graves. Stan and his team had hoped that finding various crosses would allow them to find the general area of the graves, which wasn’t the case. Fortunately, Stan as a young adult man remembered the general area due to the grave of Seeto Kui. 151 | P a g e

Decision to Restore the SIL Graves - 2005 The next trip to the cemetery by Stan and Vic was in 2005 when they returned to Lae for the rededication of St. Andrews Lutheran Church at Ampo where Stan was baptized. Before this trip, Stan and Vic talked to each other and decided to put a plan into action so that the SIL graves could be identified by others in the years to come. They decided that Stan would write to SIL and Vic would organize the purchase of a single permanent headstone.

2005 - Grave Site – Left: Bob Knie, Stan Dudgeon in Green Shorts - White Hair - Vic Faulkner

Jim Wan – Honorary member of SIL PNG helping out with permanent grave markers (Photos courtesy of Stan Dudgeon)

The plan for the permanent marker was to have something written down so that people who visited the gravesite in the years to come would have some understanding of the people who were buried there and the meaning in their lives and realize that those graves were different than the rest and worth looking after. It was also decided that the permanent headstone should not be of metal as it would be too much of a temptation for people to simply remove it and sell it for scrap, bringing things back to the 2005 situation.

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After talking with stone masons, a few morticians and visiting various cemeteries in Australia and looking at headstones, Stan and Vic decided on using a black marble slab for the memorial with the background of the slabs sandblasted to leave the letters ‘proud’. (If the letters are sandblasted into the slab they do tend to deteriorate far quicker.) Stan and Vic also decided that they would cover the cost of the three memorial stones.

Before heading to Papua New Guinea in 2005 to arrange things onsite, Stan began to communicate with leaders from SIL and Wycliffe Bible Translators, seeking their help in this project. Stan first contacted David Cummings, who was the Director of Wycliffe Bible Translators, Australia and the former Wycliffe International Director, seeking permission to make a permanent marking of the graves and to see a simple and appropriate comment about their lives and work.

They heard back from David Cummings and also Douglas and Jeannette Bennett who were friends of Stan and Bible translators in Papua New Guinea. The Bennetts contacted the Director of SIL in the country, Brian Hodgkin and the SIL Aviation Director Lyle Reffey. Brian and Lyle soon responded to Stan, thanking him for covering the costs and suggesting the wording for the memorial stone.

Memorial Black Marble Slab – Note Luke Beb (Bemp) was actually buried in Lae (Photo courtesy of Stan Dudgeon)

Soon the marble slab was finished, weighing around 20 kg. Plans were made to bring it to the gravesite in October 2005.

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Vic traveled to Brisbane, Australia in August 2005 and visited with Jim Wan who soon left for Papua New Guinea in September 2005. Jim, a friend and an honorary member of SIL, PNG was aware of this project and suggested that Hilmer Wong in Lae be the person to handle the construction work on the graves. Jim also suggested that the five graves be ‘linked’ together with a strip of concrete around the headstones.

The Finished Memorial - Wednesday October 12, 2005 Stan and Vic arrived in Lae in early October and began to make plans for the laying of the stone. Martin Wan picked them up on October 12, 2005 at 9.30am and headed out to the cemetery. Jim Wan and Hilmer Wong came to the cemetery along with two Papua New Guineans.

When they arrived at the cemetery at the location of the graves, the gravesite was again covered in kunai grass one meter in height. The two Papua New Guinean’s took out their bush knives and cut the kunai grass while a gentle rain fell down.

Once the site was cleared, Hilmer poured the concrete slab around eleven by one meter using ready mix concrete. He then laid the single headstone in the middle of the row of graves.

While the team was at the cemetery three other graves were cleared. Martin’s father John, who is buried near the SIL ones, Jim’s grandmother (his father’s mother), and a relative of Hilmer’s wife, Josie were also cleaned up and a cement row was poured around those graves.

The Memorial Revisited – Monday, June 30, 2008 Stan and Vic returned to the Malahang Plantation Cemetery in June 2008. Jim Wan picked them up and took them out to the cemetery so that we could see how the SIL graves were being cared for. There was a group of twelve to fifteen cutting the kunai grass with bush knives in another part of the cemetery. They stopped their work and came and cleared the SIL grave sites. Jim took the opportunity to share with them about being a Christian while Stan took photos of the work they had previously done, including photos of the plaque they bought up the last time.

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2008 - Clearing the grave site (Photo courtesy of Stan Dudgeon)

Gravestone Memorial (Photo courtesy of Stan Dudgeon)

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At the time when this book was beginning to be written in August 2012, it had not been possible for someone to visit the site and to check on the state of the gravesite. However, while the years have passed, the lives of the people who died are still remembered and their legacy of dedication to the Lord and to Bible translation in particular continues.

A special word of thanks goes to Stan Dudgeon, Vic Falkner and Jim Wan for their support and assistance in helping make sure a suitable memorial remains in place.

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Chapter 10 The Work Moves Forward New Airplane Replaces the Aztec A

little more than three months after the crash of the Aztec, a new replacement aircraft was on the

ground at Ukarumpa. It was flown over from the U.S.A. by Bernie May, the Executive Director of JAARS, Inc. (Jungle Aviation and Radio Service) and Ken Wiggers, SIL New Guinea Branch Aviation Manager. The plane flew from San Francisco, California and then on to Honolulu, Hawaii, Wake Island, Truck Island and finally landing at the Aiyura Valley airstrip on July 17, 1972. A crowd arrived at the airstrip to watch its arrival and afterward the plane was moved into the airport hangar and a dedication service was held.

Bernie May, Executive Director of JAARS and Andrew Morobe, one of the pastors at the nearby Ukarumpa village (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

At the airplane dedication service Bernie May spoke while Andrew Morobe (his village name is Nampaifa), a local village leader interperted into the trade language, Melanesian Tok Pidgin, for the local people.

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September 1972 - Sharing Newsletter (SIL-PNG Branch Publication)

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Bible Translation Work In Papua New Guinea Since 1956

2012 - Bibles Completed in Papua New Guinea by Wycliffe Bible Translators and SIL PNG (Photo courtesy of SIL PNG Branch Archives)

In all, about 263 languages or roughly 30% of all the 840 languages in Papua New Guinea have a completed New Testament. Another 13 languages have complete Bibles. This represents more than 2,000,000 people who now have access to God’s Word in a language they know and understand! Work continues in 142 languages of Papua New Guinea today by Wycliffe Bible Translators and other mission agencies. At least 300 languages remain to be translated in Papua New Guinea alone and over 2,000 worldwide!

While the many memories of the people who perished in the airplane crash in 1972 are fading, yet their life and testimony lives on. They gave their lives for an urgent and important work. It is the author’s prayer that those who read this book will hear a similar call of God that these seven did and become involved in some aspect of Bible translation work.

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William Cameron (Uncle Cam) Townsend - Founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators (B. July 9, 1896 – D. April 23, 1982) (Photo courtesy Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

It is Christ who said:

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24)

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Chapter 11 Reflections and Memorials

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(Article From the Language and Faith book)

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(Article From the Language and Faith book)

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Newspaper Articles This is the story of the S.I.L. plane crash as reported in the Post-Courier (Papua New Guinea) on Monday, April 10, 1972:

7 Die In Air Tragedy DCA experts probe Lae crash

By Graham Robinson

A top-level DCA investigation team today continued to sift through the wreckage of a light plane which crashed near Lae on Friday in the first major Territory aircraft disaster since December 10, 1970.

Seven people, most of them missionaries, died in the crash near Nadzab airstrip, 26 miles from Lae, late on Friday afternoon.

The aircraft, a twin engine Piper Aztec owned and operated by the Summer Institute of Linguistics, crashed soon after the pilot reported that his starboard engine had caught fire. He also reported he would try to make an emergency landing at Nadzab. However, he crashed about 1 ½ miles short of the strip.

Killed were the pilot, Mr. Douglas Hunt, 41, married, of New Zealand; Mr. Oren Claassen, 32, from Newton, Kansas; his wife Francine, 36, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Miss Kathy McNeil, 59, from Auckland, New Zealand; Miss Darlene Bee, 40, of Port Angeles, Washington State; and two indigenous passengers, Nore, from Morobe, and Bep, believed to be from the Eastern Highlands. All the Europeans and Nore were SIL employees.

The crash occurred at 5.33pm, shortly after the Aztec Reg. No VH-SIL had taken off from Lae to fly to Ukarumpa, the headquarters of the Institute, near Kainantu.

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Another SIL pilot, Paul Carlson, and a Macair Charters pilot, Michael Condon, were in the area when Hunt and his “Mayday” call. They diverted to shepherd him into an emergency landing at Nadzab, an old wartime strip.

As the two pilots approached the stricken aircraft, they reported they could see flames coming from the starboard engine.

As it made its emergency landing approach, the engine appeared to explode and broke away from the wing, taking the outer portion of the wing with it. The aircraft, out of control, ploughed into the ground and disintegrated. Pieces of wreckage were scattered for about 500 yards along the swathe cut through the tall grass and saplings by the plane.

The rest of the fuselage came to rest upside down with the remaining port wing torn off. The port engine was also torn from its mountings and was found some yards from the main wreckage.

Would-be rescuers found the swathe cut by the aircraft scattered with debris from the aircraft, and bundles of clothing and personal belongings of the passengers. The port engine and wing, lying well clear of the fuselage, were still burning when firemen arrived. However the fuselage did not catch fire.

The bodies of some of the passengers were found on the ground near the wreck. Others were trapped inside the shattered fuselage. Immediately the crash was reported, a full-scale rescue operation swung into effect. Police, fire brigade, ambulance and DCA officials raced to the scene.

Rescuers worked for about six hours under the glare of spotlights before the last of the bodies was removed from the wreckage. DCA officials then put a tight security screen around the crash site, pending the arrival of the investigations team. A 10-man team of DCA investigators, headed by Aircraft Investigation Officer Mr. George Dodkin, began sifting through the wreckage on Saturday.

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Post Courier Newspaper article - April 10, 1971

Post Courier Newspaper article - April 10, 1971

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Pilot Saw His Best Mate Die

By Graham Robinson

A mission pilot watched in horror as one of his closest friends crashed in flames in the Lae tragedy. Paul Carlson, 36, of Seattle, Washington, a pilot with the Summer Institute of Linguistics, was an eyewitness to the crash of an SIL Piper Aztec near Nadzab in which seven people died on Friday.

The pilot of the ill-fated aircraft, Doug Hunt, 41, of Waimanku, New Zealand, was a close friend of Carlson.

Hunt crashed while trying to make an emergency landing at Nadzab after an engine caught fire. Carlson said he was flying from Ukarumpa, near Kainantu, in the Eastern Highlands, to Lae, and had just passed Hunt, who was heading for Ukarumpa, when he heard the distress call.

“I heard Doug radio the Lae tower “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday – fire in starboard engine.” “Stand by,” Carson said. About 30 seconds later he said he would attempt an emergency landing at Nadzab and requested me to follow him in. I turned around and looked back through the side window of my aircraft and saw Doug’s plane about three miles west of Nadzab.

I could see the fire burning brightly. There was no doubt that it was a fire – it was so bright. I was about three to four miles south-east of Nadzab at the time and I turned to follow him. It looked as though he made a right hand descending circuit. He kept turning.

I was about 1,500 feet and still south-east of Nadzab and could still see the flames. Presently, there was quite a large flash – a big streak of fire. Within seconds the plane hit the ground and rolled up in a great flash. There were flames, pieces of wreckage and debris showering all over the place. Then it was all still.

The Lae tower asked me to stand by briefly while they got rescue operations under way, then I landed at Nadzab.” Carlson said another pilot, who had also witnessed the crash, landed just ahead of him. “I had three passengers and we ran about 1½ miles to the crash site,” he said. When we got there we found the starboard wing, which was separated from the rest of the wreckage, still burning, and there were other patches of flames around the place.

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It was not an encouraging sight. There was wreckage from the plane and luggage and bits of clothing strewn all over the place. There were people tangled up in the wreckage and outside it. They were killed instantly.

Carlson said he had been a close friend of Hunt’s for some time. “Doug was a fine pilot and a real good friend,” he said. If anyone could have handled an emergency like that Doug could have. Before the crash he was handling the aircraft in a very professional way.”

Mr. Kenneth Ferris, a passenger in the same plane, said he did not realise the seriousness of the trouble when they first spotted the Aztec from the air. “Suddenly there was a tremendous explosion. A sheet of flame – I hope I never see a thing like that again.”

Deaths Of 7 ‘Deeply Felt’ The director of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, Mr. Irwin Firchow, said members of the institute “deeply felt” the deaths of the seven people on board the plane.

“The New Guinea branch of the Summer Institute of Linguistics has sincerely appreciated the dedication and service of these five members,” he said. We enjoy a close sense of family unity among our members and the loss of these dear friends has been deeply felt by each one of us. These five have given their lives in service to the people of Papua New Guinea and to their Lord. We are confident that they are now enjoying their reward as promised in the word of God.

Although not employed by SIL, one of the indigenes was assisting in the linguistic translation program in the Suena language. His contribution to the work of SIL is also appreciated and he will not easily be replaced.”

Mr. Firchow, said the funeral of the victims would be held in Lae today.

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Victims named The people who died in the Lae air crash were:

Mr. Douglas Hunt served in West Irian and Papua New Guinea with the Missionary Aviation Fellowship before joining, SIL in 1966 as a pilot. He is survived by his wife Glenys and four children, Garry, Dale, Linda and Janette.

Miss Darlene Bee had worked in Papua New Guinea since 1958. During her term in the Territory, she lived with and studied the language of the Usarufa people of the Eastern Highlands District. Miss Kathie McNeil was born in New Zealand and had worked in the Territory since July 1967. She had been mainly occupied in Lae as the chief buyer for members of the SIL through-out New Guinea.

Mr. and Mrs. Oren Claassen were American who met and married in the Territory. Mr. Claassen, 32, from Newton, Kansas, had been with SIL in Papua New Guinea since 1965.

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New Life Newspaper – April 11,1972

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Challenge Newspaper – April 15, 1972

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New Life Newspaper – May 4, 1972

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New Life Newspaper – May 4, 1972

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Appendix

Translation, Wycliffe Bible Translators Magazine – July - September 1972, Page 1

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Translation, Wycliffe Bible Translators Magazine – July - September 1972, Page 2

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Translation, Wycliffe Bible Translators Magazine – July - September 1972, Page 3

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Translation, Wycliffe Bible Translators Magazine – July - September 1972, Page 4

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Translation, Wycliffe Bible Translators Magazine – July - September 1972, Page 5

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In Other Words, Wycliffe Bible Translators Magazine – February 1979, Page 1

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In Other Words, Wycliffe Bible Translators Magazine – February 1979, Page 2

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In Other Words, Wycliffe Bible Translators Magazine – February 1979, Page 3

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Beyond, JAARS Magazine, April – May 1977, Page 1

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Beyond, JAARS Magazine, April – May 1977, Page 2-3

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Beyond, JAARS Magazine, April – May 1977, Page 4-5

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In Other Words, Wycliffe Bible Translators Magazine, May – June 1979, Page 4

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In Other Words, Wycliffe Bible Translators Magazine, May – June 1979, Page 5

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Power For Living – December 11, 1988

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Power For Living – December 11, 1988

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Power For Living – December 11, 1988

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April 23 1972 - Otumoetai Baptist Church Memorial Service – Otumoetai, New Zealand

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Melbourne Memorial – New Life Christian Magazine, May 11, 1972 (Photo courtesy of Glennis Hunt)

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Bibliography 2nd AIF (Australian Imperial Force) and CMF (Citizen Military Forces) unit war diaries, 1939-45 War <https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1363009?image=2> Aeronautical Science, LeTourneau University, Winter 2005, 8 <http://www.letu.edu/opencms/export/download/community-andmedia/now_winter_2005.pdf> Australian War Memorial, Lae, New Guinea. 1944-03-30. An aerial of the Malahang Plantation with the Basu Road on the left, and the Malahang Road in the foreground. <http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/071895>

Bee, Darlene, Bravo, Lord! Institute Press, 1973 Nimmo, Craig, Failure, Beyond, JAARS Magazine, April – May 1977, 1-3 Buckingham, James, Into The Glory, Plainfield, NJ, Logos International, 1974 In Memoriam, 1972 SIL Aztec Crash <http://www.langlxmelanesia.com/kivung%20vol%205%20no%201%20in%20memoriam.pdf> In Other Words, Failure?, Wycliffe Bible Translators Magazine, October – December 1972, 1-3.

In Other Words, Food For The Suenas, Wycliffe Bible Translators Magazine, May – June 1979, 4, 5.

In Other Words, Washkuk New testament: God Rules For Independence, Wycliffe Bible Translators Magazine, December 1975, 6.

Language and Faith, Santa Ana, CA, Wycliffe Bible Translators, 1972 Lucado, Max, God Came Near, Multnomah Press, 1987, 101 Post Courier, Christian Radio For Learning, Weekend Edition, October 10 – 12, 2003 < http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20031010/weekend03.htm> Sharing, New Guinea Branch Information Newsletter, May, 1972 Skinner, Hap and Glady, Tales of Two < http://issuu.com/cbmicheals/docs/tales_of_two> The Blatchford Collection, 1963 < http://asopa.typepad.com/files/blatchford_1963.pdf> Translation, Chosen, Wycliffe Bible Translators Magazine, July - September 1972, 1-5.

Young, Roger, Many Adventures Followed, Xulon Press, 2005, 40 194 | P a g e

About The Author

Charles Micheals is a native of Michigan and lived the first thirty years of his life there, eventually working in the grocery industry. In 1985 his wife Barbara and their four small children joined Wycliffe Bible Translators and moved to the country of Papua New Guinea (PNG) where they worked with the internationally known non-profit linguistic organization, SIL International (formerly the Summer Institute of Linguistics). Charles served in a variety of administrative roles in PNG, including several years as the Chairman of the SIL PNG Job Evaluation and Wage Review Committee and on the SIL PNG Executive Committee.

During their 15 years of service in PNG, Bible translation work was completed in 67 languages and over 100 additional Bible translation projects were started. Today, almost 276 language communities, representing 2.0 million people in PNG have access to the Scriptures in their own languages.

In 2000, Charles and Barbara moved back to the USA and Charles served for several years as the Regional Director for Recruitment for Wycliffe, living in the Chicago, Illinois area. In 2004 they moved to Orlando, Florida where Charles served for six and one half years as the Vice President for Recruitment Ministries for Wycliffe. He currently heads up Wycliffe’s Management and Professional Recruitment Department and speaks at various mission conferences and colleges each year. Barbara helps coordinate Wycliffe’s internship and volunteer placement services.

Charles holds a BS degree in Food Distribution from Western Michigan University and a MA degree in Organization Management from Dallas Baptist University. He served on the Board of Directors for The Finishers Project (now MissionNext), a non-profit mission dedicated to helping people in the second half of life find places to serve in missions. He has also been involved in helping create and develop Mission 195 | P a g e

Teach, a ministry dedicated to helping place teachers in MK (Missionary Kid) mission schools around the world and Military Believer, a growing ministry dedicated to helping military personnel who are leaving the military, find opportunities for service in global missions.

Charles has also authored a number of articles about the work of SIL in PNG and other historical articles about life in the Aiyura Valley in PNG. (http://issuu.com/cbmicheals/docs)

Both Charles and Barbara are members of Saint Andrew’s church in Sanford, FL and are involved in a variety of church activities there. Charles serves as an elder at the church. However, they are still members of Second Christian Reformed Church, in Kalamazoo, Michigan which is the church that commissioned them for their work with Wycliffe. All four of their children are actively supporting missions and church ministry work. Two of their four children are serving with Wycliffe around the world.

(Back photo – Aiyura Airfield Hangar - The VH-SIL “Spirit of Chicago” Aztec airplane that crashed Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA Archives)

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