A matter of prayer

I wanted to inform everyone of some happenings lately with our flying and ask that you join us in prayer about it...

Around the world, MAF has dozens of flight programs like the one in Ecuador. Generally speaking we all fly the same things. These include missionaries/church staff, cargo, medivacs, etc. One of the things that makes the Ecuador program unique is our medical flying. Often you read of the patients that I fly to and from their villages. Often times without the airplane they would have died in their jungle community. We fly so many medivacs in fact, that it accounts for about %50 of all our flights. The interesting thing about our medical flying is that the Ecuadorian Department of Health has had a contract with us for as far back as anyone can remember. In other words, the Ecuadorian government pays us to do the medivac flights.

Our most recent contract with the Dep. of Health expired last November. When we tried to renew it, they wouldn't (I don't know why) but we did get a "gentleman's" agreement verbally that we could still keep on flying and getting paid for these flights. We did get paid through December, but January, February, and March are all unpaid, totalling thousands of dollars. There has been a changing of staff in the Ivory Tower in Quito, and our verbal agreement went with it. Basically, those in power now say that they don't have a contract with us and therefore don't have to pay us. My boss Dan on the other hand said it can work both ways. If we don't have a contract, then we don't have to fly medivacs. This was, and still is, a very hard decision to make.

There has been a lot of pressure put on the government now by us, jungle communities, and even the national media to do something about the contract renewal. It has been almost 3 weeks now since we stopped flying medivacs. We are still flying those patients that will surely die without a flight. Snake bites and broken bones and things that someone will obviously die quickly from we are still doing. This has totalled to about 3 flights per week.

With a decision like the one we have made to halt all medivac flights until we have a new contract, and are paid on outstanding flights, it has been difficult flying these past few days. Many people in the jungle communities don't understand the way of "our" world, the one in which money rules everything. They don't understand that it takes money to put gas in the tanks, and without money there is no gas in the tanks, and therefore no flight. There has been a lot of confusion and misunderstanding in the minds of those living in the jungle. As pilots it is getting harder and harder to fly. EVERY place we go now there is someone needing a medical flight. But, the reality of it is, they won't die from what they have. So, we have to diplomatically tell them that we can't fly them out, because they aren't close enough to dying, or their problem isn't serious enough. This is really pulling on the emotions and heartstrings of the pilots, myself included.

Join us in prayer that:

• We have a contract signed this week with the Ecuadorian Department of Health, and all outstanding debts are paid.
  
• For understanding within the jungle communities as to the decision we have made.
• The pilots can be diplomatic and loving to the communities that they enter.
  
• Ultimately, God's will be done. Perhaps we shouldn't have a renewed contract. Either way, to have a definite yes or no with the medivac flight ops would be nice.