Long Umung Church Conference

July was a month of lots of church conference flying here in East Kalimantan. We actually had two separate church conferences going on at nearly the same time: the first, bigger one, in the Apo Kayan region, and the second, smaller one in the Krayan region. The one in the Krayan was held at the village of Long Umung, which has an airstrip that we haven't used in a long time. So the kind folks in Long Umung spent several days cleaning up the airstrip for us to use. Whereas the church conference in the Apo Kayan was so big they were requesting something like 30 Caravan loads (our biggest plane, and that doesn't include all the flying our other planes were doing there), this one was small enough that I was able to handle all the flying loads with the little old Cessna 206 by myself.

Typically for church conference flying we're flying lots of short legs - 15 minutes or less. We're usually flying the people from all the surrounding villages to the village where the conference is being held. So, in order to get more done, we also typically will spend a night or two in the region to fly as much as possible. We're literally flying from when the clouds break in the morning until almost sunset in the evening! It'd be great if we could fly at the crack of dawn, but the villages are almost always covered with fog and low clouds until about 9am.

I was flying for the GKII church (Gereja Kemah Injil Indonesia), which is similar to the Christian & Missionary Alliance churches in the US. It was CMA missionaries who first pioneered this area some 80 years ago, and the fruit of those early missionaries' labor continues to this day. I felt really privileged to do this for a couple of reasons: First, I love flying for these church conferences and enabling the local church to do their ministry. It's one of my favorite things we do, and the need for the airplane is very apparent. Second, I got to spend the night in this beautiful little village, which is always fun for me. Who else gets to go camping with an airplane for their job? To me staying in the village kind of feels like camping. And now for some pictures...

I took off from one village to go pick up passengers in Long Layu, but there was a major rain shower covering the village, so I couldn't land. After waiting it out in nearby Long Bawan, I made it in to what was now a very wet airstrip:



The village of Buduk Kubul has one of the most beautiful airstrips I've seen...it's almost like a golf course. They keep it nice there with some really great fertilizer:



And here's the one doing the fertilizing:



Notice how this one is tied up? That's how they're supposed to be. At Buduk Kubul, they're not tied up (yet), and I had a herd of 4-5 run out in front of me as I began takeoff! I aborted, and with the pastor sitting next to me, I shut down and explained that if they wanted us to come back here, they need to tie up their water buffaloes. I think he understood the seriousness of the situation.

Village Life





What's all that wood for? Cooking, of course! No gas fires here:



School boys cutting the grass of the school yard in the morning:







The churches from the different villages have singing competitions, and here Long Umung was practicing for the big competition. They were really good!



I mentioned it was kind of like camping, and here's one example. Maybe next time I'll show you how they bathe interior. All I can say is BRRRRRR!!! (it involves a drum of cold water and a little dipper)
I think I remember my grandparents telling me about these things when they were kids:



Well, I didn't mean to have a "poop" theme in this post! Next time I'll try to keep it a little cleaner. ;-) Actually, next time we'll have to tell you about our wonderful vacation in Bali. We just got back yesterday and had a GREAT time of relaxation.