To the ends of the Earth

I had a chance this month to head out into the far eastern part of the country with Dr. Steve Collins and Dr. Jean- Pierre Bretchet to a place called Mavinga. The Portuguese called this part of Angola "The end of the World" and it just about seems like it. From Luanda it's over 1200km away and over 800km from our base in Lubango. The people in this part of Angola are truly part of the most remote and needy. The purpose of our visit was to support a mission station that one of the national churches has started, by doing cataract surgery and providing other medical care. So here in pictures is a trip to the end of the earth.

Mission Hospital at Mavinga

Dr. Steve Collins at work doing eye exams.

Labour and delivery ward Mavinga Mission Station

Labour and delivery kit

Dr. Jean-Pierre Bretchet presenting leprosy medication to the Municipal and Hospital administrators in Mavinga.

Umbundo couple, he is missing an eye and she can't see because of cataracts.

Waiting for the results of cataract surgery

Seeing again!

The Team.
You can't see all of us, but there are 14 of us in the Land Cruiser...
and four chickens under the seats for supper!

Thank you for all your prayers and support. Your gifts and prayers do make a difference, just ask the Umbundo lady in this post! We pray that you will all have a wonderful Christmas and that God will continue to lead and direct as you seek Him even more in the New Year.

I have an excuse...honestly!

Really, that's the truth, I do have an excuse. I guess the question really is, an excuse for what!? The reality is, is that most of the ladies out there know what I am talking about and the guys have that blank look, you know the one, when you guys are in the "nothing box" part of your brain. The excuse is for why has it taken so long to update the blog after your daughter got married, I mean like it has been over a month since the big day, hasn't it? The truth is that we have been thwarted by our internet connection which is now only allowing us to post anything with pictures...so there! See, I told you I had an excuse. The ladies are now just doing that nodding thing, which means, "yeah right" and the guys...well they are still in their "nothing box" Anyways here are some pics...

Doesn't she look amazing? And I think the bride has grown into a lovely young women as well!

The big moment.

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Evans.

The "New" Goertzen Family.

It was a truly amazing day. One that we will treasure forever. We are blessed to welcome a young man to our family that we know will love, care for and treasure Kait for the rest of her life. Besides Richard...we know where you live!

Flying about.

The last few weeks have been pretty interesting. I, being Gary, have had the opportunity to dust off my pilots license and use it. Normally our other pilot does most of the flying, but this month we had a significant increase in flight requests so I got to help with that part a bit more. One flight took me to the towns of Menongue and Cuito Cuanavale with World Vision International.

WVI is working to help farmers become more self sufficient and move beyond subsistence farming. The program has been very successful and they were looking at starting this program in and around these two towns. One of the interesting side stories was from one of the Angolan WVI staff that had accompanied us. He had joined the Angolan army when he was 16 and had spent a significant amount of his time in the 1980's fighting South African supported UNITA forces in this area. Two of his brothers had died in the fighting and were buried in Cuito Cuanavale. It was the first time he had been back since 1988, it was fairly emotional for him. It is easy at times to forget the suffering of the Angolan people, but the suffering from the war is not a thing of history books for them, it is fresh and it is very real.

A second trip was to Menongue as well, but this time we went about an hour north to a former mission station at a place called Catota. The reason for the trip was two fold. One was to check on the progress of re construction of the station, which the government is doing

and to bring back a daughter of one of the missionary doctors that had worked there until 1953 with her sons and daughter-in-law.

 It was amazing to see the welcome and the joy of the people as they talked about their

 memories of her parents and how thankful they were for their work amongst them. The gratitude and thankfulness was truly stirring.

Since this family left 55 years ago there has been no consistent medical care and for the last 35 years the hospital has been a pile of rubble.

Interestingly the only building that survived was the church building.

The third trip again took us to the Menongue area, but this time farther south past Cuito Cuanavale to the town of Mavinga. This stretch between Menongue and Mavinga saw some of the fiercest fighting of the war, in fact the largest tank battles since World War Two were fought in this area. The fighting split families apart and this was why we were there with the International Red Cross. They had located eight children between the ages of 7 and 14 who had been separated from their parents for up to 10 years and we were going to help reunite them.  

When we arrived at the strip only 4 of them appeared and the guys from the Red Cross quickly asked how much time we had on the ground. They wanted to know if they had enough time to go rescue at least two of the four. Why do I say rescue? In lots of these situations the families that have the children aren't always interested in returning them. It can cause them economic hardship or they are just looking for money to release them back to their parents. We were told that they were only 15km away and that it should only take one hour to get them and return driving in the Land Cruisers. Well, one hour and 45 minutes and 60 km later we still hadn't arrived at the village. We had to turn around and head back to the plane so that we could at least bring the other children back to their families. The chances of reuniting the other children with their family is now about zero. It is hard to accept how our actions can affect those around us in such a profound way. We hope that we will be able to return in October, but who knows where the children will be moved to at that point. The south eastern part of Angola is huge and sparsely settled, there is a reason that the Portuguese called it, "The ends of the world."

We will be back in Canada on the 10th of August and will be returning to Angola on the 8th of September. We will be busy with wedding prep and all that that entails. We are not sure about how many of you we will be able to visit, especially outside of the Calgary area, but drop us an e-mail and we will see what we can figure out!

Happy Canada Day!

It is odd to be celebrating Canada here in Angola and complaining that it's too cold outside! It's true! Last week the boys were out at our friends farm for a visit and when they got up in the morning there was ice on top of the water in the water tanks! This is crazy! We even bought a little wood stove to help take the chill off in the mornings, only thing is we have been waiting three months for the chimney to arrive. So right now we have this cast iron paper weight sitting in the corner of our living room reminding us of how toasty warm we could be! It's kinda funny because by the time lunch rolls around it is warmer outside then it is inside, something is truly out of whack! We hope that you have all had or are having or will have a great Canada Day long weekend.

A strange thing is happening in town that I am not quite sure how to react to. Normally most things don't get me to wound up or anxious, but this has actually got me a little rattled. They are fixing all the roads! That's right, well maybe not all of them, but certainly a large number of them, and it's starting to annoy me! Is that weird or what!? I mean that's a good thing right? I should be happy, no more dodging pot holes and craters and garbage and other cars that are dodging pot holes and craters and garbage. It's like they are trying to turn our city into Red Deer or something even more insidious like...ah like...well ah like...well at the moment I can't think of something. It is strange however, why would these much needed improvements get me all knotted up? They are even fixing part of the road that comes up to our compound, but some demented part of me is glad that they are leaving some of it as an obstacle coarse. I think I need some counseling.

On a ministry note the flight schedule keeps filling up each month. I am amazed how the Lord graciously connects us with those that we can help with the aircraft. This month, so far, we will be doing flights for World Vision, HALO Trust and The International Red Cross as well as some flights for the local mission hospital and some mission agencies. It is an honour and privilege to be a small part of Gods work here in Angola and that he is willing to use us to help accomplish his plans. One thing that you can pray about is the effect that rising fuel costs are having on our ability to provide affordable flights. Last month alone the price of jet fuel rose close to 30%. Pray that we will be good stewards of the money that you all generously give so that it goes to providing flights as much as possible and doesn't get swallowed by rising fuel prices.

Who needs WALMART!?

One of the things that I, Gary, get to do on a regular basis is to head up to the capital city of Angola, Luanda. Normally I must admit I sort of dread the experience, because Luanda is big, 5 million people, hot, humid, dirty, congested all the things that our little home town of Three Hills is not. This last trip was all those things, but I enjoyed the time that I got to spend with another MAFer, Neil Bittle, as we went around and met with different church groups, mission organizations and businesses and shared our dreams about the work of MAF in Angola. Unfortunately, this means spending long hours in the car as we try to get around the city. I'm not kidding when I say hours, think of a city the size of Red Deer with 5 million people and their cars and trucks and taxis all trying to get to the same place, or so it seems. I decided that to wile away the time I would make a list of all the things that I saw people trying to sell while we were stuck in traffic. The traffic moves so slowly in places the vendors just walk up and down the lanes between the cars seeing what they can sell. So without futher adieu, my list, which by no stretch of the imaginations is even close to complete.


Pants- Shirts- Electric fans- Toy Snakes- Candy- Cigarettes- Umbrellas- Dishes(complete sets)- Shower curtains- Bar Stools- Luggage- Soda Pop(cold)- Juice(cold)- Fruit- TV Remotes- Batteries- Phone Cards- Underwear- Towels- Shoes- Kleenex- CD's/DVD's- Sunglasses- Chiclets- Wallets- Cell Phone Covers- Pad Locks- Pots and Pans- Thermos- Socks- Perfume- Clocks- Extension cords- Trouble Lights- RCA Cords- Organizers/Calenders- Coveralls- Air Fresheners- Bug Repellent- Government Documents- Feminine Hygiene Products- Birth Control Products- Deadbolts- Paint Brushes- Nail Clippers- Rope- Windshield Wipers- Fly Swatters- Car Mats- Deep Fryers- Radios/Stereos- Peanuts- Seat Covers- Newspapers- Hair Ribbons and Clips- Buckets- Dust Pans- Dish Racks- Steering wheel covers- Mosquito nets- Strollers- Coffee tables- Tools- Exercise equipment(tread mill)- Clothes rack- Mirrors- Suits- Scrub Brushes- Bandages- Ash Trays- Electric Razors- Irons- Rechargers- Pens- Pencils- Belts- Carparts- Glue- Baseball hats- Carjacks- Dictionaries- Notepads- Car Side Mirrors(If you see how they drive, this one makes huge sense)- Electrical Outlets- Brooms- Mops- Clothes Hangers- Fluorescent lights- Machetes- Axes- Jumper cables- Camping Tents- Car Mats- Calculators- Toilet seats- Rat Poison- Bread- Toothpaste- Lanterns gas and electric- Electric Fans- Hammocks- Light Fixtures- TV Connectors- Water Purifiers- Air Conditioners- Vases- Outside TV Antennas- Bug Zappers- Planters- Bacalhau(salted cod)- Balls- Pet Leashes- Dog washes...

So, as you can see, who needs WALMART when WALMART comes to you!

It is an interesting thing to watch all of these people scrambling to survive and get ahead. It makes me wonder if they now that it is possible to more then just survive and to try to get ahead. Who is telling them that Jesus Christ died for them and that he loves them and wants them to be with Him for eternity? I hope that all of us, no matter where we are, if we have that relationship with Jesus Christ, will always seek to share about the fantastic news that Jesus died for us and that because of this we can spend eternity with Him in heaven. I am sure that WALMART can't offer that!

Hey now...

It has been pointed out to us that it has been two months since our last update, to which I thought this can't be true! But alas tis true, my excuse is that we haven't had anything interesting to write about, which isn't really true. I wrote some drafts to post, but just never got around to it, my apologizes to all.
We like to include pictures so that you can all see what we are up to, so I have included the following one.
What is the significance of this picture you ask? Well for those of you who are intuitive, you have already figured it out or have made a pretty reasonable guess. For the less intuitive, like myself, I will explain it for you. The pretty girl on the right is our wonderful daughter Kaity, the young man on the left is Richard Evans, otherwise known to us as "Ricardo", or 'The Boy". Ricardo and Kait have been involved in some form of a relationship for the past five years and they have decided that they would like to make this a permanent arrangement. That's right, there is going to be a wedding in the Goertzen family! Typically, people like to take six months, maybe a year to plan a wedding, but when has our family been known to be normal or typical? The big day is going to be August 30, 2008. We are excited for Kait and Richard and look forward to tormenting him for many many years to come! We are thrilled to have Ricardo join our family and that Kaity already feels like she was born to be part of his family. What does this mean travel wise for us? Tammy is booked to head back to Three Hills this Sunday for about three weeks and then the four of us are planning on coming back in the middle of August for a month or so. We look forward to seeing as many of you as we can, but as you can guess we will be fairly busy with wedding preparations. God is good all the time! We are so very blessed.

The Road to Our House at Mitcha

Well, rainy season is in full swing which means that everything is green and lush and that there is lots of water in the reservoirs and wells. This brings a mixed blessing in that the road that leads up to the compound where we live, begins to disappear.

Normally our road is a reasonably decent two lane dirt road.

As the season progresses one lane eventually disappears and turns into a small creek bed.

We joke about which side of the road do you drive on in Angola. The answer, whichever side is the best...sorta like Saskatchewan...just kidding about Saskatchewan, but not which side of the road we drive on!

Our road is a main street so there is all manner of traffic on it from small cars up to semi-trailers.

Some days it can be pretty frustrating with the crazy roads and sometimes crazier drivers, but we are thankful that God has brought us here to be a part of his plan at this time for Angola.

An experience

This post is going to be a little different because I don't have any pictures to illustrate one of the experiences that we have had over the last month, so I will do my best to describe it for you. We spent a wonderful Christmas with Gary's mom, Ruth, although Gary was sick with pneumonia and malaria for much of the time she was here. In mid January we all flew down to Namibia for a relaxing holiday before saying our heart-wrenching good-byes to mom and to Kaitlin. It has been a month already since we saw them off and we are still having a hard time adjusting to Kaity not being here.
Over the past few months we have had a few unwelcomed visitors of the rodent variety. We thought we had successfully tracked down all the little interlopers until we got back from our trip to Namibia.There was evidence that the little critters had returned. We cleaned and searched and cleaned and searched and came to the conclusion that they must have moved on to greener pastures. A few days later we had some guests stay in Josh's room for a couple days. The morning of their departure they commented that we must have a mouse in our house because they could hear it eating the rice cakes they had left open in the room. Which raises some questions about why there was open food in the room to begin with, but I digress. Tammy immediately sealed up the room and the hunt was on! We tipped the bed on its side, nope not under or in there. We spun the book shelf around so we could look under that and behind it, nope not there. That left the closet. All right little mousey we know where you are now! We pulled the boxes out of the closet from the right side, nope not there. The tension was becoming unbearable. I removed some clothes from the bottom of left side, still no sign! That left the little electric space heater in the far left corner. As I reached in, I saw him, his beady little eyes, his twitchy nose, his gray coat, but wait, something wasn't quite right. Why was his head the same size as the entire mouse that we caught last time!? YIKES it's not a mouse! It's a RAT! Oh man that's disgusting, how are we gonna catch this stinkin' rat? Because let me tell you, the great white hunter I ain't! Then we remembered that Brent, the other MAF pilot, has a rat trap. Yipppeee, we just force the little varmit to run over it and BAM the dead is done, no fuss, no muss and hopefully no mess.
I ran and retrieved said device and set it with the utmost skill and treachery, the future of this rat was sealed. We sprang into action and forced the rat to flee in the direction of our well placed trap, we watched with anticipation and anticipated the result. HORRORS!! The trap didn't work, in fact that wretched little pest ran back and forth over it three or four times! Cursed modern technology! Now what? Again we plumbed the depths of our minds and came up with an even more ingenious solution, this rat was quickly running out of options. What was our plan? We would simply borrow the cat that lives at Brent's house, how simple, how creative, how letting the circle of life take its course. The cat was brought into the room, the rat was flushed from its hiding spot, the rat ran, people screamed, the cat watched, the rat ran, people screamed, the cat watched. The rat was quickly running out of options as to where to hide and quickly sized up the situation. In the blink of an eye he made a bee-line straight for the cat and hid under it. The cat, being a cat, did exactly what cats do...nothing. Just sat there and wondered what all the fuss was about. At this moment our gardener, who had been trying to step on the rat, simply reached down and grabbed the rat around the neck and carried it outside, mentioning that this rat had a lot of meat on it. This is where Tammy says EWE and double EWE!! I am sure there is some sort of lesson in there, but I either don't know what it is or I don't want to face up to it.

A Day in the Life

This update I thought it would be interesting to take you on one of the trips that we do for the mission hospital here in Lubango. Once a month we take Dr. Steve Foster and his surgical team to the mission hospital at Kalukembe. Since my mom was visiting, she came along and recorded the event on film for posterities sake.

Before the first flight each day the plane is given a thorough pre-flight inspection to make sure everything is ship shape. After all we just can't pull off to the side of the road if something goes amiss.

At the airstrip in Kalukembe we are met by staff from the hospital who will drive us the twenty minutes it takes to get to the hospital.

Dr. Steve(with red coat) and members of his team with a visiting doctor from Germany who is considering moving to Kalukembe. That's me hiding in the back on the left.

The mission at Kalukembe was opened in the 1880's as a rescue mission for slaves that were being taken to Brazil. The hospital itself was constructed in 1944.

So what kind of stuff do you see at a mission hospital?
Well, bandages being changed for one.

This young man has lost his entire calf muscle from a gunshot wound by an AK47.

Burns, this young man has been coming for five years as Dr. Steve slowly restores his arm. The burn had welded it to his side like the wing of a bird.

Crocodile bites. That's right! This young boy was grabbed by a croc around his chest. His mother jumped into the water and jammed her arm down the crocs throat until it choked and let go. The boy managed to get out of the water and while the mom was getting out the croc bit her on the leg. She was recovering in the ladies ward at the same time.

The other thing we got to do was go into the operating room and watch a laporotomy(hope I got that right) That's right my mom came in and watched a surgery! We have some great pictures of the actual operation, but my censor said I wasn't allowed to post them. It is truly amazing to see how God uses these men and women to reach out to the people of Angola. The needs are so overwhelming that it can be so discouraging, but we know that God has a plan and that He brought us here not for our benefit, but to bring glory to His name. Thank you for your prayers and notes of encouragement, they really do mean a lot. We look forward to hearing from you and keeping you posted on what is happening here.