‘Did I tell you about Pilot Jack and his floatplane?’ asked Alpha.

‘No, you didn’t,’ said Foxtrot, ‘Where does he fly?’

‘He flies throughout Papua. It’s on the same large island as Papua New Guinea but is an Indonesian province. I helped Jack to deliver all sorts of supplies to a group of people living in a remote place called Asmat,’ Alpha explained.

‘It’s a very swampy, wet region, so we can’t build an airstrip there. That’s why the floatplane is so useful, because it can land on the water.’

‘What supplies did you deliver?’ asked Mike.

‘All sorts of things,’ replied Alpha, ‘including a generator for electric power, a chainsaw, nails, tools and medicines.’

‘A chainsaw!’ cried Foxtrot, ‘I hope they used that carefully!’

‘Yes, they did,’ Alpha nodded. ‘They built a school and a medical clinic. It’s brilliant for the local villages because people can now see a doctor and receive medicine. The children don’t have to travel a long way to go to school, either.

‘Of course, if it hadn’t been for the floatplane landing on the water, the people of Asmat would have had to take a four-hour boat trip to reach the nearest airstrip on the land!’

Mike was shocked, ‘Wow, that is a long journey, especially if you’ve been poisoned by a snake or broken your leg or something. It’s so good that there’s a local clinic there now.’

‘Yes, it is good,’ agreed Alpha. ‘Pilot Jack told me that where he comes from – the USA – no one has even heard of the people of Asmat. But the Lord knows about them, and He cares for them.’

‘Do you think they will be celebrating Christmas there?’ asked Foxtrot.

‘I expect quite a lot of them will,’ replied Alpha. ‘There’s a small church there, with a Christian family in the area who help lead the congregation. They are currently translating the Bible into the Asmat language so that the people can read about God’s love for them.’