Faced with the growing burden of transporting heavy cacao loads to the airstrip with only a small vehicle on an unfinished road, the people of Sorita in Papua New Guinea built their own airstrip. With MAF female pilots making the inaugural landing, local women saw God at work.
Story by Aquila Matit
“This new airstrip will help the surrounding communities and myself with the great volume of cacao we sell,” said Norman Mondo.
Norman, a respected leader and businessman, is one of the leading cacao farmers in Karimui District, Simbu Province of Papua New Guinea. His thriving cacao operation in the remote village of Sorita became the catalyst for something much bigger, the construction of a brand-new airstrip.
“The cacao plantation at Sorita is about one kilometre to Karimui outstation and its airstrip,” Norman explained. “It wasn’t wise or sustainable to bring heavy loads over such long distances. The labour was too much.”
Norman decided it was time for a solution, and he didn’t wait for external support.
“We used cacao money to build this airstrip,” he said. “The Sorita community, the Rowley Baptist missionary family, and I made the investment ourselves, for our future.”
Misek Norman, MAF Goroka’s flight programmer, said that now Sorita has a new airstrip, Norman and the surrounding communities will benefit from it.
Their investment paid off when MAF made the first landing at the newly built Sorita airstrip, a historic moment for the community.
Local women’s spokesperson, Misis Siwi, recalled the emotional day.
“They told us a plane would come. Then we saw it circling the airstrip twice. We couldn’t shout or cheer, we were just overwhelmed. Tears filled our eyes.
“This place used to be thick jungle. But God cleared the way, and now we have our own airstrip. We saw it with our own eyes, a plane coming to land for the first time in this community.”
But God cleared the way, and now we have our own airstrip
Even more special was the fact that the aircraft was flown by two MAF female pilots.
“We saw two female pilots,” said Misis. “One said ‘I’m from New Zealand’. And in this encounter, we received a prophecy or word of knowledge: ‘New beginning and new journey’.
Another pilot, new to Misis and her community, also spoke to them.
“She said ‘I’m new to flying in this area, I’m new to test landings on new airstrips. And I’m from New Zealand.’
“Now in this way we knew, we confirmed this word from God. It’s a new airstrip, a new woman came, saying ‘I’m from New Zealand’. From this we confirmed that all of this was God’s work.
The pilots were Bridget Ingham and Glenys Watson, and their arrival left a deep impression.
“We said we want the same lady who opened our airstrip to come and open our health centre too,” Norman said with a smile.
For Norman, this project is part of a bigger vision.
“We think of the lives of our people,” he said. “This area has been neglected for too long. My goal is that everyone has access to basic services health, transport, markets, daily flights. That’s my whole motive.”
The Sorita airstrip now serves not only cacao transport but also that of coffee and peanuts. With MAF planes now able to fly directly into Sorita and carry produce to Goroka and beyond, the community’s efforts are beginning to bear fruit in every sense.