This Father’s Day, let’s hear from a hard-working son who admires his dad’s character, in a family who frequently benefit from MAF’s services.
Story by Amanda Anton
Alfred Bob is a mill specialist in the mining industry. Just last week MAF flew him out of his village, Ok Isai, in response to an urgent company need.
Alfred is also a proud son and an entrepreneur who runs a local ‘trade store’ near the Ok Isai airstrip to help sustain his small family. Along with his wife Luminar and daughter, Zitah, Alfred uses MAF for his travel to and from work and also to fly in stock for his small business.
“I sell second-hand clothes, freezer meats like lamb, turkey, chicken—and ice-cream,” Alfred said. “I get my cargo in Mount Hagen and fly them with MAF to Ok Isai.
“MAF exists as one of the main service providers,” he added. “We have two ways to access transport when doing business, one is through plane and the other is through boat or motor canoe to Wewak and Vanimo.”
Ok Isai is very isolated. Getting to Wewak or Vanimo by boat would take one to three days, but with MAF it takes only 50 minutes.
We have two ways to access transport when doing business, one is through plane and the other is through boat or motor canoe to Wewak and Vanimo.
The small village of Ok Isai is embedded within a remote tropical rainforest environment that is typical of the West Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. There is no road access.
Alfred explained that the goods he sells are viewed as needs by the local people, and that some products give them a taste of what it’s like in town.
To him, MAF is more than just an air service, and he listed three significant ways that MAF is very supportive to his people.
MAF brings God’s Good News to whatever airstrips it touches
“MAF brings God’s Good News to whatever airstrips it touches, MAF shows up in medical emergency needs saying, ‘Yes, MAF is here, MAF will help,’ and finally, through cargo transport.
“We are bush people. We don’t have big shops or malls to buy products,” he said.
Alfred holds an absolute adulation to his father, Bob Onegim, who is also a frequent passenger of MAF and the chief landowner of the Frieda mine project in the Ok Isai area.
MAF exists as one of the main service providers
Alfred tries to follow in his father’s footsteps.
“My father is one of the few well-educated men in our community,” he said. “He is the person who takes the lead in everything. Other leaders in the community look up to him.”
Alfred described his father as a man who is spiritually grounded in God’s Word and has demonstrated true leadership. He draws inspiration through his father’s actions for others and his children to follow through in life.
I am my father’s son.
“The main advice he gives us is that one must never ever lose hope and to hold onto the Lord with all your strength,” said Alfred. “You can become somebody in the future, but it is through Him you are where you are.
“Now I see these are the words of blessing from my father. He set an example that as a young man I try to follow and walk in his footsteps,” he added.
“I am my father’s son.”