Below is one of a few newspaper articles on Hadleigh, it was sent to us last week. The picture is not the best quality.

THE family of missing Territory pilot Hadleigh Smith believe their loving son is now with God.

Mr Smith’s father Stewart broke down as he spoke to the Northern Territory News last night about his 23-year-old son’s disappearance.

“Hadleigh was a Christian man who loved God,” he said from his Sydney home.

“We surely believe he is now with God. His spirit has gone to be with the Lord and we believe we will see him again one day.”

Hadleigh has been missing since Thursday.

The Mission Aviation pilot failed to arrive at Mata Mata in his GA8 airvan after leaving his base at Elcho Island off the coast of Arnhem Land earlier that day.

An air, ground and sea search was sparked and on Friday some debris from the plane was found floating in the water in Buckingham Bay about 20km from the island. Daily searches have failed to find any trace of Hadleigh or the aircraft wreckage.

But his father - an aircraft engineer for 30 years - said: “I am a realist and know what’s going on. It’s a terrible hell of an experience for us - nothing can prepare you for this.

“But he’s been missing now for five days.

“If he’d been on the coast they would’ve found him by now.

“We’ve come to the conclusion that everything has been done.

“The main thing now is to find out what happened - if we can find this out then hopefully it can save some other young pilot’s life.”

Mr Smith said his wife and three other children were struggling to come to terms with the fact their son and brother will never come home.

“His younger brother celebrated his 21st birthday on the day he went missing,” he said. “One of his older sisters is expecting her first child and the other is set to be married in December.”

He said he would like to thank everyone that has shown their support and helped in the search effort, in particular NT Police and community members.

He last spoke to his son the Monday before his disappearance.

“We share interests in aviation and riding motorbikes, so we were talking about all the father and son things,” he said.

“We just bought him a motorbike and were working out how we were going to get it up to him.

“We were also talking about how he was looking forward to coming down for his sister’s wedding in December.”

Mr Smith said his son was an experienced pilot despite his age.

“He was actually able to fly an aircraft before he could drive a car,” he said.

“His flying was a real passion for him.”

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Last Thursday a MAF pilot with his plane in Arnhem Land (Northern Territory) went missing in the afternoon. The pilot who went missing was 23 year old Hadleigh Smith from Kirrawee in Sydney. He was flying cargo from Elcho Island to some Aboriginal communities, when he failed to return or be heard from. A full scale search was put in to place involving many aircraft and resources involving MAF, military and the Australian Search and Rescue. Last Friday some small parts of the plane were found washed ashore with some cargo. Indicating a crash over water, the search was scaled down and handed over to the NT police on the weekend. Since then Hadleigh or the aircraft is yet to be spotted.

MAF has been operating in Arnhem Land since 1970, this is the first fatal accident since starting operations there. It is a shock too because it is one of the less hazardous places MAF serves, in that it is quite flat.

The past week has been quite hard for some of us, especially those in the Arnhem Land team and Hadleigh’s family. Here in PNG it brings back a lot of memories for staff of a fatal crash two and a half years ago. For me it has been a big shock and at times shattering and affected me in different ways, as I did my MAF training with Hadleigh. We spent five weeks together doing transition training and MAF orientation in Melbourne. During that time we spent a lot of time together and became good friends, he was my closet friend during that time. He and the event has been on my mind a lot and has been hard because no more news has come forward and as time goes on he is presumed dead.

Hadleigh was from Kirrawee in Sydney and only 23 years old, soon to be 24. He was a young Godly man, with a passion for aviation and using that for God’s kingdom. Despite his age, he was an experienced pilot. He had talked about his desire to come to PNG and fly up here hopefully sometime in the near future. Something that I was looking forward to. Only to find out after the accident that there had been talks taking place about the possibility of him coming up in the future.

I have been thinking of so many things and reminded of many things during this time. Hope, sacrifice, how precious and short life is, God’s sovereignty. I have been reflecting on a lot of memories of Hadleigh too. It is a tradegic event, really sad and hard to believe he is gone. But God is in control, He knows the big picture and has His purpose for His children. I will miss Hadleigh, especially when the cricket starts up in Australia. But I look forward to seeing him again one day. i ask if you pray, to pray for Hadleigh’s family, girlfriend, the MAF team in this difficult time, thankyou.

For a newspaper report with parts of an interview with Hadleigh’s father, click here

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One of the main things I have been learning more of the last several months is love and patience. Patience being a characteristic of love has come in play with one certain situation. Back in April I purchased a new laptop off ebay for a very good price (I recommend only to buy a second hand one off ebay). The first laptop i had was fine, but had a little audio problem, something that I could of lived with. But it being new and under warranty and going overseas I thought I should get it sorted. In my last week of being in Australia i received another laptop exchanged for the previous.

I had no idea what would be installed with this one, but it had video hardware issues. It would freeze, bluescreen, hang, everything, mainly during multimedia functions. Hence for that reason I brought this model. Over the next four months I tried to do what I can troubleshooting the problem and resolving it. The seller sent me new RAM to try and resolve the problem, as this is the common fix.(it took over two months to recieve). But I did every thing possible to resolve the problem if it was software related, even though I knew it was hardware. The whole five months I was in communication with the seller. Back in September I had run out of options, except to install XP onto it. So I sent the laptop back to Sydney, Australia, which wasn’t too straight forward. I went without the laptop for over a month, even though it was a faulty one. And I received it back last week, same laptop. The hardware issue seems to be resolved, but the software issue can still come back to bite me at times. It is fixed, but it isn’t. So I may convert back to XP, even though I should be able to run Vista. I am grateful that I have this laptop and that it made it back to Mt Hagen, I will have to make do with it for now. But anyway, this has just been one of many situations where my patience has been tested and growing in.

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After the big response to the last poll question, really one reply. I decided the Landcruiser shall be refered to as el bestia (the beast, in spanish).

The next question goes along with what nickname or alias I should go by here in PNG. There are something like at least seven Matthew’s within the MAF family in PNG, there are three in the compound I currently live in, there is a pilot known as Matt P! All through out school I managed to live with another Matt and then have the joy of having no others within close circles after school. But now there is a multitude and can be confusing in the hanger. I have had many nicknames in the past; Preece, Aquaman, Batman, George, Mattyp, preecelet just to name a few, but my favourite is Matt. So what nickname (preferably new) can I use?

Remember the poll is in the sidebar >

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1. Part of Mt Hagen General Hospital

A few weeks ago while working on the GA8 landing gear I had an accident. I was in a real awkward position in the cargo pod with my right hand up through a little access panel. This gives access to the attachment for the main landing gear. I had installed the landing gear and all that was left was to install the protective cover. It was really tight to fit on and line up. After spending some time on this, I was in the process of turning the cover to line up the holes. As I did this for some time, one attempt the strap wrench I was using slipped with a lot of force behind it. With this my right hand was thrown against the aircraft structure. My pinkie finger was crushed against the structure, which was very painful, which resulted in me punching something with that same hand. I have had many different injuries over the years at work, including deep cuts, to eye injuries. But this seemed it could be the worse. As my finger hit the structure, I felt something give or slip inside.

After making up an ice pack from what I could scrounge I went to one of our first aid officers to get it looked at. The first five to ten minutes were very painful, pain that I have not experienced for some time. It seemed okay, I could move it but may have pinched a nerve. But because my hands are so valuable to the work I do and because I felt something give and the finger was crushed, it was thought it would be good to get an x-ray and this is where all the fun really started. If the tip had been crushed, it could easily become infected and if it was to become infected, it would cause a lot of problems down the track.

First trip was to a pilot’s wife who has some nursing experience who had a look and agreed too on getting an x-ray. So that afternoon I headed to Mt Hagen hospital with one of the national staff. There is a lot of family history with PNG, I am the third out of four generations to come here (my Grandfather and Great Grandfather have served here during both World War’s). Another family member, my Grandfather’s brother was here during WW2 and came back post war (after the war) to help with building projects. One of these projects was building the hospital (Haus Sik in Tok Pisin) in Mt Hagen. I have walked or driven past the hospital plenty of times and have never been inside before, which would be a real eye opener.

The hospital is not one of the same standards as back in Australia. People back home complain about hospitals back there, but they should really see the state of the ones here. Don’t get me wrong, despite its condition, it is still needed and well used. As I got processed and waited to see someone assess me, I was shocked to see the condition of the place. I wouldn’t be able to say when the place was really cleaned well,or the place maintained. There were people lying down in waiting booths in all types of states. In the end I got processed and got approved for an x-ray. But at that time of day, only x-rays for emergency cases were done. For me it was a lot of trouble to go to the hospital during work hours, as the airport is 10 km from town and trying to get an aircraft serviceable. And my national friend talked them into trying to get me an x-ray. We headed up to that part of the hospital to find it closed and no one there. So I would have to return the following day.

2. The x-ray, you cant make out the pinkie finger

With my two fingers taped together I returned to work the next morning. Having two fingers out of action really made things so much harder. Later in the morning we headed back in to town to get this x-ray. I get to the waiting area to find a few people waiting, one being a young boy with a broken leg and his family. Another man from a remote village who had been attacked by some rascals and had a few injuries. As we waited I talked with them, in the end I went to try and find someone to find out what was going on, as the opening hours were present. I finally found a nurse in another ward, who did some investigation and found out, due to there being no water, the x-ray was closed, but with no sign of course. So this man and I went outside the hospital, as I waited to get picked up at some point. During this time we continued to talk and I was able to minister to him regarding where he was at with God. We talked all in Tok Pisin, which was awesome.

After some time, a nurse came outside informing us that water was back on and the x-ray room was now open. We both return to the waiting area to find a larger crowd than before. So I waited some more and it seemed it would take all day to get this x-ray, maybe I might not get it at all. So I thought I would just not worry about it once my work colleague arrived. But interesting enough, he checked with the chief operator (who is a friend) to see what was happening and explained our situation. Within two minutes I had the x-ray taken, I was really embarrassed for all these people in line to see me jump the queue even though I had spent way more time there than themselves. As it can be common for white skins to get special treatment, which I do not want. After all this I was hoping I had cracked or broken the bone. After a while I received the x-ray and that was it. So by my own diagnose and that of my boss we agreed that no damage was done and I must have pinched a nerve.

My experience at the hospital in a third world country was one of an eye opener. To see the contrast between here and back home is amazing. The x-ray is by far the cheapest I have ever paid, but probably not the clearest one I have had. But despite what is here, it is an essential for the people and does meet some of  the need. Fortunately there is a Nazarene Missions hospital about 40 mins out of town, so if I ever get serious injured I will make sure I head in that direction. My finger nail is still bruised a little purple, but is a lot better now. I was not limited for too long in the end by not being able to use my pinkie and other finger. I really appreciate that little guy.

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1. Some of the crowd that greeted us

Last Friday I had the privilege of going out to a remote village with the MAF ministry team and spend the night there. It is called Pontus and is the home of one of our store men and has an AOG church there. For me there was a lot of build up during the week, there was the planning and getting ready. But also physically and spiritually. I had volunteered to share my testimony (how I came to Christ and my calling to MAF). During the week I had a really bad mouth infection, something that I had never experienced before. It was quite painful even to speak. But I started to improve come Friday.

There would be nine of us going, most of whom are from the Engineering department. We finished work early and headed out from the airport just after 1530. We took two 4WD’s, one Hilux owned by MAF and my Landcruiser. It is about an hour’s trip from Mt Hagen to Pontus. We spent some time in town before leaving around 1645. The trip out there was quite interesting and adventurous. The roads were quite bad and came to parts that we would not be able to pass through without 4WD’s. It was also an opportunity to test the reliability of the Landcruiser but also use it for ministry. The scenery was absolutely beautiful. It is always amazing how people react as we drive through small remote villages, they rarely see white people.

2. Some of the crowd in the church building

We arrived at Pontus around 1800, just before it started to get dark. We were greeted by a large number of people on the way in, mainly kids who would run beside or behind the car. It was such an encouragement to see how happy they were to see us. We were also greeted by a man riding on a white horse, was very random at the time. We were greeted by many people on our arrival and then started to set up in the church building.

The program we had planned for the night was quite a lot of stuff and we were hoping to start around 1830. After setting up there was only a fraction of the community gathered. So we retreated to the Pastor’s hut to have some space from the people and to prepare before starting the night. A time of worship started and more people started to gather, I would estimate we started the program after worship around 1930. After the worship followed a presentation of MAF for the people, like I said before many people know of MAF. But they do not know what exactly we do. That was followed by the MAF employee from the village giving a short talk about MAF. During all this time the presenting was done in Tok Pisin, but was translated in Tok Ples (village’s native language).

3. Doing my testimony & having John translate into Tok Ples

Following the presentation, were two testimonies. The second one being my own, this was in English and translated into Tok Ples. I have never talked in front of such a large group as that before. There would have been easily two hundred people or more there (some have said 400). It was hard as I have never spoke to a group before and have myself translated. So it was hard to keep my train of thought going, but was good to give me time to think of what to say next. I had a lot on my heart I wanted to say. I shared how I came to Christ and how I came to be with MAF in PNG in a way they could understand and be transalted. I incorporated the gospel with this and at the end with a challenge and encouragement. I even had a little sermon on my heart about forgiveness that I really wanted to share, but I did not believe I needed to. Everything that I said took a lot more time to share as it was being translated, but it went really well.

Followed by this we all performed a song. I did not know the song, as I had been unable to sing I had not learnt it before hand. So I got up in front of all these people and learnt the song as we sung it. Then there was another team member to introduce the movie we would watch. He said what I wanted to say, which was really good. Again we watched End of the Spear, which again is so revealant to these people. There has been tribal fighting between the two neighboring villages for the last four years, with twenty people being killed. So there is a lot of pain and still enemies at present, it is only in the last few months that they have stopped fighting. We drove past the battle field where they would meet to fight on our drive in. It is such a good movie on forgiveness. Following the movie we prayed for them and that finished the night at 0015 (15 mins past midnight).

4. People who could not fit inside, would watch from outside

We packed up all the sound gear and there was still a ground gathered. So after some time the generator was turned off and there were no lights. We returned to the Pastor’s hut to find chicken and vegetables cooked for us. I had been so hungry before, but my body was wanting sleep so much that I had lost my appetite. In the end we stayed up till about 0230 singing and talking and then went to bed. We rose again at 0540 to leave around 0600. As for some of us have a lot to do on Saturday’s and wanted to return not too late.

We left that morning leaving behind us a large community greatly blessed. Spending time out in a remote village is always a unique experience. It always amazes me that people live in such a place and in such a way. I was hoping and praying that we would have no dramas with the Landcruiser on the way back. But as soon as we left the village the car stalled while at idle, even though it had warmed up for at least 10 mins. This continued for through out the trip back to Mt Hagen, as the engine was being flooded with too much petrol. At one point we could not get it started for some time, we prayed as a group and it started. Which allowed us to continue but with me driving the car a certain way to keep it from stalling. We  adjusted the carberotter and made it back to Mt Hagen safely after some strive with the car. Now knowing that the carby is not just an adjustment issue but needs overhauling.

5. Dinner @ 0100 AM

The time out in the village was a great experience. To be able to minister to these people and to bless them physically and spiritually, I was so blessed by that. It was also good just to serve with the guys outside of the work we do back in Mt Hagen and the time of bonding we had too. God was with us and blessed our travel and time ministering. Coming to PNG this was the sort of ministry that was on my heart to be part of besides what I already do. I am really grateful for this opportunity God has given me and the door that He has opened.

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1. Kambowa doing his thing (preach it brother)

Last Friday night I had the privilege to attend a program of the MAF ministry team. Something that I have been waiting to attend for a while now. The MAF ministry team is run by two national employees of MAF and maybe with a few staff attending to support. The team is usually invited by a church or village to minister to them or the team requesting a village if they can visit. This can be locally or some where else in the country. The main purpose being to minister to the believers, but also to reach the lost.

Friday night’s meeting was held at the Kagamuga COC church, which is Christian Outreach Centre. I get confused easily with the abbreviations of churches here, as there is the CRC, CLC, COC etc. It involved the church itself, but other people visiting from other churches, also from the surrounding community. It was absolutely packed with people. I went along wanting to be involved, but going to observe and see what they do. The night started off with a time of worship led by the churches worship team and then was handed over to the MAF team.

2. The whole church was full

Something that I did not expect was time taken to show the latest MAF video and talk about MAF and what we do exactly. Most people would know of MAF, but it is amazing how within the church and communities here awareness needs to be promoted. So that they are aware of what we do and how we are serving them. This was followed by watching the movie ‘End of the Spear’. Which is about five missionaires (belonging to MAF) being killed in Ecuador and what follows this event. If you have not seen it, I highly recommend that you see it. We had some technical difficulty trying to play the movie and during this I was having flashbacks of setting up for Scripture. The laptop had been region locked out, so it would not play a region 1 DVD. Some one ran off to there place and grabbed a DVD player that did not work. So one staff and myself drove to the nearest MAF compound in search of a multi region DVD player. We were graciously lent one by someone. All the time while Kambowa kept the large crowd entertained.

The condition of the church here is that as else where in the world. That there are people within it who don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus. But also the influences of the culture here. They can be involved in tribal fighting. The relevance of the movie to the cultural implications here is so good. The message of forgiveness is one that is required to be preached here. And it was amazing to see how these people where touched by this movie, that they were really challenged and convicted. But for them it is a big blessing, something we take for granted back home, is something so many do not have. Also the teaching and resources we have back home in our churches. The night was finished of by a short talk.

3. There was even an overflow outside the front door

For me it has been really hard leaving many ministries behind and here not having that commitment outside of the work of MAF. Sure there is the ministry of living within the community here and relationships outside of MAF. But I have been waiting on God to see what else He has for me here. And I knew that if I made myself available to Him and waited He would open the doors. And I believe that the MAF ministry team is something He wants me to be part of. Besides it being really good that it is about sharing the Gospel and discipling the believers around many places and building relationships with these people. The one thing that I really like is that it is part of MAF.

This Friday afternoon we are planning on going to a village of one of the MAF staff out bush. It is in a remote place about an hour out of town. There is an AOG church in the village and we will be staying the night there. This area has been a place of tribal fighting for many years. And it has only recently stopped in the past few months (I wish I knew this before hiking through there the other month). So there is a lot of pain from this fighting and still enemies amongst the villages. So it is a great opportunity to minister to these people. I will be sharing my testimony this Friday night, how I came to Christ and how I came to MAF. So it is a real exciting time as God is opening up doors here for me to serve Him in other ways with MAF.

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Not sure how long this function will last for, but there are a few questions that need to be asked. The first one being, what should the Landcruiser be named? Hopefully something with a bit of biff in it, maybe Cruiser?

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1. MAF HQ staff

Almost two weeks ago we had our combined MAF conference with expat and national staff. It was over two days, the Monday being the Headquarters staff including Engineering, Finance, HR, IT, Property/Vehicle and Flight Ops departments. Followed by the staff from the base (operations/terminal) on the Tuesday. There were also two other conferences held around the country for staff from all the other bases to attend. But Mt Hagen being our main base of operations here saw the largest amount of staff attending.

It was a real good opportunity for us to all come together and be reminded why MAF exists and why we are here. As this year has seen a lot of change in MAF PNG, mainly in a new leadership team being formed. It has been quite encouraging to see these positions needing to be filled and for God to provide the people. But  it was quite important to come together and go through this conference together which would allow us all to walk away with the same focus and work in the same direction.

2. 1 of 2 Engineering groups presenting after discussions

For me it was a real encouraging time as being in the Engineering team, we have a lot of work and responsibility. But never see the results of that work out in the remote communities or hear too much about it. I know the results, but I need to be reminded of them. It was also good to see where the new leadership team stands and where God is leading us. That we are not a Christian airline, but a mission. Our new Program Manager took us through our mission, vision statements and core values. With what they practically mean and how we are fulfilling them.

We are currently going through a time of change, with  less staff and resources that is required to reach  and serve the people of PNG. We have fewer pilots, engineers, planes and operating out of less bases around the country then we have done so in the past. In the last few years about four bases have closed. The need of MAF around the country is constantly great and if we were to gain more staff and aircraft they would instantly be utilized and fulfilled.  Our PM (Program Manager) also took us through the passage of Gideon defeating the Midianites, which was really encouraing, considering our current circumstances. But what is encouraging is the way God has continued to sustain MAF here over the years despite the lack of staff and resources required and that He is doing all this work with so few.

It was also good to get into our department groups and discuss which of our core values we are doing well and which ones we are not doing well. And discuss in what ways can we practically improve on the values we are lacking in.

3. The other Engineering group won the team building exercise of building the tallest balloon tower (our team completed it in less than a minute and was the strongest by far)

On the Monday night we had a ‘bung kai’ (a group comes together to eat). Each family was to bring a certain meal as organized. Engineering families were to bring a rice dish, so I made some Spanish rice for the first time. But it was a great time to fellowship with all the MAF families in Mt Hagen. The highlight of the night was splitting up into birthday months to do a skit per month based on a bible verse which represented one of MAF’s core values. Some of them were absolutely hilarious and I have not laughed like that since being here in PNG. It was really a good time of fellowship, especially with the nationals, as we don’t get to do that with them that much outside of work.

So it is really exciting to see the new leadership team God has put into place here in MAF PNG. The unity and bond between staff from different cultures and nationals. But also where He is leading us and wanting to do.

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I have been playing with a few possible new features for the site. I guess the one that I wanted to add last, is the first to be added, a guest book.

Sign it here Matt in PNG Guest book

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