Off the Grid

Always Busy Helping -Nicaragua

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Narrator: Chet Damron

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Series Code: OTG

Program Code: OTG000042A


00:01 Narrator: Scattered across the globe, Adventist World Aviation
00:04 has mission outposts situated in extremely remote areas
00:09 that were established to help minister
00:10 to local indigenous people.
00:12 Most of these locations are so difficult to reach that aviation
00:16 is the primary means to reach them.
00:20 Using aircraft, Adventist World Aviation is able to deliver
00:23 the gospel message, as well as provide lifesaving med-evac
00:28 flights to thousands by using the tool of aviation.
00:33 Providing quick and reliable transportation to many parts
00:37 of the earth, that are almost impossible to reach
00:40 is the mission of AWA.
00:42 Adventist World Aviation missionaries use the means
00:46 of aviation to spread the love of Jesus all around the world.
01:35 Narrator: Adventist World Aviation has a mission outpost
01:37 situated in north eastern Nicaragua in a small village
01:41 named Tronquera.
01:43 Here, the Hanley missionary family works endlessly
01:45 to serve the Miskito people.
01:48 The Hanley's have lived in Nicaragua for over 10 years now
01:51 and have established a good relationship
01:54 with the people here.
01:56 Clint is a pilot and offers med-evac flights to all
02:00 the neighboring villages, that need to get patients
02:03 to a higher level of medical care.
02:05 There are no safe road systems from the thick jungles
02:10 to Puerto Cabezas, which is the closest hospital equipped
02:14 to handle critical injuries.
02:19 Jud: Here we are in this remote part of Nicaragua.
02:21 Can you describe where we are, and how you came to be here?
02:26 Clint: Well the northeast part of Nicaragua here is an area
02:31 that is completely different then the Pacific Coast.
02:34 You have the Atlantic and the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua.
02:36 And the Atlantic coast is on the Caribbean which most people
02:40 think of as a nice vacation spot but it's not that way here.
02:43 And it's an area of indigenous Indians, Miskito Indians.
02:47 The Miskito Indians were never concurred by the Spanish
02:50 and they don't have the infrastructure that's been
02:53 developed on the Pacific side of the country.
02:55 This area has a lot of needs that are very unique
02:57 to Nicaragua and it's separated from the rest of Nicaragua
03:00 geographically.
03:01 And it's separated by a line of mountains and the roads
03:06 that go crossed it are very bad.
03:07 Sometimes they are impassable.
03:09 So we rely on air transport for virtually everything we do.
03:12 We have the only ambulance for air travel in all of Nicaragua
03:18 that can carry oxygen and a stretcher.
03:20 And we're the only airplane in all of Nicaragua that is able
03:24 to do this and we are the only airplane that is based
03:29 on the whole Atlantic coast.
03:31 Narrator: Clint stays very busy flying med-evac flights.
03:35 Very often he will fly 5 or more patients a week.
03:38 But despite this demanding flight schedule, the Hanley's
03:42 are not satisfied with only offering aviation services.
03:46 Their ministry here at Tronquera runs so much deeper,
03:51 than the work they do with aviation.
03:54 The family keeps very busy finding new ways to help
03:57 the local Miskito people.
03:59 Jud: You know the airplane flying, and you know
04:01 the med-evacs is the most dramatic part of the work,
04:04 that you do here and are involved with, but that doesn't
04:07 happen all day and constantly and so I'm sure that there are
04:10 other things that you look for, that are needs
04:13 in the communities, that you can help.
04:16 Clint: Yah flying is probably the most fun thing to do.
04:19 It is the most exciting and that's one of the things that
04:23 most people focus on the most.
04:24 But that happens a few times a week and it's not- it doesn't
04:28 cover all of your life.
04:29 There's a lot of mundane, regular work that needs done.
04:32 Maintaining the airplane, building the hangar,
04:34 things like that working on your house.
04:36 But the community work that we also do, we built a house
04:40 for widows in the village, a cement house
04:42 for a couple of the poor people in the village.
04:44 Narrator: Just a few short miles away from the mission base
04:47 is a newly constructed concrete block home, that was
04:51 affectionately nicknamed the "widows' house".
04:55 In this part of Nicaragua the villagers are very poor.
04:59 Many of them don't have the means to build a simple
05:02 home for themselves.
05:04 Clint and his wife Marilyn, saw a great need in their community.
05:08 They contacted their donors, that faithfully support their
05:12 ministry and told them about the needs here in the village.
05:16 They were able to raise enough money to build this simple,
05:19 yet solid home and donate it to the community.
05:23 Client told the community that they were free to select
05:26 whomever the community felt was the most in need
05:29 and offer the home to them.
05:32 The community gratefully accepted the house
05:35 and gave it to an elderly widow and her family.
05:40 The Miskito people living in this region of Nicaragua, sadly
05:45 are very poor and left isolated from the rest of the country.
05:50 Clint: The Miskito people in general, are subsistence farmers
05:56 So there's not a big economic base for them here.
05:59 They don't have a lot of reason for businesses to come in.
06:04 They don't have a lot of resources that people need,
06:07 so that's part of the reason economically that they're,
06:11 they're kind of segregated.
06:13 They're off to the side in the country.
06:14 The roads could be improved.
06:16 You know that's not a hard thing to do.
06:19 But in order to improve the roads, it takes money.
06:21 And you need to have a reason to access the area.
06:24 And without economic incentive, businesses don't really care
06:28 to access this side of the country.
06:30 Because there's not enough resources here
06:33 to be able to do that.
06:34 The Miskito people aren't big business people and there's not
06:38 a lot of resources that they need in the soil or whatever
06:41 they need to access on this side of the country.
06:43 So economically, they have kind of left it.
06:46 The church also, it's hard to reach subsistence farmers,
06:50 you know out in the middle of the jungle.
06:52 You know, when you go out and have tiny villages dotted around
06:55 They're hard to access.
06:56 A lot of places you have to walk to be able to access them.
06:59 But even by truck, it's by four wheel drive.
07:02 And you've got to learn another language.
07:04 A lot of them don't know Spanish, you need to know
07:06 Miskito to be able to communicate effectively.
07:08 And so even by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a lot of them,
07:12 places are very hard to access and they've been kind of left
07:16 to the side, because they're out of the beaten track.
07:19 They're not on the way to or from anywhere.
07:21 And nobody ever passed through this area
07:24 going to somewhere.
07:25 It's the final destination, this is it.
07:28 Narrator: Clint and his family have resolved to do everything
07:30 they can to make sure the Miskito people
07:32 are not forgotten.
07:35 Even though they're isolated from the rest of the country,
07:37 having aviation support in times of emergency has saved
07:42 over 500 lives within the last 10 years.
07:48 But aviation is just one of the ways the Hanley family shows
07:52 the love of God to the Miskito people and insures them that
07:56 they have not been forgotten by the All Mighty Creator.
08:03 Opportunities for advancement are rare
08:05 in this part of the world.
08:06 Many who are born in this part of Nicaragua, do not have many
08:10 opportunities to better their lives.
08:13 Poverty runs rampant and villagers suffer from lack
08:17 of opportunities for growth.
08:19 The AWA missionaries struggle with how to make
08:23 a positive change in this regard.
08:27 One way Clint and Marilyn have sought to bring change to the
08:30 community is through education.
08:33 In Puerto Cabezas there is an Adventist elementary school.
08:38 Through donations from supporters in North America,
08:41 the Hanley's are able to give scholarships to young people,
08:45 who want to drastically change their lives.
08:48 Because the school is so far away from the mission base,
08:52 Clint flies the young students to town and then enrolls them
08:56 in the boarding school, where they can gain knowledge
08:59 they need to better their lives.
09:02 Clint: This is a Seventh-day Adventist school
09:04 in Puerto Cabezas.
09:05 This is the only Seventh-day Adventist secondary school
09:08 on the Atlantic Coast.
09:10 They have somewhere in the range of four to five hundred
09:13 kids here, which is the largest school in all of Nicaragua
09:17 for secondary school for Seventh-day Adventists.
09:19 And we help out some with this school with kids from the
09:23 communities, especially from our community of La Tronquera.
09:26 We send kids here to this school
09:29 and we help with some of their tuition.
09:30 And we usually help kids, who have good grades and who are
09:36 interested in going on and getting education.
09:39 We try to find those kids in the communities, who are
09:42 very interested in studying and then we send them here
09:45 and help them to further their education,
09:48 so they can go somewhere in their life.
09:50 Narrator: Adventist World Aviation seeks to help the poor
09:52 and less fortunate of the world in a vast variety of ways.
09:57 Sometimes the work is done through construction projects,
10:00 other times it is accomplished by aviation support,
10:04 but regardless of the project, the end goal is always the same:
10:09 to help others know the love of Jesus.
10:28 Narrator: Ten years ago, when the Hanley family first moved
10:30 to this area, there was no communication
10:34 infrastructure available.
10:36 This limited the missionary's work greatly, because there was
10:41 simply no way of knowing, when the people might need help.
10:45 They could not communicate with other villages or provide
10:48 help to outlying areas.
10:50 To solve this deficiency, Clint devised a plan.
10:54 Jud: Obviously if you go into remote areas, communication
10:57 is a huge factor.
11:00 Adventist World Aviation is, you know our policy is to create
11:04 transpiration and communication infrastructures
11:07 in remote areas.
11:09 And this is a prime example.
11:10 Can you explain a little bit about how your communication
11:14 has helped with other ministries other organizations, government,
11:20 health and those things.
11:22 And how you have been involved in that.
11:24 Clint: Yah, when we first moved here, there was no cell service
11:27 of any kind. And so, radios is what everything relied on.
11:31 And we started out with two meter radios, ham radios,
11:33 and amateur radios is, what we call them in the states.
11:38 That worked, we would put a, in a local village where we
11:42 were flying, we'd put a solar panel in and a battery.
11:44 And put an antenna up and then they can communicate with us
11:48 when there was an emergency.
11:49 And that worked quite well and they were able to communicate
11:53 with us and the hospital saw that and said
11:55 "wow this is really working good.
11:56 Could we put an antenna up at your house too and you could
11:59 have a radio from us?"
12:00 And they have their own communication network.
12:02 And so they gave me one of their radios.
12:05 There're a Motorola set up on crystal controlled setup and so
12:08 I put one of their antennas up on my tower
12:13 and have their system.
12:14 So they can communicate from Waspam
12:16 when there's emergencies.
12:18 So they communicate directly with us for that and then they
12:21 also have some of the minsa radios, it's government,
12:24 it's called minsa radios, it's government health program.
12:28 Their radios are also in some of the remote communities.
12:31 So they communicate directly with us from runways
12:33 that they have in the communities.
12:35 And the doctor in the community then can call directly
12:37 to us to schedule flights and tell us, you know
12:40 that there is a person here that's coming in.
12:41 Or that somebody is coming down the river to us right now,
12:43 and we need them to be transported out.
12:46 Narrator: Due to the remote nature of this part of Nicaragua
12:49 medical care is not available
12:51 for critically injured individuals.
12:53 If someone needs a higher level of medical care,
12:56 they must reach Puerto Cabezas.
12:58 Some of the villages do not even have road access
13:01 to make this journey.
13:03 For those that do, the badly injured individual must travel
13:07 over 5 hours on a terribly rough road or travel by boat
13:12 for 2 days on the slow flowing Rio Cocoa.
13:17 These means of transportation often guarantee death
13:20 to a critical patient when time is of the upmost importance.
13:25 Clint: They take a boat, because there is no roads.
13:27 And the boats go, sometimes once a day a boat goes.
13:31 Sometimes they'll skip a day or two.
13:33 But generally a boat goes once a day.
13:35 That boat costs about five to six days wages to take the boat,
13:41 and per person.
13:42 And it takes twelve hours to get to Waspam which is the nearest
13:47 hospital they can access.
13:49 And that's not the biggest hospital, that's just the
13:51 very nearest hospital.
13:52 But if it's very major, they need to go on to Puerto Cabezas,
13:55 which is another five hour bus ride.
13:57 And the bus goes once a day.
13:59 For me to fly that all of the way, from the time they call me
14:03 and I start my airplane, I can have them in Puerto Cabezas
14:07 in an hour and a half.
14:09 So if you have a pregnant lady who is in labor, even to get to
14:13 the closest hospital at twelve hours, if the boat was sitting
14:16 right there ready to go it would be a twelve hour boat ride.
14:19 Generally it's going to be the next day or so before
14:21 they can get the boat.
14:22 So it's usually a couple days before they are going
14:25 to get medical help.
14:26 And I can have them in an hour and a half.
14:28 So there has been a lot of lives that have been saved
14:29 because they can get it quicker.
14:33 Narrator: This is why Adventist World Aviation has a mission
14:35 base placed in this part of Nicaragua; to facilitate
14:40 med-evac flights and save as many people as possible.
14:44 However, this can only be accomplished if Clint can be
14:48 made aware of the flight needs.
14:51 Clint set up many radios around the region to insure
14:55 that he could be reached when there was an emergency.
14:57 His mission here is to help when the Miskito people are in need,
15:01 but if there is no way to communicate
15:04 with the villagers, the Hanley's cannot do the work
15:07 they are here to do.
15:10 Clint: This radio here is in a local motel that is in Waspam.
15:15 And Waspam is our nearest town to our house.
15:18 And this is where a lot of the medical people first come.
15:22 But their cell service is often undependable.
15:25 And so this radio, that I have installed in this place,
15:28 I put an antenna out back and I put a solar panel on.
15:31 And he manages this radio here for the hospital to be able
15:35 to communicate with us, anytime when the power is off
15:38 in the town or when lighting strikes and they don't have
15:41 their cell service.
15:43 And so this is the backup radio for all of the emergency
15:46 communication for the hospital,
15:47 for the government, for anybody else,
15:49 that needs to get a hold of us.
15:50 What we do is we install a solar panel and a battery and a radio
15:54 in the villages we go to, so they can communicate with us.
15:57 The doctors or nurses in the village, or sometimes there is
15:59 no doctors or nurses, but the people are able to communicate
16:02 with us, when they have an emergency.
16:03 Then we also have the same radio installed in our house
16:06 on a communications tower, so that we are able to communicate.
16:09 So, when you are in an area, that there is no communication
16:12 and no electricity you have to be able to know
16:15 how to do all that stuff yourself.
16:16 Put in the communication, and install everything
16:19 so that it's ready to use.
16:34 Narrator: The Hanley's never seem to tire as they continually
16:37 find ways to help the Miskito people.
16:41 If there is no flight to be made Clint happily opens up
16:44 his mechanic work shop and helps villagers with their repairs.
16:50 In this remote area, finding materials, and tools
16:53 is extremely rare.
16:55 This makes it very difficult for the local people
16:58 to provide themselves with a source of income.
17:01 Many have little access to basic supplies or tools they need
17:06 in order to earn a living.
17:08 For this reason, industry in this area is almost non-existent
17:14 The Hanley's seek to change that.
17:16 They want to provide ways for the Miskito people to become
17:20 entrepreneurs and create small industries for themselves.
17:25 And the first step in doing this is by helping them access
17:29 basic supplies.
17:32 Clint: So what we do is buy our nails in town, and then we
17:37 subsidize them for our local area around us at half the price
17:40 So they can buy nails from us at half the price
17:42 that they would in town.
17:44 So they're able to build on their houses
17:47 and work on that better with the nails we give them.
17:56 Narrator: Helping to provide the Miskito people with a source
17:59 of income falls perfectly in line with the mission of this
18:03 Adventist World Aviation base.
18:06 When there are no emergencies or flights to make, Clint helps
18:10 locals by welding repairs on their transportation,
18:13 and even creating new items.
18:16 Clint: To make himself some extra money in town for his
18:19 family, and he finds old scrap metal and he builds these things
18:23 Right now it looks like he's making a thing with a pot.
18:26 He makes anchors several different things
18:28 that people use.
18:29 And I help him by welding the stuff together.
18:31 And he pays for my gas. but I give him a...
18:33 I only charge him for my gas. And so he brings these things
18:37 to weld and I weld them up and he goes to town and sells them.
18:40 Narrator: Today Clint will be helping a local, by welding
18:44 together a grill comprised of materials that the man collected
18:48 The items for use in today's project are an old drum,
18:52 metal frames, and a few fragment pieces of rebar.
18:56 By opening up his shop, Clint is helping this man provide
19:01 for his family.
19:03 There is no industry in this area, so any income a family
19:06 generates is all by substance farming or by small projects
19:12 like this one we see today.
19:15 It will only take Clint a short time to help this man weld
19:18 together his project, but once finished, this man will have
19:22 something he can sell to keep his family fed.
19:28 Although aviation is the primary work of this mission base,
19:31 ultimately, the end goal is always to show the Love of God
19:36 and to help the Miskito people see how important they are
19:40 not only to the missionaries, but also to their Creator.
19:44 By taking the time out of his busy schedule to help this man,
19:48 Clint is sharing the love of Christ.
19:51 He is helping this man generate an income in a place
19:55 where work is not easy to come by.
20:04 Clint: They use this for charcoal.
20:06 They put charcoal in it and they use it in Puerto Cabezas
20:08 in the big towns. Not usually in the little towns,
20:11 but in the big towns, they use it with charcoal.
20:13 And they use it beside the road usually to cook food for people
20:18 like in the little restaurants.
20:19 Occasionally people use it in their houses but this type
20:21 is usually used on the edge of the road in like the market
20:25 areas for people.
20:26 They'll cook and fry stuff there.
20:37 Narrator: Clint and this man have created a simple grill.
20:40 By using discarded items, with the assistance of Clint
20:44 and his tools, this man was able to create an item for resale.
20:49 The Hanley's want to promote and encourage
20:52 this type of mentality.
20:53 They want to help the locals think of ways to help
20:56 bring in income for themselves.
20:58 The Hanley's want to help promote industry among
21:01 the Miskito people by simply utilizing items they can find.
21:06 Marilyn Hanley also finds ways to help the local women create
21:11 items to subsidize their income and bring in enough money
21:15 to feed their families.
21:18 Marilyn: This is coconut oil.
21:20 It's extracted from the coconut through a process of cooking it
21:24 to be able to extract the oil out of the meat.
21:29 The women here do that. It allows them to have
21:34 a little bit extra cash income. To help feed their families
21:38 or buy clothes or send their children to school.
21:40 Another one of the little projects that the women do
21:44 that they have been taught is to make little baskets
21:48 out of pine needles.
21:50 And I don't know all the process that goes into it but they wrap
21:54 these pine needles up with some thread and they design them
21:57 into all kinds of little baskets
22:01 One of the strong points of our mission has been to help
22:04 in economic development.
22:06 We help try to provide work, whenever possible
22:11 to women and men.
22:13 It's much more difficult to provide women with work
22:16 because they have children to care for, they have a house
22:19 to take care of.
22:21 So they are not always available to be able to work.
22:23 There is not always a lot of work for a woman to do.
22:27 And that's made it more challenging to develop certain
22:30 programs where women can earn money to subsidize their family,
22:36 their food and their children's education.
22:39 Narrator: Through helping the Miskito people advance their
22:42 lives, the Hanley's are opening doors to teach them about Jesus.
22:47 The Hanley's enjoy this aspect of their mission work.
22:50 Helping people find opportunities to succeed
22:53 and advance their lives is a rewarding experience.
22:57 The Hanley's feel fortunate, that they have this opportunity
23:01 to serve the people in this area in so many diverse ways.
23:05 Clint: You know, in America, when you go to work,
23:08 8 hours a day and you go back home,
23:10 you are helping a corporation.
23:13 You are able to earn a paycheck from it,
23:18 you are able to put food on the table.
23:19 In this line of work when I walk down the streets in our local
23:23 village, people come to me and they say "thank you for saving
23:27 my life, thank you for helping me."
23:28 We appreciate the fact, that you know they will come up and say
23:32 "you've helped my brother, you flew my brother to town,
23:35 or my sister or me and we want to thank you for that."
23:38 There is very few lines of work that you can walk down the
23:42 street and you can look at the people in your local little town
23:45 and know that several of them that you see right then are
23:48 alive because of the work you did. So it is very fulfilling.
23:51 But at the same time, the credit all goes to the tools
23:53 that the Lord has given me.
23:55 I don't have any extra expertise or anything,
23:58 that anybody else doesn't have.
23:59 All I do is use the tools that the Lord has given me.
24:02 And I am thankful that He has blessed me with those and
24:04 that I am able to pass on as a channel to help the local people
24:09 What He has given me and what you guys send from the States
24:11 to be able to help them.
24:12 And I am that one who get the benefit of seeing the smiles
24:14 on their faces and hears the thank you from them.
24:17 Marilyn: John 10:10 says "I have come so that they might
24:21 have life and have it more abundantly."
24:24 And ultimately our mission has been, that by helping the people
24:30 have a more abundant life, that it has given them
24:34 opportunity to see Jesus in us, to reach out in spiritual
24:41 questions and find a more abundant life through
24:46 the infrastructure, through health care, through education.
24:50 through saving their lives and giving them a second chance,
24:54 through the aviation program.
24:57 Narrator: The work of this mission aviation base runs
25:00 much deeper than just providing logistical support.
25:04 The Hanley's have created a work here in Nicaragua
25:06 that addresses a wide verity of needs.
25:10 Each day, the work here in Tronquera might be different,
25:14 but the end goal is always the same, to help the Miskito people
25:19 Whether it's a construction project, education,
25:23 communications or developing industries,
25:26 Adventist World Aviation is honored to be used by God
25:30 to make such a deep impact here in Nicaragua.
25:33 The villagers can't help but take note of the missionary's
25:36 dedication to help their people.
25:40 The work that Clint is doing here is something that I think
25:43 that the whole area appreciates.
25:46 You know, he has done something wonderful here
25:49 because just to think,
25:53 that someone can use an airplane and fuel and come
25:57 and pick up sick people and take them to Puerto Cabezas
25:59 which is four, four to five hours on the road.
26:02 Bumpy road. Bad road. And this guy comes and picks
26:06 them up and takes them in maybe thirty-five minutes.
26:09 For free! I mean this is free. I mean it's something to be
26:14 really grateful about and we are grateful about the work
26:18 that you guys have done here.
26:19 I think everyone, everyone knows about the little airplane
26:24 that is in La Tronquera. You know.
26:26 That helps people. Helps people. Because the area is considered
26:32 one of the poor areas.
26:34 Most poor areas of Nicaragua and to be able to get your sick,
26:41 very sick person all the way to Puerto Cabezas to get
26:45 a little more help then in Waspam, it's unbelievable.
26:49 And I am thankful.
26:52 Narrator: The projects highlighted in today's episodes
26:55 are just the tip of the iceberg of the work that the Hanley's do
26:59 at this mission.
27:00 The base here in Tronquera never rests.
27:04 There are always new projects and work that can be done
27:07 to help the Miskito people.
27:09 The Hanley's work endlessly to keep up with all the work
27:12 that needs to be done.
27:16 This mission base is thriving and could use many more hands
27:19 to accomplish all the work, that could be done here
27:23 among the Miskito people, God's children.
27:28 Jud: This project has really grown and it has some very
27:31 significant needs moving forward for personnel
27:33 and for equipment.
27:34 We have a 192 we are planning on placing down here
27:37 to improve the resources here.
27:40 We have some families that are interested in coming down
27:42 and being a part of this team.
27:44 And we always need more and not just for this project,
27:46 but for others as well.
27:48 And if mission work is calling you, then you know,
27:52 we should talk about how you can get involved
27:54 with Adventist World Aviation in different projects
27:57 here or elsewhere to fit your skills.
28:01 Clint: Whatever skill you have, when you go to the mission field
28:04 there is probably an area in a mission station
28:08 where you can fit.
28:09 Whether it's communication, you have communication towers,
28:12 radios of all kinds.
28:13 Whether it's electronics, there are all kinds of computer
28:17 related stuff that needs done now a days.
28:19 Between the internet, between that... all of those things.
28:22 And then, the mechanical skills, of any kind are helpful,
28:27 the construction related skills. Medical skills of any kind.
28:30 Whatever skills that you have,
28:31 teaching of all different kinds is helpful.
28:34 Agriculture, to teach the people how to grow things better
28:38 Whatever skill you have, the Lord can generally
28:41 use in a field like this.
28:44 Jud: The Lord will use a willing heart.
28:46 Clint: The Lord created us to serve.
28:48 That's why we are here on earth.
28:50 And it's the most fulfilling thing, to be able to have
28:54 the ability to channel that into a direction
28:56 so you can serve other people.


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Revised 2016-12-15