"My name is Bob Roberts and my job is mission pilot!"
Bob Roberts lives and works in Papua, Indonesia.
He has been flying with Adventist Aviation
Services in Indonesia for more than 20 years.
He has seen all kinds of things, and met thousands
of people hungry to learn about Jesus.
On a typical morning Bob gets up, checks to
make sure everything is okay with the plane, and climbs in for a ride.
He delivers supplies, visits villages, and transports people
throughout the many islands of this region.
If you look on the map you will see that
the island of Papua is split in half.
The eastern side is the country of Papua New Guinea, 
while the western half is part of Indonesia.
Here in Papua, there are huge mission challenges.
The first obstacle is getting to the people.
The terrain here is extremely rough. Mountains, rivers, 
and dense jungle make it nearly impossible to walk through.
To reach some of these villages by foot, 
it could take weeks of hiking and chopping through this terrain.
That's where Adventist Aviation Services
comes to the rescue. Trips that used to take
weeks now take hours thanks to Bob's flying.
These islands contain more than 500 language groups.
You can imagine how difficult it is
to reach so many languages in an area made
up of hundreds of islands.
Almost 90 percent of these people have never even heard the gospel!
Bob flies to reach the unreached. He has been
flying for the Seventh-day Adventist Church
for almost 40 years now. He spent a number
of years flying in Africa before coming to Indonesia.
His experience in the air is extremely
valuable to the mission work in Indonesia.
This is where he feels at home and where God has called him to fly.
When visiting this small city in West Papua,
Bob discovered that the local Adventist Pastor's
father was very sick and had no way to see him. 
If he took a boat to visit his father, it could take days.
The Pastor was very disappointed
that he may never see his father again.
Bob offered to fly him to the nearby city to visit his father.
With the services of the Adventist Aviation plane,
the Pastor was able to see his father
again and share encouraging words with him.
Bob often transports sick people to get medical attention.
Many of the small cities and villages
have no medical facilities. Commercial planes
rarely or never fly some places.
Even with small commercial planes, it is very expensive
for a villager to afford a ticket.
"We fly a lot of sick people, and when we
do fly sick people we fly them for free if
they're really sick."
Bob's flying is a ministry. He cares about the people he visits.
He wants to bring the message and hope of Jesus
to the people of Indonesia.
"So those are the kind of things that 
make you glad you're a mission pilot.
Helping people that would not have a hope otherwise.
That's why we're here."
Please pray for Bob as he continues to fly for Jesus!
Pray for the hundreds of workers around the world
who have left the comforts of home to serve.
Thank you for supporting the mission of the
Seventh-day Adventist Church!
