An Unlikely Couple

Everybody has their story of how they and their spouse hooked up. If you think yours is odd, check this one out…

About 7:30 AM, I was given the weather update for the tribe I was enroute to. About 15 minutes later, I came over the last ridge into the foothills where the quiet little Palawano village sits tucked up against the mountains. I pulled the power back to 15 inches manifold pressure and slowed to 80 knots as I circled overhead to see if the runway was clear. With a slight breeze blowing out of the north, I made my way south of the village to begin the approach. I pulled the power back to 13 inches, put on the first notch of flaps, and pointed the nose down into the tree-filled valley ahead. Following the treeline down toward the river bed, I made my last turn. Seconds from touchdown, the runway finally came into view with the stallhorn just starting to sound. Touching down right at the beginning of the little grass runway, I put on the brakes and came to a stop at the far end of the runway.

Today, I was in this village to pick up a Palawano lady who had a deteriorating medical condition that was beyond what the missionary clinic could handle. As I loaded this lady, her husband, and their youngest girl into the plane, I noticed that her husband did not look like a typical mountain person. He looked more like a person from the coastal area. I asked the missionary about this, and what a story I got…

Her husband of many years is a former Muslim fighter from another area. During one of his raids on a village in years past, he spotted a girl and attacked her, smashing her mouth with the butt of his rifle. He dragged her off into the jungle and she became his prisoner. All these years later, they are still together (as married), in spite of her lack of teeth (which she lost when they first met…). You can imagine my surprise at that story, and I tried to cover it by asking how many kids they now had. The missionary asked the tribal gal, and she answered that she couldn’t

really remember, but there were nine living! Did I mention that she is probably only about 30 years old?

The story doesn’t stop there. After I strapped them in to the airplane, and we taxi-ed to the other end of the runway to take off, I looked back and she had her eyes covered with the barf bag (they are multi-purpose, you know). She didn’t open her eyes once until we were on the ground at the final destination. But, what I did notice, which was very unusual to me, was that her husband was patting her in a comforting way the whole flight. Well, comforting of some sort; he was thumping her chest with his hand. It seemed ironic to me that this man, in particular, would be showing a public display of comfort to his wife. I have flown out many sick tribal people and have never seen that before.

This young mother of nine-plus is scheduled for surgery and, Lord willing, I will be flying her back home soon to recover; but the best part is that maybe this year, she and her husband will be introduced to Jesus.