Pastor leaves with fond memories

By HANNAH NERO
A RETIRED pastor, pilot and aircraft engineer will leave the country with fond memories of the years he spent with the Adventist Aviation Services.
“The spiritual transformation of the PNG people that I have witnessed, from their traditional beliefs and customs to that of a relationship with Jesus, has been a real blessing to me,” Colin Dunn told The National.
“The loyalty of Papua New Guineans to their families, friends and the churches is awesome.
“To work with a people whose primary motivation is relationships rather than materialism has been another highlight of my ministry,” Dunn said, when describing his 40 years of dedicated service to Adventist Aviation in PNG from his 60 years in the industry.
“Among the legion of jobs and tasks that I have been involved in, two stand out in my mind. One was being involved in flying to remote medical clinics when Sopas Hospital (in Enga) was functioning and, the second, was assisting remote rural villagers with their development projects and programmes.
“These were among others such as building airstrips that allowed for access to medical services, education and markets.”
Dunn described his biggest challenges as those involving logistics, that is accumulating funds, materials and personnel to put up church buildings, schools, clinics and to progress other village development initiatives.
He said his biggest blessing had been to witness the fulfilment of one of the main tasks of a missionary, which is to ensure locals take over from expatriates.
“When I started my ministry, expatriate Seventh-day Adventist missionaries were scattered throughout PNG. Today, there is not a single expatriate in the ministry, education, medical work or administration, with the exception of our Pacific Adventist University in Port Moresby.”