Hope all of you had a good Thanksgiving. I had a busy day with lots of flights, getting home a little before dark with the last patient. No ambulance showed up, even though one had been called. When I say an ambulance, I mean it looks like one on the outside, but inside they have no emergency equipment or EMT person. A driver loads the patient into the back and provides transportation to the hospital.
So I put the patient in our pickup and took him to the hospital. That evening there was no electricity at the base, but I left the generator running so everyone could enjoy the Christmas lights Neiba and gotten help to put up. We had Thanksgiving dinner with the student missionaries. Let me tell you what made my Thanksgiving Day! About a week earlier I was on a 
return flight from dropping off a medical team in a village, where for months they've been begging for help. The last runner who was sent out from this village to get help for the sick didn't even make it home. He was too weak and sick so ended up in the hospital himself. As I was saying, I got an urgent call from our radio operator. He asked me if I could go straight to Wonken and pick up a very ill baby who had pneumonia. I quickly changed headings while checking time and fuel, then picked up the mike. "I'll be to Wonken in 20 minutes. Tell the parents to be waiting for me at the runway." My scheduled flights could wait.
Upon landing I found the baby to be worse than I had imagined. The 4 month old baby was nearly dead. She would quit breathing and her mother would pat her firmly on the back to get the little one to take another breath. I need oxygen and someone to ventilate her, I thought, but I had neither. All I could do was load them into the plane and pray.
I continued to pray that the baby wouldn't die as I took off for Santa Elena. I called requesting an ambulance to be at the airport to meet me, telling them it was very important because of the condition of the baby I was flying in. I was assured an ambulance would be there.
I flew low, just a couple hundred feet off the trees, to give the little girl every chance possible of breathing. I knew if I climbed higher her little lungs wouldn't be able to handle the pressure and she would die. I kept looking back to see if she was still alive. She was barely hanging in, gasping for air and sometimes not breathing, while her mother patted her back. I kept praying, wishing I could fly faster. After a 30 minute flight we landed, with the little one scarcely breathing. No ambulance! Now I felt upset. I ran looking for someone with a car to take them to the hospital. I found someone willing and helped the desperate family into the car.
Over the next few days I upheld this baby girl in prayer. I was afraid to ask if she had lived, because humanly speaking her chances were very slim. On Thanksgiving Day I got a call from our radio operator asking when I could take this family back home. "How is the baby?" I asked. He answered, "She is doing fine and well enough to return home tomorrow."
Full of joy I told him, "Tell them that in the morning I will be happy to fly them home. I am thanking God for taking care of one of His little ones, giving her healing and life. I'm thankful also that I was close enough the day they called for help, and was able to get them to the hospital before it was too late. If you could have seen the happy, smiling face of the young mother the next morning as she with her baby climbed into the plane, you would know better how I feel. She thanked me, and thanks you for helping make it possible for me to make these flights to help those in need. There have been many people whose lives have been saved these past few weeks because we have an airplane again and I've been able to fly out to pick them up. The people of every village are so happy to have the hope that when they are sick or injured they can call for help, and their AMA airplane will come.
Thank you from all of them, and me.
Bob Norton