What We’re Doing
We’re the Snader family and we’re serving as a aircraft mechanic family with Samaritan Aviation. Samaritan Aviation is a Christian non-profit organization who provides free emergency medical flights for remote river villages in Papua New Guinea who would otherwise have days to the nearest hospital. In fact, Samaritan Aviation is based beside the only hospital in an area the size of Mississippi!
Click here for more details on the mission of Samaritan Aviation.
Quick question: Where in the world is Papua New Guinea?
Papua New Guinea is located on an island called New Guinea which is right above Australia. It shares the island with Indonesia which claims the western half of the island. PNG is on the eastern half and has a population of around 7 million people.
Where will you be living in PNG?
We’ll be living in a “city” called Wewak because Samaritan Aviation’s base is located there, a few miles down the road from Boram hospital, where our patients are taken for treatment.
What language do they speak?
Papua New Guinea has 862 active languages within its borders. Something like 20% of the world’s languages are from Papua New Guinea. The terrain is so rugged that tribes don’t mingle very much and so they languages stay isolated. That’s crazy! Thankfully we won’t have to learn all of them. We’ll be learning Tok Pisin which is a very common pidgin trade language.
Who We Are
Josh
Well, first things first. My name is Josh. I’m to blame for this blog. I process things out loud and so this little project helps me manage my stress.
This blog is my cheapest hobby and so Janice encourages it, as long as the trash gets taken out and the appliances fixed.
I grew up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. I worked in photography, graphic design, marketing, and did estimates for a horizontal drilling company as well. I even worked as a menswear clerk during high school in a local department store stocking underwear shelves and helping old ladies try on shoes. Later I made dry pretzel mix for a nationally franchised soft pretzel company and I was one of three people in the world who knew the secret soft pretzel recipe (although I’ve completely forgotten it since then).
Before we felt called to go to Samaritan Aviation, God led us to an organization called MMS Aviation where they prepare people and planes for worldwide missionary service. I did not have a background in aviation but I worked on enough cheap motorcycles to know that I liked fixing things. I always thought that to be a missionary you had to be an evangelist. I know that we’re all called to be evangelists but I never felt like that was my natural gifting. When I found there were more cogs in the wheels of the Gospel than just being an evangelist, I was delighted. I no longer had to hammer a square peg into a round hole. I had found a way to be involved in the Great Commission that fit my gifting!
Am I a pilot? No, I’m not. Here’s why…
Janice
Janice is my wife which I assume you’ve figured out already. She was born in Paraguay and later moved to Michigan. Janice always had a heart to serve people and since her family lived in Paraguay for twenty years, her cultural experience was broad enough to realize the needs outside her own bubble. She loves to host other mothers in our home and enjoys experimenting with new recipes, taking care of her array of succulents and potted plants, and lovingly tends to her sourdough bread starter. Janice helped build Jayco motorhomes, operated dump trucks and excavators for her brother’s excavating company, and worked on her parent’s dairy farm. Her resume is far more manly than mine. Without Janice the kids would be running naked and hungry.
Janice is from Michigan and you’re from Pennsylvania, so how did you guys meet?
Well, it involved raccoons and, well, click here to read the whole story.
What are you guys’ testimonies?
Read more about how we came to faith by clicking here.
Will Janice and the kids be involved with the ministry?
Certainly! Samaritan Aviation has a daily hospital visitation ministry, which is where most of the evangelism takes place. Janice and the children will help visit Samaritan Aviation and other patients in the hospital, as well as help with clinic outreaches in remote villages when needed. About 40% of our patients are expecting mothers experiencing complications or very young children. Some of these remote villages have a child mortality rate of 40%. Domestic abuse is very common due to tribal customs. Janice will have the opportunity to minister to some of the most vulnerable women in the world.
Adilene
Adi is our oldest. If you meet her on the street and try to talk to her you’ll assume she doesn’t have ears or a tongue. But she’s much more observant than you would think and once you get to know her, she doesn’t stop talking. She’s super creative and loves painting, drawing, and making crafts.
Elliot
Elliot is all afterburner and no rudder. A rocket without fins. It’s hard to control his direction. He loves anything mechanical and fast. He’s unabashed male aggression. He loves his little brother, a little too much at times.
Oliver
It feels like Oliver is following closely in Elliot’s footsteps. These two boys will get into all kinds of trouble.
Where will your kids go to school?
We are going to homeschool our children. Janice is pretty nervous about this. However, there are other families on base who are homeschooling as well. The mothers on base have a variety of skills and so there’s a good pool of shared knowledge.
How long is your commitment to Samaritan Aviation?
We have a six month furlough for every two years of overseas service. As far as how long we’ll be missionaries, that’s impossible to answer. Our desire is to be lifelong missionaries but we can’t possibly know how long the Lord will enable us to do this ministry. Right now we’re taking it one step at a time, which is about as fast as any of us can really go.
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