STORY - "Winged WYD Messengers Make Flying Visit to Rutherford"

Friday 30 May was clear, sunny and quiet in Rutherford - until a fleet of seven planes came whirring in to land at the local airport. From the plane registered as Iesus Hominum Salvator a priest stepped out and with a large grin was welcomed by locals as he and his aviation friends made one of their final stops on the Fly Away to Heaven trip.

Fly Away to Heaven is an exciting initiative that has been three years in the planning for Fr John Fowles of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, Thurgoona. He set out from Albury airport in his hand built Jabiru J400 named Angel Wings, on a twelve leg goodwill fly-a-thon around Australia. Fr John is spreading “the gift of giving,” and he believes in “a special outreach, handing a blessing onto someone else.” Where is this blessing going? All the money raised from donations and the sale of the project’s theme song “Earth Angels Care,” composed by country singer Korey Livy, will be donated to Baguia Orphanage in East Timor.

One of Fr John’s fellow pilots tells a story about the poverty in East Timor. Jacques Garnier from Victoria has visited the orphanage and said, “I have never felt anything more humbling in all my life.” He said when he visited the 51 orphans they asked him for just one bike for Christmas and he could not believe that one bike could bring happiness to so many children when in Australia almost every child has a bike. The nominated projects for the orphanage include a designated building program, along with the establishment of a nutritional food, education, health and hygiene program. At the same time Fly Away To Heaven in conjunction with the Pilgrim Partnership Support Program will promote World Youth Day 2008 by sponsoring a group of young people from East Timor to attend this event in Sydney.

The Rutherford visit was a success with everyone sharing conversation over lunch at St Paul’s Primary School. “East Timor is the poorest nation in Asia. Almost half the population lives below the poverty line, and many adults earn less than 50 cents per day,” said Mrs Patricia Banister, local event organiser from St Paul’s Rutherford.

“This project really aims to make a difference. We’re proud to support such a creative way of raising awareness and much-needed funds for the East Timorese people,” she said. “We’ve been looking forward to hearing from Fr John about his travels and his hopes for the project.”

Amongst the pilots was a policeman, a sixteen year old student and an IT consultant from Germany. “We appeal to every man, woman and child in this great country to share a little of their wealth in the Christian spirit of loving their neighbours, so that the children of East Timor can have a roof over their head, eat a healthy meal every day and be educated so they can build a life and help pull their communities out of the dramatic poverty they live in today!” said Fr John. Flying on a wing and a prayer his little plane suffered a breakdown on the way and one other plane on the trip experienced wheel damage but other than that the flight was safe and successful. “On the seventh day of rest, she threw out her legs and dug her heels in,” Fr John said referring to his plane.

The Fly Away to Heaven Project has also instigated a Prayer Crusade throughout the dioceses of Australia. People have placed their signatures with their prayer commitment in a book which will be presented to Pope Benedict at World Youth Day.

Jessie Brown

Back to Aurora Homepage