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Emergency in the Amazon

By Ruth Scheltema

An excerpt from ABWE’s newest book, In the Air for Him; The Story of Hank Scheltema and ABWE Air.

Pedro, a Brazilian rubber worker, signaled frantically from the shore to my husband, Hank Scheltema, who was taxiing his floatplane up the Ituí River, one of the many tributaries of the mighty Amazon River in Brazil.

“Help, Senhor Henrique! Hurry!”

Until that moment, this flight had been one of Hank’s routine, bi-monthly trips to hold preaching services at the rubber collector’s hut on the Ituí. But now, he faced an unexpected emergency.

Hank snapped off the floatplane’s master switch and adjusted the rudders so he could steer across the swirling current to the muddy bank, where dugout canoes cluttered the shoreline. The whirling prop stilled as he opened the cabin door and stepped out on to the float, where he steadied himself against the wing strut, bracing for the lurch of the float thudding against the riverbank.

Again, Pedro shouted. “Hurry, Senhor Henrique—a cascavel bit Francisco!”

Hank grabbed an oar and a rope from the cabin, jumped off the float and plunged the oar into the soft clay, then quickly knotted the rope around it to secure the plane. He snatched his medical kit from the cargo pod, knowing that the bite of the cascavel, or rattlesnake, could prove fatal in minutes.

“How long since he was bitten?” he asked. “Has anything been done to help him?”

Pedro answered, “We cut open the puncture and sucked out the venom, but his leg is swelling already.”

Ahead in the tall grass, almost concealed by a group of onlookers, Francisco writhed in pain. Hank dropped to his knees beside him and injected the antivenin serum, then drafted two onlookers to help carry the injured man to the riverfront. “We’ve got to get Francisco to the plane so I can fly him to the hospital. I’ll come back next week to hold the Bible study.”

When they reached the river, Hank got the injured man safely aboard the plane and took off in the direction of the Benjamin Constant mission station.

“Save him, Lord,” Hank pleaded silently as he flew.

At Benjamin Constant, Hank banked the plane and began descending to the small tributary that flowed in front of our house and hangar. I had heard the roar of the engine surging up onto the ramp of the floating hangar and was already running toward it, slipping and sliding down the crude steps carved into the muddy river bank.

While Hank and the hangar guard lowered Francisco, weak and nauseated with air sickness, from the plane’s cabin, I brought the speedboat alongside so they could get him aboard. After all he’d been through, Francisco still faced a fifteen-minute boat ride downriver to the hospital.

By God’s grace, Francisco survived the snakebite, even though he continued to suffer side effects years later. Not long after that emergency flight, Francisco and Francisca, his wife, received Christ as Savior. Because Francisco was physically unable to return to the Ituí headwaters to collect rubber, they settled in Benjamin Constant, where they joined the First Regular Baptist Church. They adopted a Ticuna Indian baby, Raimundo, who later professed Christ, attended the church school, and furthered his education in Manaus, where he joined a Baptist church and remains faithful to the Lord today.

This is a real-life story that is worthy of your reading. It will build your faith, encourage your heart, and expose you to what it has taken to share the gospel of Christ to the remote areas of the world. It will humble you by the risks taken, the energy expended, and the lives totally dedicated to the Savior. Therefore, read and be challenged and blessed, informed and revived.
—Wendell Kempton, DD, ThM, ThB, President Emeritus of ABWE
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This was just one of many lifesaving flights Hank made as ABWE’s first missionary pilot to the Amazon. He knew from experience that the plane would help him save lives in emergencies. With it, he could also spare other missionaries hours of bone-wearying travel, and could distribute their mail and food supplies.  Although aviation had the potential to make missions safer and more efficient, Hank believed that missionary aviation had to be more than a taxi service.

Hank longed to use his airplane to reach isolated people groups along the Amazon River tributaries, waterways so remote that the only efficient way to get to them would be via floatplane. His heart’s desire was to lead people to Christ, to teach those people to live by God’s Word, and to see them pass on their faith to future generations.

By God’s grace and for His glory, Hank partnered with Americans, Brazilians, and Indians to plant or help in many church ministries. Through his aerial surveys of the Amazon River and its tributaries, which spread from the borders of Peru, Colombia, and Brazil, the ministry of ABWE expanded to several new preaching points and stations. Eventually, the missionary aviation work Hank began became ABWE AIR, and spread into seven different countries.