Will help fund restoration of Andrew Stewart
Linden Chuang
Communications assistant
Adventist Media Network
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia
The Adventist Heritage Centre is adding to the six chapters in Balus Belong 7 Day. Customers who buy the e-book will automatically receive the revised version on its release. Credit: Bradley Marshall.
The launch of an e-book about a Seventh-day Adventist mission aeroplane will help raise money for its refurbishment and relocation for permanent display.
Balus Belong 7 Day, published by the Adventist Heritage Centre and launched at Avondale Library on May 1, tells the story of the Andrew Stewart. The aeroplane is the first to be operated by any division of the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Author Dr Lester Devine (centre) has dedicated an e-book about the Andrew Stewart to the aeroplane’s first pilots Pastors Len Barnard (left) and Colin Winch (right). Credit: Kaitlyn Betts.
Author Dr Lester Devine dedicated the book to retired ministers Pastors Len Barnard and Colin Winch, who received the first copies. The “father of Adventist mission aviation in the South Pacific” and the church’s former chief pilot were the first to fly the aeroplane. Lester, director emeritus of the Ellen G White Seventh-day Adventist Research Centre, describes himself as an “aviation buff.” “That comes from Len,” he says. “He used to come from furlough into our community and regale me with stories of flying and missions.”
The president of the church in the South Pacific, Dr Barry Oliver, also honours Len and Colin for their “vision and foresight to make a radical change in the way we operated. It took unflinching determination to enthuse those who hesitated and to gather the considerable financial resources needed to launch the aviation program,” he writes in the foreword of the book. “It takes the same kind of determination to keep it going today.”
The church in the South Pacific bought the Cessna 180-B four times and sold it three times. Dedicated at Bankstown Airport in Sydney in June 1964, the aeroplane—its initials are VH-SDA—honours pioneer missionary Pastor Andrew Stewart. It flew 5000 hours without a single accident or insurance claim during its service, mostly in remote areas of Papua New Guinea. The Andrew Stewart became a static display in November 1987, mounted on a pedestal at the South Sea Islands Museum in Cooranbong.
The Adventist Heritage Centre brought the aeroplane down from its pedestal in July 2008 to begin restoration. “Every cent raised [by the sale of the book] will go towards restoration,” says curator Rose-lee Power. “Any extra money will go towards funding a hangar.”
The Adventist Heritage Centre hopes to complete the $60,000 project by June 2014, the 50th anniversary of the Andrew Stewart’s first flight.—with Brenton Stacey, public relations officer, Avondale College of Higher Education
Balus Belong 7 Day is available from Amazon.com and other online booksellers.