Adventures in the Rotor Wind

I flipped through a science and nature magazine at the library I ran in Germany. The article featured indigenous people in Papua/Indonesia. A photo showed tribal men wearing nothing but a hollow gourd, partially covering their private parts. I was shocked.

I’d never want to go where people walk around like that!

(From Adventures in the Rotor Wind)

​

​

God has a sense of humor—and a sovereign plan. A few years later, Papua/Indonesia would become Elke Kummer’s much-loved home for long-term mission work, and the sight of a tribal man in traditional attire got as normal for her as seeing someone wearing a baseball cap. During their years in Papua-Indonesia, Elke and her husband, Hans, worked with Helimission, a Swiss organization using helicopters to reach unengaged and isolated people groups. Much of the island was essentially untouched by modern life and steeped in extreme spiritual darkness. It was sobering for the couple to get a glimpse of what it means to live in a society that has never been touched by God’s Word. “Witch killings,” tribal wars, infanticide, and off-the-charts child mortality combined with no medical help brought some isolated tribes to the brink of extinction. Reaching such people groups with the gospel remains a race against time.

 

In the book series, “Adventures in the Rotor Wind,” Elke shares her experiences in a personal memoir. In the first book, subtitled “From the Office to the Jungle,” she describes her transition from a comfortable lifestyle in Germany to a life of adventure and unpredictability in pioneer mission work. Elke and her husband laid down roots in their new world, using their skills in helicopter maintenance, accounting, and housework to play a part in the team effort to bring the light of the gospel to tribes living in deep, spiritual darkness. While they constantly found themselves out of their comfort zone and faced with various challenges, God came through time and time again, helping them in both small and sometimes spectacular ways. The situations ranged from the humorous to the heartbreaking, keeping them dependent on God.

​

Elke hopes and prays these stories will open the eyes of readers to the realities of life in unreached tribes and to the fact that God equips the ones He sends. Hopefully, it will inspire Christians to play a part in reaching the remaining two billion people who have never heard about Jesus—especially the ones who can’t find Him on their own initiative because of their isolation.

 

The book series is suitable for any adventure-loving reader and in particular for those who are considering going into missions, those who support missionaries, and those who have never heard of unreached people groups.

​

​

Adventures in the Rotor Wind tells the story of Elke’s transition from a comfortable lifestyle in Germany to a life of adventure and unpredictability in pioneer mission work.