Edmund J. Kalau Film Collection

Abstract

Pastor Edmund J. Kalau was born and raised in Germany during World War II. He then trained to be a pilot in the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe, but the war ended before he saw combat. This period of his life is one he is loath to discuss and will direct his conversations instead to how he became a Christian after hearing a Russian doctor named T.H. Moscalkow whilst on a speaking tour (Kinchen 48). In 1950, the newly converted Edmund Kalau entered the Libenzell Seminary in Germany to begin ministerial studies and graduated in 1954. He expressed an interest in becoming a missionary while there and when he approached the board governing missionary activity they asked if he had a preference of locations, he replied that he would go wherever he was sent. The board assigned him to go to the island of Yap in the Caroline Islands in Micronesia. Before leaving Edmund had also met Elizabeth Grunewald, the granddaughter of Heinrich Coerper, the founder of the Libenzell Mission; they were married on October 15, 1954. After completing the mandatory indoctrination period required of missionaries traveling to the Marianas, the Kalau’s left the United States for Micronesia in January of 1956 (Kinchen 49). While in Yap, Edmund Kalau saw just how slow boat based evacuation of wounded or ill patients could be and was on a government ship evacuating a seriously ill patient who died in transit to the hospital on Yap’s main island (Kinchen 47 This inspired him to do something about the situation. On April 24, 1974 Pacific Missionary Aviation was incorporated as a legal entity in the American Territory of Guam; a year later the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands government granted Pacific Missionary Aviation authority to begin aviation services, including medical evacuations to regional centers and establishment of an air transportation link from regional centers to the outer islands of Micronesia (Kinchen 55). Pastor Kalau has since retired, leaving the day to day operations of Pacific Missionary Aviation to his sons and others willing to carry out the work of expanding their faith. Pastor Kalau died on January 8, 2014. Source: Kinchen, Mary. In the Shadow of His Wings: Pacific Missionary Aviation in Micronesia, 1974 to 2005. Mangilao, Guam: University of Guam, 2006.