Welcome And What We Support

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Hi, I'm Shelly Mauer. And I'm Cher Emmerich. Welcome to Life Lessons from Pickleball, where we engage with pickleball players from around the world about life on and off the court.

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Thanks for joining us.

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Before we get started, we have something really exciting to share. Our book, Life Lessons from Pickleball, is now available on Amazon, and a portion of every sale is donated to Operation PaddleLift.

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Your purchase helps deliver paddles, nets, and resources to underserved communities around the world.

Meet A Mission Pilot Champion

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Thank you for being a part of Growing the Game We All Love. Now let's jump into today's episode. Welcome everyone to Life Lessons from Pickleball. Today we are really honored to welcome Mark Palm, founder and CEO of Samaritan Aviation, which provides life-saving medical flights to remote villages along the Seep River. Am I saying it right?

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Seepik, that's it.

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Seepic River in Papua New Guinea. For more than 20 years, Mark has been flying into isolated jungle communities where many people have no roads, electricity, or access to medical care. He has personally led more than 1,500 life-saving flights.

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Mark is also a USA Pickleball National Champion and is now introducing pickleball to village kids in Papua New Guinea who are currently playing on a helicopter pad.

How Pickleball First Hooked Mark

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Mark, your journey with pickleball began during a very challenging season of life, and the sport ended up changing more than just your physical health. Tell us how pickleball first came into your life.

Cancer Diagnosis And Chemo Reality

SPEAKER_03 1:40

Yeah, you know, it's great to be with you guys. Uh Sherry and Shelley, thanks for having me. And um, you know, I came back from Papua New Guinea 2019 with my family. It was coming back to get my my daughter through her senior year of high school. And I was I stopped in, we always used to stop in Hawaii on the way back from Papua New Guinea. We'd go for two years at a time, come back, and we'd kind of get re-acclimated to Western civilization uh in Hawaii on an island which is a little slower paced than uh than San Diego, where we're based out of. And so uh we stopped there, and a friend of mine starts talking about pickleball. And I'm like, that, you know, probably like a lot of other people at that time, like that kind of sounds like a silly name. Like pickleball, what does that even mean, you know? And he was a tennis guy. And um, so anyway, I just kept hearing it, uh, hearing the name for and uh so part of what I did when I came back uh in the fall was I would travel around America with one of our float planes. We used seaplanes in Papua New Guinea, landing in on the rivers. And so I was flying a plane around raising awareness for the organization. I raised funds, we're a nonprofit, and so I was speaking at different places, and I ended up in Minnesota. Uh and uh I spoke spoke and and uh and we're talking to one of our donors, and he says, Hey, uh, you've got to come and play pickleball tomorrow morning. And I'm like, pickleball? I keep hearing about this. Uh I'm, you know, uh, all right, let's let's do it. So he's like, we got to get up at 5:30 in the morning, and and uh, you know, I was jet lagged and everything else, but I'm like, I'm I'm in, sounds fun. So I get there, it's raining, it's Minnesota, of course. So I find myself in a gym with with a bunch of uh you know older people and uh kind of the kind of the whole stereotypical pickleball crowd. And uh, you know, trying to figure the game out, these these older ladies were were kicking my tail, and but it was just so much fun, you know, and I started picking it up pretty quickly. Um I've I've done athletics my whole life and mostly surfing and and then high school sports, football and and uh baseball, but I uh basketball, but so but this was something new, and and uh I love ping pong and had played tennis a little bit. So all of a sudden I find myself figuring it out and realizing pretty quickly that there's a whole strategic side of pickleball that really intrigued me. And so I came came back from that trip and I was in San Diego, and I'm like, I wonder if there's anybody playing in my area. And of course, uh uh Bobby Riggs, actually, which is one of the earlier pickleball uh clubs, is like 15 minutes from my house, and Steve Dawson and uh has become a great friend and his and Jen. And uh, anyways, uh just started playing there. Well, um part of my journey was uh as I was playing, it as I was getting better and better, but then all of a sudden I started getting winded. And I'm like, why am I, you know, I'm on this, yeah, I'm playing, you know, harder, better people, but I shouldn't be like getting to the point where I'm struggling, my heart rate's up, I'm having a hard time getting my breath. And through some other things, I I I ended up getting a CT scan and finding out that I had a growth in my coming off of my chest that was actually uh off of my left lung that was knocking my windpipe over to the point of cutting my my air off. Wow. And so uh through different doctors' appointments and the CT scans and everything, and then going in doing the biopsies, I found that I had uh a B cell lymphoma. And so I had started playing pickleball maybe a couple months before. So I was I renewed the game and they'd opened a park near my house at that point. It was just starting to take off in this area. And uh so of course with B cell lymphoma, they don't in this situation, they don't remove the tumor, they shrink it down with chemo. And so I ended up on six months of chemotherapy. Uh and I had a bag around my, you know, hooked to myself for a week and uh with you know everything pumping into me every 20 seconds and you know, with port in my chest. I couldn't surf anymore, I couldn't really do anything uh athletic that I was used to doing, and pickleball became the one thing I could do. And so I would go through a week of chemo and I would come out of it like, you know, in bed the first day after, could go downstairs the second day, as my red blood cells would come back after each round. But by by Monday, for me, that was the day where I could get out and I would find myself at the park on the social side. You know, at that time I was playing good enough within a few months to be on the challenger side. Those of you who are at the different parks know the challenger side versus the social side, and that's kind of a thing they had at this park. And so uh I would go out and I would play one or two games and I would be totally wiped out, and I'd go home. And the next morning I'd wake up again and I'd get out and I'd play three games. And then by Friday, I was back on the challenger side for one or two games. And then I would I would have a couple weeks in between chemo sessions. So by the time I was ready to go back, I would, I could play seven or eight games on the challenger side. And it was really um, it's hard to explain when you are going through the suffering in that fashion. I mean, you're it's hard to describe, you know, sores in your mouth, and and you, you, you're on prednisone, super high amounts, you're on, so you're sleep, you have sleep pills, and then you you're on this uh steroid that you can't sit still and and you're swelling up every ever every round you get worse and worse. But the one cons constant that I had was was pickleball. And it was this physical outside um community, you know. So it was like you're you're locked in your house when you're uh dealing with with this kind of cancer, and and you can't get out of bed. And then once you get to go out, to be able to talk to people, um and a lot of them had no idea what I was going through, and and I wasn't out announcing it, so I could go kind of not talk about it. It was kind of this way to get away from cancer, um, get outside, we're in San Diego, where it's if the weather's really nice, and and just enjoy the the fresh air and do something physical. And it really um I will uh confess I the the bag that I had on the chemo bag, I actually could strap it on like a fanny pack. And one day I did play pickleball while I had while I was getting chemo injected in me every 20 seconds. And that was a little awkward as people are asking me, like, what's that bag around your waist, you know? And uh anyway, I told my doctor and she got very upset at me, but that's how that's how much fun pickleball was for me, you know. That just that release, uh something different, you know, and the community side. And so pickleball really, um, from a mental health standpoint, I can just say, like, it's I know a lot of people have stories about what it's done kind of in their lives, community-wise, uh physical-wise, exercise, whatever it is. But for me, uh getting through cancer, that was the one physical thing I could do. And it was uh it was transformative for me personally.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Well, and amazing, like you said, the thing I love about Pickleball too is when you show up, people are excited to see you. You know, it's always so nice to have people happy to see you, especially when you're going through something like that, right?

SPEAKER_03 8:46

Yeah, that's it. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

And so how are you now, Mark?

SPEAKER_03 8:50

Yeah, I just went uh, you know, five years now, just finished five years, and everything is great. Um, I ended up doing radiation after I did six months of chemo, and then I had about six months off before they did another PET CT scan. They thought maybe they wasn't all gone, so I did five more weeks of radiation in the fall of 2021. Of course, or 2020. I I finished chemo three days before COVID broke out, which was very scary because all my B cells were gone, which is what fights, which is what fights COVID, right? Which fights viruses. And so I was hiding in my room for quite a while, uh just as we tried to figure out what it was, and you know, with everybody um obviously globally, it was a big issue. And so um that was a very difficult time of just kind of like not touching anything that would come in the, you know, it from Amazon or anything, like just all that, a lot of fear uh pessy early on with me not having B cells. But here I am. Uh I feel great. I'm I'm I play pickleball when I try when I'm in New Guinea. I'm even playing, as you mentioned, as I teach the kids and and other of my staff over there. Now they're all playing with their families um every week. And and uh and now I'm playing senior pro. Um getting ready in a few weeks to play the US Open in Naples with my uh son. My son's a professional pickleball player on the APP tour. And so him and I'll be playing Split Pro again. We played it last year for the first time, and uh, and then I'll be playing senior pro and he'll be playing uh the main pro. So it's it's pickleball's been awesome for that too. Just being able to play with my son and win tournaments when I was first teaching him how to play, and then now to see him uh just go to a whole different level. It's just been great.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

What's his name?

SPEAKER_03 10:33

Uh his name's Drake Palm. Drake Palm, okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:37

We'll be watching from him.

SPEAKER_03 10:38

At Drake the Pickler is his Instagram, if you if you're on Instagram. And he's uh yeah, he's he just uh got a bronze in India, uh, beat Jack Monroe and uh Lin Yang over there. So he's on the uh on the rise. He's been on the national APP national next gen team and has been winning those tournaments as well. So it's so much fun just to watch uh watch him grow and coach him and and then watch him get better than me. And and uh, you know, it's fun. It's such a great sport. And uh now that I get to live a little vicariously through him as well.

The Call To Serve Papua New Guinea

SPEAKER_02 11:12

And he gets to see his dad, who you can only, I mean, I can only imagine the fear that he was feeling while you were going through your cancer and all, and he gets to see his dad healthy and playing, and and then you both share in this amazing sport. I mean, that's that's really touching. Um, and I want to ask you about pickleball in in New Guinea, but first take us back to how you even got involved in this. I mean, here you were saving lives with your flight, and then you had to do your own life saving, and you had people around you helping you. How did you get involved in uh New Guinea to begin with?

SPEAKER_03 11:49

Yeah, so I had an interesting upbringing. My uh my father was a minister, uh, my grandfather was a World War II pilot. And so kind of being raised in uh aviation and helping others, my dad ran a homeless mission uh up in Santa Cruz, California when I was in high school. And uh during that, I mean I'd always seen my dad up talking and on Sundays at church or whatever. But what when you actually go do something physically for somebody and help change a life, I mean, that had a huge impact as a teenager where we'd feed feed people in Santa Cruz, give them clothes if it was cold, a raincoat if it's raining, uh, and just love people, you know. And uh so that was real transformative. And then I found myself in Mexico as a 16-year-old building houses for people less fortunate and seeing a new culture for the first time. Uh had no idea just south of the border, you could you could have such a different life. Um, and that had a huge impact. While I was there, I had a spiritual experience, hard to explain. Um, and it's the only time really it's happened that way. But God just spoke to me one morning when I was doing meditation and praying, and and what I heard him say was, Mark, I want you to use your passion for people and aviation to share my love in a remote part of the world. And I had no idea what that meant exactly. I was 16, but it was like, okay, that's that's it was like verbally, it was that loud and and clear. So I came back to Northern California, like, what do I what do I do now? You know, and I ended up going back to Florida to a small school, uh college there, um, that had an aviation program, and uh met a met a buddy there who was born in Papua New Guinea. And he was uh he was uh hadn't been back since he was a little kid. And so my summer after my freshman year of college, I found myself with him and I over in Papua New Guinea living with the people in these remote villages and just hearing stories of people dying, trying to get to the only hospitals, hearing about people living days away from the only medical help, uh, seeing that there was no seaplanes, huge rivers, the Seepik River, for example, 700 miles long, the size of the Mississippi would be the closest thing you could like describe it to here in the States. And uh hundreds of thousands of villagers living along the river with and with no way to get to the only hospital, which for a lot of them is three, four days away. And so we had this vision that was like, wow, you know, we could could we get an airplane and turn a three-day trip to the only hospital into a one-hour flight? And then the second part is could we do that and not charge the people? And uh that was the dream, and and uh that's where it began. That was 1994, 32 years ago. And uh we came back, I started flying airplanes at that point, um, went to aircraft mechanic school, did all of that stuff, and then we started uh Samaritan Aviation as a nonprofit in 2000, and we had a dream, and and we we took a photo of my wife and I, his wife and and him in front of someone else's airplane, and we had this little uh blurb that we said this is what we want to do. And we we formed a nonprofit and we sent that out to 330 people, and that's that was the beginning of Samaritan Aviation. And uh it was uh 10 years later before my wife and I, and our three little kids, uh Drake, uh Sierra, and Nolan arrived in Papua New Guinea with our first float plane and started operations there in 2010. And now, 16 years later, we have four four seaplanes. We have about 30 staff members, and uh, planes are flying every day over in Papua New Guinea, saving lives and reaching these remote communities where people are literally three days away from the only hospital or an hour of flight. It's life-changing. And uh this I could tell you story after story, saving mothers. Uh, 40% of what we do is mothers and babies, and uh, and then just uh sickness outbreaks, uh, you know, uh snake bites, any other type of medical emergency. Uh, we're there to serve the people, and we don't charge for the flights. We've never had to charge for the flights, just serving and offering uh just hope to these people that have none if we're not there. And so that's what we do, and that's what I still do. I I run the organization uh from here, and I'm over in Papua New Guinea about four or five months a year. I raise most of the funding on this side, and and then uh obviously my CEO role uh as well, managing the the staff. But um, yeah, it's so awesome to be just got back from two months over there and uh just right out in the middle, uh going even still as we were going to different parts of the island now, landing in places no one's ever landed an airplane and villagers seeing an airplane for the very first time. Oh, even a month ago, I was landing in villages, and the the look on the faces of the people is unbelievable. And then to save a life, to go in and touch someone who doesn't have hope if you're not there is uh is a is an unbelievable feeling. And it's driven, you know, our organization is called Samaritan Aviation. Um, and it's really the story uh Jesus told a story in the New Testament about who is my neighbor, and really describing a situation where somebody helps somebody else where culturally it wasn't expected. And so for us, that's really uh the two commandments love God and love your neighbor. And so for us, the people in Papua New Guinea, they're our neighbors, and that's who we've been called to love and serve, and that's really the heart of Samaritan aviation and what we do.

SPEAKER_02 17:06

That is such an important message, and especially right now in this time in this world, that is such an important message. Oh, thank you so much for the work you're doing. How cool that you had that real clear message and at such a young age, and then it all evolved so beautifully. So you said you could tell us a whole lot of stories. Are there any particular stories that kind of have stayed with you that you could share?

SPEAKER_03 17:34

Yeah, you know, one of my favorites is uh is really the first medical flight I ever did. I, you know, for 10 years I went around uh America telling people who didn't know where Papua New Guinea is. For those of you who don't know where it is, it's north of Australia. It's the second largest island in the world. Half of it is Aryan Gyra or Indonesia, and half of it is Papua New Guinea. 12 million people just on that side of the island, 840 languages, 14,000-foot mountains going through the middle of the island. It's and the island itself is a landmass, it's the size of the state of California. So it's not some small little island that people think, oh, probably, you know, little island, a few thousand people. It's very large, and it's one of the most remote places on earth, still considered the last frontier. Um, and so that's that's the place uh where we serve. And so uh, you know, telling people in America, like, hey, if you could help us buy an airplane, if you could help fund us, we can go save lives. These people have three days away from the only hospital. That's a whole conversation in itself for someone in America where there's five hospitals within an hour of probably most of us. Uh that whole concept is so foreign. Um, and then the idea that we can land this airplane, there's no one else flying a float plane, we can land it on the water. And so 10 years of telling that story, we finally get there, and the first call comes in for a mother in labor. It was Good Friday, 2010, and um get the call. You know, I'm I still remember putting the stretcher in the airplane, making sure everything was good. The weather was bad, of course, but we managed to get through the clouds, get down on the side of this river, and they're bringing this unconscious mother on a stretcher to the airplane and load her in the plane. And as a pilot, we fly Cessna 206s, their little six-seat aircraft. Her head is really like a foot away from me as I'm flying the airplane. And I keep looking back and I see uh she's still breathing, but her she's totally unconscious. And it's only a 35-minute flight, but that flight feels like forever. Um, but we finally get her there, we get her in the in our car, get her to the hospital. And the next day, my wife and I and our three kids, uh, we always go visit the people in the hospital that we bring in and bring them food and clothes and and pray with them and talk and just love on them. And the next day we walk in looking for Antonia was her name. And and you know, I'll never forget walking around the corner and seeing uh this lady holding this little baby boy. Seeing two lives, you know, that that were saved. And I thought back to all of those years of telling people, if you help us, we can save lives, we can change communities. And there I there is this lady holding this little baby boy, and and her her she looks up at me and she says, We we want you uh and your wife to name our boy. And I'm like, wow, okay, hold on a minute. Like, I've in America we don't typically name people's children. And so I'm like, give me a minute. So I, you know, give us a day or two. So we went home, tried to come up with a name, came back, and and we said, we have a name for your child, and she says, Never mind, um, we've named him after you. And his name is Mark. And so forever I've been connected with this young, this young little baby. Well, fast forward now, you know, he's almost 16. He'll be 16 years old in the next few weeks. And um, he's in in school, he's doing amazing. His mom Antonio just became a grandma. I just saw her recently and had a chance to go into her village along the river and and uh give her a hug. And uh just, you know, those are the stories. Like that's one family that we've impacted that just the mother's now alive, so now she's a grandma. The the young man is in is in seventh grade now at school and doing amazing. And so um, I get, yeah, story after story like that, you know, thousands of flights that I've done. But uh that one always sticks with me because it was the first one, and it's one I'm still in touch with the with the young man and the mom. And uh it's just it's so relevant still today uh to go in these places and see uh people that come up and say, Thank you. You saved my mom, you saved my my daughter, my husband, my you know, my child, whatever it, whatever it is. Um they're so grateful that we're there. And now we're starting uh one family. I flew in the the wife of this gentleman, his daughter, and now I've flown his granddaughter in. So three generations. Of lives that I've saved just in one family. So that's anyway, going back to the village is really an awesome time. And just just we call it, you know, we're just trying to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We're just there to love. We don't charge. We're not trying to get anything out of them. We're just like, hey, uh, God loves you and and uh he values you and you deserve a chance to live when you're sick. And that's really what we do.

How Villagers Reach The Team

SPEAKER_01 22:24

Wow. How how do you do they have how do they have cell service in these remote places or how do they contact you?

SPEAKER_03 22:32

That's a great question. When we first when we first arrived, it was HF radio, high frequency radio, like shortwave. Uh now they've put uh they've put cell towers along the river. And so some of the villagers will have to run 30 minutes along the river, climb a coconut tree to get cell service. Other ones they'll climb a mountain to get to get a call out, or they also know where on the river they can go to. So they'll get in a boat, come down to a certain location, and they're able to reach us. And we have a nurse on call seven days a week holding a phone where we can triage the patient, figure out what they need. If they need anti-venom, if we need a trauma nurse, if we need a midwife, we work with the with the only hospital to provide uh nurses on the flights to make sure that we can offer the health care for the patients to get them back to the hospital to give them a chance to live.

SPEAKER_02 23:19

Wow. Mark, I just am overwhelmed. Um lots of questions, some kind of logistical. So are the airplanes equipped with medical equipment as well?

SPEAKER_03 23:31

Yeah, so they're they're uh they have they have stretchers, we have oxygen, we have a medical bag. So it depends on what we need, we can get I give IVs. Um, we can, if it's a snake bite, like I mentioned, we can bring the anti-vitamin and save their life that way. So it basically we're just trying to get them to the hospital as quickly as we can. It's not like um, you know, you we don't have the machinery and stuff like that that some of the Medevac planes in this in America would have.

unknown 23:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:58

But our job really is to say, how can we get them to the hospital as quickly as we can, keep them stable long enough for the hospital to do what they do well.

SPEAKER_02 24:06

And how is the hospital there?

SPEAKER_03 24:09

It's getting better. Uh, you know, it's um it's hard to describe, but like for them, it's amazing, right? It's the only chance they have to live. For our standards, we probably would would um we wouldn't think it was real high standards of of care. I think the biggest challenge is enough staff uh to uh to deal. I mean, it's one hospital serving a million people. So if you can imagine uh, you know, one of our hospitals serving a million people, there's always a shortage. Um but the most serious cases do get served, and so that's really what our focus is is saving lives. And uh and the hospital does a great job of keeping people keeping people alive. Um, and uh when it when it's a serious case, we're able to save their life.

Teaching Pickleball On A Helipad

SPEAKER_02 24:54

Thank you, thank you, thank you for that amazing work. And now you are bringing this amazing game to this community. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_03 25:07

Yeah, it it's you know, it's one of those those those things. When I was surfing, I I've surfed all my life, and and when I first moved to Papua New Guinea, I started the surf club and and introduced surfing to a bunch of the different islands around where we're based, and it's held surf contests and things like that. Um, and then now pickleball has become my my main focus. And and so I'm like, the kids need to learn, and it's really cool. People step up, you know, the pickleball community is super giving. Uh, one of our sponsors, a Mavericks Pickleball, um, they gave us three paddles uh to take to the kids. And uh and so I just one of the places we're expanding to, so we're most of what I've described to you is on the north side of the island on the Seepik River, and we're now expanding across the mountains to the Gulf province to a place in it's called Kapuna, but there's it's 50 miles from the nearest road. It's in a swamp, there's no cars, there's no there's no vehicles of any sort. Like it's literally a hospital in a village alongside of a river, and um, and most and it's underwater part of the part of the year, different times, but there's a helicopter pad there that's only it's 26 by 26, so it's it's a little difficult. Um, and when you when you go off the edge, you're dropping a foot into the swampy water or whatever. But uh when you can introduce a sport, like if you could imagine someone who's never seen a paddle, right? They've never held a paddle of sport, a sport paddle of any type. Um, and it's just interesting watching watching them learn. I mean, the people in New Guinea are very athletic. Uh, it was interesting. The girls picked it up much faster. The game just kind of figured it all out and uh really excelled quickly. And the guys are just trying to smash the ball or whatever. But um just it's so interesting when you watch someone just try to hold a paddle for the first time and you're you know, you're teaching them. Um, but it's been so much fun just to see the smiles and the laughter. Um, and in that culture, it's it's um, you know, women are are looked down upon a little bit as far as the value system in that culture. It's um women are kind of second-class citizens in a lot of ways. And uh so to have a sport where guys and girls can play at an equal playing field is actually really cool. Um, so it kind of takes some of that uh, you know, that gender side uh away, and all of a sudden the girls are beating the guys, and it's kind of fun to watch that um as well. And it's just good for those guys, you know, to be reminded of that. But uh you know, girls are good. So um, so that's uh that's been fun. And my wife and I do this together, she's such a part of this, and um, but anyway, yeah, so much fun to watch the smiles, the laughter, and just see that community over there uh in that culture as well. Pickleball trans, you know, translates through cultures and it's fun, you can learn it quickly. But yet there's that the beautiful thing is there's there's that side of pickleball where you can go so many levels. I've been I've been playing now at a very high level, uh, and I'm still learning something, you know, almost every on a weekly basis. And and and then you think you're really good, and then you go play someone like my son who makes you look foolish, and then you're like, okay, you know, I got I have so much to learn still. You know, but just the I think just the learning other people's tendencies, and there's so much of observation and um trying to solve a puzzle really as you're depending on what level you're at, but you know, as you do tournaments and things where you're trying to say, okay, how can I, how can we find the weakness? What do we have to do? And it's it's yeah. You know, uh my son and I made it to the quarterfinals last year at the US Open Split Pro. And we came back from eight, we were down eight to three in the third game. Um, you know, came back and won the game. And I mean, you know, just yelling and chest bumping with your son. I mean, uh, like pickleball somehow could just bring that. And we won a money ball together as well, uh, you know, beating pros and uh young pros and stuff like that, to do that with your with your son. I don't know of any other sport really that you can do that and and just you know, fist bump and chest bump and get loud with your kids. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

So yeah.

Funding A Real Court In PNG

SPEAKER_03 29:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

So, Mark, your dream is to build a court in PNG, right?

SPEAKER_03 29:20

It is, yeah. One of the things we're trying to raise, we need about$5,000. There's no concrete out in the jungle, so you have to import it all from the Capitol, which is you put it on a barge, put it out in the ocean, bring it in. And uh, so getting the sand and the concrete, um, we need we're raising funds so we can build a court in the Gulf side so those kids don't have to play on a helicopter pad and and have a chance to play on a real court. And um, and they have like a mud basketball court too. So we're wanting to do kind of a multi-purpose uh pad for pickleball as well as basketball. So that's that's one of our goals uh on that other side is to uh to get some funding for that. Um but yeah, I can't wait to see uh the kids over there on a real court. Uh we've kind of brought it in a classroom as well, but then you can't, you know, you're hitting the ceiling every time you hit the ball over 12 feet up uh up in the air. So that's a little more difficult as well. Um, but yeah, it it's uh you know, they they play soccer over there with a with a with a used water bottle a lot of times. And so they're very adaptable when it comes to playing sports. And and uh yeah, we're gonna get a real court over in the over in the jungle at some point where these kids can can really see what real pickleball should look like.

Tenacity And Living For More

SPEAKER_02 30:37

No doubt about that. And it'll be so exciting when the first pro kid comes from PNG from playing on that new pickleball court and learning all the skills. Oh my gosh. So you not only are saving lives, you're inspiring lives, you're touching hearts, and you're helping the raise the value of women and girls and the community, which we're seeing all across the world, actually. So, oh my gosh, Mark. I can imagine this might be a hard question for you to narrow down to one or two, but what are some life lessons that you have learned? Either you learned them while you were playing pickleball and you said, Whoa, this is a life lesson I'm gonna use in my life, or a life lesson that you knew in life that you find yourself using on the court?

SPEAKER_03 31:25

Yeah, I, you know, for me, it for me, it's it's like chase your dreams, you know, and don't give up. I took 10 years of telling people, going around America, people look at me like, why should I support New Guinea? Why does it matter? You know, you'll never get there. This is a crazy idea, taking your family across the world, trying to break you, get an airplane, nobody cares, you know, just this over and over again where you're here. You and so I think I have the gift of of tenacity is one of my is one of my gifts. But um just just knowing this is what I'm supposed to do and and and fighting for it. I think too many times people give up on their dreams. And uh so I've just learned that man, if if you really feel like this is what you're need supposed to be doing, go for it. You know, don't give up. And uh it's amazing uh to see. And the other thing is is be part of something bigger than yourself. Um, you know, I I think when we're part of something bigger than us, we can do more than we ever dreamed. And I've seen that in New Guinea. I was over there with my wife for five years with no staff really fixing the plane, flying the plane, and it was like uh, you know, I look back and I don't know how we did it. And it's just we we just did it, you know, and it was miraculous. And it was just it was stupid, we were doing it for something much bigger than ourselves. And it just seemed like this, the strength was there, the capacity was there that we didn't know we had. And I and I believe people are so much more capable than they they realize. And I just have a desire for people to go, man, have you ever, you know, I was asking my son this one time. I said, Have you ever done anything to the best? He was in high school, he was struggling a little bit. And I said, Have you ever done anything absolutely the best, the the best you could absolutely do? You've given it a hundred percent. And he looked at me, he said, no. And uh, and he went out and he changed his life. And it, but just, you know, getting people that and that can become passionate about something, find something you're passionate about and give it everything you have. And you'll be amazed at what you can accomplish. Uh, and that's what I've learned through through what I've what I've done in uh in in New Guinea. And then, you know, getting winning a golden ticket and going to the national championships, you know, at 40 at 47 or 48 or whatever I was, and winning the 35 plus, you know, gold medal. Um, that was that was awesome. And uh, you know, beat we beat a team that was much higher rated than we were. But uh we we we played the team, we played the strategy, uh, and we uh we just got together and and we did it. You know, shouldn't have won that. Shouldn't have won it, but we did.

How To Follow And Support

SPEAKER_02 34:03

We were all in, you know. So But you didn't give up down three to eight, and you didn't give up, and you came back and won. That is so cool. Wow, my gosh. So a lot of people are gonna want to know how to follow you and support you. So how can we find you online?

SPEAKER_03 34:22

Yeah, we're at Samaritanaviation.org. Um, and we're also on Facebook, Samaritanaviation, Instagram, uh Samaritanaviation, and we have daily stories of lives. The planes are flying all the time, so even though I'm here, um it's much bigger than I am. And uh we have a great team of people over there uh providing life-saving uh service, delivering medical supplies, um, being with the patients when they come in. If you can imagine, you've never seen the ocean, uh you've never seen a vehicle or electricity, and you come out of the village in an emergency situation. We always bring a caregiver from the village to wash the patient, feed the patient, that sort of thing. And uh so you have this these people in an absolute uh traumatic situation uh with no with no help in a very foreign environment. And so for us to have, we have a team that goes in every day, brings them food, clothes, and just loves on them. And um, that's such a huge part of what we do. Um, and that's another thing I would say get involved with something, do something in your community. There's so many people hurting. You know, you don't have to go 10,000 miles away to some foreign country in the middle of the jungle to save a life. You can, you can, there's there's mothers hurting, there's people hurting all around us, there's homeless people that are that are struggling. There's just people. And if you just open your eyes and look outside of ourselves and look around, the need is everywhere. And each day we have a chance to change the world. So that's that's another big passion of mine. But yeah, check us out. We're at 501c3. We completely operate off of funding from donors, foundations, and uh, we'd love to have you join the team.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

Well, what an amazing conversation. Oh my gosh, Mark. Thank you so much. Thank you for everything you're doing. That's changing the world, making the world a better place, touching so many hearts. And I think of the courage of these people who've never seen any kind of vehicle and they get into an airplane. Come on, there's people who know all about cars right here, but they don't want to get on an airplane. The courage that that takes, too, is just phenomenal. And I love that you're taking pickleball to these kids and adults and and uh bringing that joy and competition and fun. I mean, it's like recess uh for every age.

SPEAKER_00 36:43

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 36:44

Thank you, thank you, Mark. Really appreciate you being on the show.

SPEAKER_03 36:49

Thanks, Sherry.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

Thank you for all you do. Incredible.

SPEAKER_03 36:53

Thank you guys for telling our story and and uh just the telling the story of pickleball and how it's changing lives and and impacting people everywhere.

Share Subscribe And Final Charge

SPEAKER_02 37:03

Indeed, indeed, and thank you all for tuning in. Definitely share this episode, and you can find Mark Palm on Samaritanaviation.org. And uh my gosh, what amazing work is being done. And then look around, find your neighbor who's in need right now. The one right next door, that one. And it'll change our lives and it's gonna change the world. Thank you all, and we look forward to a new conversation next week. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_01 37:35

If you love our podcast, we'd be so grateful if you'd take a few seconds to follow or subscribe to Life Lessons from Pickleball. This ensures you'll never miss an episode and helps us continue these wonderful conversations.

SPEAKER_02 37:49

On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen, go to the show page and tap the follow button in the top right corner. And on YouTube, click the subscribe button under any of the episodes. Thanks so much. Hope to see you on the court.