One Minute You're Hot, The Next You're Not

Before we left the Philippines, we were able to go on a family vacation with Jason's parents. They had been planning on coming over this November for almost a year so we took advantage of the opportunity to go do something touristy before we left to come back to the States. It was the perfect break after a couple of crazy weeks and helped us unwind and slow down a bit.

The place was unbelievable! Beautiful white sand beaches that were almost the color of sugar except the sand was even softer. The water was beautiful, all shades of green and blue. It was a wonderful break from reality.

Now we are enjoying the end of fall and are getting a jump on winter. Today a storm is moving into Salt Lake and the snow flurries have already begun to fall. It is so wonderful to walk out the door and have that cold dry air slap me in the face. I love it! Last night I went out on the steps and just sat there until I got really cold, just trying to enjoy being cold to the bone!

Thanks for all of your prayers in getting us home. It was a mostly uneventful trip aside from trying to eat those yummy airline meals with the tray down and a 25 lb toddler in your lap and almost missing our connection to Salt Lake after getting hung up in customs and then being reprimanded for trying to sneak a jar of baby food through in my backpack. Naughty naughty!

We were able to sit together on our flights for which we were very grateful. Our last connection to Salt Lake was on a regional jet with only 2 seats on each side. Jason sat in one row with the kids (yes, he is my hero!) and I was supposed to be in the last row of the airplane. The guy in the row behind Jason jumped right up as soon as he saw we were not together and offered me his seat. So I sat right behind Jason and the kids and next to a lady and her baby. Our family fell asleep right away, but the baby next to me screamed half the flight. I was very grateful that it wasn't one of my children that was the screamer, but I did wonder if that guy traded me seats on purpose to get away from that baby!

We've been slowly adjusting to the time change. It is a 15 hour difference so we've basically had to convince the kids that day is night and night is day (the sun helps with this!). We finally just had our first night sleeping all the way through although we are still pretty exhausted.

Some of you have asked, and yes I did get my pumpkin latte. Although I've only had one so far. So if any of you want to meet to visit, I will be available to go out for coffee - frequently - while we are home :-)

We've been trying to pin down a day to drive down to Arizona. Jason has been helping his dad with their house remodel (right now we are confined to jumping around boxes in the upstairs rooms as the downstairs is completely torn apart or going over to the empty neighbor's house). Jason and his dad are in the process of putting in a wood floor. We are also trying to coordinate seeing Jason's sister on our drive down. We thought we would leave this weekend, but last night Jason, Mirielle and Kellan ended up with the stomach flu so I'm not sure when we will be up and running again. We're also not sure if we should try and beat a storm that is supposed to come through on Monday or wait till it passes. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we travel.

Well, we are almost on our way. We leave on Sunday and fly ALL day long before we land in the US. Our flight leaves first thing in the morning which means we will be kid wrestling for more hours than I care to think about right now. We've always done night time flights back to the US, but were unable to this time so it should be an interesting adventure. We've stocked up on movies and some toys for Mirielle, but Kellan still only has a 3 minute attention span and is all about moving now - so pray hard!

We will be staying with Jason's parents for a few days in Utah before heading down to Phoenix. We're hoping to see some snow and can't wait for some cool weather!

Thanks so much for all of your notes of support after our last update. God has really used them to encourage us. Plans have been continuing to fall into place for us to come back. We feel so blessed to have such a large extended family waiting to welcome us home!

This last week has been torture as we have been waiting to pack up the last of our stuff. The days have been SO slow! Jason has been keeping busy putting up motion lights outside the house and getting the car fixed up before we park it. I've been going through cupboards trying to get rid of anything that might make a good meal for any unwanted critters. We've been sorting through kids clothes that probably won't fit by the time we return. I just can't grasp that it is November and we are going back to winter, and that means no more shorts and sandles. Even an Arizona winter will probably seem freezing to us! I am always stuck thinking that it is July becuase of the weather here.

Mirielle can't wait to go play in the snow. She keeps saying that she wants a sled for Christmas and has been practicing making snow angels on the tile floor at home. We are going to fly to Utah to spend Thanksgiving with Jason's parents so we should be able to see some snow then.

I am looking forward to a pumpkin latte from Starbucks!! I think that will have to be my first priority once we land in the US :-) That will make it feel like fall!

We can't wait to see many of you soon!

Birthday Boy

Yeah! I was finally able to get some pictures up this morning after days and days of trying! We had a great birthday party for Kellan with our missionary family here on Palawan. As you can see we had a farm theme and I spent the day before making farm animals out of blown eggs. Yes, I am crazy(!) but they make cute decorations for Kellan's room now.

My Filipino house girls couldn't figure out what in the world kind of cake I was making. When I had put on the red, green and blue icing, they thought I was making a cake with a giant arrow on it. They had only seen a barn in a few American movies. No need for them here!

Kellan loved his cake and managed to keep himself pretty clean while digging in. He had lots of fun opening his presents, especially his new airplane from his pilot Grandpa. Maybe we have a third generation pilot on our hands! Kellan knew right away that the trucks and airplane that he got go "Brrrrmmm." What a boy!

See more birthday pictures on our photo gallery

Back Home

Last week Jason was able to take home a lady that had been out of the tribe for a medical procedure. The missionaries in the tribe told us that her husband would come by their houses every day asking when his wife was going to come home. It was a happy day when Jason was able to fly her back in.

The first picture, you can see Jason in the plane. The lady is being welcomed back by our very tall Aussie team mate! The second picture is her and her happy husband.

Exhausting!

It has been a busy time for us. Jason and Garry had to work on an annual inspection before Jason could move our coworkers into the tribe last Wednesday. Monday didn't go so smooth. After working on the plane all morning, the guys found out in the afternoon that the insturment used to check the compression was broken and that is what was causing all of the confusion!

They managed to get the plane fixed up and put back together Tuesday afternoon. Wedensday morning, Jason took off early and ended up not being able to fly into the tribe right away because of bad weather so he spent about 3 hours weathered in at our old flight base. Once he was over that hump it was full speed ahead. In 2 days he did 8 flights and hauled over 5500 pounds. Literally hauled, since he had to load all of those pounds in and out of the plane. It's a good thing he is so tough and had a little help :-)

This week we have a check pilot here from McNeal. The guys will be flying W,TH,F, M and I think maybe Tues of next week. Of course there is a storm system and has been cloudy and rainy the last few days :-) I can't understand why everyone wants to do lots of flying in the middle of rainy season!!!

Our support team in town is scrambling to get orders together before all of the flights happen. I'm even going to try my hand at a bit of supply buying. I've done it once before and I am VERY glad that it is not my job!

On the home front, Kellan is starting to walk a bit more and my back is rejoicing! Our big guy turns 1 in two weeks. I can't believe how fast this last year has gone. I guess we've done a good job at packing a lot in to the last 12 months.

Mirielle continues to be a 'corker' as my family would call it. I've included some new pictures of her in our photo gallery. I tried to take a couple of pictures of her the other day and she was acting CRAZY in front of the camera. She came up with all of the dramatic poses and faces on her own. As I was looking through them, I was reminded of seeing pictures and home movies of my mom when she was little. Looks like the crazy gene may have skipped a generation and landed right on my daughter!

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for my headaches! They are pretty much gone, except for when I have spent an all too long day with the kids!

We had a quiet week and a half. Jason didn't have any scheduled flights so he kept busy working and the hangar and taking care of things around the house and town.

During our down time we were able to take a nice trip to the beach. It was a great time having fun together as a family and we enjoyed our first 'just for fun' trip since moving back here to the Philippines! We have new pictures of our weekend on our photo gallery.

2

Its back in the saddle again. This week is a busy flight week and includes an overnight trip for Jason along with getting checked out on one of the last airstrips on the island. I'm planning on having a movie/scrapbooking night so I wont miss him too much. :-)

I had an interesting conversation with my house girls the other day. First, we were talking about having bad dreams while you sleep. They were telling me how people die when they have nightmares and cant wake up. From what I could make of the conversation, it is actually the nightmare and not being able to wake up from it that causes you to die. We had acutally heard this belief from one of our language teachers last year so it was interesting that it came up again.

The girls made sure that they pointed out that the death had happened to a well established believer of the church. Maybe to give the story some credibility - to point out that it wasn't just some superstitious beief. They said the problem was that he was exercising hard, sweating, then came home and ate too much and took a bath.

We know for sure that here they believe that if you sweat hard, you shouldn't go home and take a bath. Some of the workers that Jason knows from when the hangar was under construction would go home at the end of the day and not take showers. This was after working all day when it was 85+ degrees and 85+ percent humidity. They have a thing with sweating and bathing. Something about your pores opening and making you more susceptible to illness.

Then Susan, one of the girls, was telling me how they took her daughter into the hospital last year becuase her daughter was hemorrhaging. While they were at the hospital they tested her daughter's blood and found that she had high blood sugar and warned Susan that her daughter was borderline diabetic. I can't imagine what the doctor could have told her, but what she walked away with is that her daughter should eat cabbage, papaya and fish. She shouldn't have any other meat, avoid lots of other vegetables and fruit but they continue to eat white rice three times a day. I just about fell off of my chair! I don't know much about diabetes and nutrition, but that doesn't sound very healthy to me.

Too much rain! After almost a whole week of rain, we're finding the effects of the humidity all over the house. Besides mold everwhere, the walls have actually been dripping water, the paint on the walls has been bubbling becuase the cement underneath is perspiring, our clothes have been hanging on a covered line for days and there is nothing quite like climbing into bed with damp sheets! EWW!

The first few days of rain were fun, but after a week of almost contstant rain I was about ready to go crazy. I guess I am just a Phoenix girl at heart and can't go more than a few days without blazing sunshine. It is just the beginning of rainy season and I'm already wondering if I'll be able to make it through. This has certainly cured my desire to ever live in the Pacific Northwest!

Thankfully, despite all of the rain, Jason has been able to keep up with the flight scheudle. We got a bit behind last week, but Sunday was a clear day so we were able to play catch up. So far the weather has been cloudy but not too rainy so we've been able to get the team and supplies in and out of the tribe. It has been keeping us busy!

Thank you for all of your prayers when I was sick last week. It ended up not being malaria and was just a bad bacterial infection. I'm feeling quite a bit better but have been having pretty bad headaches since - I wake up with headaches, have them throughout the day and then go to bed with one. Very unusual for me. I've thought about going back to the doctor except that it takes forever to get in (no appointments, just put your name on the list and wait with no where to sit) and the doctor that we see has her office inside of a TB clinic, so I don't like to go unless I really need to. So maybe you could help me in praying for the headaches to go away :-)

Jason said that it has been really fun seeing our coworker's house go up in the tribe. Every time he flies over it he sees one more wall appear. One more week to go for the team so keep praying for sunshine!

Do you think it will fit???

Well, It's Jason so back to Plane Talk. On Monday I started doing supply flights in anticipation of a 13 person team from the UK coming into one of the villages we work in. The first order of business was to take in the refrigerator to store the food (it's for the missionary's house after the team leaves). Believe it or not it did fit!

The team is coming to help build a house. Tim was a single missionary for several years before leaving the tribe for a while to get married. They now have two kids so he's having the "bachelor pad" torn down and will build a bigger place for his family.

This will be my first flying for a team. It will involve quite a few flights as half will be in for about a week and then switch with the other half. I also have several more supply flights before they arrive. Being Typhoon season the weather is not looking great. It's been raining almost since I got back from my Monday flight and doesn't look to be letting up today. Pray that the coming days will be clear!

On my return flight Monday I stopped at another village to bring out 3 Filippinos to have eye surguries done for two of them. One lady had never been farther from the village than the road that they hike down to occasionally. The weather was getting rough from the oncoming storm and the flight was not exactly enjoyable for any of us, especially them. The lady ended up being sick almost the whole flight. Pray that the eye procedures will go well and we'll have a better trip when I take them back next Tuesday.

We thought Jen might have become a "real" missionary yesterday. She had a high fever on Saturday, but was ok until Tuesday when the fever suddenly came back. After consulting our handy Medical Encyclopedia it sounded like malaria (the "joke" is that "real" missionaries have all had malaria). Malaria runs in 2-3 day cycles and starts off with a fever and chills and then is followed by headaches, body aches, stomach troubles, and nausea. We took her in and thankfully the test was negative for malaria, but showed she did have something, so they put her on an antibiotic and she's doing better. We're waiting for Friday to roll around (the 3rd day since her last fever) to see if it has cleared up. If not then we'll have to go down to the hospital for more comprehensive blood work. Pray that she'll be back to 100% soon.

Thanks for your involvement in our ministry here, we are so grateful for all of you!

Getting Stuck

Well, here I go. Writing this blog for the second time since the first time it disappeared into cyber space somewhere!

This is a satellite picture of a weather system that is passing through the Philippines. On Thursday and Friday the edges of a developing typhoon passed over Palawan (the long skinny island off to the bottom left). They are predicting that they system will develop into a full typhoon and hit on Monday.

The good news is that the system brings rain, a break from the heat and my hibiscus bushes are blooming like crazy. The not so good news is that it means long days of flying, busy weeks and often getting stuck.

Thursday ended up being a crazy day. We woke up at 4:30 so that Jason could get off to the airport about 5:15. The plane took off just after 6:30 and Jason and Garry were able to deliever the family into the tribe. They stayed part of the morning so that Jason could do some touch and goes on the airstrip in order to finish his check out there. By the time they were through and headed over to the old flight base to fuel up and head back to town, they ran into a wall of clouds. The guys ended up being stuck from about lunch time until 4:00. Jason was able to dodge his way through the clouds enough to fly back to town and landed about 5:00. He and Garry stayed until about 6:00 getting the plane loaded for the next day's flight.

Since the weather delayed Jason from getting home earlier in the day he hadn't had time to do any flight planning for Friday's flight. After a quick dinner and getting the kids to bed, Jason spent about an hour getting his flight plan worked out, calculating weights for cargo, etc. before we turned in for bed early about 9:00.

Friday morning it was up at 4:30 again. It had been raining off and on all night and the satellite pictures made the day look not very promising. After heading out to the airport and waiting a few hours, Jason and Garry decided about 9:00 that it was a no go for the day as it was raining here in town and the tribal locations were reporting rain. Jason and I and Garry and Cynthia headed out for lunch and discussed further details of handing the over the flight progrm to us.

Saturday ended up being a beautiful day. Go figure! After a weather check on the radio at 6:30 in the morning and a clear report from the tribal locations, Jason headed out to the airport to do Friday's flight.

This next week will probably be a crazy week of flying too. We have several flights scheduled, among which are flights for a family that has just finished their national language study and is moving into the tribe for the first time.

The forcast is predicting that the system could develop into a typhoon and hit Palawan this week. That means lots of long days and probably, getting stuck.

Surprise!

It is hard to believe it has happened, but my little brother has tied the knot! Matt and Heather married on May 27th on the beach in California and from what I can tell from the pictures they had a great time!

We were so excited to hear a few months ago that they would be getting married. We figured, however, that we unfortunately wouldn't be able to come home for the wedding. Between just having returned to the PI in January, Jason being in the middle of his check out process, the kids finally getting settled and the amount of money it would cost for all of us to fly back, we thought that there was no way to make it happen.

I had kind of resigned myself to missing one of the most important events in my only brothers life, as hard as it was, but I would still found myself getting teared up when my Mom would send a picture of her going with Heather when she was trying on wedding dresses and it would hit me again how much I miss being around family and being a part of what's going on. Out of desperation one day I sent an e-mail to Jason's parents asking them if they wanted to come fly over to baby sit so that I could fly back by myself to go to the wedding. I sent it mostly as a joke and figured that there was no way that it would actually happen. They wrote me back right away saying that Jason's dad already had vacation scheduled at the end of June (which he had asked off for months in advance!) and that they would love to come out if it would free me up to go to the wedding. God is good! I love how He plans fun suprises for me to remind me of just how good He is and how much He loves me!

I was originally going to come back for their CA beach ceremony but would have missed spending time with them when they left for their honeymoon so I decided to wait and come for their AZ reception. I was able to keep the visit a surprise from Matt and he certainly was surprised to see me!

I've had such a great time here spending time with Matt, Heather and my new nephew Kristian! It has been such a blessing to be able to be at their reception and be part of their wedding experience. Congratulations! We're so happy for you all as you start out your new life together.

It has been so much fun being here. Pretty wierd being away from Jason and the kids, but a wonderful vacation for me :-) The best part about being here is feeling like it is time for me to go HOME. I haven't felt that way in a LONG time! Besides my husband and kids - it is great to know that I have a life, a house, a bed and even a dog that is waiting for me to come home!

Into the Tribe

Last week we made our maiden voyage as a family into a tribe! We had been waiting years for this day. Ever since we arrived here in the Philippines, we have waited for Jason to be able to fly our family in to visit our co-workers in the tribe. Since Jason was able to get his pilot's license, we were his first offical passengers.

Mirielle thought it was great having Dad as the pilot. I had fun seeing Jason in his element and had to admit that I was pretty proud of him being able to do such crazy flying. Kellan just slept through the whole ride after moving from his carseat to my lap. A much more comfortable ride!

The tribe we visited was about 45 minutes to the north of us. It was a beautiful flight along the coast and we saw some amazing scenery. We had a great time with our co-workers Ray and Chris Pollock. Jason had met them previously as he had flown into their strip getting checked out but it was my first time meeting them. We enjoyed getting to know them and were excited to hear about their ministry in the tribe. They have lived in the tribe for a few years and are beginning to near the point in language proficiency where they will be able to start preparing Bible lessons. Please pray that the Lord would give them wisdom as they work on getting the language down and understanding the best way to communicate the truth of His word for the first time!

It was a blessing for us to be able to go in as a family and to see first hand the work that is being done. Please pray for the NTM team here as we all work together in our ministries to bring the Gospel to the people of Palawan.

Check out our pictures of the tribe in our photo gallery.

It's never as easy as you think

In a previous post we asked you all to pray for Jason's check ride. Thank you for keeping him in your prayers as he passed this week and is now officially able to carry passengers while flying on his own, unaccompanied by our chief pilot. It was quite the process though.....

We had originally scheduled Jason's check ride for Thursday the 18th. We bought tickets for the examiner to fly down to Palawan so that he could fly with Jason in the NTMA plane. Two nights before he was to come down, we received a text from him that his travel request was denied and that we would have to postpone the check ride until the following week. We changed the dates on his tickets and were planning on him coming the following Thursday (this last Thursday).

On Monday afternoon Jason and Garry received another text asking if it was okay for him to come down the next day on Tuesday. We were happy to accommodate his travel schedule, as he was being very gracious in not requiring us to travel to Manila for the check ride. Unfortunately, Jason and Garry had just finished loading up the plane for their scheduled flight the following day, so they had to go back in the morning and unload the cargo which included a washing machine and a stove among other things. The examiner's flight was scheduled to get in at 8 in the morning. The guys had to leave EARLY in the morning to unload the plane so that they had time to dry off from all of their hardworking sweat before the examiner arrived.

That morning ALL the flights were delayed. Instead of the examiner arriving first thing in the morning and being able to leave on the last flight out of town, his flight was the last flight to arrive in and didn't come in until after 1 o'clock in the afternoon. He was very helpful and confident in giving Jason his temporary pilot's license with no hesitation after seeing the number of hours that he has flown and his experience. The delays also meant that the examiner was able to pre-process Jason's paperwork and give him his license the day of his check ride instead of having to return to Manila to process his paperwork after the check ride. We were very happy to have the check ride over and done with and a license in hand! This is a big step in Jason's checkout process as he can now carry passengers on his own without the oversight of Garry on board.

Last week with all of the rain we ended up with all sorts of creatures in our house. I guess the house must have started looking like a refuge. My personal favorite was the almost 3ft. long snake that crawled through an open spot in the window screen of Kellan's room. Thankfully, Jason was home and saw the snake come into the room. After chasing it around he was able to pin it down and kill it. There are a few things that make me NOT very happy to live here and a snake crawling into my baby's room is definately one of them. I'm just so thankful that Jason saw it come in to the house - otherwise who knows how long it could have been crawling around without us ever knowing it. AGH!
We also found a 5" 'walking stick' in Mirielle's room (that one was much cooler than the snake!) and there was an attack moth that somehow got into the house thats body was about the size of a hummingbird. Sometimes living here brings us a little too close to nature! 

Last week I got checked out on this airstrip. It’s our old home airstrip on the southern part of the island. Good place to start - tall tress on all sides and some bumps on the strip but plenty long.

This week it’s on to my first village airstrip. It has been raining here for the last 4 days as a typhoon has passed to the North of us. That means the strip will be pretty soft and muddy. Please pray for good weather as we are hoping that it dries out quickly. I’d like to work up to landing on soft wet fields, not start on them!

Another exciting happening this week is that I will have my checkride with the Philippine Air Transportation Office. We are flying the examiner out from Manila on Thursday on the earliest morning flight and hope to be done in time for him to catch the last flight of the day (which is about lunch time) back to Manila. That would save us having to get him a hotel room for the night!

This checkride is a big step in my checkout process. Once I pass the checkride, I will be able to start carrying passengers without Garry on board into the strips I’m checked out on. Right now the goal is to get checked out on a strip a week – weather permitting. So keep praying for blue skies!

One Happy Guy

The day has come! Jason finally got his hands on the controls of the plane. After years and years of training and waiting he has officially begun his check out process. We all trooped out to the airport to watch the momentus event. With a video camera in one hand and the camera in the other we were able to watch his first take off. It felt a little like when my mom would line us up for pictures on our first day of school. I never thought that I and my two kids would be taking pictures of Daddy on his first real day of work!! :-) He is one happy boy. Please be praying for Jason as he continues his check out process. Over the next few weeks and months he will be working his way into the different tribal strips - going from the easiest to most difficult.

The next two weeks the plane will be grounded as Jason and chief pilot Garry work on an inspection. This ended up being a great time for the plane to be down as all of the missionaries are out of the tribe attending an NTM translation workshop. The workshop includes both the missionaries and their language helpers from the tribe. Please pray for this seminar as it is a big adjustment for many of the language helpers to be out of the tribe, especially being in a big city like Manila!

The Wee Beasties

It has finally happened....one of my kids has managed to get amoeba. We're still not sure how Kellan managed to pick it up. It might have something to do with the fact that anything and everything goes in his mouth these days. He is now the proud owner of 2 bottom teeth!
Kellan is now on his second round of medicine and will be retested to see if he is clear of any 'beasties' in the next day or two. Please pray for our kids health as they are exposed to so much new stuff over here.

8 taxi rides=1 temporary pilot license

Thanks for your prayers! I got the application process completed for my temporary license today. I will pick up the temporary license next week on our way back to Palawan. This license will allow me to fly with Garry or solo so I can start practicing on the airstrips. After 10 hours I will have a check-ride so I can start carrying passengers. That's the short version.

The longer version is that I left this morning at 6:15 to get to the Embassy for my last bit of paperwork. Then I went to the Air Transportation Offices (there are two, one for testing the other for administration and they are a 10 minute taxi ride apart). First to testing since that was the first one the taxi driver saw and he didn't want to keep looking for the other. They told me how to get to admin. Once I got there I had my U.S. medical certificate validated, and Garry arrived to introduce me to the people who we needed to work with. The next step was to have my application reviewed. I then needed a signature to take a test on Civil Air Regulations but that person had gone to lunch. Since I had to wait for him I went to testing to find out if I could take the test today since they usually only give it on Thursday. They were very helpful and said I could, but I needed to go back to admin. to get the right signature.

So back we went. It was still lunch time but we ran in to two maintenance inspectors who had visited our Arizona headquarters in 2003 so we could do repairs on wings/flight controls/etc. and send them over here. They remembered Garry and we spent some time with them. They will be the ones I will work with to get my mechanic license here so it was great to build a relationship there. After lunch we got the signature and returned to testing. I took the 50 quesiton test and passed then we took the result back to admin. In between all those steps were several stops at the cashier window to pay for the various papers (medical, test, license). My last taxi ride of the day was back to the guest house at about 4:00.

At the end I felt a bit like a ping-pong ball but was very glad that all the people we met were very helpful and professional. I am glad God provided the time to spend with people along the way and am very excited to have taken a big step toward FLYING!

Thanks again for remembering us in your prayers, tomorrow we travel to our training seminar and to get the parts from our hangar.

We've been in the Philippines for just over a month but it feels like a lifetime. I guess that is what happens when you pack up boxes from 2 different locations, go through the experience of shipping them, take 5 plane rides (2 more coming up this month), unpack a house and learn how to get around a new town! We've been busy!

We love the new town we're in. It has a totally different feel to it then where we lived in Mindanao. After the heat of Butuan, we're most impressed by the great weather here. The first few weeks we were here the weather was perfectly lovely! It has been heating up, as we're moving into the summer months, but the heat here is nothing to what we've experienced before. Our new house is great too. It is filled with wall to wall windows so we get to enjoy the breezes through the house. We're so thankful that we're in our new house and getting settled. We've managed to paint a few rooms, hang a few curtains and are starting to feel like it is home.

We're thankful too that the kids are getting settled in and adjusted. Mirielle contiunes to delight us with the ways in which she is growing. A few weeks ago, she decided that she wanted to be the one to pray before she went to bed. It went something like this: "Dear Lord, we say goodnight. We have breakfast in the morning and lunch at night and we have a safe trip on the airplane. Amen".

While Jason has been having fun flying the last 2 weeks (make sure and read the next blog), the rest of us have been adjusting to having him gone during the day. Mirielle has been having a hard time since Dad has been flying and isn't around to give her his undivided attention! I have been having a hard time adjusting to being at home all day almost every day. I really miss having a reason to get out of the house (Moms group at church) and getting out for fun (Target)!

Please continue to pray for us as we head into the beginning of our ministry. We feel like we've been experiencing a lot of opposition spiritually and emotionally in the last few weeks. Right before we left, some friends of ours gave us some new books which Jason and I have been reading and they have been a huge help to us. We've been realizing that the Devil has been doing a great job at getting us to believe his lies! Please continue to pray for us (me -Jen, especially) as we take our worries and anxieties to the Lord and measure them against the truth of his Word. "And the truth shall set you free!" We appreciate you holding us up in prayer and know that your prayers make a huge difference in our lives over here.


Make sure and check out our photos! They tell a great story of what we've been doing here the last few weeks.

In the air!

Hi,
It's Jason this time. Wanted to let you all know that I have started my check-out process here in Palawan!

The first phase has been to ride along with Garry, our chief pilot, to learn the routes and see the airstrips. It's been a great learning experience.

The first was a medical flight for a tribal guy that has TB. He came out with his wife and son and our co-workers here in town took him to the hospital where a doctor who is a believer will care for him. A few weeks ago another man died of TB in the village. Pray for the missionaries in that village. They are still in language and culture study and hope to start teaching later this year. We look forward to sharing their progress with you!

The other flights have been to a team working in a different location. They were having a concrete floor poured under one of the houses (it's on stilts) to have a place for teaching small groups of people. We flew in the materials and two of our co-workers and then brought them back out. Flying there presents a bit of a challenge as it is on the west side of the island (we are based on the east) which means crossing the mountains to get there. Because of the low clouds we have several different routes through different passes and had to use them all. Sometimes we go up and over the clouds then can come back down along the coast on the far side, we had to do that too. We also had to spend the night at our shuttle airstrip (used to be our flight base) because it was too stormy to get back home! Glad we have a very secure house and of course Maizy our dog to look after the family.

We're headed up to Manila for a few different reasons, one is to get my temporary pilot license. I have gathered some of the paperwork here, but also need to go to the embassy there for a report on my U.S. record, get a medical certificate and then apply at the air transportation office. If all goes smoothly they will issue me the temporary license so I can fly myself with Garry or solo for 10 hours. After that I will get a commercial ticket for an examiner to come down from Manila to give me a checkride. Then I will get my two year license. Pray that things go smoothly with all of that.

We're also going to attend a missionary safety seminar and gather some parts from our hangar north of Manila.

Thanks for all your prayers!

We made it! After 30 plus hours of traveling, we finally arrived at our final destination. Right now we’re in the first town we lived in when we moved to the Philippines. We’ve spent the last few days going through a few things we left here in storage. Termites got into some of our boxes and ate through books, towels and left us a great big MESS to clean up. Other things have been growing mold while we’ve been gone. We even found mold growing in our car. This week we head down to the second town we lived in during language school. We are hoping that our stuff down there fared better then our stuff up here but that is yet to be determined.

We’ve been checking into getting our things shipped over to Palawan and it is looking like it will be a little pricy. We’re praising the Lord that before we left the States He started to provide for this special need. Please PRAY that we would find someone who would be willing and able to ferry our car to Palawan for us. We will all be flying over to Palawan as a family and we are hoping that Jason would not have to fly back to Mindanao and ferry the car back over himself. It will be quite a trip as it has to go all the way up to Manila and then over to Palawan and will take probably about a week.

The kids are finally getting adjusted to the time change. We are 15 hours ahead of Arizona so is has been almost a complete flip flop from day to night. There have been a couple of girls here at the guest house where we are staying that Mirielle has been able to play with which has made the transition so much easier for her – Praise the Lord! Please continue to pray for her as she gets used to things here. She has been having a hard time lately as every time we go out people want to touch her gorgeous white skin. Kellan thinks the attention is great, but Mirielle isn’t exactly thrilled with being mobbed and then having everyone touch her on top of being up close in her face. Please pray for us too, that we would have wisdom in knowing how to handle these different situations.

It is funny that we could forget so quickly how things are here. Here are some “Oh Yeah”s that we’ve had since coming back.
* The Philippines must be the karaoke capital of the world. After 6 hours of hearing the neighbors sing (only a few of them had decent voices) we were ready to go crazy! You just can’t get away from it no matter where you go. Even at the mall, there are girls selling videoke CDs and they sing along in the microphones belting out Brittney Spears and Celine Dion songs at the top of their lungs.
* After sorting through our stuff we remembered what it was like to live with the smell of mold. Smoke is another smell we live with here as someone is always burning their trash.
* Driving down to the mall in the port city near by we were reminded that where you break down is where you fix it. All along the road there were trucks broken down and they simply stop in the middle of the road (only 2 lanes) and mark the fact that they are broken down and not moving by putting a few branches or rocks behind their car.
* McDonalds is a taste of home, but they always have some kind of Filipino dish that makes us wonder, or shudder. This month it was a ‘trio’ dessert - basically a sunday on top of jello. Yuck!

While we are readjusting to all of the little and big changes of being back we are praising the Lord for his faithfulness in bringing us back. It was hard saying goodbye to friends and family again and we were sad that once again we were having to leave home. However, when we touched down in the Philippines we felt like we were coming home. The Lord is truly good!

One week to go!

It is moving time again! It seems like it always comes sooner than we expected. And it always seems like the packing process makes more of a mess than I remember it making the last time. Yes, once again we have been drowning in boxes and suitcases and all of the stuff we have managed to accumulate. With one week to go we are not looking forward to leaving but we are looking forward to getting back to the Philippines. Our time in the States has flown by but it has been enough time here to feel like we have been able to get our feet back on the ground and are ready to move forward.

Some of the things we are looking forward to:
*As soon as we get settled, Jason will be able to start flying. The time here in the States has given him a chance to get back in the airplane again, and so now with all of the the rust off, he is ready to go. There is a family that moved over in to the Philippines in September and has the flight program up and running and are waiting for us to join them.
* We are looking forward to seeing our friends that we made in the Philippines.
* We have a house waiting for us. This was going to be one of my BIG prayer requests, but the Lord in all his goodness, has gone before my written request and answered my prayer. We are 'inheriting' a house from another missionary couple. That means it should be in move in condition!!! and Jason won't have to spend a month just trying to get the plumbing working (applause!!). We visitied the house before coming back to the States not knowing it would be available and loved it. It is quiet, spacious and even has a bathtub (something we have only seen in hardware stores - never even seen one in a hotel!) plus the house is run off of well water so it will be clean enough to take a bath in! It is looking like we will be here for 2-3 years. We totalled it up the other day and this will be our 14th move so we are really looking forward to being settled.

Some of the ways that you can pray for us:
* We will be doing lots of moving around when we get to the Philippines. We land and travel directly to the town we first settled in, in order to pack up our stuff that is still there. We then head to the town where we were in language study to gather all of the rest of our stuff. All of our stuff then gets put into a container so that we can ship it to the new island we are moving to. We will have to ferry our car seperately, and our family - along with the dog- will fly over. It will take a fair bit of coordination for it to come off without a hitch.
*Pray for our kids as we do all of the moving around and resettling. Mirielle is old enough now that the chaos is making an impact on her. Also pray as we get adjusted to a new time zone. Just traveling over Christmas changed Kellan's sleep schedule so that he was waking up 5-6 times a night. AGH! Pray that he will switch over and get to sleeping quickly for all of our sakes since we will all be sleeping in the same room until we get to our new house.

Mirielle loved playing in the snow at Christmas time. For more pictures, look for our photo gallery under links.

 
 

Such a typical picture. Mirielle being silly and Kellan just trying to survive his crazy sister!