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!