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.