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.