Recent Odds and Ends

Wow! Again it's been a while and I haven't found time to update this blog. Things are really hopping here right now! I just figured I'd show you a few of the odds and ends going on in the last few days.

At left, a shot of my plane parked at the little strip in Long Nawang. I brought some village pastors in there from one of the other villages where they had been having a church conference.

Below, everyone is hanging out in the little "gudang," at Long Metun, waiting for the passengers and stuff to finish being weighed. Every time I go in here they load me up with gifts of fruit, wild honey, pig meat, and other tasties!

A few days ago I had the privilege of taking these pastors (below) into a remote village. Actually, they are already ministering in one of the villages that we regularly fly to. However, they and their village church have taken it on as their ministry and mission field to reach out to an even more distant village that is still steeped in animistic beliefs mixed with various aspects of Islam and Catholicism. They say that this village is their little "10-40" window.

I've flown them there a number of times and it's really exciting to see them in action. These are national pastors/missionaries reaching out to people in their "Judea" and they're really pumped about it. I'm thrilled to have a small but significant part in this stuff! Without MAF this might not be happening. The 30 minute flight with us would take weeks or months by land, as there's no trails or rivers connecting these areas--just desolate, rugged jungle.

And speaking of rugged jungle, this was a particularly good view of an old volcanic crater that I often fly over, but can't see well b/c of clouds, or because I'm to low. On a chart it's clearly visible, but it's hard to get the perspective unless you're waaaaay up above it, like here, where I'm about 2 1/2 miles above.

Much of the stuff here that used to strike us as funny, odd, crazy, etc., now just seems normal. Today I saw a dump truck full (when I say full, I mean overloaded) of screaming, waving high-school aged kids. The truck was barrelling down the road at break-neck speed. It didn't strike me as odd at all. Then I saw a guy drive past on a motorcycle, barely visible underneath the mound of balloons he's selling. Again, not unusual. But I thought you might disagree, so I snapped a picture.

The kids are growing up fast! Britton and Hannah are a really big help with the younger ones. It's hard to keep a shirt on Britton, not to mention shoes. He literally doesn't even own a pair of real shoes--and hasn't for several years. Probably can't even tie shoe laces. They're going to experience some real culture shock when we go on furlough in June!

Hudson is my big helper. He loves mechanical things, projects, building etc. He's the one that gets the most excited about planes. When he grows up, he proudly says that he wants to be a pilot like daddy. Of course, he can be whatever the Lord and he decide for him to be, but it's pretty cute seeing his enthusiasm at this age.

If all goes well, Paul and I will leave this Thursday for a 9-day trek across 70 + miles of some of the most remote and rugged jungles in all of Borneo. I've been training for months to be in shape for this ordeal. Yesterday we did a little practice run with full-loaded packs (about 45 lbs). We left at 6:00 am and hikes across the island of Tarakan to the beach on the far side. There's a lot of hills along the way, and the pavement is hard and hurts the shins, but the 9 mile hike gave us a good chance to test ourselves and the gear. Please remember to pray for both us, and for the wives and kids while we're gone.

After we got to the beach, the wives brought the kids in the cars to the public pool that's over on that side of the island. It was a perfect, HOT day for a swim. I just had to take a picture of this. Only in Indonesia do you find big wires sticking right out of the wall of the kiddy pool, just begging to be pulled. Hey, at least they're somewhat taped...for now.

It's that time again--time to make a new prayer card. Seriously, it is NOT easy trying to get seven people to all look at the camera at the same time, with eyes open, heads in the right place, and in focus. Thank goodness for a remote, and fast-shooting camera. Look for our new prayer card, hopefully coming soon to a mailbox near you.