11 Years!

Friday Joy and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary!  We got Britton to snap the picture below, just before departing for a nice dinner at the Le Grandeur Hotel in Tarakan.  After dinner we took a little motorcycle ride around town.  Yeah, I know it doesn't sound too exciting, but it was an enjoyable evening for us.  There's really not a lot to do here in Tarakan so splurging for a nice dinner and going on a motorcycle ride without the kids is a nice treat!

Just as we were leaving for dinner, I surprised Joy with a new picnic table for our back "patio" area.  She has dreamed of a picnic table for several years now, and had collected pictures of various tables she liked.  I took the picture of her favorite one to a local craftsman a while back, and had it made to the exact dimensions and color that she wanted...but all without her knowing.  What's crazy is how cheap it was, especially considering the quality of wood.  It takes four guys to lift this table--that's how hard and dense the wood is!  Anyway, she loves it, and we've already enjoyed eating outside several times since Friday.  Below, Joy and Abi (our helper) and the twins are trying it out just after it was delivered.

Last Sunday our MAF team here had a little July 4th celebration.  It was nice to have Independence day on the weekend, since we normally do not get this day off here in Indonesia.  Anyway, we enjoyed hanging out with our friends, grilling some "hot dogs" (they were something like hot dogs anyway--you can't get real hot dogs here), and generally just having a good time.  Below, Hudson (in the front) and Seth, best buds, are just chilling out at our July 4th picnic.

And here are the moms of Hudson and Seth, just chilling out at the picnic.

Hannah was getting pretty serious about the wiffle ball game!

I don't often bring my good camera to events like this, because I'm usually too busy wrangling kids and stuff to take pictures.  So I had fun snagging a few pictures of my beautiful wife when she was least expecting it.  

We set off a few locally purchased fireworks which the kids really enjoyed!  I had a cool shot of that, but somehow deleted it earlier.  But we've been getting a lot of sweet thunderstorms lately, so I figured I'd
show you one of the natural fireworks displays that lit up the midnight sky over Tarakan on Sunday.

It's been another busy week of flying.  Two of our pilots are gone right now, one in Singapore waiting for the birth of his second kid, and one in the US doing flight training on the Kodiak.  So those of us that are here are flying a lot.  I'm enjoying it!  This week I flew an Indonesian Christian medical team around to several different villages in the Apo Kayan region.  There were also a lot of school children and typical medevac flights and the usual food, supplies and passenger flights.  But we also did a TON of flying for a massive church conference in Long Layu.  Below, three airplanes are parked in Long Layu, two Cessna 206's, and our Quest Kodiak 100.  We've been using all of our aircraft, including the Caravan and Kodiak, to help move up to 200 people into Long Layu for the conference that starts this week.  Obviously, without MAF, national church leadership gatherings in remote locations like this one would be virtually impossible!

When the airplanes start up and go through pre-takeoff checks in Long Layu, the children stand a long, safe distance behind the airplane (there's a fence for safety) with their home-made, wooden, toy airplanes, and take advantage of the wind to make their props spin fast.  I always admire the creativity and ingenuity of Indonesian kids to make toys and games out of anything and everything!

A few shots from my "office window" over the past week or so.

Have a blessed week!  Thanks for your prayers and support of this ministry!  We count it a real privilege to be serving Christ here with MAF in Kalimantan!