An Update

My lack of posting on the blog recently is directly related to how busy I've been.  A few weeks ago I got a temporary pilots license in Uganda (good through mid-August) and immediately started my Caravan checkout.  The picture below is one of our Caravans taking off at our home base in Kajjansi.  

Below is a picture from a flight I did last week into the Karamoja region of Eastern Uganda.  The people and the landscape are so beautiful there.  And everyone is so friendly in that region.  But these are people who've been through a LOT over the years--more than you can imagine!  It's a real privilege to be providing a crucial service that gets missionaries and aid workers into and out of these remote areas.

By the way,  if you've followed my blog for a while and have come to expect a bunch of pictures of the flights and people we serve...you and I are both going to have to be a bit patient.  It's a bit trickier here for me to take pictures than it was over in Indonesia.  In Kalimantan, I could simply snap away, virtually anywhere, and everyone loved it and was fine with that.  But here I have to be a lot more careful...especially up in South Sudan.  Because of the security situation there and for other reasons, it's a lot tricker.  So bear with me.  Over time I'll try to show you more and more of what we're doing.  But I want to be sure to do be respectful of the local cultures and protocols.

Here's a few random shots from closer to home.

Our kids playing in the mud with some of their new friends--another one of the MAF families here.

Here's Tanner showing off the newest member of our family.  We got her from the pastor, who's dogs had puppies just after we arrived (she's half lab, half doberman).  Right now she's too small and cute to be anything other than cuddly, but eventually she'll serve as a guard dog. 

Ain't he handsome?  I can't believe how fast they grow up!  It seems like just a few years ago when we were in Alaska, and he was one year old.  Now look at him!

This little gal saw me with the camera and boldly came up and asked me to take her picture.  She wanted to see herself on the camera screen.  She was all giggles right up until I was ready to snap the picture, then she was instantly serious.  As soon as the shutter released, she was laughing again.

Here's Joy doing what she does best!  The opportunities are endless here for her to be involved in the lives of little kids who are desperate to be noticed and loved.

And here's two kids that like to be noticed too. :-)  On Sunday we drove out to Kajjansi, where the MAF hangar is located, for a picnic.  Joy and the kids had actually only been there once.  Even though it's not that far out of the city, it can take quite a while to get there because of traffic.  So you sort of need to have a good reason for heading out there.  Our reason was simply the need to get out of the city and get some fresh air and see the birds and flowers and enjoy a few hours of down-time after the crazy pace of life over the past two months.  It was well worth it!  We needed that!

While we were there at the MAF airstrip I got some great shots of some of the local birds.  There are so many amazing and beautiful birds here!  Next time I'll show you a few pictures of some of the birds we saw on Sunday.