Fun Times

Since the middle of January our boys have enjoyed being a part of a basketball league hosted by our church.   This is a very neat outreach as every practice has a devotional time lead by the coaches and then during halftime of the games our pastor shares a little and has a short prayer time. And of course the boys are having a blast as this is their first time every being apart of a team.  My favorite part is watching the boys reactions when they actually make a basket during the game.  They are just so surprised when it goes in that they look like they are in complete shock every time it  happens.  The following are a few pictures of the boys playing ball.

 On Thursday Greg brought home our four crates that we will use to ship all our belongings to Papua.  The one on the left that is put together already actually came from MAF as they had one we could take off their hands.  This will be the crate that Greg will use to put his tool box and all his tools inside for the ship ride over.




These next two pictures are the remaining of our crates that Greg will have to assemble with the help of the children.  As you can imagine our family is very excited about the fact of the crates arriving as this means we are getting that much closer to heading to Indonesia.  This is just such a exciting and stressful time as we are in the middle of visa paperwork and know we can begin sorting and packing for life in Indonesia.  (Julie)

On the technical front, last week the Cessna 182 bound for Mexico got to a point where it was no longer necessary for extra help.  So this week I've had the privilege of working on MAF's newest Grand Caravan that is bound for East DRC.  If you look closely at the engine there are some pieces of green tape covering the holes I left behind by removing the fuel nozzles   They wanted to photograph the inside of the engine to document the current condition and the best way to access the turbine wheel is through the nozzle ports. I have no experience yet on turbine engines to speak of so this was a treat from me to get the chance to smell like jet fuel.  Something that I'm sure will get old pretty quick but for now I will enjoy every chance I get to learn more about turbine engines.  The picture to the right is one of the fuel nozzles that fit into the holes mentioned above.  The last couple days however with the distraction of our crates arriving and standardization right around the corner and the need to start inventorying things for our crates, I pulled myself away from the project.  Distractions and working with critical systems like the fuel system don't mix well.  Next week however I hope to jump back into the project briefly to re-install the nozzles under the direction of a very experience Caravan Mechanic.  

This Caravan also has an interesting story.  It is S/N 2000 build in 2008.  It was privately owned and was configured as a luxury executive aircraft.  It's paint scheme had an African Zebra look to it and the interior was covered with Zebra skin.  Then 2 years ago at Sun & Fun a tornado flipped it on it's back on top of a JAAR's Helio I believe.  The owner sold it to a Christian company that does major repair work to Caravans and then sells them to mission organizations like ourselves   So here it now sits once looking like it came from Africa and now it gets to go to Africa and serve the people of East DRC.  (Greg)

Blessings from the Dole clan.

Which way is up?

As you can tell from the lack of blog posts life has been a little heck-tic to say the least.

We have started to research a bit of our up and coming home and the needed paperwork that goes along with that.  The paperwork has started out with some challenges as we struggle to get passport photo's for Isaac and Jaclynn. We have discovered that the Canadian pictures requirements are hard to acquire down here south of the 49th.  Hopefully by the end of the week we will have a couple different choices of pictures that we can send and hopefully they will pass the requirements this time.  Once their new passports arrive we can begin the visa application.  Julie has also been tracking down applications forms to apply for additional birth-certificate copies for everyone.  Along with arranging doctor visits for shoots and what knots.  Julie in her free time which isn't much these days has been enjoying reading from her fancy flat screened library of books.  Her fancy electronic library has some study aids for learning Indonesian as well.  At bed time I usually run through a couple different short language lessons.  So far, not to much head way.

The children keep trucking along with their school work.  They have been motivated to get some extra school work done these past couple weeks as they look forward to a visit from Grandpa and Grandma, and there uncle.  The boys have also been playing basket ball with a league that the church here puts on.  They have been having lots of fun with a practice and game per week.  Jaclynn the little sweet heart has been getting up early several days a week to give me a hug and kiss as I head of to the hanger for the day.  Special memories as I'm thinking that her getting up early won't last into her teenage years?  I think I might still get some hugs and kisses from her tho just not at 6:30am.


I have been working back in the hanger for the most part since candidacy ended.  I have been working with Juan Carlos on the Cessna 182 that will be heading to Mexico hopefully by the week's end.  Last weekend I had the privileged of joining the men's retreat put on by our church here in Nampa.  We stayed at Twin Pines up in Cascade ID.  Had a great time of fellowship, getting to know some of the guys better.  It was also a very challenging weekend as Pastor Jim brought 5 talks on being a man.  Which tied in great with the Wednesday night bible study that I'm also working through called the "Quest for Authentic Manhood".  Which defines a man as someone who is to; "Resist Passivity", "Accept Responsibility , "Lead Courageously , and "Expect the Greater reward, God's Reward".

What else is there to mention oh ya we haven't started yet but we have the fun challenge of planning what our family will need for the next four years.  Things like deodorant,  printer cartridges,  toothpaste, and brushes.  Just to name a few.  In the next month or so I think we get to go on a big shopping spree to purchase items that are difficult or impossible to get in Papua Indonesia.  Should be a fun day for some of our family, I won't mention any names ;-).

We haven't done much of any packing or sorting yet but I think that will start next week.  I'm planning on putting my tools down for a bit once the 182 is done and south bound.  Then Julie and I can work together gathering and sorting our stuff into our crates.  Woohoo!  That will be a lot of work but I'm looking forward to it as it marks the beginning of the next phase for our family.

This is just a quick sample of the life and times of the Dole clan.