Medivacs, Breaktime, to Daily life.

Greetings Dear Friends & Family,

Looking at the date of our last post I realize we are a bit behind keeping you all informed in the life and times of our family so bear with me as I try and do my best to catch you up to date.  I'm going to work backwards from newest to oldest.

This past Saturday MAF Papua celebrated 60 years of service here in Papua combined with a celebration of Christmas.  It had a large turn out which was great along with some great food, my favorite being the fresh catch of the day (best fish I've had since arriving in Indonesia).  Also earlier in the day I had the privilege of being included on the flight schedule.  Why would this be different well it happened to be the 5th day in a row to fly, normally on a full week of flying is 3-4 days depending on the situation.  The reason for the extra day was, I was nearing the 40hr mark of flying here in Papua and it's good to have a second set of eyes take a sample of how the training is progressing and it just so happened our Chief Pilot was flying Saturday so I hopped on board to get the seconded opinion.  The reason I even want to mention this particular day of flying from the rest is what we were privileged to do on the way home from our first outbound of the day.  On the way to our first location we received a request for a medivac from Soya which was about 40 miles from our destination.  Soya in the past has a reputation for making up medivac emergencies which make things difficult to know if the situation is real or just a ruse to get the plane to their village for business purposes.  The decision thankfully rested in the hands of Tim who I was flying with.  After some quick calculations and processing info he had about this possible situation earlier in the week he decided to go over to Soya after we dropped our load in Angguruk.  And it turned out to be a good choice to go as the emergency was indeed real.  The girl we picked up was about 6 years old and reasonably tall for her age but only 12-15Kg (26-33Lbs).  She was very ill but not sure with what.  Upon arriving into Sentani it was difficult to tell if she had even survived the flight (and not due to my flying for those that might have thought that :-| ).  It was a great relief to hear her cry shortly after her father had carried her off the plane.  I still haven't heard how she is doing hopefully I can get some more info in the next day or two.  Please pray with us that this girl will be able to return to her family and village shortly.  The other flights from earlier during the week were routine cargo and passengers in and out of different villages interior.

The previous week we enjoyed the week off as a family.  We didn't venture to far from home, one day we took a short ride around part of the nearby Lake Sentani.  Which of course we forgot our cameras but we did remember to take them on our family shopping trip to Abepura which you can see from the pictures my wife is doing remarkably well handling her scooter fully load in Papuan traffic.


During our shopping adventure we saw a few things that seemed unusual to us, which is common to happen for us foreigners.  First was a very colorful Christmas tree ( which Jaclynn loved)  for sale and it was only 4.25 Juta which is about $400.00ish.  The part that is even crazier to me is the locals buy new every year, they don't store their Christmas stuff like we do.  Christmas just got a lot more expensive.  I think we'll keep storing and reusing our stuff.

The other odd thing that stuck out to me and made me think of my dad, was what seemed to me to be very large cans of sardines.  If you are a sardine fan and can't find a big enough supply, come for a visit and I can hook you up. I'm not a connoisseur of sardines so maybe these are normal size cans, they just seem really big from what I could remember from back home.

You can take this farm boy away from the farm
but you can't take away the farmer tan.

Day one of our break I started to do some overdue repair work to the motorcycle we bought to fill in the gap while we waited on paperwork for our bikes we brought from Salatiga.  My darling wife let me turn our front porch into a bengkal aka repair shop. It's still sitting in pieces 2 weeks later, it did get new tires but that is as far as I've gotten  maybe the week over Christmas break I'll make some more headway.

While I was busy tearing my bike apart Jaclynn and Julie had a great time decorating the house for Christmas.  Still getting used to the idea of Christmas while it is +30 (86) degrees, this is by no means a complaint just something that I'm not used to yet :-).
The boys were off playing with computer or PS2 etc.

Franklin figuring out his new I touch device.

We also enjoyed some family chilling time watching Dukes of Hazards and Gilligan's Island during the break as well. If you look close my eyes are open I'm not sleeping.

Isaac got his share of PS2 time as well.

I pay extra for a good looking Ojek driver (scooter taxi driver)

Prettiest looking gal in Papua taking care of her family

This picture is of a surprise we had one evening in our bathroom.  Those are ants in case you were wondering.  Julie as she is so good at going Chuck Norris on them with the raid can and the aftermath had about 3/4"deep x 3/4" wide x the length of a typical broom of dead ants.







Overall we had a great week off as a family just hanging out around the house doing a little bit of sight seeing and swimming.  I heard about a beautiful river to swim in about 1 1/2 drive which I hope to take our family to during the Christmas break.  We'll be sure to remember our cameras for that trip.

The last few pictures are from a couple different runways I've been at recently.  The first one I won't be landing at solo for a while it has a slope of 14% in the touch down leveling off to gentle 8% then rising again to 24% up to the parking area.  The pictures taken outside the airplane are from the parking area which is 200 feet above the touch down area of the runway.  I'm approx 150+ feet above the group you can see around the mid point.

The same runway coming into land.  The runway is the small light brown line just above the nose of the aircraft.  This runway is also up at almost 6000' ASL. The family we were dropping off here were retired CMA couple returning to their house after being away for 1 1/2 years.  They came back as volunteers this time to help finish the Bible translation they helped start many years ago.  You are never to old to serve as a missionary.

Runway behind me.

Turned around looking back at the runway.

These next couple pictures are of Pagai which is a lowland strip that is next to a river.  I will say I felt much more comfortable with this runway then the Bugalaga which is the one above.  It is flat and long enough for me to feel relatively comfortable operating a C208B here.  However the river which is just off the south end of the runway is not a river one would want to slide off the runway into.  A friend of mine who is also currently being trained to fly a Kodiak here in Papua recently flew a load of crocodile skins out of this village.  I let you figure out where they came from and why ending up in the river might not be a pleasant experience.  Please feel free to continue to pray for my friend (Luke) and I as we both continue to gain experience and skills required to operate here safely.

We again want to thank each one of you for walking with us through this journey of service with MAF.  We count it a great privilege and honor to serve the people of Papua, and we know that we couldn't do this without you.  We want to wish you all countless blessings as you prepare to celebrate the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessings

the dole clan.

Di-worming

Ya one of the pleasures of tropic living you might say ;-).  About every 6 months or so it's recommended we partake in a simple ritual of downing a di-worming pill.  Well this weekend was that time again, this time however we all woke up Sunday morning with a tummy ache.  Not sure if it was related to the meds or just a coincidence.  Anyhow the special treat from all having a sore tummy is we spent Sunday morning home as a family.  The highlight for Julie and I was the interaction we were able to have with our children after listing to a sermon about our perceived image, projected image and true image. As well tied into that was the different meanings of the word fear, and how it is used differently in scripture.  Not sure why we waited so long to have family discussions like these.  My desire is that we can become more intentional as a family to carry on with further family discussions like our time on Sunday morning (during a different time however as I don't want this to replace our time at Church Sunday mornings).

In other family news the kids continue to do well, working hard at school and getting some well earned grades.  We've been able to enjoy the local swimming pool off and on these past couple months, our trips to the pool seem to becoming less and less though.  I think maybe our internal clocks are still a little bit calibrated for seasonal weather of Canada and Northern States as it seems the desire to go swimming outdoors drops off in these winter months even thought it's still summer weather here.

Next week we are looking forward to a break, as the kids and I get the week off.  We will probably be able to find the will power to overcome that internal clock and go swimming some.  We also are hoping to go hiking up to a waterfall that is near by.  And now that our bikes are all legal to use we might do a family road trip or two to see some of the country side and communities close to Sentani.  So look for some pictures coming in the weeks to follow, as we do our best to document our adventures.

On the work side of things for me.  I'm making progress with the field orientation process here.  I've been able to be involved in a few different inspections and some trouble shooting maintenance issues on a few of our Caravans here.  Sometime in February or March I will have the needed 6 months of maintenance experience for the DGCA (Indonesian version of Transport Canada or the FAA) to approve my Indonesian maintenance licence.  A fellow Canadian MAFer caught me on camera changing out a Ng instrument from PK-MPF.

 

The Ng is an important instrument for pilots.  It tells us the speed at which the compressor section of our engine is running at.  When the instrument is reading 100% the compressor is spinning at 37,000 RPM.  Things can get very costly and dangerous if we have inaccurate or false reading from this instrument along with some of the others that sit beside this one as well.

Since returning from Jakarta last week I've also have a couple days of flying under my belt as well.  There is some work to do after being away from flying for a while, there are some areas that need to be redeveloped and sharpened again.  All of which MAF expects being away from flying and has built into their checkout process time and exercises to rebuild and resharpen the needed flying skills of their new pilots like me.

Blessings
The Dole Clan
Mt. 7:25

Snipits of Papua

Greetings,

Getting to come to Jakarta prompted me to put together a video so I could post it while here.  The following video is a small glimpse into some of what I (Greg) have the privilege of being involved in.  Sorry while preparing the video I realized that I didn't have material that included much of our family and our family life.  In the weeks and months to come we'll try and remedy that so you can also see what life is like through their eyes as well.

Blessings


Sentani From Greg's Eyes from Greg on Vimeo.

Things in Twos

Well it seems that big events/or things we have waited for happen in twos here in Papua.  First it was our stuff arriving and our visa's being ready on the same day back in Sept.  And today it was our paperwork and licence plates showing up for our motorcycles and news that my pilot licence is ready for pick up in Jakarta.

We've been behaving for the most part and only using our motorcycles sparingly to keep the motors from locking up, but now were are legal and free to ride them wherever the roads take us.  Julie is just as excited as me I think about being able to hit the road again with our bikes.  Which means that I will be able to start taking some more videos again now that I will be able to hit the road again.

This weekend I will travel to Jakarta to pickup my pilot licence. Once I have the licence in hand I will have the green light to start flying next week as well which is exciting.  The wait is almost over!!!  And hopefully I can start getting some flying footage to add to our video library.

Quick family update on how the family has been doing.  Julie had her first go around with Dengue about a month ago.  Thankfully she has pretty much recovered from that and has just gotten over a common cold this week.  Franklin and Isaac also missed a couple days this week from the same cold but are doing better now.  So far Jaclynn and I remain pretty healthy Lord willing we can avoid falling prey as well.

Quick MAF update a couple weeks ago while on a ride along we landed in Anggruk and we were met by the tribe dancing and singing.  The part I didn't know at first was our passengers were coming to deliver to them solar powered audio Bibles in their heart language.  I think the group was from Hearing is Believing if I'm mistaken. It was really neat to be apart of the flight that brought in the audio Bibles and to see some of the peoples traditional dances.  Also, our family got to be present at PK-MAF's dedication, a brand new Kodiak that recently arrived from the States. And it was pretty cool when the plane first arrived and meeting the ferry pilot.  Turned out that I had done a couple flight lessons with his daughter back in my flight instructing days. Sometimes the world can be pretty small!!  We are still waiting to hear about which base we will be sent to but hopefully after I have been flying for a few months they will give us that information.

The group bring the audio Bibles

Anggruk

Anggurk on a different day from the audio Bibles.

Gathering around to receive the special guests.

What In the World Am I Doing Here?

     About a month ago Greg and I once again found ourselves attempting to unpack boxes and set up house which is always a crazy time. Add on the that the fact that we had to make a quick trip back to Jakarta for visa paperwork. And while there we discovered that Franklin had broken his collarbone weeks ago and we had not ever noticed. Needless to say you could say that we felt a little overwhelmed, stressed, and tired but I will never forget what Greg said to me one night. We were moving boxes around and he looked at me and asked, "what in the world are we doing here? " After looking at each other for a moment I looked as him and said, " we are on the adventure of a lifetime" and then we both broke out laughing ( I think that we were way to tired at that point).

     However, that question stayed with me until the next day as I was trying to drive a truck through traffic and not hit any people, bikes, or moving vehicles. I even repeated the question to myself again. Why am I here trying to drive this vehicle in some crazy traffic trying not get hurt or hurt someone else? How come I have such a love for these people when I still struggle with the language and understanding the culture? How can Greg and I feel so at home in a place that makes no sense to us except that we feel our hearts cry this is where we belong?  Then just as I am about to make a turn that would lead me to the school I almost felt God whispering in my ear "now you know how I feel." This is were I started to cry as the realization hit and made me wonder if  this unexplained love for the people is how Jesus felt while on earth and continues to feel for us. He came and walked with the people, prayed with the people, did miracles right before their very eyes, and even went to the cross and died for us.  

     Man it made me stop and think what it would be like to have that kind of deep, unquenchable love that would stop at nothing. Sometimes I think that God's love for us is so great and amazing that I can not truly grasp it in my human mind.  And that is when it hit me that is truly why our family is here living with the Papuan people. God has chosen our family to love these people to the fullest of our abilities and in showing them that love we in turn will be showing them Christ love. So when Greg is flying those people in and out of remote places or is loading food or building supplies or doing a medical flight he is doing it with a deep love to help the people to see Christ in his actions. When I allow four little boys to take as many berries as they want off my bush or just wave and smile to people as I drive by I am doing it with the deep love that God has placed inside of me. And I have come to notice that is really what people are wanting and longing for. They want to know that they are not invisible and that someone loves them and thinks that they are special. If a person has never felt that way by another human how will they be able to grasp the love and acceptance by a loving heavenly father.  So the next time you see a ministry outreach about to take place or a missionary family about to head or someone is about to do something that just seems out of place and you are about to ask them "why in the world are you doing that?" Think about that unquenchable love and how God has given it to us all for a very special purpose and use.

Blessings

Julie

First MAF Ride Along

 Today I had the privilege of riding along with Tim into the interior of Papua.  Flight days tend to start early around here for a couple reasons the main one being weather.  Here in the tropics weather tends to build throughout the day making the earlier flights safer and easier.  If it means getting into an airplane a 4:25 am alarm clock is not so bad.  Arriving at the airport around 5:00 am for final flight preparations and pre-flighting the airplane and depart at 6:00 am.  Our first flight took us to Ilu were we dropped off a Caravan load of chairs for a local Church there.  On the return trip there was a bit of confusion as at first we heard there was a lady having difficulty in child labour but never showed up so we took two other gentlemen instead that were there at the airplane wanting a ride back to Sentani.  There was also talk of us picking up some others at Mulia as well which as another community about 7 miles away from Ilu.  That however changes as we are were overhead preparing to land they contacted us to tell us that they didn't have anyone for us to pickup so we turned for home to drop off our two passengers and pickup our next load.  

 Our second flight we carried a full load of mixed supplies and one passenger to Bime.  The first 3 pictures were taken while on the approach into Bime.  The first 2 are of what looks like a new runway under construction near to where we were headed.  The approach for Bime is one of the more challenging ones in Papua mainly because if one needs to abort the landing it requires a quick right turn and then a left turn of more than 180 turn safely back out.  All that to say it will be a while before they send me here which is okay by me.

Lying next to the plane was the cargo that we were taking back to Sentani along with 11 passengers, and yes that is a pig, hog tied (no pun intended) by Tim's feet.  This stop was a little stressful to say the least as we had weather moving in, one to many passengers, some confusions regarding tickets and total money required.  Thankfully Tim was dealing with that and I was basically just along for the ride.  That being said Tim did asked me to help make sure that everyone was seated and had their belts on correctly which also meant the children and infants needed to have a kiddy belt on.  I was doing okay helping the one mother in the back with her toddler next however was a mother nursing her baby that needed help.  Yes, a little awkward for this prairie boy, thankfully there was a local young man helping someone else up front that came back to rescue me, by taking over the explanation and helped the mother put the kiddy belt on her child.

PS: Pigs do not like the start up procedure, as soon as Tim hit the starter the pig started to wiggle and squeal, but once the engine was running couldn't hear it anymore but also didn't feel him move around much after that as well until we landed in Sentani.

Flowing with Change

Greetings dear friends and family,

General Update

Well this month has been filled with change.  At the start of the month we were still living at the MAF guesthouse next to the airport waiting for work permits and our stuff from Salatiga.  Well when it rains it pours here not only literally but figuratively as well.  Monday Sept 8 our stuff arrived which meant moving time to our house assignment up at Pos 7.  So we unloaded all our stuff and Julie had the day off from teaching so she headed to the house which wasn't quite ready as it needed a good cleaning.  That same day we got word that we needed to go back to Jakarta as our visa/work permit had come through.  It was decided we would go to Jakarta the following Monday and we could use that week to move into the house.  Praise the Lord all of our stuff made it and was in relatively good shape.  We are still waiting for paperwork before we can resume using our bike & scooter from Salatiga, hopefully it won't be to much longer for that paperwork to arrive.  In the mean time I bought a "homemade" trail bike that I'm using when it wants to work and Julie has learned to drive a manual car from the right side and she uses that when needed, (I've been using it to when required but I still prefer my bike even with it's unreliable nature). We are mostly moved in but still have a few things that haven't found a home and a few things that we can't find, that probably were left behind in Canada thinking we didn't need them. All in all we are settling in pretty good.

Franklin's collar bone continues to heal well.  This past week I've seen him reading a somewhat large book all on his own which was very cool to see.  We also got the report from his time in Singapore yesterday so Julie has started to read through it and see what we can implement at home to help his continual learning process.

Isaac is enjoying school and he has enjoyed the fact that Julie is often at the school for lunch and recess.  He scored 100% on a science test the other day which he was pretty excited about.  Math is still a struggle but it seems to be a bit better than last year for him.

Jaclynn is doing pretty good in school as well.  She is however complaining that she can't play as much and doesn't get as many fun activities this year in school.  I guess we forgot to tell her that every year school is going to get harder with higher expectations on studying.

Julie is doing amazing work keeping the house in order and teaching Franklin his acidemic courses.  Since I've started to report to work everyday I haven't been able to keep up on the dishes like before.  It seems that Franklin is picking up some of that slack.  She also put together a chore list today which I hope will help lighten her load as we work together as a family to keep house.


Greg's Work Update

In the MAF Papuan program the new standard for pilots is to start training in the Kodiak.  There are several good reasons for this.  So before we had our work permits to keep busy and productive,  I spent my time reading technical manuals in preparation for maintenance and flight for the Kodiak (and washed the dishes among other domestic things).  And to keep with the title of the blog earlier this week it was decided that the Papua program needed a Caravan driver sooner than another Kodiak driver.  So Tuesday morning I received word that I was being switched over to train in the Caravan instead of the Kodiak.  There was many factors that lead the Papuan management team to this change in directions for me, some of which I'm not privy to.  I'm  however excited about the change other than I had to restart all the reading and start working through the Caravan manuals.  The Kodiak is a great plane and someday in the future (likely on our second or third term) I look forward to flying it as well.  Since receiving a new set of manuals to read I was able to get through most of reading material for maintenance and a fair chunk of the flight related reading along with some hanger flying, all in all a good week. Not sure what all of next week will look like, Monday I will go on my first ride along flight into the interior which I'm excited about and then later in the week there is a Caravan coming from Timika for an inspection which I might have the privilege of working on.  The check out process will take 9-12 months depending on many things after which we will be posted to one of the other 4 bases in Papua for the foreseeable future.  The process for me to get checked out for solo operations is a long and what might seem laborious process, it is however for good reasons.  Papua's mountains are littered with aluminum (airplanes) of those that were unprepared and under trained, there are also a few of experienced veterans that let their guard down as well.  All that to say MAF has a well laid out training program to prepare and train me and other new pilots with the skills and attitudes required to get me home at the end of the day or next day if an overnight is required.

As we continue to flow with change please continue to up hold our family in your prayers.  

The following are some picture from when we first opened our crates that beat us to Sentani from Nampa.  Also some pictures from moving day and around our yard at the house in Pos 7.

Crates

One happy boy

Dinning/living room moving day.

Kitchen moving day.

Jaclynn's room moving day.

 

Pak Yerri, our night guard and yard keeper.

Pineapples.

Pineapple garden.

Mulberry tree.

Youth rec center next door.

Me installing our bedroom A/C

Sehari-hari Salatiga

The following video is a small look at some of what life was like for our family while in Salatiga this past year.  I apologize it does have a few small editing errors that I didn't have time to fix as I only had a short window to get it up on the web while we were in Jakarta.

Before we get to the video, here is a quick family update.  All the visa stuff is finished so once I return to Papua in the morning I can start getting my hands dirty which I'm excited about.  During our trip to Jakarta for visas, Franklin noticed that his left collar bone looked different and after showing it to Julie and talking with some very wise people here it was decided that Franklin and I would stay another night so that we could get a doctor to look it over in the morning while Julie and the other 2 kids went home on schedule.  I'm happy to report that they made it back safe and sound.  For Franklin, we were able to get into see the doctor first thing this morning and learned that his collar bone was broken and was already well into the healing process.  So nothing at this point in time needs to be done other than Franklin has to be careful and no more falling off play structures and the like.  We are not 100% sure when but we think he broke it about 6 weeks ago when we were on vacation in Jepara.  Our family was enjoying a banana boat ride altogether until it came to a very quick end dumping all of us in the shallow waters near the beach.  All five of us had something hurting and for Franklin it was his left shoulder.  His fall in Sentani didn't seem to have a sore shoulder related to it but I'm sure it wasn't good for it.  So Franklin and I are heading back to Sentani tonight and will join the rest of our family tomorrow morning.

I hope to have some more photos and videos maybe soon as I get my hands dirty and possibly see what Papua looks like from the air as well.  Hope you enjoy this short clip from what some of our life in Salatiga was like.  Sentani, Papua is quit different so I will work at putting together another video maybe for next year or the next time I'm in a location with internet that is capable of me uploading a video to our blog.

Sehari-hari Short from Greg on Vimeo.

August the month of Anniversaries

This August we celebrate some exciting anniversaries for our family.

The big one being the very special day which happened on the 28th, 15 years ago my soul mate said "I do"  yep 15 years already, some days it feels like it was just yesterday.  On a side and hopefully only funny note our visas expire the same day but so far we haven't been told we need to leave the country, not necessarily the ideal way to celebrate a 15th year anniversary fleeing the country.  Okay "fleeing" probably not the best word choice but it's more dramatic.  I think we will enjoy a nice quiet supper without any children and maybe once things settle down for us as in we are adjusted moved into our house etc. we'll plan a bigger night on the town and maybe spend a night away in Jayapura or something like that.

The next exciting day was on the 23rd which marked 4 years with MAF.  Over the course of these past 4 years we been on such a amazing journey that it is hard to know where one would begin.  We are so thankful for all those that God has place in our path along the way many of whom have journeyed with us through prayer, friendship, financial support and so forth.  There have been many challenges faced, physical, spiritual, emotional and along with the many challenges we have seen amazing blessings and triumphs.  We are by no means on the same level as Paul but I want to borrow his words to express our thankfulness to all those that have and continue to walk with us.
Philippians 1:1-5 (NASB with personalized wording) 
¹ The Dole family, bond-servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Canada & USA, including the overseers and deacons:
² Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
³ I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,
⁴ always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all,
⁵ in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.

And related to our time with MAF August 5th marked our one year anniversary here in Indonesia.  We really enjoyed our time in Salatiga making many good friends there during our time.  Our hope is that here in Papua we will be able to continue on building new life long relationships that will have an eternal impact.

On a side note just a quick update on the family.  The kids are all doing well and enjoy school.  We are very glad we were able to make it in time for them to start the first day of classes.  Julie and the kids are up at the school from 7:10am-3:15pm Mon-Fri.  We are still waiting on work permit/visa so I can start working.  In the meantime however I've been spending my time with running a few errands and reading manuals and handbooks.  My hope is that I will have all the reading out of the way before our work permits come through so I can start straight away getting my hands dirty so to speak.  We are also still waiting for our stuff from Java to show up at which point we will be moving across town into a very nice house.  The Lord is good and we look forward to what is ahead for us this year.

Sentani

Around 4:30 a.m. there is normally a very distant and faint call to prayer heard then sometime around 5:30ish the sound of turbines spooling up as airplanes get ready for their morning flights is heard now.  That is right we are not in Salatiga anymore!!! In Salatiga we heard the calls to prayer which were rather close and rather loud at times and rarely an airplane was ever heard.  As we move on to Sentani we do however leave behind some great friends. These are just a few of our dear friends from Salatiga that I was able to find photos of.

Salatiga Team

Pak Aryono and Ibu Yani.

My older brother Pak Sutrisno and his family.

We arrived in Sentani Saturday morning off the red eye from Jakarta.  The kids hit the ground running making new friends quickly with the other MK's here in Sentani.  We got a tour around the area and later in the evening they welcomed our family and another new family also from Canada with a group pizza party.  The party however was cut a little short after Franklin took a dive off the top level of the playground bouncing a couple times on the way down.  Praise the Lord however he came away with only some scrapes and bruises.

Base Playground

Home sweet home for the next few weeks

Guesthouse common area.

The next few weeks we will be living in the MAF guesthouse until our stuff from Java arrives. After which we will move to Pos Tujuh (Post 7) a community that was previously used by Gen. MacArthur during WWII to house his staff.  The kids started school yesterday and are enjoying it for the most part except getting Isaac ready on day 2 was a bit of challenge. Hopefully he will adjust to the new routine soon.

Isaac and Jaclynn off to school.

The school bus (not all school buses are yellow)

Franklin and Julie hard at their studies day one too.

Julie and I have had a tour around the MAF facilities here so it wouldn't be right if we didn't at least share a few photos as well so you can get a small taste of what things look like here.

Main entrance

Kodiak on the flight line

Caravan on the flight line

Old retired 206's waiting for a container to ship back to the US

I'll try and take some more pictures and add to the tour in later blogs.  One of my favorite parts of the tour was the book case full of Bible translations that MAF has been apart of helping become a reality through supporting those that have faithfully worked through the translation process over the past 60 years here in Papua.  I will have to take another picture however the first attempted didn't pan out.

Blessings to all that have and continue to walk this journey together with our family.

the dole clan