The Saga Continues

Greetings,

Well 5 weeks ago I was very close to finishing the initial stage of the flight checkout here in Papua.  5 weeks later (now) I'm very close once again however a new obstacle has appeared as it were.  But before I get to that lets take a quick look at what I've had the privilege of being apart of the past 5 weeks, which have been far from wasted time, so not to worry. The shift of gears from flying back to the hanger was closely connected with our base assignment of Merauke.  This assignment comes with a very specific aircraft.  Meet PK-MAO.

MAO as some may already know will be my future ride in which I will have the honor to use in serving the people of Papua while reflecting God's love and light.  In following the picture MAO is missing a few pieces one might think.  Every 100hrs our aircraft undergo an inspection of one kind or another.  This one happens to be phase #5 inspection and it was felt that it would be good for me to get to know MAO a little bit better.  So for the first 2 weeks of my time off the flight line and in the hanger I got to know MAO a bit more intimately you might say.

At the conclusion of this inspection I got to go along for the RTS (return to service) flight.  Which was my first experience riding along in an amphib plane.  It was an enjoyable experience and I'm looking forward to moving over to the left seat in the future and trying my hand at amphib flight ops.  Next time I should bring my fishing pole though.

Okay so now that the inspection on MAO is complete I was gearing up to return to the flight line.  But hold on, its become apparent that the line up of aircraft coming in for inspection was getting long and the hanger could use an extra set of hands.  So another 2 weeks go by helping maintenance reduce the pressure of the heavier inspections that had come due back to back.  4 weeks later I'm back in the air and on the flight line once again in hopes of getting through an MAF PFR (proficiency flight review) and then flying solo shortly after that.  Here are a couple picture my IP (instructor pilot) took this past week.

Working with the strip agent, checking the tickets & money.

Scanning for misbehaving gauges.

Got to love those smiles!

Taking a moment to wear the flight attendant hat while giving a passenger briefing, before departure.  Ya I know there are better looking flight attendants out there.  This is one of the many hats other than pilot we get to wear here while serving with MAF. 

I'm happy to report that after a 4 week break from flying, that the flying this week some of which had some pretty big challenges went very well.  And it looks like maybe next week a PFR will be on the schedule for me.  However the speed bump mentioned earlier which can also be a item of prayer.  It has been determined that my FAA IFR (instrument flight rating) is not current.  Now normally this won't be a big problem as we have qualified staff here to conduct an IPC (instrument proficiency check) which would revive my IFR rating.  The problem lies in that Papua doesn't have a reliable precisions IFR approach available an item which happens to be required to conduct a proper FAA IPC.  To have a current IFR is important as our programs default when weather becomes an issue is to resort to IFR.  In summary this means that even if I'm able to get the PFR behind me there won't be any solo time for me until a solution is found.

Despite this minor delay I'm happy to report our family is doing well. The kids now only have 3.5 days of school left and are excited for summer holidays.  Julie has also started the tedious task of packing and sorting as we begin to prepare to move next month back down to MAF's guesthouse on base.   

Thank you for your prayers and support through MAF, we wouldn't want to be doing this alone without you!

I've found some cool pictures of MAO at work to close out this post.  God Bless Tuhan Memberkati

Living the Dream is Hard Work

     When I (Julie) was younger I would dream of what I wanted to be when I grew up like most kids did. On the top of the list was to be married to a great man, have wonderful children, and live in some distant land serving God as a missionary. And God has blessed me beyond measure as he has granted me all those things over the years and I am so blessed. However, over the past few years God has been teaching me that it also requires a lot of hard work to live that dream that He placed inside of me. I would need to be stretched at times, I would almost need to be broken at other times, I would become tired and afraid, I would become frustrated and want to give up. I realized that those dreams I had as a child need to grow and expand to do the work God needs of me.

      Isn't it amazing how God can place a small seed into a child and allow it to grow and spread His word along the way. That doesn't not mean that it will be easy all the time but I have found that even when I am tired, lonely, and ready to pack my bags God is faithful through everything. And sadly I have noticed that when the hard times do come and I want to question everything it is not because I am on the wrong path but I have become so busy I have lost focus of God and stopped truly listening to Him. Most of the time when I find myself losing focus it is because I am trying to do this without Him and it just doesn't work. For God designed this dream with Him stationed in the center and when I take Him out, it is impossible to have the dream life that I wanted as a little girl. And to be honest it is not so much the dream that really matters but having Christ in the center of my life that is the most important.

     Dreams can change and develop along the way while God shapes and molds us. Even through all the change and hard work I have found that the desires that He has placed inside my heart keep growing pushing me forward. Life is full of hard work no matter where you live, work or serve but the blessing that come from all that hard work and faithful service is indescribable. When I am going through a hard time I try to look back over my life and remember all those blessings. And it can really take my breath away when I look at all that God has allowed me to see, the people he has allowed me to meet, and the places He has granted me to walk through. He is forever faithful!!!!

     I love watching my children start to dream about the future as well as they think about the little things that they would like to try or even some big things that they would love to maybe do for a living. My prayer is that they can see through my life that the dream is so worth all the hard work. And that when that dream is placed inside of you by God it is worth fighting for and at the end all that hard work will one day seem like not such a big deal.

    Greg and I fill so blessed that all three of our children are doing well here as this life and dream that God  placed into our hearts greatly has an impact on their lives as well. And one of our kids dreams is to be able to go home to Canada for a visit and see family and eat all the foods that we miss. Thankfully, the Lord has blessed our family with a opportunity to do this as a family this summer. Greg will need to take a course back in the States that will allow him to fly the float plane here in Papua. This means that at the end of July our entire family will be heading back to Canada for a short three month furlough that will allow Greg to take this course, for our family to rest, catch up with dear friends and family, and for our house in Merauke to be finished. Just like most dreams this will require a lot of pray and hard work though as we must first move out of our house here and put stuff back into storage as it waits to be shipped to Merauke. Our family will be staying in a small two bedroom apartment on base for about a month before we head home. We are all so excited to be able to come home and see as many of our family and friends that we can, but since it is such a short break we are going to focus our time in the western region instead of traveling all over Canada and the USA. And then for our dear family and friends living in a more easterly region we will focus our following furlough with you, sorry we had to choose someone to be first.  We can not wait to share with those that we can about our lives and work here and to also here how everyone is doing back home. Please keep us in pray over this next many months of transition as we move out of our house and back to base, as we prepare for our first furlough, and then upon returning to Papua we will move to a brand new town and area for the first time.