Like a Child

These past couple weeks as we have been adjusting and learning bits of the language have gone pretty good.  With only having had a few bumps along the way to make life interesting.  The first bump was we had to make the decision to home school Franklin again this year due to some unforeseen circumstances.  We weren't planning on this and so it was a surprise that shook us a bit but we are getting back on our feet.  Franklin is in pretty good spirits as well as he readjusts his expectations but his heart was broken those first few days.  Isaac and Jaclynn are enjoying school and making new friends but like most children they don't like getting up so early but they well adjust as well :-).  Julie and I have also finished our first two days of language and survived.  We have even learned a few words that are allowing us to communicate a little with people.  Going back to school for language like this however has brought me back to being a child.  It has been humbling and stretching as we try to fumble with this new language and communicate.  During my quite time this morning I was reading in Matthew 19 and as I read verses 13-15 I felt I could relate a bit more with being a child as we are brand new at this and make many mistakes and have the feeling of utter dependency on something or someone other than ourselves, one becomes like a child.
Matthew 19:13-15 (NASB)
13 Then some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them.
14 But Jesus said, "Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
15 After laying His hands on them, He departed from there.

Greg

Traveling Around the World

Calgary airport with all our baggage

1st stop Vancouver

Enjoying some A-Team before boarding our plane to Hong Kong

Hong Kong 2nd stop Monday morning about 6:30am

Finished Breakfast from McDonald's only costing $132.20HKD Which translated to $17.72CAN

Another view from the Hong Kong terminal.

Things kind of got busy and we forgot to take pictures from the Jakarta's airport and Semarang airport.  I will say that the Jakarta airport I think I could safely say they have more A&W restaurants than most small cities in the NA.  So we did enjoy a somewhat familiar meal for supper that afternoon before we boarded our last flight to Semarang.  After we arrived in Semarang we collected all our bags which we are happy to report made the trip without losing a single one along the way at the different connections.  It was then about an hour and a half I think (I slept a lot during the drive) to our home here in Salatiga where we were able to spend our first night in country in our beds for the next while.

Today is our second full day here and Julie is out shopping with some of our friends that have been here for about 6 weeks and have a pretty good feel of the place already.  And later this morning I will be going out to pick up sim cards for our cell phones so we can use them again :).

All in all it has been a wonderful experience so far realizing however that there will be some difficult times ahead. Particularly next week when we start language studies which will both be difficult but will help make day to day life easier.

Here are some pictures of our house for the next 6 months.  The house belong to missionaries whom are currently on furlough in the states. So we are kind of house and dog sitting until they return sometime around the new year.  We will then move to another house that is will be empty as the MAF family that is there now will be moved on to their program.  It's a very nice house with 3 bed rooms and 3 bathrooms which seemed strange but I hear that no two houses are a like here in Indonesia unlike many of our neighborhoods back in NA.  Jaclynn has a small bedroom on the main floor and the boys have the upstairs which has one large room and a bathroom.  Julie and I have a nice size bedroom with an en-suite.  Tile floors through out the whole house.  I'll take some pictures of the interior once we are un-packed a bit more and have less stuff stacked around looking for a home :).

Side Door which we use as our main entrance.

Back of the house where the upstairs is and the boys room.

Also on the back of the house is the laundry equipment and a screened in porch.

Our guard dog Tina.

Front of the house with a small garage.

Street outside our house which can be pretty busy with cars and bikes.

A big tree in our backyard which I haven't yet  figured out what it is yet.

Side yard vegetation

Great News

Greg and I had very exciting news today as we are attending our last course here in Nampa, Idaho. Our passports are now back in our hands and they carry our visa for Indonesia.  To emphasis the incredibleness of this and how the Lord's hand was in no doubt the reason for this.  Last Thursday we reported that we had received our visas which really only meant that Indonesia had granted them but we didn't have them in our possession.  To get the visas we had to send our passports to the Indonesia consulate in LA which is where they were sent on Thursday from Nampa.  And low and below Monday morning this morning they arrived back in Nampa with the visas installed, meaning they had them less than a full business day, Praise the Lord!!!  And now that we have them in hand Greg will be able to return with me back to Canada Thursday morning and it also means that MAFC will go ahead with ticket purchase for departure which means unless something totally unforeseen happens we will be departing to Indonesia on August 3rd to begin our language study on the 14th.  Thank you for all your prayers and encouragement as we have been planning for this day for three years now.

Techie Courses Complete Yee Haa

Just completed my final technical course in Wichita for the Cessna Caravan.  Which leaves us with one final training course to navigate back at headquarters.  And this course is a non tech one that will help Julie and I in preparing us for the possibility of difficult situations while living in a foreign country.  This is also just a 3 day course held at MAF US's headquarters which will also allow us to visit our friends that we made while living there last year.

And praise the Lord our visas have arrived this week!!!  We are now looking at the 4th of August as a strong possibility and the next option is for around the 27th of August if we are unable to get all the needed paperwork back in time for the 4th.  The next and last thing that we are needing to do is have our passports shipped to the consulate in LA where they will insert the visas to our passports.  Once we have our passports back in hand which we are hoping for next week we can book tickets and finalize our departure time.  One concern regarding the passports is that Julie and I are currently both in the US and we are suppose to travel back to Calgary next Thursday.  This however may present an issue for me as I am passport less at the moment.  Thankfully Julie being a dual citizen has her US passport along so she is able to return regardless of our Canadian Passport location. By sending off our passports the departure on the 4th is a close reality had we waited until we were back in Canada the 4th would likely have come to soon as well.  So the possibility of me being stranded in Nampa a couple extra days seemed like a good risk to take in order to help the process along.

Thank you for all your prayers and your faithful support.  Please remember to keep our children in your prayers as have been staying with their grandparents while Julie and I travel.  They are having a blast and doing really well however it is still hard for them to be away from parents. And remember my (Greg's) parents as they are doing a great job taking care of three very active children.

Time to Say Goodbye

Our family has been blessed to have spent the month of June in Manitoba visiting, speaking, and even getting in a small vacation. We arrived on the 6th of June in the Steinbach area and dived right into meeting as many of our friends for we knew that this would be our last chance before heading overseas. The children had a blast  driving around town and noticing all the changes that had taken place through the city and visiting some of their favorite stores. One of just many different highlights was being able to take a five day vacation at one of our friends cabins on the lake.  Greg was able to get his boating licence so we could take the children for rides and discover all the great fishing spots.  Besides doing a lot of fishing we found a great hiking trail that reminded us of what life is like for the people of Papua. As we found ourselves climbing over rocks, pushing tree branches out of our faces, and swatting bugs off of us all at the same time.  It was a blast!

Greg was able to share a report with our home church in Steinbach and do a little preaching on our first Sunday back. And I (Julie) got to do a ladies teaching time with the ladies of our church.  It was a great time of being able to show them what missionaries can go through before they even leave for the field.  I will be honest though and say I was very nervous for this was my first time speaking without Greg standing next to me. Along with allowing both Greg and I to speak our church family blessed us with items that were still need for life in Indonesia.  I think that the children really love there new backpacks the most especiailly when they discovered that each came with their very own whistles built into the bag.

Along with seeing our dear friends and supporters, came the task of having to say good bye to everyone as well.  They are such a great bunch of people that have so greatly blessed our lives and we will be taking a part of each one of you with us as we head oversea's.  Say good bye is never easy especially for the children  but it is also a very important step that needs to be done before they can head forward.

So please remember our family and lift us up as we go through this process of the finally good byes, last minute packing, checking all of our different list, and any other last minute details. And please pray for all our visas as they are switching them to a different kind of visas that may allow us to leave actually a little earlier then planned if they come through. Which if the paperwork comes through they would like us now to leave on July 28th. However, our prayer is that we arrive when God wants us to and we are trying not stress ourselves out to much about the constant changes of the dates to depart.  Which is some times easier said then done as we just want to get their and get settled into our new roles.

Just dreaming of the day when they will turn me loss on this thing!!

Enjoying time at Grandpa and Grandma's

Isaac and Jaclynn enjoying time on the lake for the first time.

Look what we are having for supper tonight!!!

Greg heading off to teach the boys how to clean supper.

Hiking along the lake and just a little rock climbing along the way.

This is the half way point of our hike that we took.

Our dear friend Mary from our home church in Steinbach on our last Sunday.  Going to miss this dear lady and her great hugs.

Jaclynn and her friend Ezra.

Saying good bye to their friend Caleb on our last Sunday in Steinbach.

Isaac trying to tame the wild life at the zoo in Winnipeg.

Julie saying good bye with a couple of amazing ladies.

Our dear friend Billy worked with all three children and helped create some great memories for our children to take with them.

Where Are The Dole's Now?

Since are last post life has been busy and full of change for our family as we now find ourselves back in Alberta. And I think wow how did we get here already!  The past month has whizzed by and is a big blur in my memory.  Hopefully in the next few days we can slow down a bit and digest the month of May.  Here is a quick run down of where and what we have been up to.

May 5-15 I found myself in Spokane at Spokane Turbine Center, learning all the ins and outs of Pratt & Whitney's PT6 small series turbines.  And while I was away studying hard with the guys Julie and the kids held down the fort.  And in this case holding down the fort meant packing and cleaning. I can't be more grateful for the wonderful work that Julie and the kids did while I was away.  Returning home late on the 15th I found the house and the family all ready to leave town early the next morning.  And that is just what we did heading north to Sandpoint were we stopped for the night.  The next day we spotted the trailer just north of town and carried on to Kalispell, Montana for the weekend where we had the wonderful privilege of spending sometime with old friends. It also worked out that Central Bible Church was willing to let us share about MAF and our family with them on Sunday morning, which is always a treat to share the ministry of MAF with fellow believers.  Then Sunday afternoon we climbed back into our faithful truck and headed back to Sandpoint.

For the next 4 days I was involved in another maintenance related course required by the Indonesian government.  This course was put on by Quest Aircraft Company who are the designers and builders of the Kodiak aircraft.  Basically this course was focused on the line maintenance for the Kodiak.  And while I was in class Julie and the kids tried there best to keep from going crazy.  They visited some sites around the Sandpoint area, did some shopping and spent some brief time at the beach before the weather turned cold and rainy.  And they also spend a lot of time just hanging out at the hotel and swimming there in the pool.

Friday marked the long anticipated return to Canada with our non-crated belongings in tow.  We are looking forward to some down time here in AB, before we head out to MB later next week. These are the highlights I can remember :).

I will say that our return to Canada hasn't been without some minor adjustments.  I'm already missing US money and not having to carry heavy change around (Loonies & Toonies).  And what's up with having to pay extra now because the store won't accept pennies? Then we are having to get use to it actually raining for an entire day again as this seems really different to us.  Even the children have said it feels strange to see so much rain.  For it just did not rain very much in Namapa as we were in a desert area.  Sadly to say though, this will be something that are family will really have to get use to as it rains almost everyday in Indonesia. Even with the minor adjustments to life back in Canada we are looking forward to are last few months of travel before heading to Indonesia (pending on the visas) on August first.

Family standing in front of Nate Saint's airplane.

Chillin at Big Sky Bible Camp (Near Kalispell MT)

Checking out the lake, just a little cold for swimming.

Enjoying the out doors before the rain came.

Crates loaded up and heading into storage.

Special treat while in Spokane.  I didn't get a ride but I did get  up and close to checkout one of my favorite warbirds.

The compressor turbine wheel from a PT6 if in airworthy condition only worth about $100,000.  It also amazingly produces about 1500 horse power and is just slightly bigger than a cereal bowl.  

Accessory gear box, just a few gears :-).  One thing that makes this simpler than a piston engine is no timing needed.

Commissioning Service

Well the day has come after countless years depending on were one wants to start counting for this grand journey of becoming a missionary pilot.  Today along with 8 other families were commissioned into service with MAF, and will shortly be heading to their assigned field of service.  Each family received a beautiful journal in which we were encouraged to use to document our journey and God's faithfulness to our family as we go and serve.  We were also challenged to W. I. N. rather than to just FLOP = Flights, Landings, Operations, Passengers or to sink into the PITS = Paperwork, Inspections, Turbine knowledge, Standards.
W- Work Diligently to Know the Word
I - Intentionally Endure Hardship
N - Never Give Up

Orientation Class Spring 2013 

MAF Commissioning Day