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

Back Country Trip

 This first picture is of Allison Ranch's airstrip, which is 1475' ish long.  It was fairly flat in the touch down zone 1-2% and 10% in the last 150' or so.  It was also a blind approach which meant that you couldn't see the runway until you were turning to line up for the runway which was about 10 seconds or so before you landed.  Which gave very little time to decide to land or go around.  This was also a Go Critical strip which means that a go around must be decided prior to landing because once past the abort point one had to land regardless because the airplane could no longer out climb terrain and obstructions.  So for here the abort point was just over the river which was just after the runway comes into view one has to either commit to land or go around.

 This is the cabin we stayed in.  There were four of us being introduced to Idaho's back-country and we enjoyed a very comfortable cabin together with a beautiful view of the Salmon river.

This was a very common view mornings and evenings, we also found a herd of elk on the runway the last morning we were at Allison.

This picture and the next one are of one of the simpler runways we worked.  "Reed Ranch"  It is a US Forest service strip 2200' long and fairly flat only about 1% slope up both sides to the middle.  It had almost a typical pattern to landing and takeoff but there where still a couple mountains in the way to make it a standard pattern that we would find at a typical NA airport.

This was just a neat picture I thought of the airplane's shadow on the rock next to us as we approached Mackey Bar for landing.

Enjoying Lunch, the tail makes a pretty good dinner table and flight planning table when out in the wilderness.

This and the next couple pictures are of probably what could be the most difficult runway we used.  "White Water" was 1050' long 10% slope.  Normally 1050' would be to short for us to operate out of and maintain MAF's margins that we have been learning.  However with a 10% slope it drastically helps with slowing down on the landing and acceleration for take off which allows us to adjust the performance numbers and gives us the margins we need to operate safely.  The pictures don't really do a very good job as showing the slope but if you have ever drove in the mountains I think most of those steep sections of roads only get up to 6-7%.  Basically the touch down end of the runway is 100' lower then the top of the strip.

We landed at a number of other strips as well along the Salmon and South Fork rivers.  Reed Ranch, Mackey Bar, Allison Ranch, Yellow Pine Bar, Wilson Bar, and White Water.  At many of these places we were met by those that live and here year round and it was very encouraging to meet and greet these individuals that receive their mail by airplane once a week.  On our trip home we also had the privilege of visiting with Ray Arnold a back country pilot legend who also is the mail man for the back country of central Idaho.  It was something to sit and listen to the stories and hardships Ray faced and lived through over the 50+ years as he has been and continues to fly serving the people in these remote parts of Idaho.

The day after my return home we where granted permission to barrow the plane I had been training in and I took the whole family together to Murphy, ID for a Murphy Burger for lunch.  The nice thing about a Cessna  206 is that we all fit in at once. This was the first time in our family's history that we all got to go flying together.  Lord willing it won't be the last time, it was a lot of fun even with the rough ride with convective and mechanical turbulence.

At the end of the day I ended with my debriefing from the flight portion of standardization and was presented with a safety plaque that for every year of safe flight operations I will add a decal to as a reminder of God's blessings in the area of safety.  And I also had to get one more picture of the standardization mustache and beard before it came off later that night to my wife's excitement.

PS: For the scenery pictures the detail is easier to see if you click on the picture to in large them.

Packing/Paperwork Update

Update on the paperwork first, yesterday marked a day for celebration.  Our long awaited day of turning in our visa applications was completed.  We had been waiting since January for a couple passports that praise the Lord finally came this past week which allowed us to finish up our Indonesia visa paperwork.  The best part is now we can rest in God's timing as we no longer play a personal role in acquiring these needed documents for travel.  Hopefully come August I can still remain at rest if they have not arrived and continue to trust in God's timing.

Crate # 2

The packing is going, ahead I think?  We still are living in what seems kaos but that is okay.  We are making progress.  Crate 1 is almost full and crate 2 has a start.  Crate 3 remains un-assembled and crate 4 has been disassembled and the mods are in progress to attach and secure our tool box in place for the journey.  Hopefully next week the final mods can be completed and crate 4 can be reassembled and maybe crate 3 will be needed and assembled as well.

Quality Control Manager

Assessing Mod Progress

Crate # 1

Report Time

Not to Far off Now!