Jonathan's First Steps

Well, it's official!

He has taken his first steps. We thought he might have 2 weeks ago, but he wouldn't do it again, so we decided it wasn't official. Tonite, though, he took several series of 3 or more steps and once even let go of the chair without any prompting and took 2 steps to Mommy!

Here are some pictures of the recreation of the act.

Catching up with the news!

A lot has happened the last two weeks. The engine I have been working on is off the stand, preserved, packaged for shipping and awaiting final paperwork! It has been quite an experience and I am grateful to God for allowing me to be part of it and grateful for the amazing patience of Ray Brubaker, my supervisor, for guiding me step by step through the whole process.

Work wise, I am on to other tasks until the next big project comes along. I don't know what that might be yet, but for now I am involved in an annual inspection on Helio serial number 1 getting it ready to go to the Oshkosh air event. Right now, another one of the interns and I are knee deep into overhauling the magnetos (the things that make the spark plugs light up at just the right time). They are very small components, but are somewhat involved for an overhaul. Especially when everything isn't just perfect! (Which seldom is the case on a 50+ year old airplane.)

Josh and I had a guys day out last Saturday. We put our bikes in the shop for some routine maintenance and got the bearings all lubed up, the brakes adjusted and the gear shifters working right. We then went our riding on the trails behind the JAARS center. We packed lunches and planned to make a full day of it.

After about a half an hour of riding, Josh wanted to stop for a rest. So we stopped and ate our sandwiches and took a little break. As we started up again, Josh was increasingly upset and asked to go home. So we cut the trip short and went home. I didn't realize what the problem was until much later in the day, and learned a very important lesson about faith in God.

Josh was concerned about getting lost. Apparently, he has failed to realize just what type of environment I grew up in and how impossible it is to get lost when the woods you are in are completely surrounded by familiar roads. In any regard, he was concerned. As the trail got more and more narrow, and as the woods got denser, he was convinced we might never see home again. A small tree had fallen across the path, and he was sure that the trail just ended there. I moved the tree, showed him the trail and kept going.

The further we went, the more lost Josh thought we were. There were airplanes flying that day and judging from the sound, we had gone in a big circle and were actually getting closer to home the further we moved forward. I was convinced of this, and explained it to him, but he doubted. Of course, we came out of the trail right where we had started and he was quite surprised. Later, after getting home, he apologized for doubting and said he would be willing to go again.

It struck me how just like that I am with trusting God to lead. He knows the path, and he knows it gets narrower and he knows the obstacles and how to clear them. But I, like Josh, loose faith in his ability to lead. I loose sight of the path for the obstacles that seemingly are impossible to overcome. He knows just where the path will come out and yet I doubt. I am sure that I am lost and God has left me. I just want to go home where things are comfortable and miss out on the fellowship that God planned for me.

Thanks, Josh, for teaching me a lesson and thanks, God for being ever so patient with me. (Much more so than I am patient with Josh!)

The kids only have a few more days of school before summer vacation, Hooray!

It's Alive!

Well, the engine is together, on the test stand and it ran for the first time today! It was a great feeling seeing that engine start right up after assembling it from its very basic components.

Tomorrow we will run it some more and break it in. Then, if everything goes well and all the tests come out OK, then it will go in a box to be shipped to Cameroon!

The weather has been lousy, but today was gorgeous! Warm, not hot, slight breeze and sunny! The kids have been playing with their friends a lot here. It seems the apartments are multiplying with kids! Every day I see new faces it seems.

Jonathan loves being outside with them as well. There is an R/C airplane field across the street, and the airplanes fly over our house. He looks up and starts clapping each time one flies over! It is neat.

We are excited to see Grandma, Aunt Pat, Great Gram and Great Grandma tomorrow! And Nicki and Ralphy too! They will be with us for the weekend. I have Monday off work, so we will enjoy them the whole weekend.

We have been doing pretty well with our Bible time in the evening as a family and the kids are really starting to see many of the truths of God's Word without being prompted much. We are in I Samuel now and every once in a while, they ask to read one of Jesus' parables as well. They love those. Yesterday was the parable about "Who is my neighbor?"

We also had dinner yesterday with the couple from Australia who are here for Orientation. They will be headed back to Australia in June then to Papua New Guinea, where he will be a pilot.

Jonathan's top front teeth are coming in really well now. He looks funny with the four front teeth! We can't get him to show all four at the same time for a picture, though.

More Airplanes

We have two new additions to our fleet here.

The first is a Piper Navajo that was stationed in the Philippines. JAARS is moving out of there (at least the aviation program) and selling the airplane. It was ferried back and arrived on Friday of last week. It took about 60 hours of flight time, according to one of the pilots. What a trip! They stopped at such places as Guam, Christmas Island, Hawaii.

The other is a new purchase. It is a Cessna 207 destined for Cameroon, Africa. It is basically a stretched 206 that sits 7 to 8 passengers, depending on configuration. It will be outfitted with a turboprop engine and then customized to JAARS standards. I don't know if there is a timeline yet of when they hope to have it in Cameroon.

I am still working on the engine for the 206 in Cameroon. It is going much faster now, and should be ready to put on the test stand by mid next week, if all goes well.

I have gotten permission from my family to look for flight instructing work again. I have put out a couple of resumes to local and not so local flight schools in hopes of getting about 2 to 3 days a week of evening or weekend work. I am going crazy without flying, and there is not really any hope of me flying JAARS planes until my technical evaluation in October. We will wait on the Lord for his provision.

We had a very nice visit from Brian Behal, the MAF recruiter yesterday. It is the third time he has been to visit us. He stayed for dinner and for conversation well into the evening. It was fun hearing some of his "jungle flying" stories!

Yesterday was somewhat of a milestone for me. Friday of last week, a cracked cylinder was found on the Cessna 206 used for training here. After the cylinder was removed, it was brought into the engine shop to be rebuilt. I did most of the "guts" work and turned it over to the other guys to be put back on the airplane. Yesterday it was returned for service and was flown again. So, that is the first time that I did any major work on an airplane that has flown! Small thing, but rewarding for me.

It has been a good week of working so far.

We were held up on the assembly of the engine, waiting on some parts to come in, so I was asked to assemble another tail wheel assembly again for an outside customer. This one went much faster as I am more familiar with the shop and the workings of the piece now.

We will be putting together the crankcase halves tomorrow and it will start looking like an engine soon!

Now for some bragging!

The other day we were reading the Bible together as a family and we read about the birth of Samuel. His mother promised that if God gave her a son, she would never cut his hair. Since we had just finished reading Judges as well, Josh said, "Oh, so he is a Nazirite."

I asked why he said that. He first asked, "Is it OK for me to infer things in the Bible?" After saying that you have to be careful doing that, but yes, it is OK, he said, "Well, Sampson couldn't cut his hair, and he was a Nazirite, so I think Samuel was too."

How cool for him to pick up on that! I am so glad my kids are paying attention to God's Word!

Additionally, Karina asked me if I could email her verses from time to time for her to memorize and talk about in our home fellowship meetings. I am so proud of both of them!

I praise God that he is working in their lives and drawing them to him!

The Secret

by Debbie Burgett

One by one, the handful of Saluan men slipped quietly out of the darkness and joined Malongi around the flickering fire. There was no talking or laughing or enjoyment of each other's company. This must be kept a secret.

So, just above a whisper, Malongi began the Bible lesson.Twenty years earlier, this isolated tribal village high in the Indonesian mountains had refused to have missionaries come. Even now they still clung to their traditional ways. Some of the Saluan men had not bathed in a year because they believe it makes machetes powerless to hurt them.

But then Malongi showed up and asked if he could teach them. His village had welcomed the same missionaries that this village had rejected. He said his message was so important that he would be willing to hike the long distance between his village and theirs to make sure they heard it.

And since he was one of their own, some of the men agreed to listen -- but only if it was kept a secret. They couldn't risk angering the spirits. If the spirits found out what they were up to, it could mean sickness and death for the whole village.

So Malongi built a house there and for the last year has traveled back and forth with his wife to whisper the wonderful secrets of God.And as he spoke that evening, truth came and danced gently around the fire. Spirits were forgotten as the men listened intently about Moses and the giving of the Ten Commandments.

Afterward, the seven Saluans melted silently back into the darkness. No comments, no goodbyes. The spirits must never know.But Malongi will keep on coming. He will keep on coming until those same men begin shouting the very secret they so desperately want to keep.

---This is a story that was sent to me in an email from "Tribal Beat", a newletter from New Tribes Mission. These are great, because they are stories of how God's Word is working in very dark places around the world.

You can subsribe by visiting this link.

JAARS Day

JAARS day is like an open house, air show, meet and greet all in one. It is the best opportunity to take in a lot of what God is doing through JAARS in a single event if you can make it.

There is a presentation in the morning, then the rest of the day is yours to visit the Alphabet Museum, Cardenas Museum, Hangar, and the other places that work gets done here.

At the beginning of the open time, there was a demonstration of the capabilities of the Kodiak airplane and the helicopter. It was fun to watch just how precisely these aircraft can be handled by highly trained and experienced missionary pilots!

I volunteered to help and was assigned the gatekeeper for the Kodiak rides. There were three aircraft giving rides: the Kodiak, the Helio Courier, and a Robinson R44. In addition, there was a 4X4 vehicle taking people around the Jungle Jumpoff area for demonstrating transportation on the ground.

The people who bought tickets for the "Mission Adventure Ride" would start out in a Helio Courier Airplane, then be dropped off to take a short ride in the 4X4 to be brought back.

I was able to speak to several individuals who had expressed interest in serving God in some capacity with JAARS. It was fun to get to know them and hear how they were open to God's direction in that area of their lives.

Of course, we are fond of the JAARS day as it was at one last October where we were challenged to seriously consider serving with them... and here we are!

The kids had a great time riding around in the shuttle bus and going between the two of us (Maggy was working the gift shop). Karina was in charge of the camera and took most of the pictures for the day. Click on the photo album link to see the new posts.

The first Saturday in August will be the next one. If you are in the area, try to visit!

I have included a few new links to other mission aviation websites. Read how God is working through so many people.