Engine Rebuild

I am continuing with the engine rebuild for the Cessna 206 in Cameroon. Last week was the painting and measuring phases with the painting complete and the measuring still going!

I will probably be measuring throughout the rest of this week as well. I hope I get to start assembly by next week.

We had a great day on Sat. We went to a campground that is about 15 min from here to meet up with our home fellowship group. One of the families spent Friday night camping and planned to stay Sat night as well, so they invited us to a time of fellowship with them right at the campground. It was the perfect day for it.

There is a medium sized lake there with a sandy beach that the kids got to swim and play in. We had a good time relaxing and chatting. We didn't get out of there until 10:30! We had a fantastic time of worship by singing and sharing in God's word.

We truly had an international group this week. In addition to the host family and ourselves, a couple from Kenya was with us this week as well. They have been part of the group for a couple of months, but weren't able to make last weeks meeting because they were down with the flu.

So all together, we represented Scotland, England, United States, Ecuador and Kenya. It was really neat! And the couple wasn't from the city, either. They were from a tribal group in the highlands. They had a darling 2 year old girl. In addition to English, they both spoke Swahili and their tribal language, Kiquyo. (I don't know if that is a correct spelling, sorry Raymond and Gloria if I got it wrong!)

Sunday, we pretty much just vegged around the house. It was great!

No New Title

Sunday we went to Charlotte to visit another home fellowship group. We had a great day getting to know each other and discussing God's greatness and ministering to each other and praying for one another. They are a couple about our age with an 11 year old daughter. She and Karina hit it right off and they even got along with Josh!

We ended up staying until the evening with them. We are thankful to God for getting us together.

On Monday, I started my new assignment in the engine shop. I will be assisting in putting together an engine for a Cessna 206 that will be headed to Cameroon. It is in tiny little pieces right now and there is a tremendous amount of work to put it back together, so I am excited to be busy for awhile!

The first thing we did was to bath the non-magnetic parts in a dye and then wash it off, put it under a black light and look for tiny little cracks. The magnetic parts could be checked in a machine that magnetized the part and an oil-iron shaving solution poured over to check for cracks. Both are quite interesting operations!

Next, everything needs to be measured to the nearest ten thousandth of an inch to be sure it still meets the manufacturers specs. Then we will paint the parts that will be exposed, and then, maybe, we will actually start assembly! It is very reassuring for a pilot to see how much care is taken to put exceptionally serviceable stuff back in the airplanes. I have a new level of comfort now, planning to fly with JAARS!

This morning in our weekly center meeting, a fellow who is a Bible translator working with a group in SE Asia shared about his work. It is fascinating to see pictures of people who, not long ago, were savage, naked cannibals and are now using laptop computers, solar panels and satellite links to correspond with the translators here in Waxhaw to work on the Old Testament! God is great! Only he can change the hearts of men like that!

Jonathan has thrush. Maggy took him to the doctor today. We pray he will be healed soon. He has been very fussy.

The other two are doing great. Josh is still coming to visit me on my afternoon breaks. Today I impressed him with "glowing skin". I put some of the dye on his arm and put him under the black light. He was very impressed! He wanted to do it to his whole body!

Do I have to come up with a new title each time?

We finished the 100 hour inspection of the helicopter Friday afternoon. It required some more work above and beyond just the inspection, so I was kept busy through the end of the week.

My next assignment starting Monday will be to rebuild an entire engine for a Cessna 206. That will challenging and exciting. When it is all finished, we will run it on a test stand and make sure it works perfectly before sending it off to be put on its airframe. I'm not real sure where this one is going.

Josh has been having fun coming to visit me on my breaks. We have two 15 minute breaks and he likes coming up to spend them with me. Now that he is back in school, he will only be able to make the afternoon one, but it is fun that he is so excited to see what I am doing. He really liked the helicopter!

Today we went to a very large flea market with a couple other guys to do some one on one evangelizing with the people there. There is a large Hispanic population here and they make up most of the vendors and clients at the flea market so our Spanish skills were put to use. They enjoyed having us along and it was fun for us, too. We combined our weekly grocery shopping trip with the event and did some of our purchases there. We took the camera, but forgot to take pictures, so we hope to remember next time we go.

On Thursday, we had a couple over for dinner. The husband is a pilot going through his orientation. He is from Tasmania and she is from Australia. It was neat to hear their experiences and also to get some scoop as to the process a little bit. He is the first pilot here that I have gotten to know. Everyone at the hangar are mechanics.

We are very content here and God is providing for our spiritual growth and we are enjoying this time of relaxation from our customary busy schedules. We know things won't be this smooth for long, but we are enjoying the time while its here!

Work is Going Well

Work continues to go well.

Today I finished up my tail wheel assembly for the Helio Courier. More hand made parts, fitting them to other hand made parts and resizing to fit. It is a lot of fun!

After finishing that, my next assignment was to help with a (yuck!) helicopter. Just kidding. Helicopters aren't my favorite vehicle, but any training I can get is good! I was helping with a 100 hour inspection on a Robinson R44. It uses an engine very similar to the ones on the JAARS airplanes.

Jonathan has started doing something very funny. Whenever we are all laughing, he tries to join in and he does this fake, forced laugh that sounds more like coughing. It is funny to watch. Of course it makes us laugh harder, which just feeds him! He is eating a lot of solid foods now. We are still waiting for more teeth to come in. He still just has the bottom two. Although he eats like he has a full mouth full.

Now, if I could just get him to close his mouth when he chews! Of course I am still working on the older ones with that!

This morning was our monthly praise/prayer meeting. We meet for two hours in the morning to spend sharing prayer requests and praise reports. We hear from two guest speakers; the directors from Wycliffe, Japan and Wycliffe, South Korea respectively. It is so neat to hear how God is working in so many people around the world to accomplish the goal of Scripture translation.

God is doing a mighty work all around the world, and as such, there are many attacks from the enemy. The countries that are seeing some real breakthroughs are the ones where things are going very badly on other fronts. Papua New Guinea is seeing its share of hardships right now.

My Brother Michael Came to Visit

Friday afternoon, we got a call from Michael saying that he planned on being in our neck of the woods while taking the girls home from Spring Break.

So we got to spend a lovely evening with Michael, Deb and the girls. The girls stayed the night and Michael and Deb came back in the morning to pick them up. After taking a few pics, they left for home again. It was a very nice surprise for us and the kids.

I was able to find out a little bit more about what to expect upon completion of my internship. I will tentatively be scheduled for my technical evaluations the second week of October. They will evaluate both my piloting and mechanical aptitude and skill. The evaluations are quite intense, but I am confident that God has been preparing me for both and I will be ready by the time the internship is over.

There is a cost associated with the evalutation. I am responsible to pay for the airplane usage which will amount to just under $2000. We will be praying that God will provide for that by October.

For now, we are very content to be where we are at. My schedule is working out great to enable me to spend a lot of time with the family. The kids are off school for spring break until Friday.

Friday was a day off. We decided to do our weekly grocery run on Friday instead of Saturday and do some sight seeing in Monroe. We went to a supermarket that one of Maggy's new friends told us about that catered mostly to the hispanic population. We found their prices were very reasonable and the selection of hispanic foods was better even than in Tampa!

It was nice to make that find.

Maggy is suffering pretty badly with allergies again. Hopefully the blooming will be over soon and she can get back to normal.

Hangar Work

Here are some pics of the JAARS hangar with some of the airplanes in it. Helio Couriers, R-44, Kodiak, etc.

Today work got more interesting. I have been washing and waxing an airplane getting it ready for an airshow this summer. Not very exciting, but at least I was touching a real airplane! Today I was given an assignment to rebuild a tailwheel section of a Helio. It really got me into the work! I had to hunt for a big list of parts, clean, paint, rivet, build parts we didn't have...a whole bunch of stuff! It is very fun being part of a large repair station with cool tools and the ability to make a part if your stock room doesn't have one!

We have been meeting more people and having a great time talking about missions in general, JAARS and other such stuff.

We do miss our friends and family in Tampa, though. As we get settled into our routine and some of the newness wears off, we miss you all more! Thanks for all the emails. I will be answering them all and hope they keep coming! They are very encouraging.

David to Work/Kodiak Dedication

I got the call Thursday mid morning that all the administrative process had been approved for me to go to work at the hangar. I received my orientation and was put to work right away...washing airplanes! Hey, no complaints. I was very happy to just be around airplanes and if that meant washing them, fine with me! I know it won't be my last time. Where I will be flying there is plenty of mud to go around, so I had better get good at it!

The staff at the hangar is very friendly and I have been having a good time getting to know the folks and learning about what I will be doing. It has been good settling into a normal routine.

I get up plenty early (by my standards) to get the kids up and ready for school. That gives me time to exercise and spend some time in the Bible before I have to be to work at 8:00. Lunch is a full hour and we are living only a couple of minute bike ride from the hangar, so going home is easy. Then back to work until 5:00. I get home and spend time with the kids until supper where we have sat down to eat as a family 6 days in a row now! New record!

This is going to be a welcome change of pace for us and is going to be very good to bond us together as a family and make up for my crazy schedule the last year and a half.

Kodiak Dedication

Today was the new president installation for JAARS as well as the Kodiak dedication ceremony for service in Papua New Guinea. It still has some work to do here before being flown over in August.

It was very enlightening listening to both ceremonies and hearing how all the people here are so focused on giving God the glory for everything and seeking his will in all areas of the work. Since being here and listening to everyone talk, the goal of Scripture translation is always at the forefront and they try very hard to keep that there and not let all the material things that we work on get in the way. It's hard to explain, but it is a pleasure to be a part of this group that is so intent on serving God in areas that could easily become distractions rather than tools - technology.

One reminder came from the daughter of Cameron Townsend, founder of JAARS, Wycliffe and SIL (all organizations for the same purpose) who was one of the speakers at the president's installation ceremony. She said: "My father was a man who, before the airplanes, before the technology, before JAARS, before Wycliffe, before SIL and before anything, was a man who was called to serve God and who loved him."

We had a great time meeting new folks from around the U.S. who are faithful supporters of JAARS who came to witness the ceremonies. God blessed with a beautiful sunny day in the midst of a week that was very rainy and overcast.

1st Day of School

Both kids had a great 1st day of school. I didn't work today, so I was able to take both of them and walk them in and get them settled a little bit.

Both met many friends and are very excited to be here where many of their school friends live right on the center.

Josh lost no time in making friends. As soon as he got home, he got a call from one of the boys and spent the whole afternoon out with them. It is so nice to have that here! Josh was very surprised to get a call from one of his friends from school. That never happened in Tampa.

I was able to get my tool box organized with my new tools. I took it up to the hangar and put it with the other mechanic's. I also got to see some of the planes close up. See pictures on the picasa site. (Link to the right)