House Hunting

We have had a busy couple of days here in Shell, as we look for a house to rent. Shell is a very small town, but there is a lot of activity here as there is a military base and many transients, it seems. There seem to be many options for us, but nothing is ready for us to rent at the moment.

House hunting here is very different from how we would go about it in Florida. There are no real estate offices here and no classified ads. The process is to drive or walk around looking for signs on houses for rent or sale. Some houses for sale are also for rent, so we called on all of those with no positive results.

After that method was exhausted, we started asking around if anyone knew someone with a house for rent. We found 3 houses that were under construction, but not quite finished that were possibilities. We will be in discussions with their owners in the next couple of days to see if we can come up with a reasonable agreement. With two of the houses, it seems the owners do not intend to finish until they have a renter in hand. This means that they will ask the future renter to finish the house and then give some credit for rental.

This seems to be a fairly standard method, and if we are able to come up with the capital, might be a very reasonable solution for us. We know God has something in mind and we have time on our side to find the right house for us. We still think that we have about a month to a month and a half left of paperwork in Quito so we are looking at about August for needing a place here in Shell.

We have had very good conversations with the ADSE leadership about guidance for what our next steps should be and what our focus should be for our time in Quito.

My residency paperwork, of course, is primary as everything else hinges on that. We hope to have all the documents to submit the package by next week. We will need prayers to have patience and to be smart about where to go and how to accomplish everything. The next step is going to be application for the commercial pilot's license.

This, as you probably already know, is the sticking point of our transition to Ecuador. The government has the right to deny my application until I have full citizenship. That may take two years or longer. We hope and pray that they will recognize the fact that I am married to an Ecuadorian as grounds for giving me the license right away.

ADSE really needs another pilot flying as one of the MAF pilots is going on furlough next week and then is being transferred to another assignment. We depend only on the Lord to invervene in this case if it is his will for me to be flying right away. We will probably know something more next week.

We will return to Quito either tomorrow afternoon or Monday morning to be ready for a full week of dealing with government agencies for these two issues. Thanks for your prayers for us and the encouragement you show by your posts and comments! They really mean a lot.

Pardon my lack of communication this week.

I have promised much communication this, our first week in Ecuador as a family, but I have not provided and I feel bad for that. Hopefully, this post will explain and make up for most of it!

We had a safe and uneventful journey in our big white rental van from Tampa to Miami. We were able to enjoy a relaxing evening with friends who live in Miami at the hotel pool. It was an early morning up with a nice breakfast and then off to the airport. As anyone who has travelled through Miami knows, you officially arrive in South America at the airport. We were told by the airline that it was required to have our bags wrapped in plastic for protection. At $12 each times 8 bags, I was a bit upset, but realized that if we were the only ones who didn't do it, our bags would be a target. So instead of telling them what I felt, I just aquiessed and had it done.

Other than that, there were no hickups along the whole trip and all the kids did very well for the whole flight. Our layover in Caracas was pleasant as I was able to enjoy some "authentic" Venezelan arepas and a cold Malta!

Our flight to Quito was deleyed a half hour, but no sweat. We all arrived safely in Quito and had several people, ADSE staff and Maggy's family, waiting for us to take us to our temporary house in Quito. Out of our 8 bags checked, only 5 made it, but another showed up the next day. As of now, we are still waiting on the other two. We have the bulk of what we need, but Maggy and I both are short most of our clothes. We have enough to get by, and the most important items arrived. After all the travelling I've done, this is the first time I've ever lost a bag, so I figure I'm due! God knows where they are and when they will get here.

We got a good start the morning after our arrival on getting our paperwork started. We have the list of items needed for my residency package submittal, which is the priority. Everything else pretty much hangs on that. We hope to have everything gathered and submitted by the end of next week. From there, we are told that it should take 20 to 30 days for approval and receipt of the Resident Visa.

The kids were able to obtain their "Cedulas", which are their official Ecuadorin ID cards. Everything one does in Ecuador requires showing your "Cedula", so this was a big step. We were quite surpised at the organization and speed this was accomplished. When we walked in to the Department, there was this huge line. We got through the line in about 20 minutes and were sent to another area. Our number was called after about 10 minutes and a total of an hour and a half had elapsed from walking in to walking out with all 4 kids registered and new cards in hand! That is a far cry from how I remember things working when my parents did the same for us in Venezuela! In fact, in the 13 years we were there, I never actually received my hard copy.

We arrived in Shell today to start looking for a house and to speak with the ADSE leadership to coordinate time lines, schedules and expectations. We plan to be here until Sunday afternoon or Monday morning. The ride down was a good one and the kids enjoyed it. Both older kids like Shell and we already met with a few families with kids their age for them to start connecting. Praise God for the work he has done in their hearts to make them so flexible!

As far as the communication issue: I am unable to connect my laptop to the internet connection at the house we are staying. That is a big deal, becuase most of our stuff is run off software on my laptop, and I don't want to be messing with the configuration of someone else's computer and loading a bunch of software on it. We have been working on getting my laptop connected to the existing internet connection and hope to have that working soon. This especially affects the Magic Jack phone that we hap hoped to be using to update everyone on our trip. That also affects our Skype, because the computer we are using doesn't have that and as I mentioned, I don't want to be loading software on someone else's computer.

The other issue is our lack of uploading pictures. This arrangement also prohibits us from loading our pictures into our albums until we can hook my computer up directly to the internet.

Thanks for your patience with us and I hope this brings you up to date and I will be posting more especially after we return from Shell and have things more lined up.

Our Last Letter from Tampa

April Newsletter

April 26, 2010

The training is complete. We have returned from Nampa, Idaho, where David completed his standardization training for mechanic and pilot. It was a wonderful time not only to receive this excellent training, but also for us as a family.

The training that Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) gave was very airplane specific. I received specialized training for maintaining and flying the turbo-charged Cessna Utility 206 Stationair. It is a 6 person (1 pilot and 5 passenger) airplane that is being used worldwide for challenging “bush” style flying. It carries a very heavy load flying reasonably fast. It can take off and land in very short distances and is rugged to be efficient to operate and maintain in these very challenging conditions. In short, it is about the perfect airplane for this type of flying!

The maintenance training consisted of overall operation of all the systems on the airplane. We were also taught common trouble areas, how to troubleshoot and identify these and how to repair them. We spent quite a bit of time also putting this into practice as we performed much of what we were taught on training components and real airplanes. One of the fun projects we did was to replace a horizontal stabilizer (the back small wing) on one of the airplanes. It was challenging and fun. One bonus for me is that one of the maintenance instructors was a pilot and mechanic in Venezuela and had flown me around as a kid. We had fun talking of the good times in Venezuela, much to the boredom of the other trainee! (Sorry, Nathan!)

The flight training was equally incredible. They definitely ensure that the candidates are prepared for all types of challenging flying. The training consisted of a broad array of flight such as flying at different speeds and airplane configurations; cross country navigation at different altitudes (that river looks a lot different from 2000 feet than it does from 5000 feet!); terrain flying (flying over/through mountains and valleys); emergency procedures; but most of the training focused on short field take-offs and landings.

The last 2 days of training consisted of flying to the “back country” of Idaho and practicing on a variety of very short and challenging airstrips carved out of the Salmon River valley floor. We actually spent 2 days flying the entire time BELOW the ridge tops, in a tight valley turning around seemingly scraping the wings on the sides of the mountains! The instructions for some of the approaches were very different from normal flying in Florida! Since the runway could not be seen for most of the approach, the instructor pilot would say: “Ok, fly to that rock, then turn and fly to that tree, then turn to line up with the runway…then you have about 1 and ½ seconds to decide of you are going to land or go around!”

While it was very intimidating at first, by the end of the second day, I began to feel more confident. While I know I would never be completely “relaxed” in that environment, I am confident. It requires constant alertness and awareness of the environment and to be able to make very quick decisions. I really can’t say enough about the whole training process. The instructors really poured themselves out to us to ensure we have the tools we need to safely fly these missions for the Lord.

One thing that I want to share is the non-technical training that I have received. 3 years ago when we first set out on this venture, I thought I was ready right then to go and was slightly annoyed that I had to wait so long to go through all the technical training. I thought that the need was for airplanes and pilots to fly them. But it’s not about the airplanes. It’s about the people. The airplane is just a tool to reach the people. God has shown me that although he has called us to serve in aviation, that aviation is not the end goal. It is a means to touch people’s lives in a way that will be an inroad to complete the primary task: make disciples of all nations, teaching them all the things Jesus has taught us!

We had numerous opportunities to see the sights and enjoy ourselves as a family as well. Thank you to the Tremperts who lent us their Suburban! We were able to drive to the mountains just about every week to see the sights or enjoy an activity. We enjoyed a super deal on snow skiing, so David, Karina and Josh went skiing. We went tubing as well as just letting the kids play in the snow. The last couple of weekends were really nice and we drove to the mountains and just got out to climb hills and such.

Both Karina and Josh made friends right away in school. They lived very near to us so they were over to the house quite a bit. Jonathan had the little sand box right out front, so he kept busy playing there. The other family there for the training had kids similar in ages, so we were able to enjoy each other’s company quite a bit.

We met many neat people there in Idaho and are grateful to God for allowing our time there to be such a rich experience. We are thankful to all those who made it a great time and count our blessings that we met new, life-long friends through the process!

The kids get out of school here in Tampa on the 10^th of June and we travel to Ecuador on the 14^th. In that time, we will be taking every advantage to share the vision that God has given us to raise awareness, establish our team and recruit those who would commit to praying for us and the ministry in Ecuador. We have several speaking engagements lined up, but if you have a Sunday School class or other group who would like to hear more, please let us know!

We commit everything we do to God,

David, Maggy, Joni Karina, Joshua, Jonathan, Jennifer

Helping out Juan Baron

Juan Baron is a missionary in Peru that I have known for many years now. We have been partnering with him and the ministry that God has entrusted him for a long time and are excited about the way God is helping him with funding the ministry.

You can click here to read more about the way you can help with a self-sustaining missions project.

Please pray with us that God will continue blessing this effort and that Juan and his family will be able to start the project very soon.

Terrain Flying

Today the weather was finally good enough to get into the valleys and canyons to practice what they call "Terrain Flying". The idea is to safely position yourself to fly up a valley or canyon when the weather is forcing you to stay low. The idea is to always be able to turn around and return if things are not as good as expected.

Plus, it is beautiful flying! Especially right after the snow we got yesterday!

See the pictures in the Picasa web album. (Link to the right.)

It's Snowing Again!

I can't believe it's snowing today after being 62 degrees yesterday!