aviation adventures

the missionary aviation tent that we (and 7 other mission organizations!) called home for the week by Josh Verdonck

What a whirlwind week it’s been! I mentioned in my last post that April has been a busy, busy month for us… and that was only halfway through the month! Since then there’s been an airshow, more speaking engagements, more blessings from the Lord, more paperwork filed, and definitely not enough sleep to keep up with it all.
I drove down to Lakeland on Monday last week and met with Josh and the rest of our NTM Aviation team for a week of airshow fun at Sun N Fun. Being a pilot’s wife is one of those funny things… you want to be interested in aviation because your husband is – love languages and all, you know – but all of the numbers and teensy details don’t stick very well and even after 4 years of it you end up with your eyes glazed over nodding “uh huh, oh yeah” with zero understanding. However, I can honestly say that after a week of listening to all of those little details about airplanes, I can answer a lot of technical questions that I would otherwise miss! It definitely makes me prouder and more appreciative of Josh, and I am definitely more excited about the Kodiak than I was before I knew the numbers. Maybe now I can have an intelligent conversation about aviation with my husband, without feeling like I’m drowning in the details.

Our days were jam-packed with stuff to do from early morning to late at night, then repeated the next day. We gave up worrying about being sweaty all day on Day 1, started praying for new feet on Day 2, got really good at mid-day Wet-Wipe “showers” on Day 3 – actually, that was probably just me. Instead, we saw the Lord work in amazing ways. He provided through a group called Missionary Aviation Support Association (MASA), which organized 3 meals a day, free water + snacks throughout the days, housing, loaner cars, as well as arm bands + parking passes for all of the missionaries involved. I can’t even begin to list all of the ways that God used us this week, or the enormous blessings that He showered us with while we were there. It’s amazing stuff, y’all. I can’t believe that this is my job – it’s just too cool!

Here are some pictures to show you a little of what our week looked like.

Josh getting our tribal lady, Meri, comfortable for her medi-vac flight.

Soaking up any shade we can find during a slow moment.

Josh preaching (for the first time!). One of several speaking engagements during the week.

This Kodiak is headed to PNG at the end of THIS SUMMER! I became quite familiar with this airplane this week.

Thank you for being a part of our ministry, which allows us to use airplanes to spread the Gospel to the unreached corners of the globe! What an amazing thing!