It’s been a whirlwind of routine (is that a thing?) since we finished with Christmas and started back to work. But the exciting stuff is happening at the hangar!
- Two of our pilots have left for their Kodiak training in Spokane, Washington (at Spokane Turbine Center). When they return in a few weeks, they’ll begin flying with the training pilot.
- The training pilot and his family have arrived and will live here for 6 months or so to get our pilots trained and transitioned into the Kodiak.
- Josh and another pilot are doing “observation flights” with the training pilot until the other pilots return from STC. As you can imagine, the pilots have to take turns training. While this is good because it means we have staggered the experience/learning/training times, it means that Josh is ground-bound for a while longer, yet.
- Kodiak #2 has been cleared for it’s journey to Papua New Guinea! It has left Arizona and is currently being outfitted and readied for it’s trans-Pacific flight. We expect it to arrive here in about 2 weeks!
As you can see there is a lot going on in the aviation department! New airplanes, new training, new options for our tribal missionaries, and even a new tribal airstrip in the works! God has provided so much and opened so many doors – and while we can easily forget His goodness when things don’t look like we expected, we are humbled and grateful for the blessings He continues to provide!
Now, in other, less exciting every day kind of news…
We had a second Christmas a little bit late. My siblings-in-law sent several gifts via another missionary which arrived just after the new year. We did Christmas all over again… we burnt candles, sipped hot chocolate, and had a wrapping-paper “snowball” fight when we were done. And this time I avoided the emotional meltdown over inanimate and everyday items that happened last time.
The medical clinic where I work had an immunization clinic for the kids in the surrounding area. My job was to take down their initial information – name, age, and village. They each got a card with the immunizations they would receive, and then they went right down the line getting the shots they needed. In all, we saw about 150 kids. Despite the normal kids-getting-multiple-shots crying, everything went really smoothly and it was nice to be a part of keeping our community healthy.
It’s been raining steadily every day for a few weeks now. I’m not sure if we can officially call the drought over – but I think it’s safe to say that the danger we had before has passed. Gardens are growing again, and the river is back to it’s normal levels again. It’s easy to forget what a blessing a tiny raindrop is, until it’s not raining anymore!
Thank you for continuing to pray for the aviation department here, especially as we have so many exciting things coming up! It’s so much more fun knowing we have a great community serving with us all around the world!