Trip to Tarakan

As we touched down (rather firmly!) on the runway in Tarakan the emotion of the moment was significant for me.  After 12 years of preparation for service in mission aviation, I was finally about to set foot in the place the Lord had called me to.  Like every good passenger does, I waited until the aircraft had come to a complete stop before unbuckling my seatbelt (wink, wink), and braced myself for a wave of sticky heat as they opened the cabin doors.  My mind was filled with questions of what it would be like there, and I was excited to finally get some answers. 

Our program manager met me in the terminal and took me straight over to the MAF hangar, which is just on the other side of the runway from the main terminal.  I had seen hundreds of pictures of this hangar, I had watched documentaries about the program here, I had dreamt about what it might be like there, but none of that equaled standing there in the heat, smelling the burning jet fuel as the Kodiak started up, hearing the sounds, and feeling the breeze.  In many ways I felt like I was finally home. 

Over the next 3 days I got a tour of the island, saw a couple housing options, picked a house, unloaded our container full of furniture into the house, started unpacking, and had fellowship with several of the MAF families there.  It was fun to see how excited they all are to receive our family in just a few short weeks.  We pray that we can be a great addition to that team.  We pray for incredible friendships for Ellie and the kids there.  There certainly are a lot of kids there!  The MAF team consists of 13 families, and we are the only "Westerners" on the entire island.  Our new home is only 7 minutes away from the hangar, and 9 minutes away from our MAF team mates.  The city of Tarakan is small, with just 2 main roads crossing in the middle of town.  You can find a lot of life's necessities there, though there may be no selection...you're stuck with the one type/brand that happens to have been imported there.  There are less food selections available there, which will require some adjustment for us.  Overall my impressions of our future home were good, and I am excited to return there at the end of July with Ellie and the kids. 

 On final approach to the island of Tarakan

 A small, simple restaurant with an amazing view.  Enjoying the ocean breeze and good company on my first meal in Tarakan.

The picture doesn't do it justice, but this is perhaps the largest mosque I have seen yet in this country.  It is still under construction.

The airplanes get washed every evening.  This was a particularly muddy day in the interior of Borneo (Kalimantan) so the Kodiak is enjoying a nice scrub down.

 One of the Cessna 206s getting a bath after a muddy day serving the interior churches of Kalimantan.

 I still don't know how they did it but these guys managed to get our couch up the narrow, winding stairs into our living room!

Early morning on the ramp in Tarakan.  The Kodiak is just spinning up it's engine, one 206 has taxied out already and is running final checks before takeoff, and the other 206 is just moments away from starting it's engine.  Just another typical, busy flying day for the MAF team in Tarakan.

This is Gnochi.  He helped me blow off steam at the end of long tiring days of moving furniture around.

Jakarta and Medical Update

We have arrived at the guest house in Jakarta and have been getting settled in for the last few days and learning where everything is. The house is nestled downtown in the middle of several high rises, so it definitely has a busy city feel. We take cabs everywhere, which is an incredibly easy method of transportation here. For the first week and a half we lived in the guest house and all stayed in one room together. It definitely had it's challenges but we also enjoyed getting to know the different people coming through with different backgrounds and stories. Today we moved into the apartment behind the guest house and have taken over the responsibilities of managing the guest house.

Front View of the Guest House

Front View of the Apartment

I have already been to see the doctor several times and it has been very encouraging and hopeful. The doctor is from LA and has been practicing in Indonesia for over 20 years. After he explained my x-rays and MRI, I learned that I have three different problems with my back that need to be addressed. First, my sacroiliac joint is unstable and has been one of the biggest reasons I continue to have pain. I will need to continue building my core muscles and getting chiropractic adjustments. I also have scoliosis, which I knew about but I didn't know that anything could be done about it. The doctor has started me on a scoliosis treatment in which I lie on a special table that moves my back into the correct angle. This will continue until we leave and at the end of our time here (tentatively end of July), I will get another x-ray to evaluate the degree of improvement. Lastly, I have several bulging discs and some degeneration in the discs as well. I have starting decompression therapy in order to take pressure off of the discs and hopefully put things back into place. I also have started exercising at the hotel next door. We definitely could use prayer that this is a time of healing for me, and also prayer for Matt as he watches the kids for my appointments and exercise routine. Being downtown makes it a little difficult to think of things to do with the kids and this is a pretty expensive area, so already the kids have been going a little stir crazy.

Here are a few things that I have noticed about Jakarta:

1. The mosquitoes are much worse here
2. The ant situation is not as bad.....maybe it's just where we live but we haven't seen nearly the amount of ants crawling all over our house and counters like we did in Salatiga.
3. Traffic is horrific!
4. You can find just about anything and there are some VERY fancy malls....and great restaurants!

On another subject, this week our car sold! We praise God for bringing along a buyer. Thanks to each of you who have supported us through encouragement, prayer, finances, and countless other ways as well. We have definitely felt God's grace through so many of you.

 View of backyard. You can see that there is a building about 1 foot...at the most...next to the fence.

Callie loves this rocking chair