Training at the MAF Headquarters

Matt did an earlier post describing some of his training at the MAF headquarters and I thought I'd post some pictures of what the whole family has been up to for the last two months. The kids have had a blast playing with the other kids here, and we've really enjoyed the sense of community. Some of the pictures include the visit from Matt's family, Easter, and random pictures with the kids.

 

Looking ahead, we start orientation training on Friday, which both Matt and I will be a part of, and leave for Bellevue the first weekend in May. We'll continue packing and plan to leave from there for Indonesia. Two major prayer requests are that our visas will come through, and for adequate funding. We're still waiting on some donor amounts and are unsure of our exact funding status. Please join us in prayer for these two things so that we can leave in June as planned.

 

Front of MAF headquarters (view from our apartment)

 

Blake just loves his baby sister, and she loves him! He makes her laugh all the time

 





 

 

Here is the caravan, fixed up and ready for service in Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa. There was a dedication service here for this beautiful airplane.

 



Sitting in the back of the caravan

 



Callie and her cousin Abby, enjoying the hot tub at the hotel

 



Matt and Grandpa Gary went to the Birds of Prey Exhibit

 

Blake and Callie looking at the Condor

 



I took a "cooking from scratch" class for one afternoon, put on by MAF. Here is our amazing meal!

 

All the cousins (from Matt's side) together in the hot tub

 



Callie's first Easter egg hunt! 

Cousins together on Easter

 



Callie and Eva, such pretty little girlies!

 





Blake, Callie, and Judah

 



Eva spending time with Grandma Laurie

All the missionary kids at our St. Patty's Day party 

Blake loves pretending to be Batman. In fact, Grandma Barb made him his very own Batman cape!

Advanced Flight Training

I have heard Flight Standardization described as "the most fun you can legally have in a Cessna 206."  So far I have to agree, although the fun doesn't come free.  The workload is intense, the learning curve is steep, and the environments we fly into are demanding.  I credit the amazing training I received at Moody Aviation in Spokane for setting a firm foundation on which I can build and stretch myself.  The instructors here have certainly stretched me to my limits and shown me the limits of the airplane I will be flying overseas. 

 

 

My first class 3 airstrip (airstrips are classified 1-3 with 3 being the most challenging).  This one is only 12 feet wide (2 feet wider than the landing gear), and is 1200 feet long.  This is the minimum size airstrip that a 206 can safely handle with a decent load onboard.  If you don't touch down in a 100 foot box you have to add power (abort the landing) and try again.

 

The airstrip diagram for Owyhee Bend, the airstrip in the first picture.

Enroute to an airstrip in the mountains.  The Kevlar helmets look uncomfortable but are actually not bad.  The sun visor is really nice!  Because of the type of operations we do MAF requires these helmets for 206 pilots.

Beautiful Idaho backcountry.

 

Seeing the rocks flying up in this picture makes it clear as to why we added rock guards behind the tires, and a "beefed up" leading edge on the horizontal stabilizer.  At this airstrip we were practicing aborted takeoffs at different points in the takeoff roll, as well as aborts after liftoff.  We also practiced airdrops (dropping different sized objects into a 50ft box).

 

This was my second class 3 airstrip.  I am standing at the "top" of the strip on the flat part.  The strip drops away to the left (my right in the picture) and is a 10% downslope.  On this type of sloped strip you are committed to land 50 feet before touchdown because if something happened after that point the 206 can't outclimb the terrain.  The measuring wheel next to me is an integral part of our training.  We walk down every new airstrip and mark critical points like where we expect to liftoff, where is the last point we can safely abort the takeoff, where we expect to be at a certain speed, etc.

 

So that's a small picture of the types of things I am learning here.  Each of these tools I am learning will be vital to a successful and safe flying ministry overseas.  Next week the training culminates in a 4 day backcountry trip where we "camp out" at a strip up in the mountains and each day put the skills we have learned to the test at various backcountry airstrips.  I will be sure to post lots of pictures! 

Eva's Newborn Portraits

While here in Nampa at the MAF headquarters, I'm trying to get as much done as possible in the evenings when Matt gets home. After five months, I'm finally finished editing the photos I took of Eva when she was two weeks old! Similar photos of Callie were taken by my friend Jen Schwab when she was about two weeks old and she was kind enough to let me watch and learn some of her tricks. Since Jen was out of the country when Eva was born, I decided to try it myself. Here they are!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Special Gift: Night out in Seattle

 After our move from Spokane we spent a week in Bellevue with my parents before packing up and heading to the MAF headquarters in Nampa, Idaho. My birthday fell during that week and I was given one of the best birthday presents that someone could have given....time with some of my best friends in the world! It actually was mostly a birthday gift for one of my close friends because her birthday was a few days before mine. Her incredible husband decided to bless all of us by reserving one of the most amazing king suites on the twenty eighth floor of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in downtown Seattle. He planned an entire twenty four hours of pure girls fun....a fancy dinner, shopping the entire next day, all meals and coffee included. It was one of the most fun birthdays I've had in a long time! The thing that made it the most special was that I was able to spend quality, uninterrupted time with friends who have been like sisters to me, especially meaningful since we will be leaving for Indonesia in a couple of months, and it will be the last opportunity to spend time with them for quite a while. I'm so lucky to have such great friends (and that they snagged such great husbands!!!).

Beautiful Seattle Skyline

 



 

The view from the room was incredible!

Just a small part of the huge king suite we stayed in

 



 

Dinner at Barolo's Restaurant...this is where we saw two celebrities from the latest Bachelor show





Moving On

Yesterday we said goodbye to our little house in Spokane that we have lived in for almost eight years. Packing and cleaning took two days longer than expected, but we were so thankful for the people that came to help, and for the friends and neighbors that brought meals and coffee. As we walked through the empty rooms in our house one last time, a flood of memories came back to us....and a heaviness to be leaving our home. It's funny how attached we can get to a space, but this house has meant so much to us over the years. We have lived there since we were first married, brought home our first puppy, grieved the loss of our first kitty, and brought home a new kitty. We welcomed our three babies into this house. I'm going to miss watching them run through the sprinklers, chase garter snakes and pick up apples that fell from our tree in the back yard and plop them into a bucket. I'm going to miss watching the snow fall from the dining room window, miss our quiet street, miss our friends. We know we have exciting things ahead, but for now we grieve the closing of this chapter of life. Thank you to all of you who made this place so special.

We have moved all of our things to my parent's house in Bellevue and will pack our crates from here. We leave for Nampa, Idaho in four days for ten weeks of training before departing for Indonesia in mid-June. Please pray for the packing process and for strength and energy in the weeks ahead. We are exhausted. Please also pray that our house would sell quickly and for peace as we say goodbye to so many things, and to so many special people.

Chocolate Chips and Ear Plugs

One night, after a full day of Christmas baking, I (Ellie) had a dream. I felt something small and round between my fingertips. When I looked down, I realized "hey I have a chocolate chip in my hand!" Slowly my hand brought the chocolate chip up to my mouth and popped it in. But then I noticed that something wasn't right.....this didn't taste like a chocolate chip at all. It was then that I woke up to find....yep, you guessed it....a flourescent orange wax ear plug ...in....my...mouth!!!

As we prepare for Indonesia it's funny to think about all the odd things we need to bring, like ear plugs. We've heard that Indonesia is a noisy place and ear plugs are hard to come by. For those of you that know me, you know that I NEED my sleep. So, we bought about 25 packs of ear plugs to last an entire term. Crazy, you say? Maybe. But sleep is one thing we don't want to be worrying about in the midst of a brand new culture, not knowing the language (if we can help it). Let's just hope I don't have any more dreams about chocolate chips.

Our Final Assigment...

We have received our assignment of our final location! After a year and a half of wondering exactly where we will be serving in Indonesia and which of the bases we'll be living on, we found out this last week that we will be sent to the island of Kalimantan. Specifically, we are going to be living in the city of Tarakan. 

Tarakan is a small island off the coast of Kalimantan (Borneo), is predominantly Muslim, and is a city of roughly 200,000.  From there we will fly to the interior villages of Kalimantan each week day delivering supplies and transporting people in support of all kinds of church and humanitarian work.

Tarakan isn't known for much today besides some fisheries and forest products, but before World War 2 it was a major producer of oil.  In fact it was one of the first targets of the Japanese Navy because of the oil, and because of the strategic location from which they could launch bombers to other parts of the islands.  The airfield that MAF flies out of today is leftover from that era.  

MAF currently has 15 staff families on the island and we're excited to join in what we hear is a great team.  Most of them have young kids as we do, so that will be a huge blessing to our family.  There is a small school there for the MAF kids, however at this point the teachers can only commit to one year terms, so please pray with us that the school would continue to be supplied with quality teachers.  Side note...if you're a teacher there is ALWAYS a place for you in MAF! Just go to the website and find out what cool opportunities there are for you.  Perhaps we'll see YOU over there with us some day!

Anyway, much more could be said about Tarakan, the families there, and the ministry, but we'll save that for subsequent posts.  For now we're excited to have a destination, and to be able to pack with a purpose.  Please pray for us as we pack and wade through the complex logistics of selling our house, packing for 3 destinations (Nampa, Language School, and crates to our final desination of Tarakan), and saying goodbye to family and friends here in Spokane.