Latest Flight Watch Magazine Features our Family

In an earlier post we mentioned that Flight Watch Magazine, put out by MAF, would be featuring our family. Well, the issue just came out! For those of you that get our newsletters by mail, you should be getting one in the mail. For those that don't and want to check it out, it can be viewed at http://maf.org/news-and-resources/publications under the Flight Watch Magazine section, halfway down the page . Our amazing photographer friends, Gerald and Airika Pope, took the family photo and we are including more photos from the December session below.

On another subject, if you're wondering why we haven't been posting much on our blog lately it's because we have been pretty overwhelmed trying to get ready to leave for Indonesia! We still don't have tickets and are awaiting visas, but there's hope that they will come through very soon and that we'll be able to leave around June 15th. This still isn't 100% for sure, but that is what it is looking like at this point. That would give us less than two weeks to finish packing our crates here at my parent's house in Bellevue, pack for language school, and take care of the remaining things on our list. As you can imagine, it has been a crazy few weeks for us! Please pray for us as we prepare to leave and await information on visas....for health, peace as we pack up and say goodbye to dear family and friends, and that all of the last minute stuff will fall into place. Thank you!

 This is what my parent's living room looked like before we started sorting through our stuff to pack!

 

Here's the garage! It's looking much better now.

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 



Idaho Backcountry Trip

It's difficult to describe the jaw-dropping beauty along the Salmon River, and the pictures below certainly don't do it justice.  I honestly don't know what I enjoyed more... physically flying into the airstrips, or riding in the backseat with my camera!  I definitely enjoyed the cameraderie of the pilots, the top-notch training from the instructors, the hospitality of Jim and Gloria at the Ranch (I'm sure I put on 3-4 pounds over the 4 days!), and of course God's beautiful and majestic creation.

The purpose of this trip was to expose us to some of the most difficult mountain airstrips that Idaho has to offer.  These airstrips are representative of the types of challenges we will face while flying overseas.  We are continually grateful to those of you who through prayer and through financial support make this possible.  I literally can't wait to put these skills to use in Indonesia...to impact lives through providing medical help, access to education, and hope, as we physically demonstrate God's love to all people. 

Allison Ranch (where we stayed the 3 nights) in the morning.  The fog lifted each morning by the time we had had breakfast and were ready to go.

The view from the hill above Allison Ranch

The mighty Salmon River

Morning sun from the deck of the lodge at Allison Ranch

Did anybody notice the yellow spider on the flower?

Flying over Whitewater Ranch, one of the more challenging strips

Parked at the top of Whitewater Ranch.  This airstrip has a 10% slope and is very narrow.  To give you some perspective most highways in the United States don't go much over 7% slope.  When you start getting around 5% on a highway you'll see all the warning signs for truckers, run-away truck ramps, etc.  We have some airstrips overseas that have portions at 24% slope!

On one of our lunch breaks we suddenly saw this Bald Eagle cruising down the river looking for fish.  I just happened to have the right lens on the camera to get the shot!

Wilson Bar.  One of many airstrips with a "blind approach."  You fly upriver a mile or two and then descend towards where you know the airstrip to be.  You don't actually see the airstrip until you are 100 feet above landing as you make a 90 degree turn to line up with it.  While we were measuring the airstrip here we saw a large herd of elk a few hundred yards up the mountainside.

Idaho Backcountry Pit-Stop

I found myself wondering if this amazing cornice would fall if we buzzed it with the airplane!  Needless to say we didn't try it.

Luke making a picture-perfect touchdown at Allison Ranch after flying the "blind approach"

 

Take-off out of Allison Ranch

We were privileged to see many herds of Elk on the slopes above us.  We even had some on the runway at Allison on our last day.

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!