jungle aviation

I remember reading about JAARS as an impressionable teenager and feeling inspired by the men who dedicated their lives to aviation and using it as a tool to take the Gospel to the most remote corners of the world.  Reading stories about harrowing flights, miraculous landings and even gut-wrenching accidents served to plant in me a fascination of aviation and how I might one day be a part of global missions - taking the Message of Hope to a hurting world.  I write this blog post from the JAARS Center, the headquarters of Wycliff Bible Translators' aviation organization (which stands for Jungle Aviation And Radio Service) in NC.  

I am about midway through a month long stay at JAARS, in which I am participating in a training on the Cessna 206 aircraft (which our mission operates in Brazil), as well as helping prepare our new airplane to be flown to Brazil.  JAARS is a partner organization in Brazil and they have allowed us to use their hangar to make some modifications to a recently purchased airplane before importing it for mission service in Brazil.

Most of the JAARS guys I have been working alongside in the hangar have spent several years overseas serving in places like Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Cameroon, and the Philippines.  Their shared knowledge of bush flying would be difficult to match anywhere in the world.  And yet the kindness and humility I've seen is what impresses me the most. 

The training class I am participating in includes students who will be serving in Peru, Togo, Papua New Guinea and Africa.

Importing an airplane generates a ridiculous amount of paperwork so I have been working on getting all of the airplane's documentation in order to help with the process.

As well as training and maintenance, JAARS also does Research and Development which has lead to a number of modifications on their airplanes that improves safety and the usefulness of airplanes in mission work.  In this photo, the R and D team is loading lead weights (seen on the pallet) into a litter mounted in a helicopter fuselage (the coffin-looking box).  They are testing this modification that will allow a helicopter operating in Africa to use a stretcher when transporting sick and injured people.  

Using the FAA's rigorous standards they test the modification to see if it withstands several times the weight of a person (up to 3500 lbs.).  

I go to the "Brazil Prayer Meeting" made up of several former missionaries to Brazil meeting for lunch to pray about mission work in Brazil and friends they have left behind. 

Our mission's new airplane is in very good shape, but we are doing a thorough inspection and taking care of any issues before it begins serving in Brazil. 

Being away from my family has not been easy, but it has been so good to get a broader view of missions and in particular how God is using aviation to reach people around the world.  I've also found myself reflecting on how good God has been to me, allowing me to participate in the work that so captured me as a young man.

Sunny skies and deeper waters

post by Brin

Such a sunny day it is, meteorologically and emotionally speaking!

Today Gabriella is now minus 4 wisdom teeth and, kid-you-not, it took us 9min 50sec to drive to the oral surgeon this morning. By the time she left our front door and then later arrived in her bed only 1 hour and 45 min had passed.  To have done that in the Amazon would have (for us) required a boat, a car, an overnight in the city and a lot of patience in the waiting room.  I am thankful for this moment and this place.

And know where else timing has evidenced it's sunny disposition? Josh has been on his lonesome at a Wycliff training center in NC for 5 of the 37 days that he will spend under an airplane. I think he loves it. And I am not at all jealous that my husband's new bff is a Cessna 206. Because, as God mercifully gifts, Josh gets his training and also works on a future Asas plane, destined for Brazil, while I get to stay in Tremont.  I miss Josh, but if he were to leave while I stayed in Brazil (which was a possibility last March) I would miss his snake-slaying skills and his biceps for carrying my gas tanks.  He needs to write his own update so everyone tell him so.

And the girls...

Gabriella is navigating what are, for her, the unchartered waters of an American public high school. As a teacher at PQQ (our international school in Brazil) I enjoyed front-row seating at my girls' education - now trusting them to unknown teachers but ultimately God.  Gabriella wades in by joining the speech team; which ironically coincides with the exit of her wisdom teeth and aggressive orthodontic banding to make up for the lack of it in Brazil. She eats mounds of ice cream daily and with the price half of what it is in Manaus, my thriftiness compels me to do the same.  Also on her list is marching band, under the direction of Mr. Hillrich who is also Uncle Dave.  Seriously? How can a high school sophomore just up and join band? Mr. Hillrich points out that marching band is both auditory AND visual. Meaning to say she is decently coordinated and will hold a helpful place on the football field.  Also, she is a beauty so obviously he was referring to that as well.  I taught her to put her reed on her mouthpiece after she had stubbornly lodged it inside the mouthpiece. My history in woodwinds payed out since now my daughter advises me on books, clothes, technology and even cooking and I needed that boost. Gabriella's favorite class is Current Global Issues but also is learning a lot in Honors English. With comparatively trivial amount of homework she now has lots of time for hanging out with friends, games, youth group, and dabbling in various hobbies.

See Gabriella? She is the short one playing a saxophone.  

Congratulations to Gabriella who passed her written test for her driver's permit.

Did I park that? Yeah, in front of the DMV actually.  I am going to make an awesome driving instructor. Actually, it just makes me miss Josh.

Immersed in the swift currents of junior high (read: raging rivers of emotions) enters Ava. In the junior high school students can bring their personal devices (and all the potential poisonous horrors) for use throughout the day.  I pine for months ago when Ava could be found coloring and listening to audiobooks or conversing with friends in the hidden branches of a mango tree. Of course that tree could be concealing any sort of venomous creatures. To a momma's pondering heart the antidote is the same. God holds Ava in His hand.  Ava loves school. Let me clarify; Ava loves the people at school.  Learning? Eh.  

Ava has joined the Cross Country team. She will run, she supposes, if she can flit about with her friends as well.

After leaving the rigorous standards for academics and attire at PQQ, we apparently let our guard down and sent Mia to school with contraband clothing. The straps on her shirt were *barely* short of the two finger rule. And she was devastated. And then a few days later, scarcely acquainted with frank rejection, she cried for an hour after witnessing a typical 5th grade cafeteria tragedy where another student pitifully pursued a place to sit and no one seemed to care to offer one.  I told her she had "fresh eyes to see" and encouraged her to not just observe but influence and use that moment to be a disciple of Christ and do what she has been taught. It reminded me of the Seniors that Josh and I cared for last year and their class verse.... 

My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.           Colossians 2:6-7  MSG