Brian and Bailey Pruett Serving in the Philippines with Aviation 
PDF Announcing Cole Brennan Pruett
We had a wonderful, stress free experience in the hospital and we're one happy family!
Five LONG days after his due date, Cole Brennan Pruett decided to show up. He was born at 6:45am on Saturday, April 14th. He weighed 8 lbs. 5 oz. and was 19.5″ long. It was a great experience to be near family for the whole process and we had amazing care at the hospital. We still talk about how amazing the staff at the hospital were. It was a real answer to prayer and a blessing to be in such good care and to have such an easy transition into our new zone defense plan now that we’re outnumbered by our kids.
Just How Stressed are Missionaries (and what can we do about it)?
First term missionaries were found to have scores peaking at 900, while veterans maintain 600+ year after year. According to the research, people with a score above 200 will likely have serious long-term health problems within two-years.
Shortly after we arrived in the States, some of our friends (both missionaries on their first term) started having somewhat mysterious major health issues that have brought them home to the US to get checked out. Doctors are mostly baffled by the ailments because there is no clear cause. It’s truly puzzling. Then I came across this post on another missionary’s blog which quantifies stress based on a modified version of the Holmes-Rahe Scale. After reading this, it’s no wonder missionaries are so weird!
Just for fun, I took the unmodified, original, Holmes-Rahe test for Bailey and I and scored 532 points. My results were accompanied by this warning, “OVER 300 POINTS: This score indicates a major life crisis and is highly predictive (80%) of serious physical illness within the next 2 years.”
The test I took didn’t include any of the bonus features we deal with like:
- “Almost crashing into someone or something in the truck several times every day on the way to work”
- “Cross-cultural living in a community where we don’t speak the language”
- “Flying small planes onto jungle airstrips while Bailey flight follows”
- “Knowing that every time I fly or work on the airplane I have the potential to make a bad and fatal decision”
- “Instructing kids what to do if a cobra wanders into the yard while they’re playing”
The following article is from this blog and I feel it is right on point. Our hearts are heavy as we see so many missionaries suffer from strange illnesses that are impossible to diagnose. Not all are stress related, but it makes you wonder. It isn’t just missionaries either. We see many of our friends, family and supporters who are struggling with unimaginable stresses in the US as well but are pushing forward and walking with the Lord through it all. In the end, we all lean on the same God who’s reputation inspires us to blaze on with the assurance we get from Jesus’ words as he sent out the first round of missionaries, “And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Read the rest of this entry »
A Little More Responsible
A couple of weeks ago our team met in the Philippines to discus the future direction of our flight program. Brian was able to attend a couple of the meetings via Skype and it was a very profitable time. One of the things on the agenda was to assign and define job descriptions for all of us now that we have three functioning flight programs and personnel to run them.
From these meetings and meetings held last summer, it was decided that we will take on a couple of major administrative roles in addition to our current pilot/mechanic responsibilities. Brian is going to be the Chief Pilot for the Philippines and the Program Manager for the Philippines. These changes will happen over the next several months as our friends and co-workers, the Barkmans, hand over their responsibilities before they step into a new and strategic role at the NTMA headquarters in Arizona.
As Chief Pilot, Brian is going to be concerned with the safety of our flight programs as it relates to flight operations and pilots. As the Program Manager Brian will be responsible to oversee and plan for the business side of our operations. These added responsibilities mean a lot more travel than we were doing before. We will likely travel to every region within the Philippines a couple of times each year and also to the States at least once a year. Without such an amazing team behind us, both on the field and here in the States, we would never attempt something as daunting as this. As a team, we are all taking on a lot more responsibility a lot sooner in our “careers” than we ever imagined.
Please pray for us as a family and as a team in the Philippines as we adjust to carrying these responsibilities. Also, pray that we will be able to raise enough support during this home assignment to cover our increased ministry expenses. If you would like more information about how you can be a part of our ministry through praying, giving financially or encouragement please contact us and we’ll send you some information.
Helping the Church Help the Community
Loading the plane with bundles of Abaca fibers to be sold in town. The funds generated from these fibers will go to help buy medicine for the village. It also gives individuals a way to purchase goods from the church store.
Several years ago the Tala-andig tribal church decided to help improve the living conditions in their village. This was a complicated undertaking since they rarely leave the jungle and don’t have access to some of the basic things we do. Among other things, they wanted a way to provide soap, salt and kerosene for lanterns at night for the people of their community. The decided to start a church store that would operate as a break-even endeavor and a service to the village. The store is run by the believers with the goal of facilitating a healthier lifestyle.
People in the community are able to harvest and process Abaca fibers from trees which grow wild in their valley. They take these fibers and bundle them (as seen in the photo above) so that they can be flown to town and sold. We average about one flight every two weeks to the Tala-andig and much of the cargo on these flights is for the church store and the rest for the missionaries. I can carry about 450 pounds of these fibers on nearly every return flight from the Tala-andig tribe so the otherwise empty flight is not wasted.
We are being used by the Lord to provide a means for the Tala-andig believers to improve their lifestyle and living conditions by providing access to these outside goods. The money obtained from selling the abacca fiber is used to buy the medicines out in town and also that is what the individual families use to buy what they need from the store in the village. As a result of having access to these things as a community they have a better quality of life with fewer sicknesses and are able to give more time to spiritual ministry because of this.
Survivor: Road Trip Edition
This is what we fit in the trunk of the Accord - minus Maycie and Dylan, of course. There were times when we considered stuffing them in the trunk and keeping the duffel bags with us… but it never came to that.
We ended our roadtrip a couple of days early, on February 12, because we were losing our minds! Not really, but we felt that the kids had taken all the car-seat-time they could handle. We were also feeling a little pressured for time since we have several meetings this week and next week in California.
We had a wonderful trip and really enjoyed catching up with friends and family. We came home tired, but encouraged and we hope the folks we visited were mutually encouraged by all that God is doing in the Philippines and all that He has done through their involvment in our ministry.
Trip Stats:
▶ 7,311 Miles ▶ 135 Hours Driving ▶ 25 Days ▶ 21 States ▶ 13 Houses ▶ 6 Hotels ▶ All with a 3 1/2 year old, a 1 1/2 year old and a 7-month-pregnant momma.Birthday Wish
Maycie’s birthday is coming up and she
is starting to think about her party. So far she seems decided on a princess theme. After breakfast this morning she informed us that she wanted to be excused from the table so she could “go shoot”. While still dressed up like a princess, she proceeded say, “I think maybe I want a gun for my birthday.” That’s my girl!
Later that same day, she convinced Bailey to give her a monster truck tatoo that came with a toy we bought her on our road trip. She was quite proud of her new ink.
The Long, Cold Road
We left home on January 18th on the day that the biggest snow storm in years was forecasted to hit the Northwest. We had a pretty tight schedule to keep so we decided to inch our way North until things got too slippery. It seemed like we averaged about 30mph from Redding to Spokane, WA but we made it. The worst was certainly at the Columbia river gorge where 50mph winds combined with football field-sized patches of ice kept things interesting.
We want to thank all those who have been praying for us on this trip, our kids have been better than we expected and have been great travelers. However, it is evident that we should come home a couple of days early for their sake. We are expecting much nicer weather as we hit the road again in the morning. We are leaving Warner Robbins, GA and ending our trip a few days later in California. We would sure appreciate your continued prayers on this long drive.
Tour De America
Our planned route is in a large 7,000 mile loop
On January 18th we leave to take a road trip around the US visiting with friends who we haven’t seen in a long time. We are really looking forward to visiting with folks and we’re praying that wherever we go we will be an encouragement as we share what God has been accomplishing in the Philippines. Please pray for us as we travel for a little less than a month in a big 7,000 mile circle.
Please pray for safety as well since much of our driving will be in snow country. Pray also for the car to run well and for the kids (and us) to really enjoy the adventure of it. Thankfully, we have been able to break the trip up into fairly small chunks so it shouldn’t be as bad as it sounds. However, we are aware that it could be a disaster with a 3 year-old, a 1 1/2 year-old and Bailey 6 1/2 months pregnant. Needless to say, your prayers would be appreciated.
We Found a Car
We will soon be very well acquainted with this little grey car. We plan to spend over 120 hrs driving in it over a period of 30 days.
We are so blessed to have found a car for our road trip. It’s a used Honda Accord and we think we’ll be able to fit everything in it for the trip, but if not, we’ll just have to leave some things behind. During the next few weeks Brian will be making any necessary repairs to the car in hopes that we’ll have a breakdown-free trip – especially since it’s going to be cold in the Northwest during January. We’re also getting mentally prepared for that rude awakening!