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.

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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.

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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:

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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.

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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.

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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!

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We are so blessed to have such a nice home in a quiet neighborhood. There is even a park just around the corner from us where our kids love to play.

We finally made it to California after quite a long sprint to-the-finish in the Philippines. We were very pleased to leave a fully functional flight program in the capable hands of Joel and Missy Davis. The transition took a lot of work, but we were able to make the switch without any interruption in flight service at a time when a lot is going on in the ministries that we support with the airplane. We praise the Lord for a safe checkout for Joel and for safety in Brian’s final flights. Thank you for praying for us, we feel we were able to finish well.

We arrived at Los Angeles International Airport and drove North to our home town in Santa Maria. We had pre-arranged to rent a house from a family in our church and were expecting it to be a pretty empty house when we arrived. To our surprise folks in our church had rallied together to collect furnishings, decorations, dishes, and everything you’d need to make a house a home. It was incredible! All we had to do was unpack our suitcases and we were in a functioning home – it was even decorated with the few decorations that we had left in storage along with many others that folks had contributed. It was such a blessing because we had arrived so incredibly tired from the previous months that we didn’t even feel jet lag this time around. It would have been a very difficult task to setup a house in the state we were in.

Before we left the Philippines we could see that no matter how we planned things, we were going to be so busy that making arrangements for our home assignment would have to wait until we arrived in the US. We made a definite decision to concentrate on what we had to do in the Philippines since that’s our main focus anyway. We decided to trust that God would fill in the details and we would continue to walk that exciting road of faith as we watch God meet our needs one day at a time.

We want to express our most sincere “thanks” to those who have contributed to help us with not only our monthly needs but also many special needs that we’ve had.  Everywhere we look we are encouraged by the sense of teamwork we have felt. Seriously – everywhere we look there is something that someone has done for us because they are investing in what God is doing in the lives of the Filipino people. One way or another God will accomplish what He wants to in the Philippines, but it sure is awesome He’s chosen to let all of us be a part of it.

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I unloaded the plane and loaded the truck for the last time this term. We plan to return next August and pick up where we've left off.

These last few months have been stressful to say the least. We’ve had a lot on our plate and had to adapt our schedule around several changes that we couldn’t have seen coming. This has meant that I have had to fly a lot closer to our departure for the States than we’d planned. In the end we were delayed enough that Brian was unable to finish Joel’s checkout so he shifted his attention to working with Garry, our chief pilot. The task was to fly with him and make sure he was current in all the airstrips so that he could take over checking Joel out on the last two airstrips.

During this process, Garry and I landed in our most challenging location and made a tough decision to cease flying there until repairs could be made. It simply didn’t seem wise to check someone out in there with the very pronounced bumps that have worsened throughout the year, thanks to a particularly wet year and earth quakes. Landing there has really been wearing on me because it has been nearly impossible to land without bouncing a couple of times just after touchdown – something that you don’t like to do on a 900′ airstrip where the first half of it is downhill.

We decided that it was best that I try to do the last flight to that location since I was already familiar with the idiosyncrasies of the airstrip. I would deliver the necessary supplies for the missionary to get to work on it right away. There are enough problems associated with a “last flight” of any sort, but this was a particularly stressful one as it was coming at the end of an already exhausting season in our lives. The challenges were compounded by a request for me to do a solo-airdrop in another location on the return flight – this is the highest risk operation in our playbook. All this was challenging enough and then we found out that our paperwork for the airplane’s annual inspection still hadn’t been signed at the government office so if I didn’t get the flights done on the 26th we’d have to wait until the paperwork was finished.

This is me landing on the airstrip a year ago. You can see it isn't the kind of place you want to be bouncing around in. In this photo the plane is just transitioning down the steepest part of the downhill. It's still traveling fast enough that it naturally wants to float off the airstrip. It used to be that we could force it down the hill to follow the transition, but as it is now, that is a very difficult thing to time properly.

I was well aware of the risks on this flight and tried to focus on just flying like I always do. The Lord gave us a beautiful day and I was able to accomplish all the objectives safely and with a smile on my face. It was a great feeling to park the plane in the hangar, unload it and empty it of all my personal effects because that was the end of my flights here until we return from the States. It was a fitting last day and very typical of our time here. We are so thankful for the prayers and encouragement we’ve received from those who were aware of our need for stamina and clear thinking. God delivered.

We now turn out attention to packing up the house and making sure we’ve transferred our to-do’s to our coworkers and tidied up any open projects or loose ends. We have just a little over a week left before we move out of the house and to Manila.

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Jet engines are easily restored from a flame out with a simple resuply of fuel flow and a restart.

A few years ago I took my motorcycle on a long ride in the Arizona desert. I was nearing the end of a very tiring 100 mile ride when the engine began to sputter. No problem, I thought, I’ll just select “reserve” on the fuel tank. I reached for the reserve lever only to discover that it was already there. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to limp an engine along that is in the initial stages of fuel exhaustion, but it can be quite a challenge. I swerved all over the place, bounced up and down, rocked back and forth – anything to try to slosh just a few ounces of fuel back into the carburetor so I could continue. Even 100 yards extra means a lot when the alternative is walking the bike home in the desert sun.

The bike finally died, 5 miles from home. In a final attempt to eek all I could out of the fuel tank, I laid the bike over on it’s side with the fuel valve down, I methodically and carefully sloshed all the fuel I could to the left side of tank and was able to start it up again. I rode home with the bike leaned to the left and was careful to go slowly over any big bumps lest I splash the minuscule amount of remaining fuel away from the tank outlet. I made it home without pushing the bike, but the last 5 miles nearly ruined the previous 95 mile stretch of pure enjoyment.

This is how we’ve felt the last couple of months as we approach the end of a 3 1/2 year term. We are in a ministry which doesn’t have any tolerance for fatigue and one in which we’re not allowed to be tired or make mistakes. Recently it feels like every day, or half-day that we have off of flight and radio duty is an opportunity to slosh more fuel into our tank so we can get through the next stretch. It’s in these times that Satan is eager to discourage us and knock us down. Please continue to pray for us and our strength in these final weeks. We have set our minds and hearts on finishing well, but we need your prayers now more than ever. There is still a lot of flying to do and a lot of decisions to make in the flight program before we can really focus on the decisions needed for moving to the States for 9 months. Bailey just finished her responsibilities with NTMA, one month before we leave Mindanao to head home. Brian will be finished on the 26th and spend a week getting ready to leave.

“A flameout refers to the failure of a jet engine caused by the extinction of the flame in the combustion chamber. It can be caused by a number of factors, including fuel exhaustion; compressor stall; insufficient oxygen supply; foreign object damage (such as birds, hail or even volcanic ash); severe inclement weather; and mechanical failure. Flameouts occur most frequently when the engine is at an intermediate or low power setting (such as during the cruise and descent phases of flight). Most of the time, they are recovered from uneventfully. To recover from a flameout, the pilot should ensure the engine’s fuel supply has been restored and then simply perform an engine restart.”

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