Brian and Bailey Pruett Serving in the Philippines with Aviation 
Archive for the ‘Prayer Request’ Category
Pray for Us
Posted by Brian and Bailey Pruett on Thursday, April 19th, 2012
PDF Just How Stressed are Missionaries (and what can we do about it)?
Posted by Brian and Bailey Pruett on Friday, March 23rd, 2012
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.” (more…)
Tour De America
Posted by Brian and Bailey Pruett on Wednesday, January 11th, 2012
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
Posted by Brian and Bailey Pruett on Tuesday, December 20th, 2011
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!
Flame Out, Not Burn Out
Posted by Brian and Bailey Pruett on Sunday, October 9th, 2011
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. (more…)
Mission Accomplished
Posted by Brian and Bailey Pruett on Friday, April 1st, 2011
Here's the helicopter on one of it's first operational flights into the jungle. It's number is "2-6-1-niner." "6-1-niner" was the Supercub that used to fly for Brian's parents on Palawan and many, many others.
It is hard to believe that this coming summer marks three years since we first arrived here in the Philippines. Where does the time go? When we arrived the situation was a bit bleak. There was only one functional airplane (one of three) and one active pilot, Ben Hart. Our Chief pilot/program manager was leaving for home assignment shortly after we arrived so there wasn’t a lot happening except on Palawan where Ben was working. The Philippines was in need of three functional flight programs with pilots to cover the whole of the work load in both flight and maintenance.
Several years ago we brought this need before our support team and asked for prayer and encouragement as we moved forward with a sense of urgency to see if the Lord would bless our efforts and allow us to set up the aviation programs again. Through many setbacks and hard times God has been faithful and it is with great joy and thankfulness that we get to announce, “Mission Accomplished!”
Just this month our helicopter carried its first passengers to and from the tribe in the Northern Philippines. Also, this month Josh Dalton was checked out on the active Palawan airstrips and is flying missionaries and their supplies in and out of their locations. This gives us two pilots for the Palawan region which has allowed the Harts to go home for a home assignment after several years of slugging it out alone. Bailey and I are continuing to do the flight program for the Mindanao region which now gives us three pilots and three aircraft!
In just a few weeks the second pilot for Mindanao, Joel Davis, will be arriving and I’ll be helping get him checked out so that he can run the program and allow us to return to the US for a 9 month visit. Then, at the end of the summer our second helicopter pilot hopes to complete his language studies and begin working in the helicopter program. Shortly after he starts, the second pilot family for Palawan will return from their furlough in Canada. Amazing what the Lord has done to bring all of this together.
Our current team:
Garry and Cynthia Barkman
Ben and Suzy Hart
Josh and Candy Dalton
Joel and Missy Davis
Brian and Katherine Schaadt
Zach and Jane Keller
Thank you so much for all your encouragement along the way as well as the many, many financial gifts that have helped this happen. God has been hard at work in the technical details. This gives us two pilot/mechanics in each region plus Garry, our chief pilot/manager, who is overseeing the training and logistics in all three programs.
USA and back again
Posted by Brian and Bailey Pruett on Saturday, January 8th, 2011
It’s crazy how fast time flies and how much change just a few weeks can bring. Just two weeks ago I would have been sitting on the couch watching tv next to my sisters in the good ol’ USA and today, I’m back across the world, at home with Brian. It feels crazy that I was even there! But, as crazy as it feels, I WAS there and I had a truly wonderful time. It was a bit surreal to be back with my family, most of them I hadn’t seen in 2 1/2 years. (more…)
Death May Bring Life
Posted by Brian and Bailey Pruett on Monday, January 3rd, 2011
One week after I flew Aysa to the hospital, I returned to the tribe to deliver her dead body to her family.
On November 28th rainy season started here with a round of weather that made flying nearly impossible. We were also alerted by Chris and Lynne Strange and Albert Castelijn that they had an emergency medical situation in their tribal location. The most critical patient was a man whom they were not certain if he would make it through the night. The other was a 16 year old girl who was dying of Tuberculosis. We woke up early the next morning and I headed to the airplane while it was still dark. Bailey started getting weather reports and coordinating with the missionaries at the airstrip. Weather was terrible and we knew we had our work cut out for us.
A Little Incident
Posted by Brian and Bailey Pruett on Friday, September 3rd, 2010
We got help from the people in the tribe with securing the airplane until we can get an engine and propeller from the States to install. This is likely the place we'll be doing the work.
We have been working at full throttle the last few months in the flight program on Mindanao. We have been really excited to see first hand the work the Lord is doing among tribal people here in all our locations and how their love for the Lord compels them to reach out to neighboring tribes. It is an exciting time and we were just ramping up into a fully functioning program when things came to a screeching hault. (more…)
We Are All Home Again
Posted by Brian and Bailey Pruett on Friday, June 4th, 2010
Thank you to all of you who have prayed for us and Dylan as he was in the hospital fighting an infection. It was an exhausting 4-day event for us, but well worth it as Dylan is doing very well in his own bed now. We are still tethered to the hospital because Dylan needs to get three injections every day until Tuesday. It is still way better than being in the hospital and much CLEANER too!
Thanks again for holding us up in prayer through all of this. We are still doing our best to protect Dylan from outside sources of germs and are staying alert to any complications he may develop from his stay in the hospital So far so good.