Brian and Bailey Pruett

Pray for Us

Brian and Bailey Pruett — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:45:13 +0000

Go ahead. Push the button…

Prayer Requests:

Pray for Bailey and the kids as Brian heads away for leadership meetings in Arizona next week – one week after Cole’s birthday. Bailey’s dad will be staying with her to help out. What a blessing!
Pray for Maycie and Dylan as they adjust to having a little less attention.
Pray for wisdom as Brian and the other leaders in NTMA look at ways to match the church planting vision of the Philippines with air support.
Pray for our financial support. We are raising support to cover additional ministry expenses we will incur with ou r new responsibilities. We are feeling more and more pressure as we get closer to our departure for the field again and we still have a long way to go.
Pray that we will be refreshed during this home assignment so we can return and give 100% again.
Pray for our kids; that God will help them through all of life’s transitions. Maycie asks to go back to the Philippines every day.
Pray for our co-workers in the Philippines to be calm, strong and wise as they face incredible stress from several different angles.
Pray for our church planting missionaries in the jungle to have endurance and wisdom as they inch their way closer each day to planting a mature indigenous church.

Answered Prayer:

Cole Brennan Pruett arrived safely on April 14th. We had such amazing care at the hospital and were encouraged and helped by our family who could be there for the birth. It was the first time that family could be there so it was really special.
Bailey has help while Brian will be away at meetings.
Maycie is doing really well during this home assignment. She absolutely loves being close to family and it is a joy for us to see her enjoying her time like she is.
We found a car!
We had a safe trip around the USA and a good time reconnecting with friends and family.
We had a great missions conference in Atascadero and were encouraged by all those who are praying for us there.
A generous supporter purchased a new iMac for us after ours crashed
We have a great house to stay in for our home assignment
We had a safe term of flying and serving in the Philippines

Announcing Cole Brennan Pruett

Brian and Bailey Pruett — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:42:44 +0000

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)?

Brian and Bailey Pruett — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 21:23:05 +0000

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.”

Just how Stressed are Missionaries (and what can we do about it)?

by JIM on 7 MARCH 2012

I was just reading about stress levels in missionary life. Now, you may have heard of the Holmes-Rahe Scale, which is one way health professionals measure stress in people’s lives. The idea is that a certain number of life events can build up the level of stress until it gets dangerous.

Some of these might be the death of a family member, a child leaving home, trouble with the boss, change in social activities, a vacation, or marriage.

I’m not going to analyze the pros and cons of the scale, but it does say something about our lives and our ability to cope and react to change.

Back in 1999, Drs Lois and Larry Dodds (of Heartstream Resources) were studying the levels of stress on the mission field, using a modified version of the Holmes-Rahe Scale.

In Holmes and Rahe’s original study, they found that if you reached a level of 200 on the scale in a year, the cumulative stress would have consequences for some time to come. In fact, they found that 50% of those who reached this level were hospitalized within two years. The reasons included heart attack, diabetes, cancer, and other severe illness.

If ever the level reached 300, the person was almost certain to end up in the hospital within two years.

So frankly, you don’t want to have that much change and transition in your life.

So, the Dodds wanted to find out what the typical missionary went through. As you might have guessed, the news wasn’t good.

The typical missionary had not just peaking levels above 300 – they hadsustained levels over 300 – – – year after year.

The typical missionary, in fact, had double that level – 600 on the scale!

Admittedly, the missionaries in the original study were Americans in Latin America, so we’re not in the category. Well, not exactly.

The other bad news was that missionaries in their first term had levels that peaked at 900.

These numbers are truly mind-boggling.

The recommendations of the Dodds? Here’s a summary.

First, be very serious about selection, training, and placement of missionaries.
Second, missions should think twice about sending first term missionaries into especially isolated situations.
Third, they should think twice about sending missionaries with young children into isolated situations.
Fourth, provide people trained in member care who can provide continuous support to missionaries.

What about those of us who are friends or supporters of missionaries? (Yes, I know we’re missionaries ourselves – but we’re also friends of missionaries!)

Well, here are some ideas, just off the top of my head.

Pray for them: Pray that they would find support and friendship on the field (coworkers, national believers – and even unbelievers). Pray for God’s grace in their lives, for times of rest and refreshment, for wisdom.
Encourage them: Letters, calls, surprises, financial support (not just normal support – but maybe a gift for the kids or a bit for a holiday/vacation), visits, help when they’re in your area…
Be informed: What does the mission do to ensure missionaries are being taken care of? How do they decide how missionaries are placed?
Show grace: Missionaries need to be accountable to their supporters. But this has to be done with grace. Recognize that missionaries are not miracle workers who can transform the world on their own; they’re not super-humans (or Vulcans) who can never be disturbed by the realities of life. When people say to us “I could never do what you do” we often reply,”neither can we”. Missionaries will get frustrated, depressed, confused and they will fail. Give them grace and support, and don’t be too shocked if they even take a week off now and then.
Don’t Pretend to Completely Understand: We never know, really, what someone else is going through. This applies to a death in the family, an illness, a divorce, a problem at work – no matter what it is, we can only understand to a point. The same goes for cross cultural work. If you want to offer help, advice, criticism, ideas, whatever it is – do it with grace and humility. Hopefully the missionary will take it the same way.
Be a part of sending more missionaries: Why in the world would I add this to the list? Why would we want to send more people into such a stressful situation? Because in the end, God has sent us into the world, and He has the grace to sustain us. Suffering is a reality of life. And Goduses it in our lives. The work must continue. If we can be excited about the work, support it, and encourage it, that will go a long way. It’s wonderful to know that people believe in the Great Commission and that we’re working as a part of a worldwide team.
Realize it’s not hopeless: No, not all missionaries need to burn out or be completely depressed all the time. While we recognize that suffering is a part of the missionary life, it is still possible for missionaries to serve long term with joy. We just need to allow God to use us to help one another.

In the end, it’s worth the stress. This rescue-mission that we’re on is more important than personal comfort.

But that’s not to say that we should ignore the issue – instead, we should minimize the problem as much as we can, so that missionaries can be more effective in their ministries.

And we as missionaries – we should not be using some stress scale as an excuse. But again, we should be aware of the challenges, and ask God for wisdom as we try to balance our lives.

As I look around at other people here, it’s hard to feel too hard done by. Our friends have challenges that we can only imagine, and we are humbled by their faith (if they are believers). Though there are challenges, and we must be careful to run the marathon with patience, we know that our sacrifice is really a small one when you look at the big picture.

Yes, the work must go on.

A Little More Responsible

Brian and Bailey Pruett — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 17:37:20 +0000

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

Brian and Bailey Pruett — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 05:16:31 +0000

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

Brian and Bailey Pruett — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 01:06:05 +0000

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.

There were still many people we were unable to see on this trip and we hope we can swing by next time. We were really sad we couldn’t go everywhere we wanted to. While we were eager to make it home, we also felt sad that we couldn’t spend more time at each place we visited. We were truly blessed by everyone we were able to see and we are thankful for everyone who took time out to reconnect with us.

Birthday Wish

Brian and Bailey Pruett — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:48:59 +0000

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

Brian and Bailey Pruett — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:07:14 +0000

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

Brian and Bailey Pruett — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:39:46 +0000

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

Brian and Bailey Pruett — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:06:17 +0000

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!