No Joke. This was one of the better weather reports I could find for our flight yesterday. If you look close, you can see the yellow arrow points at our approximate route. They didn't waste any words!

Yesterday I soloed on the last airstrip  that we are currently using. It feels so good to be at this point, but I am realizing quickly that I find landing and taking off to be the easiest part. In fact, I feel a sense of relief when I circle to land at any of these airstrips because for me right now, that is the easy part. What is a challenge is flying in all the weather here. There is no real weather reporting between where we takeoff and where we land and all of our airstrips are located right in the middle of what our chief pilot calls “the weather factory.” It is always changing and keeps us on our toes.

Bailey is a big help in this area because she is now using the HF radio to call our missionaries and get weather reports. She then relays the weather to me in the airplane via the HF radio. Some days the HF works great, other days it is just a bunch of distracting static. However, it is the best thing we have right now so we are making it work for us. There is a lot for Bailey and I to learn these days about how to deal with all the radio calls and weather.

We recently had a flight planned to shuttle supplies between two locations, but when the rain came we had to throw off some extra weight and give up on our plans so that we could deliver the important cargo to the missionaries who were waiting for it at their airstrip. We took off in the rain and as you can see from the video, had a good time navigating around clouds to get to the most challenging airstrip I’ve ever experienced.

Isol's friends carrying him to the clinic

We were hard at work today on the second of two annual inspections on the aircraft here in Palawan when we received a call at quitting time from some of our tribal missionaries on the island. They had a seriously injured man in their clinic and needed an emergency flight first thing in the morning. Below is the prayer request from the missionary team:

“About 4pm, we got word that some guys were carrying Isol to us, a young man, who had stepped into a pig trap in the jungle. The traps have a spring-loaded bamboo blade, which had gone right through one of his calves, and into the other calf. This happened in the morning, and it was 3pm before he was able to crawl to the nearest people for help. They carried him here. We think he probably lost a fair bit of blood, but praise the Lord, the bleeding had stopped by the time he reached us, though he was in terrible pain and kept passing out.

Julie and Ginny calmly took care of him, and though he was crying out in pain earlier, he is resting well now, well medicated. Dave called the plane for the morning, but it’s undergoing a regular service. The pilot and mechanic are going to work through the night to get it finished in time to leave to come here early in the morning. Please pray for them that they will be able to finish putting the engine back together without having a really late night, and that they are able to get an early test flight. Also for clear, calm weather. And of course please pray for Isol, that he will be comfortable as possible tonight. His family will look after him at the clinic building tonight, and we’ll be on call.”

We were able to finish the inspection at a reasonable hour and the plane is ready for the flight tomorrow. Please pray for Ben as he will be negotiating the unpredictable rainy season weather in order to pick up and fly this tribal man to a hospital. Due to the difficulty level of the airstrip in this tribe, he cannot land if it is raining. Also, the airstrip gets very slippery, so pray for a nice surface to land on, and no rain.

The team working with this tribe runs a clinic that helps meet the physical needs of the tribal people. It is our prayer that through this clinic and the love displayed by the missionaries, that the tribal people will hunger for Jesus as they see His love displayed by the missionaries. The team is learning the language so that they can teach and disciple the people of this tribe. We pray that Isol and others will be able to get the care they need so they can live to one day know their Savior.

He tied a driveshaft to the bicycle and rode it through Manila!

Not long ago I was driving our truck on a trail that was pretty rough. I had forgotten to tie down the cooler and toolbox and other miscellaneous stuff in the cargo area of the truck after eating lunch, and low and behold when we got back on the trail it flew all over the place. Thankfully only one thing broke; my air compressor. It is, because Murphy works internationally, imported from the states and is a vital part of the tool  kit for the truck so I had to get it repaired. Having parts sent from the states wasn’t practical or affordable, so I decided to go to a machine shop and have one fabricated for around $7.

Much of my Tagalog practice has revolved around shops, and mechanics because often their English is quite poor. So far I haven’t had any surprises, like asking for an oil change and getting a glitter paint job. I was a bit concerned about this one cause it was a pretty foreign piece of machinery to them, but they got right to work doing what I had asked. As they carved out a new part on the lathe I sat and waited. While I waited I was entertained and amazed by their delivery guy who rode a bicycle. A machine shop delivery guy, not a pizza delivery guy, on a bicycle.

I was amazed when I first saw the rider show up with a couple of lower control arms off of what looked like a Toyota Corolla. Then, the next trip he brought a couple of front brake disc rotors from a full-sized truck that looked like they weighed over 100 pounds each. Keep in mind that he looked like he may have tipped the scales in triple digits after a good hard rain.

Then the most fascinating delivery of all was a drive shaft off of a box van. I was amazed at his ingenuity and boldness of riding his bike in Manila traffic with a driveshaft tied to the bike and resting between his legs. I don’t think I’d ever need an adrenaline rush again in my life if I had to ride that contraption through the insane maze of traffic that is Manila.

She knows the smell of boxes means change is coming.

We are moving again. It is scary when Maycie takes a look at our boxes and then at me, then at the boxes, then at me and says very matter of factly, “ingna.” I have no idea what it means, but it is clear she knows it means change is in the wind. It is really cute to see her put the pieces together. It is also very scary to think of the impact this will have on her life as she gets older. So far she seems to adapt very well to new people and is very sociable which helps a great deal.

We, on the other hand, are a bit harder to convince this is a happy thing. We hate moving! Especially now that many of our closest friends are here in Manila just starting language study, and we are just leaving. We love the excitement of a new place, and love all of the new things that come with a new place, but we loathe the process of packing and making decisions. Oh well. We are excited for this move in particular because it is the first time that we will be working as “full-missionaries” with NTMA doing what we set out to do long ago – assist NTM church planting efforts through aviation. No more school! At least as far as we can see. We can hardly wait!

Jump at the Dump from Brian Pruett on Vimeo.

A very non-extreme motorcycle video of us posing as guys who actually know how to ride motorcycles! Mine is the white XR400 with the low flying fat guy in the black helmet.

I came across this video in my collection and it reminded me of the fun times we had in training “learning to ride dirtbikes so we would be safer riding on the field.” It seemed a lot easier to talk our wives into it if we played the safety card-so we did. I don’t how any of us thought it was a good idea to combine the words “dirtbikes” and “safety” into the same sentence but we did.

As you can see from the video, we never actually did anything that would have hurt us more than a few scrapes and bruises. I don’t think we were quite good enough for that! However, it didn’t stop us from making our own non-extreme video of ourselves trying to be cool. Of course wherever possible we adjusted camera angles to make it look even more extreme…pathetic isn’t it?

Throughout my formal and informal aviation maintenance training, I have learned to respect gasoline. It can be a lot of fun when properly applied to a pile of furniture, or through a fuel injector into an engine. It can be absolutely deadly if not respected. Special care is always given when handling fuels to avoid fire hazards and explosions.

Recently I had reason to believe that my fuel tank in our truck had become contaminated with water. I took the truck to a shop to have them lower the fuel tank, clean it, and reinstall it. It was a Midas-type place that had good equipment and was recommended to me by a Filipino friend as a good place to have the work done. He was right, it was a great shop, they just followed some different safety standards than I was used to.

The mechanic started working and I was comfortable with how the work on the truck was going so rather than “supervise” I went off and ate breakfast and took care of some errands. I returned after lunch to see that the job was nearly complete, they needed only to bleed the fuel filter, and refill the tank.

As I walked around to the front of the truck I was shocked at what I saw. The mechanic was under the hood working and…smoking! He was, with his left hand, operating the primer pump on the still-soaked-in-diesel-fuel filter, and with his right hand only inches away, he steadied himself and held a smoldering cigarette.

He was soaked in diesel to his elbows from when he drained my fuel tank earlier in the day and didn’t seem to be bothered by the possibility that the entire vehicle could go up in flames if his cigarette ashed! I was grateful when he finished under the hood and hadn’t exploded. I was also relieved to see his cigarette was nearly consumed and would soon find its way to an ash tray.

We walked to the rear of the car where the refueling operation was taking place with a small homemade plastic funnel and some old oil jugs. Of course, there was a sizable puddle of diesel fuel on the ground where all the guys were standing. My smoking mechanic friend decided to get rid of his cigarette. As he approached the other guys who were standing in fuel, he threw his cigarette down to the ground, missing the puddle by about two inches, and stepped on it with his diesel soaked foot.

Thankfully diesel is much harder to ignite than gasoline so there was no accident. My heart rate came down sometime after lunch the next day and my truck seems to be doing great with its freshly cleaned tank. The work that was done was good, I just should have taken a longer lunch and avoided seeing the scary disregard for safety in the workplace.

Today is my true 30th birthday and the first time in 23 years that I have celebrated it on the proper day! It is true that I was born on June 23rd, but I was born on the 23rd in Makati, Philippines, not in the United States. How awesome is it that this year I get to celebrate after only waiting 364 short days!

I am forced to reflect (I think that is what I’m supposed to at the 30 year mark. At 40 I buy a convertible and get a gold earing, right?) on the last 30 years of my life and what God has done. I think all I have to do is look out my window and it is pretty clear that God is nothing short of amazing! I’m not talking about the pollution and nasty concrete overcrowded jungle that I see. I am talking about the city of Makati, and the place it has in my life. It sits less than 2 miles away and in perfect view of my bedroom window.

It was in Makati on June 23, 1979 that I was born into a family that was near the end of Tagalog study and beginning to study the Batak language so that they could plant a church among the Batak people who had never before heard the Gospel. I “grew up” there and now am on the tail end of language study myself. We are getting ready to help enable other missionaries to do the same thing my parents did.

Click to See Video of the Bataks Today

We arrived here in the Philippines last August and as we approach our one year anniversary our heads are already spinning with how much has changed since we first boarded a plane to come here. When we left California we had a set of plans that seemed like a very reasonable thing to shoot for. We decided to go with what seemed clear at the time and even signed a 14 month lease on our apartment.

And then everything started to change. Originally we were planning to go to Palawan in January when we are finished with language school and begin the “checkout” process there and work alongside our friends and co-workers, Ben and Suzy Hart. At the time that was the most urgent need and the reason we hurried to get here and the reason we hurried through language study.

A more pressing need has now arisen and it is really good that we hurried here because we are now in a position to fill a need we would have otherwise been unable to fill. We had no idea, but God knew. We plan to finish Tagalog study on September 4, and then move to Mindanao where they speak Cebuano. Bummer.

Currently our missionaries are receiving their air-support from SIL (Wycliffe Bible Translators in the Philippines). SIL has graciously covered for us while we have been shorthanded, but they have accelerated their timetable and are moving out of Mindanao in January 2010. Currently we have no program there to fill in when this happens.

The plan is for Bailey and I to move to Mindanao and help our chief pilot, Garry and his wife Cynthia, with administration tasks and the set up of a program while we also go through the checkout process on Mindanao. Once checked out, I will help fly for the program while Garry travels off and on to Luzon to assist the start of a helicopter program. SIL currently does our flying on Luzon as well, but will be leaving the country in April of 2010.

The opening of these two flight programs will be our primary job for the next year. This is a huge task and one that we are not sure how we can accomplish with so few resources and so little time. Please pray as we are brainstorming solutions and plans to cover all these needs.

This is a big change for us. It is a bit discouraging to think of learning Cebuano as we work on Mindanao, but we are going to do our best to learn and fit in to the local language and culture as we work. No more language school!

Once these two flight programs are opened up, we will plan to move again. This time to Palawan to relieve our other pilot team, Ben and Suzy Hart, so they can go on a much needed furlough. We are trusting the Lord for wisdom as we venture into a sea of unknowns and make plans as best we can.

All these changes are working toward the same goal that we were sent here to accomplish. Get the Gospel to places it has never been. It is absolutely critical that we get these flight programs set up without causing a gap in the flight service for our missionaries. They rely on the airplane because of their remote locations, and we don’t want to see their works delayed because we can’t transport them. This is not only important for our missionaries, but also for the SIL missionaries who we will now fly for until their Bible translations are completed.

In February we purchased our first Philippine car here. It was a 1990 Landcruiser with over 210K Kilometers on it. Those would be Philippine kilometers, which are considerably more painful for a vehicle than normal kilometers. Amazingly, the vehicle was in beautiful condition (for its age) and the owner had taken good care of it. Nevertheless, it was in need of some repairs.

As I searched for a good shop here that could repair an imported Landcruiser I came across a few places here in the Manila area that have proved to be amazing resources. One of them is the 199 Off-Road House. Just the fact that they have a computer, let alone a website, is a major deal. Though this is a business for these guys, it is also their hobby. They go off-roading as a group at least once a month and so far I have been able to join them on a few of their trips. So far I have parked our truck when it gets muddy because I didn’t have adequate tires. This weekend, I plan to go for my first trip in the mud with our car, now that I found a modest set of mud tires for it.

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These trips are really good for me to learn how to drive in this kind of extreme mud environment from guys who consistently win the Philippine Tough Truck Challenge every year. They really know their stuff and are eager to bring us into their world of off-road. Of course, they are doing this for hobby, and we are seeing it as necessity to our ministry. However, while here in Manila it seems it is a lot more fun than necessity! While many of their vehicles are radical looking off road machines, they are also quite good at making a modest looking, very capable vehicle. This is very important to us since we already stand out enough in a crowd just by being American.

While we are in language school, I am trying to get the other students and missionaries to join us on these “off-road days” so that they can also learn some techniques that will no doubt come in handy during their time here in the Philippines. Some of our missionaries are accessible by muddy roads during parts of the year, so we are exploring the idea of expanding our ministry to over-land deliveries where there is no airstrip. We aren’t sure yet how practical it would be, but we do know that there are many areas on Mindanao, Luzon and Palawan that are inaccessible without a capable 4×4 and skills to match.

Our goal here is to enable the Gospel to go where it has never been before. Currently we are using highly modified airplanes in an off-road environment. It is getting more and more difficult to acquire land here for airstrips and right now the helicopter will only be able to cover one region. We are trying to think outside the box a little to see if this may be a need we can meet overland when airplanes are not an option. Or Maybe it would be best as a temporary solution while new tribal works await a helicopter program. Maybe we can supply them by land for a couple years so they can get started with language study while we wait for a flight program in their area? We don’t know what is best, but at the end of the day we are here to expand the reach of the Gospel and assist the missionaries no matter what it takes.

Please pray for us as we explore new ideas that we would not be too locked into using airplanes that we discredit other ideas. Also that we would not let our new excitement and fun with 4×4 trails cloud our judgment. Pray that we will be able to make decisions in the interest of what is best for the tribal people awaiting the news that they have a savior.