Jason and Jonie Mellinger Connecting You to Tribal Missions 
This afternoon, January 10th, 2010 marked the end of the beginning. The end of 10 years of waiting, planning, waiting, fund raising, waiting, hoping for the arrival of the Quest Kodiak airplane. It’s the end of a constant, often unproductive search for 100 octane aviation fuel. It’s the end of a question of what to do with a fleet of aging aircraft which a suitable replacement wasn’t available. It’s the beginning of building new hangers, runways, and flight programs changes to handle this. It’s also the beginning of a new sort of fund raising for fuel and flight costs to help the missionaries not have to pay so much for their flights. It’s the beginning of waiting for the next 13 and answers of which countries flight programs will need them the most.
It was quite an emotional experience to see the plane fly over and land on our gravel runway. The crowd was quite large as many people from the mission and the community waited to greet it. Piloting was our current chief pilot, and in the co-captain chair one of our retired pilots. It’s taken many generations to bring the flight program to where it is now. It’s absolutely incredible to hear the stories of God’s grace and goodness through the years.
Now we’re working towards getting this aircraft ready to send to Indonesia. There are two pilots back from Indo to train in it. One is a friend who went through the training with Jonie and I. We are so thrilled to spend time with him and his wife and girls. A couple of years ago we were saddened that our closest friends we may never see again, even though we worked for the same organization. We were all moving to different places, Bolivia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea. However, through several different reasons, five of us were together again in Arizona just last week at the same time. What fun we had catching up on the last two years, the joys and the sorrows. There was a lot that has happened, but we were together again, and it was great! And for each of us, it’s another beginning, new ministries, skills, homes. We’re all in a period of transition, and though it’s terrifying, it’s good to walk through it together.
