Good morning! I've enjoyed your comments. Yesterday Garry came home with some great photos of some of our airstrips. This airstrip is down south and is one we fly into frequently. There is a church established in this location and the missionaries there continue to teach and do translation.

Those of you who are into aviation will appreciate a few things that the rest of us miss:). Most of us just see the beauty of the green trees. Or the readily apparent isolation of this location. Or maybe we check out the houses. Or maybe a dip in the river sounds like fun! Maybe you see the rice fields and wonder what kind of rice they grow or how much they get per acre... Either way, enjoy this glimpse of one of the places we service!

This morning one of my helpers is sewing some curtains. After more than 3 months in this house, we thought maybe it was time to cover up the windows a bit! The more urgent things of life have taken all our time and energy and we feel in some ways that just now we're really getting settled! Bel is ordering water... a rather mundane thing that we do several times a week here since city water cannot be used for cooking or drinking. (We go through at least 8- 5 gallon bottles of water a week!). We text the hospital by cell phone and they bring the water on a trike. Quite handy, really!

In the middle of posting this we got a call there that is an emergency medical evacuation needed down south. After discussing things for a while, taking into account the weather and time, we decided to do the flight tomorrow in conjunction with the other planned flights. Thus, tomorrow will be busy, but we will have this afternoon to get the airplane ready and things arranged. We're praying for good weather!

"Normal" is an interesting concept... what strikes you as strange about our lives? As rather boring? It always amazes me how things that seem so new and strange upon arrival at a new place quickly become mundane! I'm trying to portray some of the things that struck us first when we came to live in the Philippines, but mostly I want to say that our lives are normal, they feel rather "mundane" most days, in fact! But in God's reality we are each part of the epic story of His creation and redemption of mankind! May you see his redemption at work in your life and around you today!