Good afternoon! This morning Garry was able to do the first test flight on the C185! We are thrilled to be passing this point in the process of getting the airplane back to Palawan. He took the airplane to an SIL location close to here. He, Steve, and Jason are making a few minor adjustments this afternoon. Then he'll go flying one more time to make sure that everything looks good. If it does, we'll turn in the next batch of paperwork and wait for it to come back so we can take the airplane back to Palawan with us!

If the C180 papers come through, Garry plans to fly it early next week. He'll do a test flight and make the needed adjustments then park the airplane at the SIL base until a convenient time to take it to Palawan. Meantime we'll turn in the last set of airworthiness paperwork so it will be ready to go when we are ready to take it to Palawan.

The boys are enjoying shooting their pellet guns, jumping on the trampoline, and doing some new badminton training exercises they learned in Manila. We also did school today, which provided another kind of enjoyment!

We arrived back in northern Luzon just after noon today! We really enjoyed the trip. Although it's only about 270 km, it takes just over 6 hours to drive it. Our favorite part was the 80 km of freeway, complete with some chain restaurants and gas stations. Vicky, a friend of ours, rode with us and she said maybe we mostly like stopping... which may be true!

I've been getting unpacked and Garry is making final preparations for the return-to-service flight planned for first thing tomorrow morning (Thursday evening for most of you). We're looking forward to seeing how the airplane flies and taking care of any problems so we can fly it home when the work here is done!

I thought I'd share this photo of Steve and Ja, one of our partner couples. Their job is all the non-technical administration of the program, which is a huge thing! With more new families coming and us beginning to prepare to move to Mindanao we need this help more than ever. Steve and Ja have been such a blessing to us!

Well, my connection time is about up, so I'll close so I can post this before I get cut off!

Here's some video of Kevin playing in the tournament. Enjoy!

Packing again! Sometimes I get ever so tired of suitcases... the packing, unpacking, storing, sorting. The blessing of leaving the guest house is that everything that belongs to us goes with us. I'm washing clothes and hoping they get dry before it's time to put them in the suitcase. I'm so thankful for the dryer here, but the boys sports clothes can't go in there, so they're on the line!



I thought you might enjoy this video of the boys playing singles last evening. I have one of Kevin in the tournament-- I didn't get Kaleb in the tournament-- that I'll try to upload later.

Garry and Kevin went to town to get some boxes for the food we purchased the other day, and my plan was to accomplish some packing while they're gone. Then I decided that I should blog while they're gone... now I really should get to packing. I thought earlier that I was getting the flu, but I feel a little better now, due to a rest or maybe lots of Tylenol. We'll see what happens:).

Wow, many days have passed and a lot has happened since I was here last. My goal is to blog 3 times this coming week-- hold me to it!

Steve, Jason, and Garry weighed the second airplane the day after my last post, then spent Friday and Saturday finishing up the paperwork on both planes. We came to Manila last Sunday and Garry began making his rounds at government aviation offices. The aviation department is changing names and getting re-organized these days so things have not been moving very quickly.

However, last Wednesday Garry was issued a permit to fly both of the airplanes so that they can proceed with the work to get them airworthy. He was also able to turn in paperwork requesting a type-rating to fly a Cessna 180, which is very similar to the Cessna 185 that we usually fly. We are asking God to bring this paperwork through quickly so that we can proceed with the work on both airplanes.

We've also been reminded this week that God cares about even the small details of our lives. The boys have been wanting to join a badminton tournament, which looked highly unlikely with the way things have been going. However, yesterday they played in a tournament that included many of the highest-ranked junior players in the Philippines! The competition was pretty stiff, but the boys enjoyed themselves immensely! I'll try to post some photos and maybe a video of that later this week.

Good afternoon! There's another typhoon going through and we're enjoying the rain it's brought us. I trust it isn't causing heartache elsewhere.

Kevin and Kaleb are jumping on the trampoline. I got on there yesterday and decided it's not for me.... I'm not sure if it's age or not, but I found myself getting more airborne that I felt comfortable with, regardless of the fact that Kevin says my jumps can be measured in mere inches.

Work on the airplane is going slowly but surely ahead. Today the guys are busy weighing the planes. That's always an interesting process, and I really should be out there taking pictures, come to think of it! They borrowed a scale, but since it is only one scale they have to weigh at each wheel, which is quite a job.

I had a nice chat with Suzy this morning. She was working on some bookwork and had a few questions, so we took the opportunity to catch up a bit. It was good to hear what's happening on Palawan and made me miss home just a bit.

Here is where Garry is working-- it's beautiful, as you can see! The front of the hangar is open so the guys often push the airplane out front... actually, they probably push it out to run it up, not just to enjoy the scenery! But it is pretty.

Yesterday we got word that our paperwork is delayed a bit, so we won't go to Manila on Monday as we had planned. I think there is some other work that needs done on the airplanes sooner or later, so the guys will work on that first and we'll go to Manila later in the week.

Kevin and Kaleb are playing frisbee right now, and I think I need to go join them, so I'll keep this short! Actually, my internet connection does that for me-- it always kicks me off! this time I hope to beat it-- leave it before it leaves me!

Good morning! It's cool here this morning, a lovely blessing. It was cool enough that I actually had on a long-sleeve shirt when I first got up! Kevin and Kaleb are still sleeping, so I thought I'd take a few minutes to update the blog a little.

Garry, Jason, and Steve are w0rking on two airplanes and are making good progress on both! Garry has been primarily inspecting over the past few days, although he's also spent a bit of time trouble-shooting with the other guys. They hope to be finished with the work by the end of this week so we can take the paperwork to Manila next Monday.

One of the airplanes is a Cessna 180, for which Garry doesn't have a license here in the country. We had hoped he could just fly it, but the check pilot told him yesterday that he'll have to have checkride in it. A checkride isn't a big deal, except that it means scheduling a time for the checkpilot to come to our location, which is sometimes difficult to do. We're praying that God moves in such a way that we can avoid this step and the time involved in it.

In between work we've been enjoying a porch swing on our back porch here! Drinking our Paraguayan tea has been a great way to relax together!

It's beautifully sunny here this morning! Garry, Jason, and Steve are hard at work on the airplanes. Things seem to be going well, though they have found an alternator problem that is not quite diagnosed yet. It's pretty exciting to see the airplanes getting ready to fly again... one after an accident several years ago and the other after having been stored for several years.

Kevin got a nasty cold yesterday and Kaleb seems to be following suit. Thankfully they're both in good spirits anyway and we have lots of great books to read. We've been enjoying some interesting fantasy lately.