What's in the bag?

Sometimes Chad comes home from flying with some interesting stories.  Last Monday he came home with this video of Omene....

The reason I'm sharing this video with you isn't because it's cool to show pictures of an anaconda.  No, I would like to share with you what God has done in Omene's life since this video was recorded a week ago.

When Chad was in the community Omene came and said they had caught an anaconda trying to steal their chickens.  He wanted to know if Chad wanted to see it.  While he was showing him his "prize" he also told Chad that his side was hurting.  The week before he had fallen from a bridge and Chad told him he had probably broken a rib.  Chad promised to send some medicine back to him.  (Omene lives in the jungle where there isn't a doctor or pharmacy.)   That was Monday.

On Thursday we were visiting Dixi in the hospital and walked by the ICU room (it has a large picture window so the nurses can watch whoever is in the room) many times as we took Dixi outside for some air.   We noticed that there was a new patient in the room that looked extremely bad, but didn't think much more of it.  As we were leaving, I told Chad that the man looked like he was Waorani.  Chad looked more closely and realized it was Omene!  He had all kinds of tubes and machines hooked up to him and was hard to recognize.

It turned out that his pain kept getting worse so he asked for a flight out - still thinking the whole time that it was just his ribs.  By the time he got to the hospital he was almost dead.  When he fell he lacerated his liver, which then began filling with blood until it couldn't hold anymore.  He had to have two surgeries to repair his liver and to our surprise we found him sitting in a chair without any machines attached on Sunday!  The doctors say it's a miracle.  They said that if it would've been you or I and not a strong indigenous man, we would be dead!  It's amazing that he flew out just in time.  God's protection couldn't be more obvious.

Omene is a believer and knows the power of God....especially now!  Do you?

Josiah's Flight

Josiah was able to go with Chad on an emergency flight a while back.  It's always fun to see a flight through his eyes with his pictures.  He LOVES to see me post his photos on here with his name as the photographer.  Enjoy!

This is from a different day when we visited a local "zoo".....they are too good not to share them with you!

Chad flew a girl, not too long ago, that had been bitten by one of these!  Those are some serious teeth!

Radio Installation

Chad was recently able to fly Juan, one of our avionics technicians, into the jungle to work on a radio system.  MAF has more than 60 radios in the jungle.  Not every community has a radio, but there are radios nearby most communities.  They just might have to walk a bit.

I'm not sure if he's getting enough to eat!

Solar panel for the radio

Richard's Solo Flight

Yesterday Richard was able to do his first solo flight as an Alas de Socorro pilot!  He was so excited (and so was Chad!)!!  It's tradition that after your first solo you are doused with water upon returning.  It's also common to be doused with oil - or with everyone taking their turn cutting your hair!  This was a new one for us.  Maybe that's why you don't see too many women pilots! 

It's amazing to be a small part of someone's "dream"!!  Way to go RICHARD!!!!

Can you see the volcano on the left with snow on it?

Richard Update

We have written about our friend Richard several times this past year and asked for you to pray for his U.S. visa.  Well, after much prayer he received his visa and was able to travel to Nampa, Idaho for further training and check-out at MAF's headquarters.  I am happy to report that he "sailed through" his check-out, in spite of the fact that he had a quarter of the flight hours of most of the other trainees!  We are SO proud of him!  He has been our friend for many years and we have tried to help and encourage him through the years, so all of the guys at the hangar call Chad his "dad"....but I'm happy to say that we are not old enough to have a son that age!!  : )  Now, Chad and Richard are busy doing his field check-out here in Ecuador.

Checking the climb-out angle from the end of the runway.

Olivia's Turn

As I have mentioned before, the kids take turns going with Chad when there's an empty seat on a flight.  So, when Chad called to say that he was taking some visitors to Tiwaeno for a "tour," Olivia jumped at the chance to go.  When there are visitors in Shell they may pay for a flight to a community and see what a typical village and flight are like.  This is the same village that we talked about visiting with the Buettners in this previous post.

Olivia was super excited to go because she has a friend there that is ALWAYS asking about her.  Her name is Gima.  On this trip the girls from the village gave Olivia a Waorani name.  Her new name is Yedo, which means big river.  They gave her this name because they know how much she loves to swim.

Olivia and Gima

Chad had asked Pegonka to make him a blow gun a few months ago and on this trip he was able to bring it home.

There were bats flying inside the hut where they were doing their chanting demonstration.  So, this boy picked up a blow gun and shot one on his first shot!

It's very typical to see indigenous people without shoes in the jungle.  Which means their feet are very wide.

Jo's Flight

We have been so busy with some great friends from Ohio, that I haven't had a spare minute to blog.  I am so far behind and have so much to share!

First, since it's summer, Josiah was able to go along on a flight with his dad.  The kids take turns when there's an empty seat.  It doesn't happen too often - because it's more profitable to have a full plane, with paying customers!

There ended up being a flight for our Radio Technician (Juan) to go fix one of the jungle radios.  They took the smaller 4 seat airplane, but there was still room for Josiah.  This was the first flight that Josiah has gone on that he didn't fall asleep 10 minutes into the flight!  I guess he's growing up.  The flight was beautiful with blue skies all the way to their destination.  Of course they arrived over the airstrip just as a rain cloud began to dump on the tiny airstrip.  After waiting for about 10 minutes they were able to make a slip and slide landing on the 420 meter strip.  They spent about an hour fixing the antenna that broke when the pole it was attached to fell in a storm.  While they were working on the antenna some folks from the community informed Chad that there was a child with a very bad cut on his foot.  It seems he or his friend hit him on the top of the foot with a machete.  Ouch!  Chad had to do a hop to another longer airstrip to get everyone out, but it was a good thing they were in the community.  The boy was losing so much blood that he started passing out on the flight out.  We're thankful that God planned the radio repair flight to happen at just the right time for that boy's injury.  God is good! 

We have double the pictures because both Chad and Josiah took their cameras....