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!

Tiweano Trip

While my parents were here, they decided that even though they've been to the jungle, they hadn't visited a Waorani community.  So, we rounded up a few other visitors to make the trip complete.  As always, the people in Tiweano were super welcoming and a joy to introduce to our friends.

Oma - one of the elders/pastors in the community

My dad showing off his "mad" blow-gun skills!

Pegonka - another elder/pastor in the community

Lizi looks like she's enjoying sharing the germs on this blow-gun!  
(Lizi is from England and was here working at the orphanage as a physical therapist....I think!  
What do I know, I just play Frisbee with her!)

Duncan gettin' 'er done!  (Duncan is a nurse anesthetist working at the hospital.)

Some people throw the spear with a bit more finesse than the rest!  
(Kyle is about to graduate from college and was here volunteering at the hospital.)

Chad with an unfair advantage.  
I'm sure he acts like he's never thrown before with each group he takes into the jungle!

What determination!

"Super" hanging out with his bread.
Super got his nickname last year at Compassion International's Waorani summer camp.
He does everything "super" enthusiastically.
Chad usually suggests that groups take in bread for the community instead of candy.
They don't have ovens in the community and the candy isn't too great for their teeth. 

Sisters - Nemo and Gima (also, Oma's daughters)

Kiwia - another elder/pastor of the church

My beautiful mom.  It seems that she put her makeup on in the dark!

The group.  Notice Dyuwi (next to Kyle) has his bread tucked in the waistband of his shorts!

Random Pictures

Here are some random photos of our ministry here.....starting with the 2011 staff picture.

It's so amazing how few "gringos" there are in this picture!  The only MAF missionaries are Rob (radio tech), Ron (base maintenance), Chad, and Dan (pilot).  When we arrived in Ecuador there were 17 US missionary families!

A Compassion International team

Picking up an air ambulance patient.

Alas mechanic David Aguilar

Maximo flight following, while our chaplain, Manuel looks on.  Any time an Alas plane takes off or lands, he has to report his location and estimated time of arrival.  Also, the flight followers get weather reports from the different communities in the jungle, as well as any requests or emergencies that come up.

Makuma is the community where we attended the Shuar Bible dedication.

Vozandes is the HCJB mission-run hospital.  This ambulance is at our hangar a lot during the week.  About 30 % of our flying is for air ambulance.

Maximo taking a break.

It's very common to have people peering in the plane windows when you land.

Dewey

Unloading a patient.

God's promise

Here in Shell, Ecuador, we get to witness God's promise more than we did in the US.  It rains a lot here and so we often times get the pleasure of seeing a beautiful rainbow.  So much so, that we often take it for granted.  That's what happened on this particular day.   I asked Josiah if he had gone outside to see the rainbow and he blew me off!  Later he happened to go outside for something else and came running back in to tell me that we should go out and take pictures because it was beautiful!  Of course, we already had and he was too engrossed in his TV show to notice!  Here's what we saw...

 

 Isn't God amazing?!!

 Our house is in the middle of the picture and the Nate Saint house is on the right.

Nate Saint House Re-dedication

Today we are wrapping up a 4 day holiday weekend (day of the dead).  It has been super busy.  The weekend started off with the re-dedication of the Nate Saint house.  About 300 people attended the re-dedication of the house.  Many were from other mission organizations, but others were local and regional politicians.  Also present were many of the people we serve every day.  One highlight for us was to see the grandson of one of the men who martyred the 5 missionaries stand up and share with those gathered.  It was a powerful reminder to us of God's grace and how he uses normal people for extra-ordinary purposes.    A group from MAF headquarters, as well as our boss from Costa Rica, also came to share in the dedication.

On Sunday, our church met in the Nate Saint house for it's service.  Many MAF folks came as well and enjoyed worshiping with us.  We loved having such a mixed group together to worship the Lord.  There were Ecuadorians, including Waorani and Atshuar, as well as  Colombians, Americans, New Zealanders,  Germans, Australians,  and probably a couple others that I missed.  I would say that's a pretty good mix of people when there were only about 50-60 people in the service.

Monday was a holiday, but the on-call pilot was busy with emergencies so I took the group from headquarters into the jungle to visit a community and interview one of the surviving members of the killing party from 54 years ago.  It was a treat for them to be with people that live so differently than they do, but love and serve the same Lord.  That night we had a pot-luck dinner for for the MAF folks.  It was a nice time to enjoy each other's company and we also had time to pick the brains of the headquarters staff.

Today we relaxed a little and worked on projects around the house.  It was nice to have a day to catch up on things and get ready for the week.

Here are some pictures from Saturday.

The original kitchen which is part of the "museum" area.  This is where the wives of the 5 missionaries found out about the deaths of their husbands.

More of the kitchen.  We used old windows from the house to frame photos of families that have served here with MAF.

The old radio room.

Mincaye's great-grandson.  Mincaye was part of the "killing party".

Daniel Soria (current MAF pilot) looking at the history.

The crowd with the old hangar in the background.

Josiah the budding photographer

Chad

Mincaye Jr. - the grandson of Mincaye

Church in the new meeting room.