First Solo flight in Indonesia on April

As a tradition in MAF anytime a new pilot to the program does his first Solo he gets soaked.  So I soloed a while ago (this past April) and havne't shared photos yet. So here is a recount of that day.

 Kids came to help my pre-flight the airplane before I took a load of cargo to Long Bawan

Climbing in to see what it is like inside

Tyler doing some last minute checks

Already to go but forgot to wash the window

Taxing out for takeoff

I am was so use to having an instructor sitting next to me that I got a little lonely.  So I borrowed "Ducky" from Aaron and then had to make sure he was safe, so I put a helmet on him.

Up in the air and loving it!

Now while I am out the MAF employees start making preparations for my return

Amazing what you can do with old newspaper and tape

All the other kids where making preparations too

The kids really get into this and they have a pre-water fight before the actual

water fight begins

Here Tyler comes back

Rolling to a stop...

"Let loose the children!"

...and then getting doused...and bucketed

They also used REALLY cold water that had been in the freezer...that was the 

most shocking.  Had to take off my shoes cause they were just 

holding water

Getting my captain bars

Even Tyler's instructor was not safe from the water

Even when trying to pose for a family photo I am not safe

Tyler's solo airplane

This is a big milestone that took about 15 years to get to.  From starting college with the vision to go overseas and getting to the point where Tyler is actually flying an aircraft in the jungles of Indonesia has been a long journey.  A journey that has both strengthened us and weakened our own flawed ideas that we are good/strong enough without God.  God is the reason we have made it to this point and it will be for God's glory that we get to serve here.  There are many stories we could tell you about how God has used this journey to deepen our relationship with Him and we would love to tell you about them sometime but we want to Praise God for this mile stone. To Him be all the glory, Amen.

Katelyn's pictures

So it has already been a year-plus since Katelyn has been born and I had these pictures already uploaded but not published.

 

One proud Papa

Katelyn was one big baby: 9 lbs 6 oz.  and when Indonesian nurse's saw her all they could say was "gamuk" which means "fat" but this also insinuates very healthy, so it is a good thing.  We had a constant stream of nurses in our Indonesian hospital to see the "fat" baby.  Usually babies here are really tiny like 4-5 lbs max and Katelyn just blew that number away.  Also she is our biggest baby too of our 3 kids.

My three ladies in my life

Happy Mama

First Family photo

Siblings

Asleep in the grass

Still not so sure of the new sister

Here she is now, blond hair, brown eyes, adorable and knows it.  She is like a little tornado, so curious about what is behind every door, cupboard, box and bag.  We barely have enough time to clean up her first mess when she makes another.  We love her so....

Thanksgiving Feast

Thanksgiving usually means lots and lots of pretty awesome food and this Thanksgiving is no exception.  Even though we live on the other side of the world and turkey is really not something that likes to "grow" here we were able, as a MAF team, pull together and make a feast.

So instead of frigid temperatures and sometimes snow, we enjoyed a "cooler" day of around 90 degrees with rain showers visiting us throughout the day helping keep the humidity nice and high. So we enjoyed eating out under the porch lights at a team members house on Thanksgiving day.

Renae going through the dessert line.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving