I just spent the last three days flying in Sudan. Wednesday I flew up to Lokichogio on the DC-3. We arrived at the hangar at 5:30 to load 2 tons of cargo onto the plane, taxi to customs and pick up our passengers. We have an agreement with the security office at Wilson that allows us to load at the hangar. The new security officer on duty that morning hadn’t gotten that information, and required us to unload the plane and run all 2 tons of cargo through the scanner. We completely blocked the security scanner for about 45 minutes while we were doing this. Meanwhile the DC-3 is big enough that it takes up three of the four parking places in front of security. So…we got our workout Wed. morning. Load 2 tons, unload 2 tons, reload 2 tons. Good thing I had a good breakfast.

At Loki, I was getting ready to load my passengers to fly to Torit, Sudan, and then on to Yei to pick up four people and take them to Juba, where I’d spend 2 nights and fly the folks back to Yei, then back through Torit to pick the two people I’d dropped there to return to Lokichogio. I was getting the passengers in the plane when my phone rang. It’s the folks in Yei. “We don’t need you…we’re going by road. We’ll call tomorrow to let you know if we need you on Friday.” Hmmm. Scramble scramble scramble. The folks I’m dropping in Torit are all joiners to the flight, essentially standby, and now the flight is cancelled. Our lead scheduler, Lydia, comes up with a brilliant solution (typical of her, actually, she is just amazing) where I take them to Torit, stay the two nights with Phil and Linda Byler, and then either continue to Juba on Friday or bring the guys back to Loki on Friday from Torit. Fixed, costs of the operation covered and maybe I don’t have to go to Juba.

Prayers that night with the Bylers, I mentioned “thanks, Lord, for the Bylers’ hospitality on such short notice.” Linda later told me she was surprised. “We knew you were coming an hour before you arrived. That was plenty of time.”

Thursday the folks from Yei call and say then do want the pickup in Juba to return to Yei. We’re to meet at 8:30. So, Friday morning it’s off to Juba. My passengers arrive and we start the gyrations required to get through security and out to the airplane. Two of them are long time missionaries and everything is in order, they just need an airport exit stamp ($45 each if you please) and all is well. The two young women there, visiting don’t have their SPLA passes (Sudan visas basically) and are essentially in the country illegally. Security detains them and the circus begins.

Phil Byler put me in contact with Clerot, an AIC pastor in Juba. Clerot was willing to come to the airport and help straighten things out. Samaritan’s Purse was also willing to help and their guys came to the airport as well. By now it’s two hours later. Clerot arrives and goes to talk to the security guys. He’s very humble, very well spoken and in a rather short time has everything smoothed over. The security officer settles for scaring the living daylights out of the young ladies and then releases them. Off we go to Yei.

As we’re boarding the airplane I and the other two missionaries lecture the young ladies again. ” You can’t just hop around willy nilly here. You have to know what you’re doing and have the documents. And you’re lucky we didn’t leave you…because we were about to! Samaritan’s Purse was willing to help you once security let you go, but we could do no more with security.” I hope they’re still scared.

So…AIM Air saves the day. Well, not really. Clerot of the AIC saves the day. And I finally get out of Juba.

African officials (rightly) get defensive when people ignore the rules and try to push through anyway. The official in Sudan asked several times “Can I go to America without a visa?” Of course not. Nor should we expect to go through Sudan or Kenya or wherever without one. The difference in AIM Air’s issue Wed morning with the DC-3 and the security official was that we do have a properly worked out agreement with security at Wilson to do what we do. They come and inspect the cargo either the day before the flight or the day of it (they’d come the day before in this case) and then we load, and that way we don’t tie up the ramp and the scanner for hours. The new guy didn’t know this. So next week we’ll go to security and work through it all over again. The two girls didn’t know, didn’t find out before they came, didn’t listen to what other missionaries told them….and are very lucky that God is merciful and got them out of a spot.

The holidays were quiet. We spent Christmas day at home, just hanging out, likewise New Year Day. The hangar is shut down the week between Christmas and New Year Day.

AIM Air started off 2010 with a flight. New Year Eve we were called to do an evacuation up in Sudan at a village called Atar. There had been tribal fighting and the village and mission station were burned. The missionaries there, from Nigeria, were ok….some minor burns and cuts but nothing serious. So, on New Year’s Eve, John McNeely and Jim Streit flew a Caravan from Nairobi to Lokichogio. On 1 Jan 2010, they flew on to Atar and back to Nairobi to bring these folks out of Sudan. Not an uncommon operation for AIM Air. It was ironic though that just a couple weeks before our general manager had received a letter accusing us of prejudice and being a ‘whites only club’ because we don’t provide free flight training for kenyans who want to be pilots. (In fact we- AIM Air- are sponsoring a couple of kenyans in the US right now for pilot training, so even the direct accusation was baseless.) Two white pilots flew all day on a holiday, into a potentially hazardous situation, to help three black families. “There is neither jew nor greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Gal 3:28. For more information on the Atar incident see http://shorttext.com/fhbtdywkcq

I’ve been up to Lokichogio twice now since the 1st. Nothing so exciting as an evacuation. Yesterday I flew a group of short term missionaries to Lokotok where they’ll be helping the resident missionary there with a medical clinic and doing some evangelism. I spent some time looking around for housing, mostly talking to the new owner of the Trackmark compound. There are some possibilities there for housing, but Trackmark doesn’t really fit with our first plan of having an AIM Air compound.

School continues for the kids….today Susan is trying to push through a bunch of extra work so that Wednesday the girls can go ride horses. Bev Streit, Jim’s wife, rides in Karen, and likes to give lessons to the missionary kids.

Next week is quiet. The week after that, I’m back in Loki flying to Sudan.

The temporary fix seems to be working for the water in the house. This is a big relief since I’m still flying from Loki up into Sudan for the next three days. The guys at the hangar were very supportive and helpful getting the situation resolved. John McNeely (our chief pilot) went and tried to get the pump reprimed, and Rob Scheck called the plumber right away when John was unable to get the pump working. Long story to say we have water in the house again. This is a good thing.

The flying in Sudan yesterday and today went smoothly. I overnighted in Juba, which is a first for me. Juba is the capitol of South Sudan and is growing rapidly. There is construction everywhere. It’s also hideously expensive…Rent for a small house can easily be $3000 per month. A meal can easily be $20 for a bowl of stew and a soda.

The airport was another source of amusement and a bit of frustration. Everyone has to go through security, even folks going to a private charter. Security is nothing more than a cursory pat down, but you still have to go through all the crowds and get the man with the key to the departures door. I get to experience this again Monday since I’ll be picking two people up there.

And finally, back to Loki. Loki looks unchanged save that all the potholes have been filled in the road to the airport! Wow! You can drive on the tarmac, it’s really quite amazing.

We’re all back at work. Susan is pressing the kids on school, much to their dismay. She is also coping with the vagaries of Nairobi water and plumbing. We’re having adventures, misadventures maybe a better term, with our water pump at the house. Yesterday she completely ran out of water because the pump is losing prime, and doesn’t pump air so well. The plumber came out and rigged a temporary solution, which we hope will function until we can dig up the tanks in the back yard and install the check valve at the base of the tanks (the old one has failed and is letting the water run back into the supply tanks rather than holding it at the pump).

Where is Jay in all this? Sudan, of course. Husbands are always gone when major systems break. It must be one of Murphy’s Laws. I flew up to Lokichogio with MAF on Thursday morning early, then took a team of evangelists to Bor, Sudan for meetings with the local pastors there in preparation for a crusade. We’ve had issues leaving the plane in Bor, however, so I hopped over to Werkok about 10 miles east, where there is a mission station, and spent the night here in Werkok. Yes, here. I’m on the internet from the middle of nowhere Sudan thanks to the wonders of modern satellite technology. Today I go back to Bor, pick the evangelists up and take them to Juba for another set of meetings , and then back to Lokichogio on Saturday. Monday and Tuesday I have flights to Sudan from Loki, and I’ll hop a ride back to Nairobi with another of our pilots on Tuesday afternoon. Hopefully the temp fix on the water pump will have held at least until then.

We’re back at work.

This week was back to work week. Susan started cracking the whip over Alex, Beth, and Samantha (home school started again.) I had my base check (the AIM Air checkride we have to do every 6 months) and submitted my Kenyan pilot license for renewal. I still have to get my Kenyan instrument rating renewed, and then I start the Caravan checkout. The kenyan renewals won’t really hold me up from flying, since the only C-206s we have are US registered, so my US license is what matters. Our only Kenyan registered 206 is serving up in Gatab with Jeff Barnett. So, we’re back and we’re back to work.

We’re here! We made it to Nairobi in one piece. And amazingly, all 18 of our checked bags arrived. And thankfully, customs just waved us and our 18 bags through, and didn’t even check any of them! God is good. The flights were uneventful, just long. T he kids behaved very well, and the trip in general went very smoothly. We’ve unpacked most things so far today and are getting teh house back in order. Mostly we’re taking it a bit slow and just recuperating.

We had a great time in the US on furlough, and we look forward to seeing folks again. Hopefully, you will come and visit us here!

Well, we’re en route to Nairobi. Right now we’re sitting in Dallas-Fort Worth airport waiting for our flight to London. Eighteen pieces of checked luggage and a carry-on bag each. Woo, lots of stuff. Traveling light is just not in our lexicon, I suppose. We arrive at 9:45 pm on the 2nd, according to our boarding pass.
Back to work.

Addresses two things that are usually not brought up in friendly gatherings: religion and politics, and then mixes them together. The point is that your faith should inform and guide your politics. If it does not, then it is no faith at all and you need to think about what it is that you believe.

The Manhattan Declaration is a statement of how our beliefs as Christians impact the views we hold. Go to this link to read it: http://www.manhattandeclaration.org/ Read it. Sign it. Live it out.

And we head back to Kenya. Next week we finish in Omaha, heading out on the 22nd to head to Georgia. We get to pack a crate to ship to Pearl River to ship to Kenya, and we get to pack all sorts of suitcases and see what we can fit into corners to bring back to folks in Kenya who’ve asked us to bring them things. Since we’ve asked people to bring us things in this way, the least we can do is haul a few things ourselves.

This week was flight training for me in the Caravan. I’ve spent the week in Ohio with the Stoltzfus clan while Brian started me in on turbine flying. A good week. I ended with a checkride today with the FAA and got my ATP SEL, or air transport pilot single engine land, rating.  A good week of training, and I’m very grateful to Brian and Sandi Stoltzfus for their hospitality and help with this.

Back in Omaha things have been quiet. However ….. Susan went to pick up her engagement ring (she’d taken it to the jeweler for repair, the band having split a few months ago) and found that the jeweler had just been robbed. Ack! Fortunately not her ring. The police were still there and the crime scene tape and news cameras too. So…back tomorrow to pick up the ring.

Less than a month and we head back to Kenya. Lots to do between now and then. It’s like moving all over again. It’s been good to be back and see friends and family, but it’s also time to get back to Kenya, too.

Come see us!

It’s tough, but sometimes you just have to sacrifice.  It’s our turn.  Yes!  We’re in Hawaii for the next week and a bit visiting Mom.  We haven’t seen much yet, just having arrived last night in a very jet-lagged condition, but I’m sure that will change rapidly.