Loki, for short. We’re still working on moving there, hopefully by July. Actually? We’ll just have to see. The big issue there is housing. AIM IS is coming to a concensus. So far it looks like the plan is for us to build a small house that will later double as both garage and guest house and move into that. Once we’re moved in we’ll begin construction on something larger and more comfortable. First, though, the real decision has to be made, and we’re still waiting on that.

In other news, it’s pretty quiet around here. Flying is a little slow, mostly because of some maintenance that’s piled up all at the same time (routine inspections on the aircraft) and because of some special events. RVA does an “interim” every year in March for the juniors and seniors, and we support the interims. In this case it means two aircraft gone for the better part of a week. SO…flyiing is slow.

We’re using the down time for some forward planning, though. Next month are presidential elections in Sudan. None of the news we’re getting from there is encouraging, so we’re looking at evacuation scenarios for missionaries in various places. Many missionaries are leaving before the elections. Others are gathering in central locations easily secured. And so we’re looking at options if we have to go pull folks out. Elections are April 11th there, with results to be announced a week later. We’ll see how it goes.

A couple firsts the other day for me.  I did my first ICAA medevac.  ICAA is intensive care air ambulance.  They charter planes, and provide medical staff and equipment to provide medical transport.  I’ve done medevacs before, of course, but this is the first time with these folks. They provide a doctor and a nurse as crew for the flight.  We flew the Caravan over to Kigali to pick up a man who’d had a heart attack and bring him and his wife and son to Nairobi.  We launched out of Nairobi about 2:30 in the afternoon.  It’s about a 3 hour flight each way, and we had a couple hours wait in Kigali while the doctor and nurse fetched the patient from the hospital there.  We took off from Kigali about 7:55 and landed in Nairobi at Jomo Kenyatta airport at nearly 11pm.  That was my first experience flying at night in Africa.  It’s very dark out there.

What was really bizarre was that Lake Victoria was better lit than the land.  The fishermen put out strings of lanterns to attract the fish.  So Lake Victoria was all lit up, but the surrounding land showed just a very few scattered lights.

The flights were uneventful, otherwise.

Last week on Thursday I flew up to Loki on the DC-3, and then with Jim Streit, flew the Caravan to Juba to pick up several people, and then on to Chotbura.

The stop in Juba was MUCH smoother than the previous one. This time my passengers were SPLA officers, a Colonel, a Captain, and a Lieutenant. No troubles with paperwork this time.  That’s Col Deng there in the picture.

At Chotbura we let them all out, along with two passengers from Servant’s Heart. SH runs a clinic and a school in Chotbura and in nearby Daga Post. They’d had rumors of a couple of totally isolated and unreached villages north of Daga, and had gotten satellite photos and verified that the villages were there. Some work with mapping software and they worked out a route from Chotbura through a dry river bed to the area of the villages. Because of other rumors that the Orma (a tribe that’s mostly in nearby Ethiopia) they’d contacted the SPLA and asked for help. Thus my passengers from Juba. Col Deng and his men were along to provide security and to observe.

The DC-3 dropped off all their supplies…four motorbikes (they already had a couple in Chotbura) fuel, and other things, and we flew away. Servant’s Heart is off somewhere in south Sudan now, taking the gospel to people who’ve not had a chance to ever hear it before. Very very exciting. It was a privilege to be even a small part of that undertaking.

The first few days of February we flew up to Gatab and went camping with the folks on the mountain. Well, we flew up on the 31st of January, but the rest was in Feb. We had a good time Sunday….the flight was easy and smooth and no one got sick. It was fun seeing everyone in church at Gatab. They were all surprised to see us and it was fun to greet them and practice our swahili on them. I was pleasantly surprised that I mostly understood what they were saying.

After lunch with John and Becky Woodworth we loaded up in their truck and headed down the mountain to the lugga to camp. Jeff and Nicole Barnett came, as did Katharina Dych, and Tim and Sheryl Hines, and Tom and Karen Richardson. We had a grand big group. Jim and Barb Teasdale showed up on Tuesday.

The camping was fun. It was also a work camp. The Master’s Mission folks had decided to improve the campsite with a walled drop toilet and a walled shower, so that camping in future would be easier and not require setting up these things with poles and canvas. We got the choo (toilet) done, and got the floor poured for the shower. The walls for the shower will be the next trip some months from now. We also had plenty of time to sit around and chat and cook and eat good food. Generally great fun.

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!