Hola Costa Rica!

 

Following an amazing send-off by friends and family in Worthington, Minnesota, we boarded an airplane Sunday morning and landed in Costa Rica that same evening.  Arriving at the airport, we made it through customs without any problems and met another missionary family who took us to our apartment.  Praise God for an incredibly smooth trip!



 

 

“Is the Barbed wire to Keep people out or keep kids in?”

-Karsten

As if school wasn’t intimidating enough, they have plenty of barbed wire and a guard shack.  I’m not sure what will happen if you don’t complete your homework…but I’m not about to find out!

The Joys of Packing

Nothing has a way of making a person feel older than sorting out junk (er...um treasures) that were put in boxes sometime in the last century.   Like running across an old application that had the following request:

I actually brought a manual typewriter to college! Not all was trailing edge of technology; most of my papers were printed on a state of the art “dot matrix” printer. 

Other signs that I am from another century:

·         I actually have slides (not power point…slides) that I took!

·         I have more cassette tapes than CDs, let alone MP3s! Still need to hand a cassette to my kids and see if they can figure out how to play it (makes me feel better about the fact I can’t work the TV half of the time)

Things that I can’t throw away:

Maybe it is me, but there are just certain things that I find difficult to throw away:

·         Pennies??? I get to the bottom of some box and there are paper clips, random business cards, pens, miscellaneous hardware, and some old candy. I can dump all of that into a trash can without blinking…except when there are pennies.  There may only be 3, with some type of green stuff growing on them, now I have to sort through it all and pick out the pennies.  WHY IS THIS?

·         Bibles- I don’t think I am superstitious, but I simply have a hard time throwing away Bibles.  Do you bury them, or put them into jars and leave them in a cave?  At some point I’ll have to accept the fact that my copies aren’t the original manuscripts.

·          Thanks to Pixar, I can’t even throw away my kids toys because there is a Woody doll in the box!

I still remember the days when I could fit everything that I owned into a Chevrolet Chevette, and complete the task in less than 10 minutes.  It was good thing, because the time I saved in packing was lost during the painstakingly slow drive offered by the 70 horsepower engine…probably was for the better not to have the option of getting a speeding ticket during my college days. 

Gone are the days when it takes 10 minutes to pack

Airventure & Agendas

This past week my family had the opportunity to attend a few days of “Airventure,” the largest airshow in the US.  In typical Airventure fashion, there were spectacular stunt pilots, endless displays of aircraft vendors, buildings full of widgets and gadgets, and a flea market (otherwise known as the “fly” market) where one can purchase the latest in non-stick cookware.  Needless to say, it is not a difficult event to find something enjoyable to latch onto and explore.  Although I’ve been to the show many times in the past, this year was particularly special as my folks traveled from Pennsylvania to spend time before we head out for language school.

My Agenda was pretty simple:

·         Attend a business meeting on Wednesday night…”Check”

·         Do some research on market potential for ag tanks…”Check”

·         See as much (as possible) that the airshow had to offer…”check”

·         Eat something fried…”Check, and Double Checked”  Wisconsin cheese curds J

Not on my agenda, but beyond coincidence (if there is such a thing)

·         Meeting up with Lawrence & Jodie Elroy, the first family to complete the Proclaim program!  Pretty cool to see the various mission organizations represented at such a large event, and Lawrence & Jodie were doing a fantastic job of sharing about the work of New Tribes Mission (the organization they have been serving with since completing Proclaim over 10 years ago). 

God having some Fun

I have no idea of how many people attended the airshow on any given day, but the total number of unique visitors ranges around a half million people throughout the week. (imagine the picture below stretching as far as you can see left and right along the runway) 

While waiting for the night airshow to begin on Saturday, I stretched out on the ground between a couple of empty chairs directly in front of where we were sitting. Next thing I know Gioconda is waking me up because two gentlemen came to take their seats for the show. What do you think the odds are that out of a bazillion people we’ve never met, they would have specific ties to mission aviation and we would end up making a connection, let alone even talking to one another?

What a great few days!

Two Perspectives of God’s Amazing Grace

Even now it is difficult to dwell on the events of July 21, 2010, a day that began with the prospects of standing atop the majestic “Grand Teton,” but ended with the loss of one of our team members: Brandon Oldenkamp.  Eight friends joined by the common bond of our faith in Christ were about to experience His grace in two very different ways; a grace that would allow some of us to walk off the mountain that day, and the same grace that would allow Brandon to stand in His presence.

Bob Miller gave an excellent interview on the events of that day, click Here to view video.

Tim Vogelaar made a wonderful tribute video of Brandon: Click here to view the video

Brandon was only 21 years old when he passed into eternity, but even at that age his faith was strong and he was prepared to meet the Creator. 

 Have you experienced the Grace of God that will allow you to stand in His presence without fear? Do you even know what that looks like? If not, click here for a good place to start.  Our family is dedicated to sharing the love of Christ, and we would love to talk with you if you have any questions. 

Fantastic Article on Mission Aviation!

Click to Open article in new window

From the May 2012 issue of Cessna Owner magazine, there is a wonderful article that takes at look at how mission aviation is making a positive difference around the world.  The cover photo is of SAMAIR's 206, operating in Peru.  I hope to be flying that in the near future!

The link opens to an online version of the magazine.   

Straight and Narrow

The straight and narrow path was a pretty easy choice when we lived in the jungle, the options weren't that appealing. Take the photo above as an example; walk on the logs or step off into boot eating mud. Wander too far off the path and you find something that will eat you, boots and all.

Walking the straight and narrow was a no brainer in the jungle, but it wasn’t near as much fun as flying it! You see, for every 1 hour spent walking on a well groomed trail as pictured, the same distance could be covered in 1 minute in a small airplane. Hmmm, take a 20 minute flight to the nearest clinic, or spend 20 hours hiking.

Descending to go even higher

This past August (2009) I had the opportunity to do some climbing in the Crestone mountains of Colorado. You should know several things:

1. This was my first trip, and I’ve never attempted anything so far out of my comfort zone before as climbing.

2. I can’t say that I have ever been in particular good physical shape at any point of my life.

3. Heights don’t bother me so much when I have a metal airframe with at least a couple hundred horsepower of lift strapped on by a 5 point harness….otherwise they do.

On this particular day, 4 of us set out to climb one of the “14k” peaks known as Kit Carson. The weather was beautiful, the friends were great, and we had food and water. Regardless of the fact all four of us were guys, we even had a written description of the route to take and we actually read all of the directions!
The plan was simple: scramble up a slope and traverse to “Bears Playground,” continue until we come to the “false summit,” climb that and descend a few hundred feet down the other side and climb up Kit Carson. In reality, the simple plan turned quickly into a marathon of will power by the time we made it to Bears Playground (not even halfway). We continued on up and down and finally reached the false summit…but we weren’t sure by that point if it was the real summit or the false one. Ankles were starting to swell, and the oxygen was getting thinner as we crested the mountain only to realize we had one more hurdle to go. Looking at the summit of Kit Carson across the way did not present a technical challenge as much as a psychological challenge. You see we had to descend 300 feet to cross over to where we could climb back even higher than we were starting from in the first place. Needless to say, we pressed on and reached the top of Kit Carson to enjoy a view that would be impossible to describe with words.


The parallel to the emotions that are faced in ministry are amazingly similar. The plans are good, the people are wonderful, but struggle to take another step gets difficult at times. Yet there are times when you reach a place where you see what God has done, and it would be impossible to describe with words. I look at the challenges ahead for Proclaim and it seems like the summit of stability is across a deep valley…needless to say, we will press on!