We are tracking the plane as Garry flies it across the Visayas region to its new home in the South Eastern Philippines.

For the last few weeks Brian and the other NTMA guys here have been working hard to get one of our Cessna 185s, “405″, ready for service in a new flight program in the Southern Philippines. As I write this, 405 is enroute to its new home where it will once again carry New Tribes Missionaries to and from their tribal works. It has not flown in a missionary capacity since 2003 so this is an exciting day for us. Many pilot/mechanic teams have had a hand in getting the plane ready for this flight, and it was great to join that effort.

The Philippine flight program is in a startup phase and this is the first of many steps to rebuilding flight service to the tribes in the Philippines. It is very rewarding to see these “benchmarks” along the way that are measurable progress of the work we have been about. The plane is going to arrive in a few hours and will be put into service almost right away for missionaries. We will be moving in just under a week to join 405. Our main task will be to help with many of the administrative tasks necessary for starting and running the flight program. Hopefully early next year Brian will begin the process of getting his Philippine pilot’s license, get “checked-out” at our tribal airstrips and begin flying for the missionaries too.

We are also working at importing a helicopter, securing another flight center in the Northern Philippine region where the helicopter will serve. We also need to streamlining much of our inventory and record keeping as our program grows. Pray for us in these very busy days of juggling so many tasks. We are the busiest we have been in a long time and the most  unsettled too. It is hard to work in an organized way out of the chaos and we would covet your prayers as we try to keep our heads through these exciting and difficult times. We know the impact that these efforts will have on tribal church planting is far reaching and that makes it worth it all.

We do all the maintenance on our aircraft here because there isn't a better option, and because we want it done right.

Last week I went with our chief pilot, Garry, to the CAAP (Philippine version of the FAA) to file some paperwork and attempt to apply for my Philippine mechanic’s license. We were praying for a few things to work out on that visit. First and foremost, to get the papers to the right people and have things processed expeditiously. The other was to meet the people Garry has befriended in that office so that I could become familiar with the folks in the departments we will need to work with. I will be doing a lot of government paperwork in the days and years to come so it is good to start those relationships now.

God was good. We ran into almost everyone that Garry knows and I was introduced to all of them. Not only that but they approved me for a Philippine aircraft mechanic’s license based solely on my past experience and US license! If they hadn’t approved that paperwork it would have been back to the books to study for the Philippine A&P Mechanic exams…not something I wanted to do.

Shortly after coming home from getting my license, I read an email from one of my friends who is serving with NTMA in South America. He also got his mechanic’s license in the country he serves in, but he started the process nearly 11 months ago! It took me about 4 hours and $5. What a blessing that the Lord kept us out of any paperwork/bureaucratic nightmares because it can very easily be a miserable experience.

The airplane was in pieces when we received the call, but the Lord led us earlier in the day to limit how much we took the airplane apart.

Thank you so much for your prayers for the emergency flight yesterday. Ben and Garry were able to take off early in the morning and encountered only minor rain showers along the way. They said the airstrip was quite slippery, but still well within our minimum requirements. They took Isol out of the tribe and got him to a nearby town where he was taken to the hospital. The missionary team did a fantastic job of cleaning him up and preparing him for the flight out. He did continue to pass out periodically but had stabilized and should be in good hands now.

Thank you for all your prayers surrounding this flight. When we received the call I was reassembling the airplane after the inspection while Ben and Garry worked on the paperwork. Ben came over to the plane with a sheepish smile on his face and said, “How soon can this plane be flying again? A man in the tribe has stepped on a pig trap and…”

I thought it was a joke to get me all worked up. They always did that sort of thing in my training to “simulate” the pressure one might feel to get the job done in a safe way and make decisions to accomplish the imminent without creating a new iminent emergency. I didn’t know Ben well enough yet to know if he was joking or serious because the story was pretty elaborate. He was serious, and it was for real.

We quickly gathered our thoughts and evaluated the status of the airplane. There were many decisions to make in a very short time about what was left to repair and what was still disassembled. It is in those times that we are so thankful for a team of prayer partners who we know are praying for us everyday. The Lord really led us earlier in the day to avoid starting some of the larger, deferrable projects on the airplane and to focus on the more minor things first. It was this decision that kept us from opening up the fuel system and making it near impossible to get the airplane flying again in time for the early morning flight.

Bailey and I are going back to Manila today to work on some paperwork for my pilot and mechanic licenses and to ship our things. There are several other adminisrative tasks we are going to work through in the next couple weeks. We will return to Palawan for another three weeks after that to finish some the larger preventative aircraft projects that we postponed. Thank you so much for all your prayers for us as a team here. God is working and leading us even when we don’t feel it. Thanks so much!

Isol's friends carrying him to the clinic

We were hard at work today on the second of two annual inspections on the aircraft here in Palawan when we received a call at quitting time from some of our tribal missionaries on the island. They had a seriously injured man in their clinic and needed an emergency flight first thing in the morning. Below is the prayer request from the missionary team:

“About 4pm, we got word that some guys were carrying Isol to us, a young man, who had stepped into a pig trap in the jungle. The traps have a spring-loaded bamboo blade, which had gone right through one of his calves, and into the other calf. This happened in the morning, and it was 3pm before he was able to crawl to the nearest people for help. They carried him here. We think he probably lost a fair bit of blood, but praise the Lord, the bleeding had stopped by the time he reached us, though he was in terrible pain and kept passing out.

Julie and Ginny calmly took care of him, and though he was crying out in pain earlier, he is resting well now, well medicated. Dave called the plane for the morning, but it’s undergoing a regular service. The pilot and mechanic are going to work through the night to get it finished in time to leave to come here early in the morning. Please pray for them that they will be able to finish putting the engine back together without having a really late night, and that they are able to get an early test flight. Also for clear, calm weather. And of course please pray for Isol, that he will be comfortable as possible tonight. His family will look after him at the clinic building tonight, and we’ll be on call.”

We were able to finish the inspection at a reasonable hour and the plane is ready for the flight tomorrow. Please pray for Ben as he will be negotiating the unpredictable rainy season weather in order to pick up and fly this tribal man to a hospital. Due to the difficulty level of the airstrip in this tribe, he cannot land if it is raining. Also, the airstrip gets very slippery, so pray for a nice surface to land on, and no rain.

The team working with this tribe runs a clinic that helps meet the physical needs of the tribal people. It is our prayer that through this clinic and the love displayed by the missionaries, that the tribal people will hunger for Jesus as they see His love displayed by the missionaries. The team is learning the language so that they can teach and disciple the people of this tribe. We pray that Isol and others will be able to get the care they need so they can live to one day know their Savior.

Our first annual inspection is finished and Ben and Garry are getting in for the test flight.

A few months ago it became apparent that we were going to have a serious barrage of work coming our way as we attempt to set up two new flight programs here in the Philippines. We finished language school early and packed up our apartment, moved to a temporary housing facility run by New Tribes and got organized for the coming months. Once  some of our business was taken care of in Manila, we moved to Palawan and have been here for just over a month. Brian has been working everyday in the hangar on the airplanes, and Bailey has been taking care of Maycie and learning many of the administrative responsibilities she’ll be taking on. Among her new responsibilities will be flight following, bookkeeping and flight scheduling. It is a lot to deal with especially with Maycie at her side.

Right now we are trying to get things together at our only flight center on the island of Palawan and prepare the airplane and necessary parts and tools for transport to another island where we will set up the first of the two new flight programs. The airplane required and annual inspection along with many other maintenance projects and that has kept Brian and the other two pilots, Ben and Garry busy everyday. When that inspection was finished they dove into doing the annual inspection on the other airplane while all three of them were able to work together. It has been so nice for Brian to be back in the aviation world and to see first hand the training he has received begin to pay off. There is so much to learn and so many things to inspect especially since we are on an island operating in salty air and high humidity. It is a maintenance nightmare so the amount of work is significantly higher than it would be in a normal shop.

Once the second airplane is flying again, we will move back to Manila for two weeks so that Brian can start the process of getting his Philippine pilot and mechanic licenses. We will also ship our things to Mindanao where we will move in December. Before we can move, however, we will return again to Palawan for a few weeks to do some major preventive maintenance projects on the Palawan airplane. We will be living in temporary housing for almost three months so please pray for our sanity as it really takes its toll to be moving from island to island as often as we will have to.

It all started several months ago. For the first time in history, a small tribe of fishermen began to hear the truth.

For several years before that time, the missionaries in that village had been preparing for this. Many hours, even years, were spent toiling away in the oppressive tropical humidity learning the Agutaynen dialect. Relationships and trust were built during this time as the missionaries demonstrated care for these villagers through medical help and community involvement.

On June 8th this year, about 200 Agutaynen villagers gathered under a simple pole structure with a thatched roof, sitting on bamboo slatted benches, to listen as the missionaries began to teach. They began way back in the beginning of history, establishing foundations and framework for things to come. Many concepts and principles that we take for granted had to be presented and understood in order to set up the context for the Bible lessons to begin. They began to teach through the Biblical account of creation and through the history of man that is recorded in the Old Testament. Always focusing on Mankind’s falling short and missing the mark of what God had intended for people. And again, always bringing to light the Lord’s gracious provision for mankind in making a way for God and man’s relationship to be restored. The missionaries’ desire is to see these Agutaynen people agreeing with God’s Word and identifying themselves as part of the fallen human race and in need of a Savior.

It was during this teaching when Hoseph said to Steve that the Agutaynen villagers are “still in the water.” Hoseph is one of the men that the missionaries have been using to help check and prepare the Bible lessons so that they are accurate and understandable to the villagers. In doing this, he has been clearly taught through the entire Gospel and has evidenced clear understanding of it. When Steve was asking him about the people’s understanding of what was being taught, Hoseph replied that it is like the Agutaynen people are out to sea and they have been guided all the way into shore through the teaching of the truth, but that they are still in the water. These lessons, he said, are clear. The people who listen to the lessons will need to make the choice to take the last remaining steps to the beach.

This past Monday, the missionaries in the village, Steve and Manfred, presented Jesus Christ as the Savior through His death and burial. And tonight, they will teach about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Several months before the teaching began, Tifi, an older lady in the village, told the missionaries how when she attended the local religious ceremonies, she always felt like she came back with “empty hands.” It’s hard to say if this village as a whole is prepared for something more than they have been getting, but is sure seems that there are individuals in the village whose hearts hunger for something more. Pray with us that the Agutaynens’ understanding would be opened to the truth and that they would take those “last remaining steps to the beach.”

Maycie dropped a drawer on her toe.

I am learning a lot from Maycie these days and her most recent lesson is one that has left a bit of a lasting impression. We try our best to train Maycie so that she will be prepared to deal with things in this world, but it is always very evident that she has a will of her own.Last week, she was playing with some friends of ours and decided to get into one of their daughter’s dresser drawers. This is something she is not allowed to do, but decided since we weren’t there it would be okay. So she pulled the drawer out too far, and it landed squarely on her big toe. She didn’t cry very much, maybe because she knew what she did was wrong and her fault and was trying to hide it. Or maybe it was because she killed all her nerve endings in the big toe. Whatever the case, she learned the hard way.

As a parent it is clear to me that the limits I have set for Maycie are there to protect her, and help prepare her for life. They are not there to limit her enjoyment of life. How different is that from the Garden of Eden? God set limits on Adam and Eve and their sin was simply questioning God’s character. They felt God was holding out on them so when “He wasn’t looking” they tried living their own way and we’ve been struggling with it ever since. How much easier would life be if I just took God at His word? What if I took God’s advice and listened when He says,

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

How many other amazing pieces of advice has God given us to follow? I think if I started listening to God with the same kind of obedience that I expect from Maycie, my life might look a bit different. Maybe I’d quit smashing toes, and start living a life that has all the joy and reward that God can clearly see that it should have.

He tied a driveshaft to the bicycle and rode it through Manila!

Not long ago I was driving our truck on a trail that was pretty rough. I had forgotten to tie down the cooler and toolbox and other miscellaneous stuff in the cargo area of the truck after eating lunch, and low and behold when we got back on the trail it flew all over the place. Thankfully only one thing broke; my air compressor. It is, because Murphy works internationally, imported from the states and is a vital part of the tool  kit for the truck so I had to get it repaired. Having parts sent from the states wasn’t practical or affordable, so I decided to go to a machine shop and have one fabricated for around $7.

Much of my Tagalog practice has revolved around shops, and mechanics because often their English is quite poor. So far I haven’t had any surprises, like asking for an oil change and getting a glitter paint job. I was a bit concerned about this one cause it was a pretty foreign piece of machinery to them, but they got right to work doing what I had asked. As they carved out a new part on the lathe I sat and waited. While I waited I was entertained and amazed by their delivery guy who rode a bicycle. A machine shop delivery guy, not a pizza delivery guy, on a bicycle.

I was amazed when I first saw the rider show up with a couple of lower control arms off of what looked like a Toyota Corolla. Then, the next trip he brought a couple of front brake disc rotors from a full-sized truck that looked like they weighed over 100 pounds each. Keep in mind that he looked like he may have tipped the scales in triple digits after a good hard rain.

Then the most fascinating delivery of all was a drive shaft off of a box van. I was amazed at his ingenuity and boldness of riding his bike in Manila traffic with a driveshaft tied to the bike and resting between his legs. I don’t think I’d ever need an adrenaline rush again in my life if I had to ride that contraption through the insane maze of traffic that is Manila.

She knows the smell of boxes means change is coming.

We are moving again. It is scary when Maycie takes a look at our boxes and then at me, then at the boxes, then at me and says very matter of factly, “ingna.” I have no idea what it means, but it is clear she knows it means change is in the wind. It is really cute to see her put the pieces together. It is also very scary to think of the impact this will have on her life as she gets older. So far she seems to adapt very well to new people and is very sociable which helps a great deal.

We, on the other hand, are a bit harder to convince this is a happy thing. We hate moving! Especially now that many of our closest friends are here in Manila just starting language study, and we are just leaving. We love the excitement of a new place, and love all of the new things that come with a new place, but we loathe the process of packing and making decisions. Oh well. We are excited for this move in particular because it is the first time that we will be working as “full-missionaries” with NTMA doing what we set out to do long ago – assist NTM church planting efforts through aviation. No more school! At least as far as we can see. We can hardly wait!

Jump at the Dump from Brian Pruett on Vimeo.

A very non-extreme motorcycle video of us posing as guys who actually know how to ride motorcycles! Mine is the white XR400 with the low flying fat guy in the black helmet.

I came across this video in my collection and it reminded me of the fun times we had in training “learning to ride dirtbikes so we would be safer riding on the field.” It seemed a lot easier to talk our wives into it if we played the safety card-so we did. I don’t how any of us thought it was a good idea to combine the words “dirtbikes” and “safety” into the same sentence but we did.

As you can see from the video, we never actually did anything that would have hurt us more than a few scrapes and bruises. I don’t think we were quite good enough for that! However, it didn’t stop us from making our own non-extreme video of ourselves trying to be cool. Of course wherever possible we adjusted camera angles to make it look even more extreme…pathetic isn’t it?