Another Reason for Adventist Aviation Indonesia

Have you ever wished you had your camera at the right moment?   This afternoon was one of those moments.  As many of my regular readers know my office and home are located on the campus of Adventist Aviation Indonesia.   While I am a missionary on assignment to the Papua Mission of Seventh-day Adventists and don’t work for AAI per se they are an Adventist institution too. 

Today was one of those days I wished my camera was working. . .  While in my office the familiar sound of a just landed plan with propeller in full reverse came to my ears.   Wait, I thought, there shouldn’t be any planes landing.  AAI pilots are either not in operation or on vacation in the States.   So I stood up to see out the window and a plane comes rapidly toward the hangar.   I left my office to get a better view and find out the reason.  

“Commercial plane missed his turn at the taxi ramp and managed to get stuck in the mud on the side of the run way in at the main airport,” one of AAI workers said to my quizzical look.  This plane was in danger because he couldn’t land at the commercial airport.

“Oh, that explains it.”   In my excitement to see how many planes would land in the next few minutes I forgot to pull out my camera.   Turns out no others did as the Commercial airport was quickly able to fix the problem.

Adventist Aviation Indonesia, who not only flies for our mission, also regularly allows planes who need to bring patients in to the government hospital just behind our property.   They, also, have been able to allow a number of airplanes to do mandatory maintenance in our old hangar and new hangar.   This creates a lot of good will that is opening doors or opportunity.   One pilot whose son attends school where my oldest two have just begun said to me recently.   “I’m glad I’ve come to actually know some Adventists.   I use to think you guys were weird folks but now I know you’re real Christians who would give the shirts off your back to help us.   You are the true missionaries around here.”   What a nice complement!

Hill Crest International School

Aubrey and Andrew have started school.   For the first time it is outside of the home.   Ruth gets an A+ for sticking with homeschooling our boys since kindergarten until 8th and 7th grade respectively.   The younger two are still homeschooling at home with Ruth.   Every morning Aubrey and Andrew have to scramble out of bed a lot earlier than they use to.   Each morning they have to make sure they have yesterdays left overs in their bag along with last nights homework and anything else their teacher may have required.    It takes a lot to get everyone moved out the door and into our vehicle to make the 20 minute drive to school.   I’ve only been 2 times to pick them up but Ruth does it most days twice a day.   When you arrive on campus of the Hill Crest International School you have a spectacular view of the Sentani town and Lake beyond.  

I love the outdoor hall ways that the tropics allow.   And the large open air gymnasium and tennis courts.

Aubrey and Andrew both are enjoying their friends and school work.   They are up early each day.   I think Aubrey especially enjoys it.

I was especially impressed to hear that Aubrey and another friend who attends the school were instrumental in asking their teacher to change a text book that in their minds wasn’t morally correct.  Way to be a Daniel!

Hillside International School has about 6-10 Adventist kids in it.   Most of the other 150+ kids that go to school here at Missionary kids from a variety of Christian backgrounds.  There are probably 18-20 countries where they hail from.   A small minority are from wealthier Papuan or Indonesian families that send their children to a top quality school.   Fortunately, a number of Adventists through the years have paved the road for us and Hillside all ready knows that our boys are Vegetarian and don’t participate with sports and other functions during the Sabbath hours.

Each day we pray that our boys can be a shining example and that they will put people up to the cross.

Unexpected Blessings in Japan

We are on the way to Papua from Annual Leave (AL), a.k.a. Vacation,  in the states.   For anyone who has never experienced this kind of travel to  the other side of the world it’s grueling to say the least.   First leg, Nashville-Minneapolis went off without a hitch.   We scarfed down our last subway sandwiches in the Minneapolis airport  before running to our gate thinking we’d have 10-15 minutes before boarding our the Minneapolis- Tokyo ironman-of-jet-setting leg of the trip.   We plugged the families gadgetry into all the 110 outlets we could find.  That’s an awesome experience to witness the lights dimming from the pull down of power caused when you plug in  all the gadgetry of the Boyd family into the wall (of course that’s an exaggeration but not by far) 

Soon the loud speaker stated something about an emergency Medical stop for the incoming flight from Tokyo to Minneapolis thus an expected delay for our outgoing flight.   The story slowly unfolded over the course of the next few hours.   A passenger from Toykyo had severe hemorrhaging out all orifices on the head and bowels.   Fortunately, there was a doctor on board who was able to administrate IV fluid to the passenger.   Delta and the Doc said they must land ASAP which happened to be Anchorage, Alaska.  By the time Tokyo-MN came to pick up this family all gadgetry was completely topped off with battery life and then some.  Then came the cleansing process of our plane.  Sure hope the passenger was either right with God or is still living and praising God for sparing his/her life.   Pray for this unknown person.

Ruth with an added blessing of phone calls to family

Jacob and Andrew with the added blessing of getting their batteries topped off before the long flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo

As we passed through Business Elite class secton of our Boeing 777 plane, 4 hours after our scheduled departure, it became apparent that the cleaning chemicals for bio-hazard clean up are not manufactured by Pinesol.   Normally I’m green with jealousy of the cool space capsule-like recliners turned at modern angle’s where no person has to climb awkwardly over their seat mates sleeping body on the way to the laboratory, a.k.a. toilet with some serious suction.   This time my state of green is not generated from jealousy but from bio-hazard stain removers.   The dude who patentwd that stuff must not have had a nose – that was some powerful odor.  It made sitting in the unwashed masses section seem like olfactory delight.

Laura Story writes the moving song, Blessings.   And we learned this un-wanted delay was our blessing in disguise.  Narita-International Airport in Tokyo has a curfew at 11:00 p.m. which meant that our next flight scheduled to ferry us to Singapore from Tokyo would not happen.   So here is the blessing. . . Delta gave us vouchers for future use and put us up in 3 Hotels units with free WiFi.  They paid for dinner which we declined due to exhaustion.  They paid for Breakfast which we gladly ate and transportation to and from the Airport to the Hotel.   Wow these Medical Emergencies cost Delta a pretty penny.  Breakfast was absolutely wonderful.   Wish the airlines could put in an omelet bar with granola, pastries, fruit, hot cereal, yogurt, pancakes, waffles, rice, stir-fry.   These Japanese know how to seriously cater to International taste buds.

The next blessing was our baggage was able to be routed all the way to Papua because Delta and Garuda Indonesia Air lines are soon to become Skyteam partners.   Yeah, I’ll get miles for all the local stuff I fly with Garuda come next year.  Until then I’m appreciating their closer diplomatic ties.

The third blessing was 14 hours in a big Hotel verses the 5 hours we’d have gotten in a Stay-tel inside of Singapore's airport.   Don’t get me wrong the Stay-tels in Singapore are seriously nice but 6 of us in a much smaller space is not easy.

We were somewhere up there on the 14th floor of this high rise hotel.

We could watch close up’s of the incoming air traffic

Forth Blessing. . . at 3:30 a.m. Tokyo time I awakened to the side-effects of Jet lag but that’s not the blessing really.   Had a wonderful devotion time after I finally got tired of fighting no sleepiness between 4:30 and 5:30.  Then decided to chance calling Ruth who was staying with our youngest next door since there had to be someone 12 or older in each room.  I asked if she wanted to meet me in the hallway and talk since my charge (Jacob) and her charge (Nathaniel) were both still sleeping.   She said, “No, I rather get things situated for the rest of our journey.”   So then came my forth blessing, a spontaneous 30 minutes bird watching blitz outside the hotel in Tokyo.   Those of you who know me well know I love Bird watching.   I was able to positively ID 4 birds in Japan, 3 of which were Lifers.   So was that blessing four (a good devotion) and five  (more birds on my world list)?

Blessing of adding a Large-billed or Japanese Crow along with 3 others birds to my list.  See him on the light pole for the hotels outdoor Foots-all complex.

We did miss our planned shopping expedition in Jakarta due to the re-routing of our trip but that’s no big loss as we’ve just restocked for the year.

Aubrey and Nathaniel trying to find a way to make a too short  and narrow row of chairs work for a nap in Jakarta’s Airport.  The blank spot above Nathaniels head was where I was sitting when I decided to snap this photo.

Andrew with a serious case of “red eye” or “tooth picks in the eye”, tries to hold his eyes open in Jakarta.

Nathaniel in serious thought about the Your Story Hour story he’s listening to on his MP3 player

 

We made it home and the first bags and boxes off the plane were ours.   What a blessing to be home.  All bags and gear made it and now to shake Jet-lag.   It’s 3:30 a.m. and the roosters crow.