It is now rainy season
again here in Uganda. We
started off with a very wet week but since then it
has been much drier. This of course means more
challenging flying as we have to dodge more weather and evaluate
the airstrips more closely for mud and standing water. Praise
God for continued protection throughout these times. In the
last two weeks, we have
also been working hard on two major maintenance items for our
small plane. We have been installing new radios to bring it's
navigation and communications capabilities up to MAF standard.
We are also working on some major repairs and inspections for
the tail section including removing a significant amount of
corrosion hidden under some insulation panels that
Cessna installed. This airplane has over 11,000 hours of
service most of which has been within the DR Congo and includes
flying approximately 1,320,000 miles. This is very high time
for an airplane of this size which means it takes plenty of work
to keep it in excellent
condition.
Many of you may remember a
recent story where I had the opportunity to evacuate several MSF
workers from Doruma, a town on the Sudan - Congo border. I
recently talked with MSF who had confirmation that the militia
approaching Doruma was indeed the LRA
(The Lord's Resistance Army - the rebel group from northern
Uganda that has caused such chaos and it is the militia
connected with Invisible Children). Unknown to us at the
time, the LRA saw me approach and land and assumed that the
plane was coming to bring UN reinforcements. By God's grace,
the LRA did not attack the village of Doruma since they thought
the UN was there in force. As I approached and throughout the
next day I had been praying that God would protect the people in
Doruma. I had no idea that He would use a MAF airplane in this
way!! Praise the Lord with us for the protection He engineered
for the people in Doruma.
Amy has been enjoying
school and is glad to be back on her feet again.
Her cast is off and she is moving around almost normally. Our
kids had fun "pretending" to have broken feet too and hopped all
around the house. I found it rather amusing!! :) She is
enjoying teaching kindergarten as well as learning a lot with
her first time with this age group. Amy has had very few boils
recently which is a huge blessings. She has had only one in the
past 2 months and they have
been much smaller and less painful.
She is now taking a new antibiotic and we are praying that it
will get rid of the boils for good. Thank you for your
prayers regarding this.
Emma and Daniel are
growing fast and having a blast playing with each other. They
often run around the house "hiding" from imaginary monsters.
They love to run through the house and then jump on one of their
beds and pull up the covers over their heads to hide from
the "monsters." I'm not sure the monsters would be able to find
them amidst all the giggling and laughing. They have both been
learning their numbers and letters and amaze us with all that
they understand. From his last school session, Daniel has
become fearless around animals. He used to be afraid of
anything that moved, but now he is happy to investigate bugs and
frogs around the house. It is very fun to see the change.
Thank you again for your
faithful support and prayers. God is changing Africa one person
at a time!
For His Glory,
Dave, Amy, Daniel, and Emma
