Life is in full swing once again.  Most everything is unpacked and put away.  Amy’s Mom, Michelle, left on Tuesday Nov 3^rd in the evening.  It was wonderful to have her here and share a bit of our life in Uganda with her!

Daniel is enjoying school and has really adjusted well.  He had a bit of a rough time with homework at first, but he is now doing much of it on his own and is constantly amazing us at how quickly he is picking things up.  He seems to have just needed to build some confidence and realize that it’s O.K. to mess up and try again.  He often comes home quite filthy from playing in the sandbox!  That’s my little man!!  I commented to Amy last night that I was surprised they had any sand left in the sand box after seeing the pile next to his shoes on the porch.

I have been busy with a variety of things.  I’m working on building some stands for the hanger so our mechanics can reach the high places on the Caravans more easily and safely.  I’ve also been filling in for our Operations Manager who oversees that flights go off without a hitch.  This includes making sure the planes are fueled properly, information is communicated to ground staff, dealing with special requests in the bookings department, and issuing procedure changes when necessary.  The rest of the time I have been flying.  A couple weeks ago I was able to take a team up to Nasir in South Sudan which is near the Ethiopian border.  Nasir is a little town seemingly in the middle of no-where.  The town sits at the intersection of two rivers and the surrounding land is very flat, so when the river is high it often cuts the roads off making it impossible to travel by vehicle to other towns.  I flew in a ministry team from Aid Sudan who was there to conduct medical outreaches.  Due to the isolation of this area, there is no modern medicine or hospitals there.  Even basic anti-biotics are very difficult to acquire if not impossible.  The team will be travelling around to conduct basic medical consults and treatments.  They will also be working with their local pastor who is training several other pastors in the area.  These pastors do not read or write, so they use stories to communicate the gospel.  As this team travels to local areas of the village and close by villages, they will use the Bible stories while conducting the “clinics”.  Groups like Aid Sudan are instrumental in communicating Christ through both physical and spiritual means (a holistic gospel).  This group would have had to travel at least a week to get to Nasir from Kampala if the roads were good in the dry season.  However, with the river flooding certain parts of the road, travel by road would have been impossible for this team!

We would ask for your prayers for two items.  First we have been having difficulty with the renewal of our permissions for flying within DR Congo and this has been creating a huge headache and logistic nightmare for us.  Yesterday we received new permissions, but only for one month.  The Aviation Authority in Kinshasa is not sure how to handle our situation since we are not a “commercial” airline or not a private aviation organization.  Part of this may be an unfriendly airport manager in Bunia, where our flights to Congo enter the country.  We ask for your prayers that the government officials would come to understand the importance of MAF’s work in Congo and that they would be able to work out a long term solution for MAF’s registration and permissions in Congo.

Secondly, we would ask for prayer for the people of South Sudan in the Western region.  Many of them have fled from recent LRA attacks to more populated areas such as Ezo, where they feel they might be protected by the army.  The Ezo area has seen an influx of more than 10 times the number in the town.  This means there is insufficient food to feed everyone.  To add to this problem, the UN does not have a mandate to use force to protect NGO convoys or NGO housing.  So there are no NGO’s distributing food or necessary shelter and clothing for these refugees.  MAF already has funding to bring flights with food and aid to the Ezo area, but there is no-one on the ground who can distribute here and oversee that it doesn’t become a target for the LRA.  The church in Ezo feels very alone in this and we are anxious to assist them, so please pray that God would open doors for His people to show His love for them.

Thank you as always for your generous support and faithful prayers.  We are able to accomplish all this because of you!!