Baby Wilson

Hello!
    Steven has told a lot about the planes, but I haven't taken the time to post anything on what I have been up to. Well, I am more like a spectator since I am not the one doing the creating, but there is a baby on the way! I am now 35 weeks along, and due May 10. God willing it will stay until May 11 which is Steven's and my brother Michael's birthday. Here are a few pictures of the bump growing!

 

23 weeks

   In many ways I have had an easy pregnancy. I haven't had all the ailments and health concerns that many women have to face, and yet, in many ways this has been a very hard pregnancy. Steven and I lost a baby before this one and the pain and sorrow that brings is hard. It was only 9 weeks along, and so termed as 'just one of those things that happen', but it was still very real for us and caused us to see ever so much more clearly the effects of sin and the gift a baby is. So when I became pregnant again I was paranoid that I would loose this one too.

   Another worry I had was inheriting an incompetent cervix. My Mom struggled to have children, challenged by an incompetent cervix. She also lost two babies, one half term, and I wondered if I also could have the condition. There was no way to tell and not many tests you can do until you have already lost at least one baby in the second trimester. Add to this the fact that a good friend of mine lost her baby at 38 weeks, and I was a very anxious pregnant lady. 

    I began to have problems right from the beginning. I had a lot of uterine contractions,  cramping, etc, early on. They were strong and wouldn't go away sometimes. I visited the Doctor quite often and she gave me some kinds of medicine, but they were always temporary fixes.  I knew that it wasn't good to take too much medicine anyways. This went on for months, until one day I couldn't take it anymore. I was tired of being on edge, tired of the stress of worry, and tired of wondering if this little life would one day make it into my arms.

     I lay there, since I was practically on bed rest, and thought things over. Ever since the beginning of this pregnancy I had been too scared to pray to God about this baby. My reasoning was that when you pray for someone you become more attached to them. I didn't want to get attached to this baby just in case I lost it too, so I wouldn't talk to God about it. I couldn't ask for prayers from others either. I realized it was too late to not love this baby. I did love it, and it was a part of me that I couldn't distance myself from any longer. So why was there so many problems?

     When we take burdens on ourselves, God can't help you carry them. If you are carrying them, God isn't there so Satan can be. It occurred to me that since I hadn't invited God in and surrendered my worries to Him,  trusting that His will is the best, then Satan had full reign of the situation. Where God is not, Satan is. I wondered if many of my symptoms were not being caused by Satan to fuel my fear and make it just that much harder to talk to God about it. I was afraid of what God might ask me to give up. I was afraid He would ask me to surrender the life of my baby into His hands. I couldn't. How can a human give up the desires and worry for her child? How is it possible for me to reach the point where I could say, 'God, if you take my child or let me raise it, it is ok with me'. I couldn't. All I could do was ask for forgiveness and for help to give up my baby and surrender it into God's hands. I pleaded for the peace I had been missing since the beginning of the pregnancy.  I also asked God to fill my life and the life of my baby with His presence so that Satan couldn't harass or do anything more.  

A sneak peak of baby at 26 weeks

    That was when things changed. I received peace again, and God helped me surrender. It was a daily   battle of surrender for some time, but I could once again pray and ask for prayers. I asked Jesus to come into my life and to push Satan out, and from that day on (except for one other occasion) I did not have any more of the same problems I was having. The other time I again began experiencing contractions and pains, I prayed once again asking Jesus to remove Satan, and the same day the contractions stopped. 

     We are in a spiritual battle. It touches our lives in ways we might not realize. I didn't suspect that my health challenges could be no more than attacks from Satan, but obviously they were. When my heart was once again right with God, all the health problems went away. God wants our hearts and we need to trust Him. If we find we are unable, we can ask Him to help us to trust. It sometimes is as unnatural as a mother concluding that it is ok if her baby lives or dies, but our God is a God of miracles and heart transformations.

     Now that I am finishing 35 weeks and am eagerly preparing for the arrival of our baby, we can only thank God for His mercies and blessings. So far they tell us it is a healthy baby. In a week and a half I go for another ultrasound which will give more insight as to what is going on inside. Little by little God has been providing the things we need, and soon we will get to meet the little wiggle worm face to face!

    

30 weeks

34 weeks

    Well, that is the news from the home front. I am feeling fat and get stuck easily. I can't dodge the wheelbarrows at the market very well anymore (another story in itself) and am looking forward to handing baby over to Steven once in awhile! Anticipation is growing and I have been busy sewing diapers, a diaper bag, and other things for baby. The Grandparents are also excited and preparing to visit us in about a month. 

     All is well, and God is good. 

God Bless you!           Helen
 

Update On the Aviation Project for December to March.

Hello everyone,
this is Steven writing.

It must be obvious to everyone that I have been busy and that blogging has been neglected. However, Herman has two good updates about the aviation project on his blog. So I figured I would just post links to his blogs instead of duplicating on my blog what he has on his blog.

A picture of the new hangar as it was nearing completion.

Here is Herman's blog with pictures of when the hangar construction began.
http://hermanbolivia.blogspot.com/2014/01/new-year-blessings.html

Here is another blog from Herman with more hangar progress and a picture of the Mooney taxing out to take off for take off on a ferry flight.
http://hermanbolivia.blogspot.com/2014/02/hanger-and-ferry-update.html

Here is an other of herman's blogs with pictures of the hangar roof and floor finished.
http://hermanbolivia.blogspot.com/2014/03/new-hanger.html

I helped a little with the hangar. Most of my time during the past months has been spent getting the Mooney ferried and inspecting the three airplanes we have here. I'll make a blog with a some pictures of airplanes being inspected. Also look forward to same blogs from Helen about the home front.
God bless you all,
Steven

And Yet Even More Airplane Moving

Hello everybody,
Steve here.

      Wednesday Franz(a volunteer from the TV station) helped me remove the wings of the T182 and Thursday I made some final preparations to the plane for transport by truck. We just moved the fuselage of the plane today. The landing gear of a T182 is wider than the landing gear of a 182J, so we had to remove the wheels and axils on the T182 in order for it to fit on the truck. We strapped the main landing gear struts to the truck sitting on blocks of wood. Since we had to remove the wheels then the plane sat lower and there was not room under the plane for the wings. So we will have to rent another truck to transport the wings. The wings are still at the other airport. But here are some pictures.

Wednesday afternoon Franz helped me remove the wings of the T182

Children were running along side the truck through the neighborhood coming out of the airport and Herman said that he needed a bag a candy to toss to the kids.

Some times there was not much extra room with the horizontal stabilizer.

Turning off theold highway that goes from Santa Cruz to Cochabamba on to the highway that goes from Santa Cruz to Argentina.

I need to fix my speedometer.

I bet that is the only time a box truck will pass Herman while he is making a trip with and airplane.

Herman on the road with the plane.

Turning off the highway onto the TV station property where our runway is located.

Getting ready to unload.

Lift off? With no wings, or wheels.

Flairing for touchdown.

Praise the Lord the plane made it with no damage or anybody injured.

To be continued....we need to get the wings.

Tree Hugging Tank and a House Under Construction, Again.

Hello everybody, Steve here.

          The past few days have been busy. Wednesday was a rainy morning , and my help to continue removing the wings off the T182 would not be available till the afternoon so figured I would work on a post of what happened this week.
         Last Friday I spent some time figuring out if I could send the oxygen tank from the T182 with Gabriel Jones (a pilot volunteering in Guayaramerin) in his checked luggage. I ended up calling the TSA and they told me to take the valve off the tank so they could visually inspect inside the tank, and they would allow it to be carried on an airline flight.

The first attempt to remove the valve off the tank with Gabriel. The tree was too small in diameter, so the tank spun around the trunk of the tree. Richard(the TV station director) had just pulled up in his car and thought we had come up with a new way to remove trees, by launching them.

The next attempt to remove the valve included wrapping the tank in rubber inner tubes, getting bigger ratchet straps, and strapping the tank in the fork of a tree so that it could not spin around the tree trunk.

Sabbath we went with Richard (the TV station director playing the trumpet) to a church and Helen played her violin with them. Kody, a volunteer from Guayaramerin played the piano.

     Sunday Gabriel and I went and we started getting the T182 ready to have its wings removed so that we can transport the plane out to our property. While Gabriel and I were at the airport working on the plane the Bolivian builder that we had hired before to stucco/plaster came to the house asking Helen if we had work to be done. We have hired him to stucco the rest of the house, and we are thinking of having him lay the tile on the floor. Those are two time consuming jobs. That way he can work on the house, and I can work on the planes.
       So Monday morning we cleared out one bedroom and I went and got some materials for the stucco work.

The cleared out room.

                         

Cement with all the stuff from the cleaned out bedroom.

A pile of sand in the driveway.

        Monday afternoon I ended up talking with DJ Knott and Jeff Sutton over Skype about maintenance to get the planes here flying again. During that time Helen was getting tired of acting like a pregnant lady and started digging some holes in the ground to plant some fruit trees that were given to us. So Tuesday morning she went to the doctor because she was cramping. The baby is ok, but the cervix is thinning, so the doctor ordered Helen on bed rest for a few days till the next check up. I spent the rest of the day doing some parts/materials inventory.

Helen’s side of the bed.

   So I'm going to go dig some holes so that I take that temptation away from Helen.
God bless you all,
Steve

Assembly and Rigging

Helen everybody,
Steve here.
Here are a few pictures of what I did today. Reassembly of the plane that we moved. Praise the Lord everything went well. Thanks to Kody for the help getting the wings back on.

Thank you to Lincoln and Monica for putting up with the wings in their living room for two nights.

                                       

We were red-neck shade tree mechanics. The leaves are still coming back on some of the trees, so the sun gave us the red-neck.

At least the wing gave us shade when we were under it.

This is the view of the neighbors land next to the runway. 90 degrees to the right of this direction is a neighborhood on the other side of the runway.

Now it really looks like a pilot's house.

More Airplane Moving

Hello everybody,
Steve here.

         We moved the Cessna 182 today to the runway at the mission property today. Praise the lord we were able to move the plane without damaging the plane. When the plane was going down the road on the back of the truck, and kids saw it they would run along the side of the road not watching where they were running. At times it was a little hair raising moving the plane amongst the Bolivian traffic. Here are a few pictures.

                 

I think that was the softest landing this plane has seen on grass.

Moving Airplanes.

Hello everyone, Steven here.
         In November of 2010 three airplanes that had been operating with the mission aviation project in Bolivia were grounded due to customs paperwork. In the mean time while these planes were grounded we were operating some other planes on international flight permissions in Bolivia. This meant that every 30 days we had to make a two and a half hour flight to Brazil if we had no mission flights to do in the neighbouring countries.
        The short version of the long story about the customs papers is that customs duties needed to be paid on the planes in order to get the customs papers. The funding was hung up for a long time, and then after customs duties were paid the customs papers were hung up a long time by customs brokers not doing their job. But praise the Lord, last week the customs papers came through, and now we can do something with these planes!
        These planes are currently located at the South American Missions hangar at an airstrip in Santa Cruz named KM7. The airstrip is at kilo-meter 7 on the old highway that goes to Cochabamba from Santa Cruz. Yesterday we began preparing the plane to remove the wings, and today we removed the wings from a plane getting ready to truck the plane to our airstrip for some repairs after being grounded for so long. Here are some pictures.

Kody a volunteer from the school in Guyararmerin helped Herman and I take the wings off.

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The first wing off.

This looks like a skydiving plane. video planes collide in terrifying skydiving accident caught on tape

Now it is ready to move onto a truck.