Plans up in the Air.

Plans up in the Air.

Six years ago I got in a small plane at Andrews University Airpark and started flying south, a long way south. I flew south over the eastern U.S, then south across the Bahamas and the Caribbean, and then finally south across the Amazon to Bolivia.

Since I left Andrews I have made 390 flights totaling 784 hours of flight time in the mission field. That is an average of two hours per flight. The shortest flights lasted about six minutes, while the longest flight that I made lasted 8.7 hours.

I long ago lost count of how many missionaries, medical patients, and tons of supplies that I flew in this time. The lowest elevation take off and landings were at Ogle airport in Guyana at 0 feet above mean  sea level(below sea level at high tide), and the highest elevation take off and landings were at La Paz Bolivia at 13,325 ft above mean sea level. I went with David Gates when we were the first SDA mission plane to land at airstrips in the Alti Plano of Bolivia. Many of the take off and landings were made at airports, and there were also many take off and landings at airstrips in villages in the jungle. During this time I was also maintaining the mission airplanes.  However, in the past couple years I have been flying less, and working more maintaining mission airplanes.

It has been an amazing adventure. I have seen so many places and things. So many blessings have come out if this experience. I met my wife in Bolivia and we had Timothy here in Bolivia. I learned another language. I can understand missionaries and appreciate the work that missionaries are doing. I have learned the joy of giving.

When Helen and I were married Helen had already volunteered as a missionary for three years in Bolivia, but she had not received any donations. She would volunteer for a school year in Bolivia, and then go back home and work to pay for the next school year of volunteering in Bolivia. Then she worked at the Matteson Mission School where she received a very small stipend, which she saved and used to fund her further mission trips to Bolivia. When Helen and I got married we agreed to volunteer as long as God provided for us to continue volunteering. We had agreed that if God stopped providing for us to continue volunteering then we would return to working for hire.

We are very grateful to all those who have helped support us. We have never lacked our basic needs. And we have been able to afford some comforts, we have been able to comfortably furnish the house we were able to build, and buy a motorcycle.

There is an open spot for you in the mission field.

At Andrews there is a statue of J.N. Andrews on the steps of Pioneer Memorial Church. The statue depicts J.N. Andrews with his children with their luggage ready to board a ship when they went as missionaries.  The statue has a trunk that Andrew’s daughter is sitting on. Next to her is an open spot on top of the trunk, and it is said that symbolizes the spot that is open for you in missions.

Studying at Andrews gave me very good flight and maintenance training.

Unfortunately studying aviation at Andrews is one of the most expensive things to study at Andrews. As a result of the high cost of studying aviation at Andrews I left Andrews with a large student debt. Thanks to the donors who have supported, the debt has grown smaller than when I left Andrews. However the debt is still large and the monthly payments are large. For more than a year now we have not received enough donations to cover the payments on the loans in spite of all our efforts to reduce our costs of living.

To reduce our cost of living we have tried gardening, but success has been very limited due to pest animals and bugs that eat the plants, heavy rains and strong winds that beat the plants down, and scorching sun. There are ways to overcome these challenges, but it would take a considerable investment.

An attempt at gardening.

We have also tried sewing and selling diapers. Helen also considered sewing other things. However, Helen found it hard to be a wife and mother, sew the diapers, and get them to market even when I was helping cutting out the fabric, applying snaps, and running to town on the motorcycle to buy materials.

Helen sewing with Timothy helping.

Timothy wearing a new diaper.

Selling diapers in the market.

We have also been supplementing our diet with food that the people at the market have been throwing away. They have been giving us half rotten fruit and we have been canning what is still good. We have also been canning food from the market when it is in season and really cheap so that we can eat it when it is more expensive.

Tomatos were canned when they were at low costs, and apple sauce made from free half rotten apples.

But still we are not coming close to making the payments, and options like deferments are running out. We have been seriously praying for God to supply funds to stay volunteering for five months. We waited till Helen had permanent residency in Bolivia. With permanent residency we can be gone from Bolivia for two years and still maintain residency here. So since we do not have enough funding to stay volunteering in Bolivia we were loaned money to leave and work for hire.

We are planning on heading to Canada. If something changes before I apply for residency in Canada then we can return to Bolivia. However, if I apply for permanent residency in Canada then the government wants me to promise to stay in Canada as a resident. That would mean that I would have to stay at least six months of the year in Canada. That would mean an end to volunteering in Bolivia for a long while. But we will not count it as time lost, Paul did not count it as time lost when he had to work. Our sphere of influence will just be move to a new group of people. Click the following link to understand a little more of how we came to this decision. Laboring Under Difficulties

Change comes hard. When I first came to Bolivia I knew only one person here (DJ Knott), and he left a few days after I arrived. Now I have friends spread over large distances. As a pilot you get to know people in many places. Now we will have to leave all these friends behind. There still is a great work that needs to be done here.

We are waiting just a little bit longer before we buy tickets to leave Bolivia. We are going to wait a day more before we buy tickets in order to see if there is any change. Why do we wait? We are waiting because we know all too well the work that is left to do here. We don’t want to jump the gun. Also we are waiting for my passport. I renewed my passport at the US consulate here and I'm waiting for my new passport before I can travel. It should arrive in a week. But we can’t wait till the last minute in order to decide to leave because there are some things that I need to do before we can leave for Canada that can’t wait till the last minute. I will have to get my police record from Bolivia and have it translated.

That is why I say our plans are up in the air. I feel kind of sad to think about leaving Bolivia. It is the same kind of sadness I felt when I left Andrews. But it says something good about the people you worked with if you feel sad to leave working with them rather than feeling happy to leave them. God knows whether he wishes us to stay or go, and he can arrange things according to his will. I can only find peace by surrendering my life to his will.

Steve

Angels Watching Over US

Angels Watching Over Us

“And the angel of the Lord encamps around those that fear Him”

                

The motorbike with the rusted tank on it.

It was a normal Tuesday morning. Steven had just finished going to the market on his motorbike and was on the main divided street that leaves the city in the direction of our home. There wasn't much traffic around him and he was cruising on the inside lane next to the median. All of a sudden out of the corner of his eye he saw a lady with dirty, and torn clothes, and with wild, crazy hair, running down the median focused on him. She had a rock the size of a grapefruit, and was getting ready to throw it at Steven. Just as Steven passed her, he saw that in mid swing she froze, rock stuck in her hand, and she was unable to move to finish the throw until he had passed. Safe at home Steven told us about the event and we were once again reminded of how God sends His angles to protect us. Later that week Steve found that the gas tank on the motorbike was rusted through. The bottom and lower sides of the gas tank looked like Swiss cheese, some of the holes were big enough to stick your finger through.  The only thing that was holding the gas in the tank while he was going down the road was the paint on the tank.

God Bless,

Helen

April 2015

Hello,

This is Steve writing. Here are a few pictures of what we were up to in the month of April.

The family is growing, but the motorcycle has not grown. Anne took this picture as we were heading somewhere near by. We don't take Timothy on the motorcycle where there is traffic, only the dirt roads around the property.

In April we began preparing to plant a garden. We plant in the winter here. It never frosts.

This is the TV stations little tractor. It really speeds up the gardening.

Helen canned Tomatoes. For a while you could buy a box of Tomatoes for two to three dollars. Now the price of Tomatoes has risen in the market, but we hope the canned tomatoes will last till the tomatoes ripen in the garden.

The T182 returned to our runway and our hangar for maintenance. This was great because we no longer needed to travel 45 minutes to an hour to the other airport hauling tools and parts back and forth on motorcycles. Instead, this was the commute to work on the plane. This is the view of the plane in the hangar from our front porch.

This is the same view as the above picture, just zoomed out.

Here I am inspecting a tricycle gear airplane, and Timothy is inspecting a tricycle.

I did work some in the evenings when Helen, Anne, and Timothy were in town.

This is your captain speaking. In about ten years I will be able to reach the rudder pedals.

I'm the inspector in the picture, but Helen and Timothy are the inspectors of the inspector.

The T182 opened up for inspection.

The inspector being inspected.

Now he could reach the rudder pedals, on his hands and knees.

Miguel is a pilot from Chile who came to visit. He helped me very much with the inspection. Opening inspection panels ahead of me and closing them behind me, among other things. I could not have done the inspection as fast with out his help.

God bless you guys,
Steve

Timothy Wilson

Timothy showing off his four teeth:)

Helping Mom put away the groceries. 

Being himself. 

Looking at his color book. 

Smiles with Dad. 

Enjoying spinning wheels. Timothy spends a long time entertained by wheels!

Nap time durring church. It was a hot morning. 

Going to the market...

This is how Steve is going to bring home the food from the market. It works quite well except for when it rains. We hope one day to have a small vehicle to be able to haul stuff and our family in. Right now Steven goes on the bike and Timothy and I take the slower public transport. 

Washing dishes and then...

This morning Helen left while Timothy was napping after breakfast to weigh some flour she was selling. When she left she pointed out that ants where marching across the back yard and by the back door.

I started washing the dishes. While I was washing the dishes I noticed some birds in the back yard. They normally hunt for bugs in the grass and bushes around here. They go straight for what they are hunting and grab it.

But this time they were circling around something in the middle of the yard. When they tried to grab whatever it was and failed they would jump straight up in the air and fly a few feet away before trying again. They were afraid of whatever it was that they were trying to catch, so it must have been dangerous. 

So I went and grabbed the binoculars. After watching them for a little I spotted that they were after a snake that was fleeing the marching ants. So I ran out side and put my rubber boots on and grabbed the machete. I ran out to where the birds were. They flew up into the tree above to watch.

Then I wished I had blue jeans on instead of shorts because I could not see the snake, but it was somewhere right around me and it was angry. I stood there for a few moments before the snake struck towards me. Then I was able to cut it's head off and the birds got the snake. It is normally a lot less exciting washing the dishes here.

Timothy the dish helper

Timothy "helping" with the dishes.