Still busy

More flying. This past summer I'd have LOVED to be this busy flying. I still love it. But I have had to ask to be taken off the flight schedule for a few days to prepare for going to Gatab. Yep, we're still going, and we're looking forward to getting up there, and serving there.

The last couple days, as the title of the entry suggests, were busy. I flew to Ileret (as far north as you can go and still be in Kenya) Thursday via way of Loiyangalani for fuel. I took two Kenyans up to Ileret along with 300 kg (660 lbs) of flour, sugar, cooking oil and assorted foods. The flight was supposed to have left at 0830, but it was 1300 before we got going. The C-210 had been down for maintenance (landing gear problem) for about a week, and almost came up on time. The test flight went poorly (the gear pump motor continued to run even after the gear were down and locked), so the maintenance team jumped back on it. Huge kudos to Ryan Williams and Ryan Huizinga. They had the adjustments made and me on my way in just a few hours. Even so, I didn't have enough daylight to get home with two refuelings (I had to fuel at Loiyangalani going up and returning) so I stopped into Gatab to spend the night (there's fuel there too, and it's only 15 miles from Loi, and I had mail to deliver to Gatab, so...) No hardship there. :)

The next morning (Friday) I returned to Nairobi via Kabarnet where I met up with the MAF flight and took 4 passengers (the MAF plane was going to Rusinga Island, not Nairobi right away, and was full from Rusinga to Nairobi) to Wilson. The 4 were Samaritan's Purse folks, coming back from meetings with other SP people in the Nuba mountains in Sudan. Good flight.

Home then, get some clean clothes, have a shower....back to the hangar and fly to Mwanza, Tanzania. An easy, good flight. I stayed the night in Mwanza and met with Dale Hamilton and his family. Dale is our float plane pilot and has been serving in Tanzania, at Kahunda island, for 20 years. They're very excited, they're finally (after 18 years of praying for it) getting a doctor to serve there at Kahunda. They were showing the doctor and his wife around this week. They (the doctor and his wife) go to tropical medicine school in the UK starting next week sometime until late May. They go back to the US for a few weeks, and then in July return to Kenya to start orientation with AIM.. Nice folks. I look forward to flying them around.

This morning it was Mwanza to Kigali, Rwanda, to pick up the Irish news team I'd taken there last week. They had a great time, and were just all smiles over the footage and stories they'd gotten. We're supposed to get tapes once they're edited and compiled. Should be really good. Dave McAllister of CBN put the trip together (and went along on it), and he was just overjoyed. Both with the story and with the reaction of the (unbelieving) news team. They visited a government hospital, Dave was telling me, and later a mission hospital. "What's the big difference?" they asked. "Everyone's so upbeat and nice here (the mission hospital) and so grumpy over there (the government hospital). How come?" "Ever hear of a fellow named Jesus Christ?" was Dave's return question. There was more to the story than that...it was a nearly continuous week long exposure to real Christians in action, living out their faith. Pray for that news team! They've seen the gospel of the kingdom of God in action.

Back to Nairobi this afternoon. I dropped Dave and co at Jomo Kenyatta airport and got them settled with their flight back. Pretty easy actually, since they're in transit...very little paperwork. Back to Wilson (a whole 7 minute flight). Put the airplane away (get it ready for another pilot to take to Loiyangalani actually) and get home.

A busy couple of days. But very good ones.