11 Months . . . A Year in Review

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O Donesky

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Oct 10, 2009, 9:37:58 PM10/10/09

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Short Version:

Scene One: Mission Pilot – what a great job! Living in Pucallpa, Peru – what a great experience, what an adventure! Helping People – what a noble endeavor! Sharing Jesus – Awesome! God, thanks for the clear invitation to work, live and share here in Peru.

Scene Two: Flying -- No reliable performance data on the airplanes or documentation on the landing strips. Will I clear those trees or be buried under them? Living -- We’re eating that, again? What are all those kids doing in our yard, picking our mangos? Is the road to Pucallpa passable, or do we postpone our trip to town, again? Helping -- How do you help without creating dependence? How? Who? How Much? Sharing -- But I can’t speak but the simplest of Spanish? God, did I miss something? Are you up there? Help. . .

Summary: The last 11 months have been a collage of events swinging from shear elation to total desperation. In the positive times, I have clearly seen God working, and leading. In the bad times, let’s just say there have been some really, really rough times. And so, tonight, I write this update surer then ever that I am involved in a war. A war between good and evil, between Christ and Satan and both sides want me on their team. Where are you? There are no side lines in this war. To not decide is to decide. Are you willing to commit to the winning team even if all HELL breaks loose against you?

Travel Update:

We plan to be in and around Collegedale Tennessee Oct 22 through Nov 2. We have it on good authority that there will be a fall bon fire at our old house sponsored by our Sabbath School Class on Saturday Night October 24 at 6:00 PM. The Zip line should be open for business, bring your favorite soup and/or dessert, and we hope to have hay rides. The best way to contact us is by email at odon...@gmail.com. We would love to see as many of you as possible.

Long Version:

Airplanes:

We have been blessed with several months of nice, dry, hot, weather. The dry is a blessing, the hot has been HOT. But I have been told that the rain will soon come again, with the mud to match. During the dry season much of the emergency flying work has been covered by several commercial operators. As the mud gets deeper, I have been told, several airplanes will quit flying to the marginal strips and our emergency work load will pick up significantly. In the mean time, I have been working on getting to know the capability of the Cessna. When the other pilot left, he left very little documentation on the capability of the airplanes or information on the landing strips. I found no methodology for evaluating landing strips and making good decisions. Not wishing to try learning the “seat of your pants” method of bush flying, at my age, I have been looking for other options.

Not knowing where else to turn, I called up the other mission aviation organization in Pucallpa and asked for help. What a blessing they have been to me. That phone call has lead to a friendship between me and one of their experienced pilot/instructors. He shared with me how they evaluated the performance of their airplanes, and how they document the different landing strips. He has then helped me in developing the performance curves for our Cessna 182. With that done, he has agreed to go with me to visit some of the marginal airstrips next week. What a blessing Jon has been and yes, physics is a wonderful thing and it even applies to mission flying.

I have not been as concerned about doing this same type of performance work for the Lake airplane because to date we seldom operate in tight locations. However, I foresee that changing, and performance testing coming for the Lake in the future.

Personal:

The ups and downs of living and working in Peru have been severe. If it had not been for how clearly God called me/us to Peru, I would have left months ago. But, I absolutely believe that God brought us here and that this is where we should be, and that we are not done learning or doing what He wants us to learn/do here. I have clearly seen God working and moving, and He is in control. But there are major challenges to living and working here. Good stories don’t happen every day, and the attacks are amazing.

A month ago I was under attack. I was feeling totally trapped between Peru and God. I did not want to be here, why had God brought me here? But to walk away, was to walk away from God’s clear leading in bringing us here. As Odil and I drove to town, I shared with her my feelings of being trapped between the Hell of living and working in Peru, and facing Hell alone, if I walked away from God and His clear leading for my life. Our discussion was interrupted by our first stop at the local Post Office. To my amazement our PO Box held an answer to my questions. Mailed some two weeks earlier, from a friend in the States, was a book titled “A Life to Die For” by W. Clarence & Stephen Schilt. God’s timing is once again really good. I will not profess to tell you that everything has been totally rosy for the last month. There are still some significant frustrations, but God has invited me (and you) to Die to that Self that gets so frustrated, and Live a life of peace in Him.