Lots of good news to report in regard to training progress. 

Training

First of all, training went well, challenging, but I have been learned a lot.  I passed my Instrument Certification exam yesterday morning! (July 12th) This is a large step forward and it will allow me a lot more flexibility for planning flights and building hours.  Thank you so much for your prayers during this time.

Expenses

I have negotiated a better fuel rate with with the Fixed Base Operator where the plane I fly is based.  They were willing to do this because of the goals of my training.  And I am very grateful they made the exception for me as fuel prices continue to rise.

I haven’t yet tallied the damage in terms of all the fuel, etc but last month donations far exceeded the minimum payment we needed to make on the training account!  Thank you to all who have been helping financially!  It is what is allowing me to move forward with all the training.  Because of the financial accountability through the church we have no easy way of knowing who donated what but we are extremely grateful to you all.

Next Steps

The first step is to once again pay down the training account so that there is room to build flight hours. 

I currently have about 150 hours (I need to build 400 hours minimum).  Other than the hours I just need to complete a Commercial Rating next which should require a lot less training than the instrument rating.

At some point I would love to build up hours by flying around the country to visit as many of you as possible.  If I did that I would probably have to go alone as long hours in a plane aren’t exactly kid-friendly.

Nepal

MAF has had to withdraw from opening their base in Nepal because of government hassles along the lines of requiring three million dollars be deposited in their banks for the privilege of doing non-profit work there!

We are clearly very disappointed with this outcome but I told my Nepali friends that even if we weren’t able to fly in Nepal God used this to introduce us and allow us to befriend each other.

While our own prayer would be that God would somehow change the outcome and allow MAF to operate in Nepal, our larger prayer would be that God would prepare us for wherever in the world he would have us serve.

Prayer Requests

As I write this, Sheea is in the scheduled surgery I had previously alluded to. Please pray for her rapid recovery and that she stick to the doctors orders of not lifting even a gallon of milk till six weeks later.  For those of you who know my wonderful but stubborn, stubborn wife…you know why I say this.  :)