Completion of a 7 year project

A little over 7 years ago I started an ambitious project. It was an idea that had been planted by Dan Stolebarger, whom I met as one of the tour leaders on a trip to Israel in 2006. He had taken the challenge upon himself as written in Deuteronomy 17:18:
"When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel."
In context, the passage refers to the kings of Israel who would be appointed as leaders over the nation, hundreds of years in the future from when Moses wrote this. By copying the Scriptures for themselves, it was an act of humility and one that would safeguard them against pride (as well as the practical aspect that there were no printing press facilities at the time). Dan shared that as a leader in his family and in ministry, humility and safeguards were worthy things for him to pursue.

Copying the entire Bible by hand - are you mad? It would take a long time... should I get special books for it? Which version should I choose? In the end I decided to give it a go and stocked up on regular hardback school exercise books and used my favourite version (for what it's worth, the NIV - yes, I know it has its flaws).

After I passed the MAF flight test in January, I had just begun the New Testament. At the time, things were looking promising for starting with MAF in September. Some simple maths showed that, if I was diligent about it, it would be theoretically possible to finish by then. I didn't want to be lugging hardback exercise books with me overseas. As it turns out, September is no longer on the cards, but I still managed to finish ahead of this self-imposed deadline.

So this project, which began on 27 June 2011, is now complete - 7 years, 1 month, and 24 days later!

(I'm not sharing this to boast or make anyone think I'm super-spiritual - I'm not. It's just to celebrate an achievement of something that's taken a long time.)

My Bible looking a little worse for wear (hey, I've had it since I was 13) and the stack of notebooks

An excerpt from Psalm 139 that gives me comfort as I plan to move overseas

An encouraging week

I'll be honest, the week before last was a bit of a struggle. I'm still waiting to hear from MAF when I'll be starting and to where I'll be moving, and the uncertainty can sometimes become overwhelming. That was the case the week before last, and I couldn't seem to rise above that feeling of being in limbo. In my head I know that God has it all under control and that things will work out in His perfect timing (as they always do), but I was having difficulty translating that into everyday life. I sent an email to my prayer partner last Saturday and had a breakthrough of sorts: instead of asking for prayer that MAF would hurry up and tell me where and when I'm going, I asked for prayer that I can learn to be patient.

In the parable of the ten minas, Jesus told the story of a businessman who gave his employees some money and told them to 'Occupy until I come' (Luke 19:13). In the parable, the businessman represents God and the employees represent us. So the meaning of this phrase is, while you're waiting for God's plan to be accomplished, get busy doing what you need to do. For me, that means working diligently for my current employer, serving faithfully in my church, and sticking with my flying plan for what I want to do there. This change of mindset has helped - at some point, the day will come when I will get the news from MAF. But until then, there is no point stressing about it; that isn't going to change the situation, and it doesn't help me.

So this week already started off looking a lot brighter as I decided to get stuck in to what I am able to progress now, and (try) not to worry about what lies ahead. I had a meeting with my home support team on Monday night and we made a deliberate effort to spend a significant portion of our time together praying for each of the churches and ministry partners who have committed to or are thinking about supporting me.

Then on Wednesday I received four encouraging responses about giving presentations to various groups ranging in size from 20 people to over 1,000 people, and an offer by someone to refer me to two other churches. It was a timely reminder that God is still working behind the scenes, even if we can't always see it.

Winter flying

This time next year, who knows where in the world I'll be! But for now, I'm trying to make the most of clear winter days to go flying.

Saturday was one such day, so I arranged with a couple of workmates to fly from Paraparam down to Kaikoura (about 1.5 hrs flight time one way). Kaikoura is famous for whales, which you can see by signing up for a whale watch boat or flight. Or you can use your own plane...

We only caught a glimpse of one whale before it submerged, but since that was only a small part of the trip and we all acknowledged that whale behaviour is completely outside our control, it wasn't a deal-breaker. I chose to fly us to Kaikoura via the coast at low altitude (1500 ft) so we could see the work that had been done on the main road and the changes to the coastline since the earthquake there in Nov 2016. After lunch we came back via the mountains, cruising at 7500 ft and circling around the top of Mt Tapuae-o-Uenuku (9500 ft - highest peak in NZ not in the Southern Alps) before heading back via Blenheim, Picton and the Marlborough Sounds.

Inland Kaikouras - view out the front, from Kaikoura looking south

View looking west

Mt Tapuae-o-Uenuku

Marlborough Sounds

Our GPS track

A year ago today...

A year ago today I sat (and passed) my CPL flight test. The first of many big boxes to tick along the way to flying for MAF!

A lot can happen in a year... since then I have:
- completed type ratings in a C182 and C206
- obtained an instrument rating
- learned some strip flying techniques through both Kapiti and Marlborough Aero Clubs
- passed the MAF flight test
- clocked up a further 160 hours of flight time

A sincere and substantial thanks to each of the instructors who have helped me along the way! (in particular Ben, Terry, John H, John N, and Sharn)