In the Cockpit

Pretty much most of my day Friday was spent in an airplane, and of course, where better to spend your time than in a cockpit?  I had a lesson this morning, we practiced take offs and landings.  I was actually getting pretty comfortable with it, I wasn’t really nervous, it just seemed normal after the first couple.  Yesterday was really windy, and flying was very difficult, all the maneuvers we practiced were made far more difficult with such a powerful wind.  Maybe that’s why I found it easier to fly today.  After we landed, I went over to Charlie’s hangar to pay for the lesson, we talked a little about where I was at and what I am going to learn next.  Normally, I would start soloing after 2 more lessons, but I can't solo without my medical certificate.  I am supposed to get the rest of the requirements for the FAA when I am in TN at the end of February, so I will continue on with my instructor in the plane until then.

Sunday is Steve’s birthday, but his family surprised him today.  I don’t know all the details, but this is the story as best as I can with the facts I know His brother, Phil, flew down last night and him and Jamie and Jesse surprised him at breakfast this morning.  Then Jesse said that he had to go to the airport to meet someone, so they drove down to the airport and suddenly Steve saw someone he knew pull into the airport too.  It is the guy that itec sold their Piper Cub to.  A Piper Cub is pretty much a smaller version to Nate Saint’s plane.  (I will post pictures of it in my album)  He was going crazy trying to get Jesse to honk his horn or something to get his attention, he kept saying, “I bet he would let me fly it”.  Well, what he didn’t know was that the whole reason they were there was to fly it.  Phil and Steve flew down to ITEC.  When he pulled up he looked like a little kid with his new Christmas present.  He was going to take us all for rides, but he had to go after only giving Troy a ride.

Troy too looked like a little kid after getting out of the plane, he told me some stories about how Steve just likes to “play” when he gets in these smaller planes, such as seeing how short of a distance he can land, or take off.  He was going on about how instead of using the runway so that they could take off into the wind, they just went on enough of a diagonal down the other runway to still take of somewhat into the wind.  That may not seem like much, but really the diagonal was steep enough that they hardly used the runway, it was more of taking off perpendicular to the way the runway runs.

The days surprises weren’t over yet though, I went inside the offices, for just a moment when Troy asked me if I wanted to go flying.  I have wondered why this question is ever asked of pilots, if we had it our way, we would never get out of the cockpit.  Needless to say, I said yes, then he told me that we were going to Gainesville, GA and would be back tonight sometime.  It was totally awesome. We flew up with my instructor who was taking his wife to spend the week with his daughter’s family.  There was a medical emergency and she was going to help out.  We flew up in the TBM 700 in his boss’s hangar.  (I'll post pictures in the album.)  

​            We left around 3 and got back around 7, we even stayed up at the airport there for a while.  The TBM is an extremely nice aircraft and really fast; we spent most of the trip at about 26,000ft and traveling over 200 miles per hour with a headwind.  Troy and I were in awe the whole time. We were flying with the big dogs!!  We kept bursting out laughing when, after being told by radio that there was another plane near us, a commercial airliner would fly within 1,000 feet of us.  

​We are home now, but it was a really awesome experience.  Tomorrow, Ryan and I want to go for a long flight in the 150, we are trying to pick an airport that is roughly two hundred miles away and fly there, have lunch and fly back.  He is trying to build hours, I can't put the hours in my log book unless there is an instructor in the plane, and I am in the left seat, so I am just getting more experience and more familiar with flying, and of course because flying is awesome!!

​            Thanks so much for all the prayer support you have given me, I have really felt it this week, I have accomplished a lot, and the time I have spent in my bible have been really profitable.  One thing that I am really praying for is that the article that came out about me in the Jackson Sun brings in more financial support.  Thanks so much also for those of you how do support me financially, I am extremely grateful for you, for without you, this would not have been possible.  Thank you, and God bless,

Your brother in Christ,

Austin

Flying with Ryan

          Thanks to your prayers, this week has been a pretty productive week. As I said
in previous blogs, I am under a lot of pressure to get the Maverick building finished.
And this week I got a lot of work done in there. We are nearly done with the office, but
there are plenty of leaks to fix around the place, after that we are pretty much done. The
main doors are a huge part of the waterproofing project and that alone will take some
time, mostly cause I almost always work on my own, but also because it is complex. I won't bore you with its lovely problems, but please keep praying that we don’t run into too many
difficulties.
           I have had two flight lessons this week, and they were really great, I just need to
keep practicing what I learn so I don’t forget it. Ryan Leeward is my age and is an intern
here, not the mechanic I wrote about in a previous blog, another Ryan. He has his private
pilots license and the two of us went flying on Saturday after I was finished working. We
took off about 4:30 or so with no real plan in mind. I had mentioned that I wanted to
practice some stuff that my instructor had taught me, but other than that, we really
weren’t sure where we were headed. We flew to Lake Weir, roughly a 10 minute flight,
and he swooped down pretty low to the water, just below tree top level, and simply
weaved back and forth a little then pulled up and climbed back up to about a thousand
feet. It was really pretty, at least where you couldn’t see the bottom, the water was really
low, so when you were really close to the edge, you could see how nasty the water was.
It was also really funny to see board walks that lead out to a lonely dock about 10 or 20ft
from the shore. He told me that there are a several people with Sea Planes there.
Ryan’s family lives near an airstrip built by his dad called Leeward Air Ranch.
His house is right next to the landing strip, along with several other houses. So after
flying around the lake for a little bit, we went to his house. I must say, it is kind of funny
to pull up to a house in a plane rather than a car. After landing, we “parked” the plane in
the front yard and went inside to see his mom and dad. They were great, I met them last
week when they came to through a surprise birthday party for Ryan at itec. It was almost
like going home, well I suppose it was for Ryan. We just walked in and his mom, Donna,
greeted us, and then gave us some food, always a welcome greeting:) Dirk, Ryan’s dad,
went with us to fly his Cessna 185. It is a much larger plane then the 150 we flew over,
and it also is an Amphibian, meaning it can land on land or water. We flew back to the
lake, and Ryan landed it. It was pretty awesome.
           When we got home, it was nearly dark, Ryan and I pumped the water out of the
floats before going inside to an incredible dinner that Donna made while we were flying.
It was great spending time with his family, and I look forward to doing it more often. It is
only about a 10 minute flight from itec. Ryan and I headed home after that, night flying
is really awesome, and from our height you could see lights from several cities and
neighborhood. I could see the whole route I take to church and from that height it looks
like it would be a quick drive, boy I wish that was so, it takes about 35 or 40 minutes. I
have never been in the front of an airplane that lands at night, it was pretty neat. Ryan is
a really good pilot, and understands a lot about aviation, having grown up around it his
whole life, I have learned a lot from him. He told me that he made his first flight when he
was two weeks old, and was steering when he was 2 years old.
           If all works out, he and I are going to fly up to TN, he will drop me off and fly
back while I am at my mom’s wedding and then he will come get me after it is over. But
we will see, itec might need him too much.

Thanks so much for your prayers and support, it is much needed and much more
appreciated. God Bless

Your brother in Christ,

Austin

First Flight

Finally, the Cessna 150 is fixed!!  I helped Ryan, the mechanic, finish putting everything back together on Friday last week, but it wouldn’t start because there was something blocking one of the fuel lines.  So obviously, we were not able to fly until that blockage was removed.  So he came out again on Thursday this week and went down the entire fuel system and ended up finding a very small piece of something that was blocking one of the hoses.  Well, after helping him put it all back together again, we were going to go flying to test it out and make sure it was fine.  He is an instructor so I asked some question and was pretty much taking my first lesson.  He was even going to fill out a slot in my logbook of flight hours.  Well, we go over all the pre-flight list on the outside of the plane and we got inside, buckled up, checked all the instruments, and the plane wouldn’t start.  Turns out, the battery was dead, and on further inspection, we found out it was bad.  Jesse found another battery to use, but it needed to be charged overnight.  

​So all in all, I had an agonizing wait of 24 hours, almost to the minute now that I think about it.  The next morning, Jesse and Troy put the new battery in while I worked in the Maverick building, I was waiting to hear the engine start, but it never came, when I went over to see how things were going,  I found the plane was gone.  I went inside the office and Troy and Jesse weren’t there.  “I take it by the absence of Jesse, Troy, and the 150, that they went flying?” I asked to no one in particular, and when they all said they weren’t sure, I went to Jesse’s desk and saw that his headset case was open and empty.  I ran out to the taxi way and looked toward the fuel tanks, just as I looked, I saw the plane pull out of there, I watched it taxi to the runway and take off.

​I watched it for a while as they circled the airport, and texted them both while they did, “You sorry dogs!”  All I got was a, “Ha Ha” and a “We are risking our lives to make sure you are safe..!”  As soon as lunch rolled around I pretty much inhaled my pizza and ran to the hangar next door to talk to my instructor, Charlie.  We planned to fly at 3.

​We pretty much went over everything that he had told me to read a few weeks earlier and there were a few new things that he told me that weren’t in the chapters he told me to read.  We were in the hangar for about 30 minutes before heading out to the plane.  We did all the preflight stuff outside the plane, then got in the plane bucked up and once all the instruments were set, we started the engine.  I cannot deny I was a little apprehensive when he went to start the plane, I have only come up to this part in the flying 3 times without it actually starting or us finding something else wrong with it.  But it started up on the first go.  He taught me how to taxi and then he took off, we only got to fly for about 30 or 45 minutes before we landed, he had to be somewhere and was already pushing his luck.  But though it was short it was so awesome, learning it myself and not just steering the plane.  I am finally starting to live my dream, and it feels so wonderful to finally be underway.  I know there is a long road in front of me, but I look forward to it.  

​My next lesson is tomorrow. Charlie wants to fly every morning Monday- Friday, but I don’t have enough support to do that yet.  I think that I have enough support to fly twice a week right now. Steve told me not to wait long between each lesson, so I don’t forget what I learn and it helps you learn faster.  I met another pilot, named Jesse, who said the same thing, He flies planes and helicopters and he is an EMT.  He is a really neat guy, he comes around here a lot to help out.

​I want to thank my supporters, Ken and Tina, Mary, Joy, Eric and Heather, and all the households in Nathanael’s Clan.  I am extremely grateful for your support and allowing me to help itec, and train for the mission field.  Also I am just as grateful to everyone for your prayer support, it is very much needed, and it is because of you that I am able to keep giving to itec.  Thank you all SO much, I love and miss everyone,

Your brother in Christ,

Austin

Roofing Life University

Friday and Saturday we finished roofing Life University.  A guy that is a good friend of Steve’s and has helped itec out a lot, David Nickles, owns a metal roofing company and he flew down to oversee the job.  He brought one of the crew in the plane with him, and the other two guys drove from Birmingham.  They needed a fourth guy to help on the job cause David Nickles was working on other stuff with Steve, so I helped.  I had a great time getting to know them, telling them about the Maverick, and what we do at itec.  When we went back to itec for lunch, we showed them everything in the front room (the museum) and the Maverick. 

The “museum”  is a room full of artifacts from the Waodani, Aunt Rachel’s chair, pictures of Nate Saint, models of the itec plane and Nate’s plan, a 20ft long Anaconda skin, a Jaguar hide, a bookshelf with all the books and DVDs that we sell, and much more.

We were only able to get about half of it done on Friday cause the wind was blowing 15 – 25 mph as the afternoon arrived, and we thought it wise to stop rather than one of us loose our head in the process of trying to control 20 ft sheets of metal roofing.

Since we were unable to finish Friday, we worked Saturday.  As it turns out, Saturday was the 55 year marker for the day that Nate, Jim, Pete, Ed, and Roger were killed on Palm Beach, and I was able to tell the roofers about it.

 Steve and David Nickles came over and took us to lunch, and while we were there we some how got onto where we were all born.  Well, when Steve told them that he was born in the jungles of Ecuador, the guys just looked at him for a moment, and when he continued to explain where he grew up (in the jungles), one of the guys, also named David, said that he wasn’t sure how much to believe him.  While we were all about to get in the van, Steve told me to remind him to give the guys some of the movies and reading material that we have.

Steve and David Nickles rode in Steve’s car, while I rode with the other three guys (Pete, Todd and David) in the van.  When we started heading back, I told them about Steve’s life.  How his father was killed with 4 other missionaries 55 years ago to the day, how his Aunt Rachel and Elisabeth, one of the widows, were invited to move in with the very tribe of Indians that killed those missionaries, and that when Aunt Rachel invited Steve to stay with her, he was adopted by the very man that killed Steve’s father.  I then told them that whatever Steve gave them as far as books or movies go, to read or watch them and not let them just sit on the shelf.

David was the main guy that I worked with, we were the guys that made the cuts on the ground and handed the tin up to Todd and Pete.  So we got to know each other pretty well.  David and Todd are not Christians but Pete was.  I asked David a little bit about it, he said that his mom used to make him go to church, so he did.  He was a pretty good kid, but when his mom died several years ago, he just went wild.  It was a pretty hard blow for him.  He had worked for a company for a year and a half without missing a day, but after his mom died, he took two weeks off.  We exchanged numbers before he left and I told him next time I am going through Birmingham I would stop in.  I should be going through there when I next go to the Village for my mom’s wedding at the end of February.  He sent me a picture of his son playing in the snow and he called me the other day. 

There is a picture of all of us who did the roof with Steve.  Life University is right behind us.  FYI: I thought that Life University was simply a nice name for all the programs that we are doing in that building, but I found out last night while Steve and Jamie spoke at a church that Life stands for Living Intentionally Focusing Eternally.  I thought that was pretty neat.  The website is not up yet, but when it is up ill post the web address.  Also, I realized that I gave the wrong book title on one of my previous blogs when I was talking about Missions Dilemma, it was made off of a book called “The Great Ommision” I had said that the movie Missions Dilemma, was made after a book called Missions Dilemma, sorry about that.  I was with Jamie behind a table selling books at a church after he and Steve had spoke the other night when I realized my mistake.  

Also, big prayer request is to pray for Mincaye’s wife.  She was bitten by a Bushmaster, a venomous snake in the Jungles, and she has been in the hospital for a week.  Her kidneys failed yesterday and they transported her to another hospital I think today.  Steve has been trying to get people to pray all over the country.  He has done a few phone interviews and was on a radio program last night.  Please pray for her.

Thank you so much,

Your brother in Christ,

Austin

 

The Siefka Family

The Siefka family left yesterday to head home in Michigan. The have been so much help
and have accomplished so much during their stay here. I spent a lot of time with them
while they were here, I worked with them, played with them, and spent time talking about
our spiritual views. There are several things that we did not see eye to eye about when it
came to spiritual beliefs, but it did not stop us from being brothers, it did not divide us,
in fact, we have agreed to look into each others differences and try understanding their
views. There are 10 kids in the family and the 5 oldest did most of the work, but the
younger ones did help at times too. Daniel is the oldest, and is only a month and a half older
than I am, then Michael, Benjamin, then comes the first girl, Joanna, then Joshua. I will
have to post a picture and introduce them that way to get the last 5. I mostly spent time
with the oldest.
One thing that we all did have in common but never got around to doing due to a lack of
a net, was play Volley Ball. They have played in a league of several other churches and
they love it. Daniel, Michael, Benjamin and I spent a lot of time talking about it, and we
did volley around in a circle a little. We also played soccer out in the field on the airport,
next to the runway.
On their last day here, they attempted to play a trick on me, but I caught it before walking
headlong into it. I woke up later than I was suppose to and was slightly in a hurry to get
down to Life University to finish taking shingles off the roof and get it dried in before
the rain got here. While I was grabbing some breakfast, I was informed by Kelly (the
mom) that Dan was going to give me a hard time because it hadn’t rained that night. I
had insisted that we dry in the part of the roof that we had already stripped, and he and
his boys were trying to tell me that it was a waste of time because the little spot on the
radar would probably pass over or not rain enough to worry about. As I said already, we
covered the roof and it was dark by the time we finished, and I was late for a meeting in
Ocala. Then Joanna told me that Daniel called and wanted me to get some more tarps
before heading down so we cold cover the rest of the roof if it started to rain before we
were ready. This was a big mistake on their part.
I met Dan (the dad) outside and wasn’t disappointed in being given a hard time about
it not raining. He in turn was not disappointed in me pointing out that it had sprinkled
only moments before, which he informed me that the sprinkling was chicken spit, and
it wasn’t enough to worry about. He helped me get some tarps out of the storage trailer
all the while the verbal sparring continued, and while I was climbing out of the trailer
I happened to look at my car which was facing me about 50 yards away. It looked like
there was something under it, I thought that I must have hit something last night on my
way home, and it was dragging under my car, though I couldn’t remember doing so. So
after putting the tarps in the truck, I walked over and saw that it was a car jack. This also
confused me cause I was planning on changing my oil, and I even got that very jack out
before realizing that I didn’t have time to. So I was trying to figure out how I could be so
irresponsible, then noticed that there was more under the car than just the jack there were
two stacks of 2x4 blocks, then I saw that my two front tires were about an inch off the
ground. Those little rascals!!
Smug with my catching this potentially embarrassing trap, I jacked up the car, removed
the blocks and put everything away. I then felt no guilt at being late, I went in and
buttered two muffins for breakfast, which I was going to forego, and got a glass of milk.
I almost made coffee, but Kelly was working in the kitchen and I didn’t want to be in her
way. Then Nathan called me during my one minute drive over to Life University. And
when I pulled up, I didn’t bother hanging up for several minutes while I sat parked out
front, where I was treated to several people walking up from the other side of the roof,
or “casually” walking past the opened roll up door.
When I finally made my entrance into the building, I explained that my car wasn’t
working so that was why I was late:) then I told them the truth. I told them that if Daniel
hadn’t told me to get tarps, I wouldn’t have caught it.
We had fun talking about it that day, and I told them that I was going to get them back,
even if I had to go to Michigan to do it, which I would really like to do this summer, Lord
willing.
Thursday morning before they left, Jesse’s family and I went to Ihop with them for
breakfast, and to mine and the other guy’s delight, there was a wonderful special. All
you can eat pancakes!! You buy a combo (2 eggs, hashbrowns, and either sausage,
bacon, or ham, and 2 pancakes) and after eating that, they will bring you a plate of 3
more pancakes, and you finish that, they bring you another plate… you get the idea.
Well that may just sound ridiculous to most people, but the problem that I frequently
run into, and by the aftermath of this adventure, these poor boys do to, the problem of not
getting enough food when you go out to eat. So this was like Christmas coming slightly
late.
So we all got the combo, and pretty much all of us had the first course down in less
then two minutes, we then proceeded to devour our endless supply of pancakes. The
youngest boy, Stephen, dropped out at 6, Benjamin dropped out after only 8 pancakes,
Joshua, Daniel and I dropped out after 14, and Michael upon hearing that the record
was 21 proceeded to shatter the record by eating 23. Throughout our pancake feast, we
continually made jokes of us putting the store out of business, and how funny it would
be if we came every week, the special probably wouldn’t last long, or we at least would
cause fear every time they saw our car pull up. In the end our table ate 79 pancakes in
all. Michael said upon finishing his last pancake, “Ihop in, and roll out”.
When we finally said our good bye’s I told Michael that I would call him when I broke
his record, it could take a little while, I will have to attempt it after running or working
out so I am really hungry.
I think it was after 4 of us ordered for the third time, people from the back started to come
out and see who was eating so much, the poor waitress thought we were joking. We
made an impression anyway, even if it was just the dent we put in their pantry of pancake
ingredients, they will remember us.

Austin

New Year's Eve

    My family came down for New Years and it was so great to see them, we had a real blast.  We ended up going to the beach to see the sunrise and hang out for a while.  We arrived with only a few minutes to spare before the sun peeked out over the horizon. I had to go find a parking space, cause more than just us had the wonderful idea to see the sunrise on new years day.  I parked about a mile away and ran to the beach to catch up with everyone.  We got some pictures and we waded a little as we headed for the car.  Elijah, Justin, and I were a little ahead of everyone, when Eli said something about wishing he could find a sand dollar, and then continued to accuse me that I had broken the last one he had found on our last family Vacation to the beach in Outer Banks, NC.  I have no knowledge of the incident and still stand falsely accused to my knowledge.  The words were hardly out of his mouth when I bent down and pulled one out of the sand not six inches behind his foot. Needless to say, he was not happy about that.  We stopped in at a Starbucks on the way to the parking garage where I parked, before heading home.  Overall, it was really great to see my family, even though it had been a little more than 3 weeks since I saw them last, I miss them.  The next time I see them, will be at my mom’s wedding at the end of February, and by then I will have a nephew to go along with my niece.  It is hard to imagine unleashing another Vesper on the world.  She is will be two this month, and she already has a vocabulary bigger than mine, and she is far too cute for her own good.

New Years Eve I was kind of at a loss for what to do.  I usually would jump in the small pond we had on our property every New Years, (when I wasn’t in the middle of recovering from surgery) but seeing that I was not in the Village, laying at the end of the runway watching the stars would have to suffice. I thought I would have some peace and quiet out there on my own, but as it turns out, that peace and quiet lasted about 10 minutes, if that.  I could hear people screaming, yelling, blaring music, and blowing their party horns, from miles around!  Quite the way to enter the new year.  

    While I was sitting there, attempting to zone out the noise that was just loud enough to not quite get away from, I was thinking about the last year, and all that God did for me, and then of this year and all the unknown adventures just waiting for me to take them on.  I thought about the last meeting I went to at a church in Ocala.  Jamie Saint talked to all the singles about setting goals for this year, and he showed us some of the goals that he had set for himself this year.  I have set goals in my life and I have accomplished many of them, but I still learned tons from him.  I actually plan on spending some time with him and he is going to help me get it written down and hold me accountable to it.

    But even in my pursuit of my dreams and goals over this next year, I found myself asking who am I doing this for?  Why do I fly? Who am I to pursue goals when right now there are people who don’t even have a place to sleep or food to eat? They don’t even have the ability to pursue a goal.  That last one may seem like an old argument and an obvious one, but it is no less worthy a thought.

    Then I remembered, it is for those people that I am doing this for.  It is for the people who don’t have that I will give to.  It is the hungry, thirsty, naked, homeless, sick, and imprisoned, that I fly and push myself, and attempt the impossible.  And so I continue to strive toward my goal, to push my physical, mental, practical and spiritual abilities further, in anticipation of the day that I will be ready and most of all worthy to serve these people, and by simply hearing my plane flying toward them, they feel hope.

    So what about you?  What drives you to pursue your goals?  Who holds you accountable to your goals? Are your goals advancing God’s kingdom?  

Your brother in Christ,

Austin