Korean/American Easter

When our neighbor had a sleepover for the kids in her Korean Sunday School class, she invited Kyle and Megan, too. They had a great time staying up nearly all night, meeting new friends. When we were all leaving the next morning, someone invited Kyle and Megan to participate in their Easter party/egg hunt in a few weeks.
We went but got lost on the way and missed the actual egg hunt. When we finally arrived some of the other kids shared what they had collected, and all was well. Lunch was a combination of American roasted hotdogs and hamburgers and a yummy Korean rice dish. Boy, can those ladies cook!! After lunch everyone roasted marshmallows on the grill. It was fun to hear how-to explanations for the first-timers in both languages. :) All of the kids played a very cooperative game of soccer with the young and old alike, and when we were leaving they invited us to a birthday party the next week. :) Very sweet group....
Todd was with us for a gorgeous Easter Sunday and then flew back to Haiti the next day. We are looking forward to seeing him again in two more weeks!!

Nashville Cousins, Creeks & Bikes

One weekend Todd was here, he and the kids visited his brother Dale and family in Nashville while I worked on homework. They went to a park to ride bikes, and although Kyle had practically no experience riding without training wheels he quickly found his balance and had a great time. Bridges apparently made him nervous, and one time he and the bike tumbled into a shallow creek, but he was soon on his feet and back to riding. His cousin Zach let him bring the bike back here to Clarksville to practice. Kyle is now super-speedy and can even do some little tricks now. Due to her brother's encouragement and some healthy competition, Megan has learned to ride, too!!

Time Out

The Monday morning after our big family weekend, we took the kids to school and then Todd and I headed to Gatlinburg for a couple nights. Mom and dad were AWESOME!! They negotiated schedules to accommodate school bus pick-ups and drop-offs, helped with homework, and took very good care of the grandkids. :) That was a great time for Todd and me just to talk and spend some time together. There was so much that I found out about Todd and the MAF/Haiti situation and so many things that I had forgotten to mention to him, too. We also had time to talk about deeper concerns, joys, expectations, anticipations, plans.... all of the things that get pushed aside as you deal with daily life.
Tuesday we woke up late and drove through the mountains and trees on the winding Blue Ridge Parkway on back roads that I am almost certain we took one time on Todd's motorcycle when we lived in East TN. We hiked a while on some beautiful trails, saw waterfalls....
Wed. we woke up EARLY and drove to our former home in Elizabethton, something we had not planned to do until we saw that it was only about another hr. and a half from where we were. Of course we wished that we would have had more time, but we did see both of our former land-ladies and several other friends in the few hrs we were there and made it back before the kids' bedtime that night. :)

Family

The past three months here have really flown! As I have mentioned before, family and friends have really come beside us and filled in the gaps. We are so thankful. Todd's last visit was very special. He flew from Haiti to ID and was able to spend a couple days with his parents and grandparents and even got to attend our home church before driving our van (which Todd's parents have taken care of while we have been gone) to TN for us to use here. He made the trip in a day and a half, with only one 5-hr snooze at a rest area. Gotta love books on CD!! He got here late Tues night during the kids' week-long spring break.
That weekend my sister Sarah and family came up for a conference her husband Craig had to attend in Nashville. It was great to have all of my siblings and the cousins on my side together. We celebrated Dorothy's birthday and the kids had a big sleepover one night, although we did manage to get a few hrs of sleep. :) Lots of great extended family time!!!

MAF in Haiti

As Todd arrived back in Haiti he found the chaos a little more structured as MAF’s role in the relief work shifts as the population’s needs shift. As regular commercial flights have begun to operate, the need to handle large numbers of international passengers (in cooperation with Missionary Flights International) is diminishing. As more aid is able to arrive via the seaports, less needs to be airlifted in. We are still making many flights each day to take food out to remote areas that are trying to support large groups of displaced people. Currently the MAF program has been loaned two turbo prop airplanes, both brand new Quest Kodiaks. They have allowed MAF-Haiti to haul a much greater quantity of food and people. One of the Kodiaks is an MAF aircraft ultimately destined for Papua, Indonesia. The other Kodiak belongs to Samaritan’s Purse and will be operating in Haiti through the end of March (thanks, Franklin). Todd got his first taste of turbine maintenance today as he learned how to do compressor washes.

Thanks for keeping our family and our ministry in your prayers. God’s hand on us has been especially tangible over these last weeks.

Carnaval Canceled

One amazing thing that we heard from friends was that the Carnaval celebration which is usually HUGE was practically cancelled as the entire nation was called by the president to pray for three days. Churches were packed, and the prayer and praise overflowed into the streets. Oh, how I pray for a change and rebuilding that will come from the inside, that will leave behind the past bondage to fear and allow the country of Haiti to rise from the rubble stronger than ever. I know that God can bring peace in the midst of the storm, a sense of untity and solidarity instead of blaming and division, honesty and integrity instead of an opportunity to exploit other's generosity.... What a chance for Christians to offer hope and help! Pray for Haiti's children and youth, especially.

Adjusting…but Remembering

We continue to adjust to life here, and our routine seems to become more “normal” each day. However, there is always a little tinge of sadness that gnaws at my heart in spite of our great blessings here. I know that the rainy season is creeping closer and closer each day, also bringing the possibilities of hurricanes and tropical storms. Right now the little tents made of sheets are keeping some people out of the rains that have begun, but we all know that they will not be sufficient..... News media seems to have moved on to new stories, but it does make me happy to still see signs of people here, so many miles away, still remembering. The kids' school is having a contest to raise money for Haiti relief this week. Our church is still collecting items for "Crisis Care Kits" (contains things like soap, toothpaste/brush, washcloth, shampoo...). The tremors continue, and recently there have been some strong ones that have caused new damage to buildings that withstood the original quake.

Todd’s Visit

Todd left for FL Monday, and by Tues. afternoon he was back in Haiti. We enjoyed almost three weeks with him here in Clarksville!! He was here for three of the kids' snow days, so they enjoyed some nice snowball fights. He had individual "dates" with Megan, Kyle and me, and then some time when we were all together. He was also here for important days like my mom's 65th birthday, Valentines Day and the SUPER BOWL!!! It was just the right amount of time for him to catch up on rest and enjoy some time with his brother and family in Nashville and my family here in Clarksville. Of course the ideal would be for us to all be together, but we know that this temporary arrangement is best for all.

Spring

The first signs of spring are visible here in Clarksville, TN, in spite of a few white patches of stubborn snow that refuse to melt. Although I do not expect real warm weather for another couple months, the temperature is slowly rising and the annual "bulbs" are starting to push through the frozen ground. Change, change, change......
The kids are doing well in school and are making friends. The public library is just across the street from their school, so we have gotten a membership and have been reading in the car, at home... Last night we started on Little House in the Big Woods, a Laura Ingalls Wilder book (the first in the Little House on the Prarie series) that I remember reading as a kid. :) Just behind their school is a learning center, which I visited for the first time this morning. It is packed full of all kinds of learning games and resources. So as we use our community resources to the max, I am hoping that learning will become even more fun for them.
Along with all of this learning, the kids are enjoying exploration in my parents' woods, playing with their Clarksville and Nashville cousins, and all of the special attention from their uncles, aunts and grandparents. Two of my brothers are expecting babies in the next few months, so soon there will be new little friends around!!

MAF-Haiti Disaster Response

I (Todd) have been back in the states for a few days, now. It has been so wonderful to see Jennifer and the kids. I didn’t realize how tired I was, but discovered that most of the nights spent here don’t seem to be long enough. I think I am beginning to catch up on my sleep now.

MAF’s involvement in the relief efforts in Haiti has been multi-faceted. Our initial response was more that of survivors. In the first days after the earthquake we were not sure how soon we would have access to things like groceries, fuel for vehicles & generators, water, propane for cooking, and school for our kids. The exterior security walls around the properties of two of our families’ houses had fallen. Each MAF family had various amounts of the staples needed to survive. It was decided that the wise decision would be to move most of the staff and families back to their home areas before we reached a crisis point. We kept enough personnel to fly our three aircraft out of the country if we felt they were endangered. I also stayed on in an I.T. role to handle any communication problems we might have with our internet satellite link, which was our only link to the U.S. in the first hours after the quake.

Our families flew out on Missionary Flights International’s (MFI) turbine DC-3. This flight kind of marked our transition from earthquake survivors to relief workers as that same plane brought in an initial wave of supplies and people responding to the earthquake. In partnership with MFI, we were soon coordinating flights, cargo, and people on the Haiti side of relief operations. Various businesses such as Hendrick’s Motorsports donated their aircraft to fly people in and out of Haiti. Airplanes ranging in size from Cessna Caravans to C-130’s brought thousands of pounds of cargo. By the time I left we had handled roughly 2500 passengers and 500,000 lbs of cargo

. With the start-up of the NASCAR racing season, we no longer have the use of the Hendrick’s and Joe Gibbs Racing aircraft, but the stream of cargo and passengers continues.

It was several days after the earthquake before avgas for our little MAF airplanes was available. The fact that some of the cargo aircraft that were coming in to Haiti are four-engine avgas burners (DC-3’s, DC-4, & DC-6) meant that the local supply of avgas was soon exhausted. We had been able to store some avgas in drums and flew a few drums in (very expensive), but this has meant limited operations for our Cessna 206 and 207’s. We have been able to respond to many requests for food, transportation of the injured, and movement of medical personal. Most of our flying for regular passengers has been very limited. Fortunately, MAF was able to loan us one of the new Quest Kodiaks that are just being integrated into the worldwide MAF fleet. This aircraft uses Jetfuel which is much more readily available. It also can haul significantly more cargo and people. From the day it arrived it has been invaluable for helping meet the demand for flights within the country of Haiti. Currently I am scheduled to rotate back to Haiti on February 22. The plan is that I will be working to support our in-country operations (Cessna and Kodiak flights).

I want to extend a huge thank you for the tremendous outpouring of concern and prayer, and the many other ways you have supported us over these last few weeks. We continue to see God’s hand at work.

Working Together

I LOVE to see the networking that takes place between different groups and individuals to accomplish the most good. Here is a story about a flight that Will White (pilot pictured here) and Mark Williams took a few days ago.

This morning MAF had been scheduled to take a team of doctors to Pignon. The night before, someone called and cancelled the flight, so we were not expecting to do it and did not go in early. The doctors showed up about 9am and I told them they would have to wait until after a flight that was previously scheduled. We had arranged for a film crew to fly to the island of La Gonave. We were dropping off food supplies and picking up a team that was inspecting the Wesleyan hospital for damage from the earthquake.

When we arrived at La Gonave, Dan Irvine, the director of the mission, said he had a 9-year-old girl whose feet had BOTH been crushed in the earthquake. The hospital on the island had done all they could and they needed to find an orthopedic doctor in Port au Prince (PAP) for surgery. According to Dan her feet looked like "ground beef" and if infection set in would be fatal quickly. I agreed to wait for her to show up at the plane.

On the flight back, Dan was sitting next to me. Knowing the huge strain on the field hospitals in PAP, I was not hopeful of the girl finding an ortho unit to perform surgery. I asked Dan about it and he said he thought he had a contact that might help.

As I was flying back I started to think about the doctors that were waiting for me in PAP. I seemed sure they had said they were orthopedic surgeons. When we arrived in PAP, I taxied to my parking place and ALL of the doctors were standing right next to the plane with all their supplies. I told Dan I thought that they were an ortho team and introduced them to each other. In no time the team was examining the girl and making plans to take her directly to the Pignon hospital. We removed the girl from the plane to fuel it, and they were able to start an IV and examine her more thoroughly.

After loading the plane I was able to fly 3 doctors, the girl and her mother to Pignon. I asked the doctors to let me know how the surgery went and to follow up about her. It was so exciting to see how God worked the events of the day to bring these two groups together. I was humbled to be a part of it.

Will White; MAF Pilot, Haiti
January 22, 2010