Jungle Flights

In December, I had a flight for a missionary family that was going back to their village location about an hour flight away. It was a sad occasion because the family was leaving Peru and was returning to the USA after over 6 years of ministry in Peru and Brazil. I stayed with them for a night in the village as they said goodbye, then they left in a boat to travel 45 minutes down steam to where there is a rare straight part in the river long enough to take off from. I flew the 3 minutes to the location as taking off from right in front of the village is marginal and only ever done with one person and a very low fuel load. After securing all the cargo, we were off the water for the last time. It was a quiet ride back to Pucallpa.


Fortunately, I found out just this month that there is a new missionary family that will be taking over the work out in this community! So, I am happy that SAMAIR will get to keep serving the people and missionaries in that location.

Not again!

Well the on going saga continues with my motorcycle. I finally put all the pieces together and took my motorcycle out on a trip this past weekend. We crossed over a nice little river with a log spit in two to walk your bike across. There was also a fair amount of mud which always makes for a messy ride.

Needless to say, we were off the beaten trail by a good ways and two hours into the ride found us lugging our bikes over logs 18 inches in diameter. It was a tight jungle trail that were were on and my engine had started making a ticking sound. I hoped that it would not give out on my and we presed on! An hour later we were wet, filthy, but out of the jungle! That is when my bike broke down. Again. I was unserimoniously pulled back to Cashibo where I systematicly checked out every system. When the easy things such as fuel, air, and spark were ruled out I knew it had to be bad. And yes it was, a valve keeper had broken and allowed the valve to fall into the cyclinder. The piston bent it, broke the guide, and that was all she wrote.

So once again my bike is in 100 parts and I am waiting for some parts to come from the USA. maybe by the middle of Febuary I will have it working again...

Moving again.

With a New Year comes a new place to live again for me. When I first got to Pucallpa last spring, I lived with another single missionary for 2 months until he left for the USA. Then I moved to another house and lived with two single missionary guys. Now, after 6 months, all three of us have moved again and are living in a third house while the previous occupants are in the USA for a six month furlough. However, once they get back... you got it, we will be moving yet again.

Needless to say I have gotten good at packing and unpacking all my things, and it has motivated me to keep the amount of "junk" that I have down to a minimum. It also got me thinking about "home" and the things I associate with that word. Having moved around a lot the past two years, I have found that I can live just about anywhere. However every place I have been, I have known that it was not my true home because I would move on from there eventually. To a larger extent, even being in Peru is not my home because I will one day leave here as well. Thus I realize that my true home is the place that is being prepared for me right now. The place where there is no suffering, no pain, no good bye's, and where every tear is whiped away. I look forward to that home!

One piece!

During the New Years holiday, I had a couple of days to work on my motorcycle. I had assembled all the parts and pieces to the point where I would be able to ride it once again! After starting it up I put it in first gear and it pronptly stalled. Eveidently there was a problem with the clutch and it was not free wheeling. So, I took the clutch cover off and started rooting around in there looking for the problem. Thankfully I found a washer that had not been placed in the correct location and was causing the clutch basket to bind. Anyways, after putting the washing in the correct location everything was free to spin again! Now, I have a working motorcyle again and it only took 5 months to get it to that point. I'll be able to return a friends motorcycle that I was borrowing and start using my own. It was nice to finish my New Year's resolution so quickly and have my bike all in one piece again!