MAG: Giving Thanks and Raising Praises

The first post of this three part blog series, "A Busy Month For MAG" focused on things we were excited about. The second post invited you to "Please Join Us In Prayer" for the many things going on in our field programs and at our headquarters. This final post of the series focuses on the things we're thankful for!

Honduras
We're thankful for:

• the success and hard work of the construction team recently in Rus Rus.
• the completion of the comprehensive survey of our airbase/hospital compound.
• the arrival of Wes & Denise's new generator.
• good meetings between Sean, Wes, Carlos, and medical personnel visiting Hospital Rus Rus.
• the arrival of MAG's crate from Burlington in La Ceiba.
• the arrival of MAG's crates of medical supplies in Puerto Lempira.
• Wes' health and safety as he made the many trips back and forth loading/unloading the all the newly arrived cargo.
• the improvement in Denise' health.

Wes, Carlos, and our Head Nurse Geraldina, discuss hospital operations with Jay, a representative from a Stateside ministry.

Guatemala
We're thankful for:

• Paul's continued adjustment to Guatemalan culture.
• good meetings between Sean, Paul, and Hospital Shalom's leadership.
• Paul and Sean's participation in a medical clinic to a remote village being considered for MAG air service.
• positive interaction between Sean, Paul, and Guatemalan aviation authorities and officials.
• MMS Aviation's (Coshocton, OH) continued preparation of our Cessna 206 for service in Guatemala.

Scott fabricates components for an airframe modification that will allow our missionary pilot to quickly change the 206's configuration from ambulance, to passenger, to cargo.

Burlington, NC

We're thankful for:

• the interest several families have expressed in exploring service with MAG.
• the donated office space we enjoy.
• Keith & Karen Dodson's arrival in Burlington.
• our T-hangar and-a-half at Burlington-Alamance Regional Airport.
• representation at several missions conferences in October.

Debbie & Karen representing MAG at a local women's conference.

Thanks for your gifts and prayers which make this ministry possible. We look forward to keeping you updated on how God is working through MAG in Honduras, Guatemala, and Burlington!

MAG: Please Join Us In Prayer

Our previous MAG post featured current news and updates. This post focuses on many of the things you can join us in prayer for as we follow God's leading in how He would have us deliver help and hope by air in Honduras, Guatemala, and Burlington.

Honduras
Please pray:

• for completion of the hospital renovation and general construction projects currently underway  in Rus Rus.
• for healing for Denise as she continues to battle a bronchial infection and fever.
• For Carlos' teaching and discipling efforts being undertaken in the village.
• For the return of the villagers who've left due to threats from the drug cartel.
• For God's power to be displayed victorious over the spiritual darkness in the village.
• For a successful survey and clear witness of Christ's compassion to the Honduran survey team working in Rus Rus the next week or two.
• For God's clear revelation in recent discussions with visiting medical personnel. 

Guatemala 
Please pray:

• That Paul will quickly acclimate to the local culture and that speaking Spanish will soon become second nature for him.
• That the upcoming MAG village outreach (Sean & Paul) will bear logistical and spiritual fruit.
• That discussions and meetings with Hospital Shalom, regional missionaries, and village leaders will lay a strong foundation from which to launch our new flight program.

 Burlington
Please pray:

• For the churches of Alamance County to embrace Missionary Air Group and join us in the effort to deliver help and hope by air to the remote peoples of the Americas.
• For mobilization efforts underway to recruit additional staff members.
• For Scott Grote, as he oversees restoration of our Cessna 206 up at MMS Aviation in Coshocton, Ohio.
• For funding to complete the restoration of the Cessna 206 bound for use in Guatemala.

Thank you for joining us in this cause...in HIS cause!

Birthday Bash and Dog Biscuit Baking

This past weekend we were blessed by friends visiting from Pennsylvania. Jack, Renee, and Joelle drove down, brought their own birthday surprise for Karen, and baked Tucker and Tanner some home-made dog biscuits! Everybody down here likes biscuits!

Happy Birthday, Karen!

Rolling the dog biscuit dough

 Cutting and sheeting the raw biscuits

The cooks and the baked dog biscuits!

While the girls were in the kitchen, Tanner guarded the baby doll.

Missionary Air Group's newest missionary pilot?

A Busy Month For MAG

October is proving to be a busy month for Missionary Air Group with three teams in and out of Rus Rus, Honduras and with a village outreach and continued flight program development in Guatemala. There are many things to be excited about, many things to pray about, and much to be thankful for.

Today's post will focus on excitement.

We're Excited About God's Work In Honduras

• Carlos (our Director of Pastoral Ministries) is on the ground in Rus Rus with a team of three

  

  Carlos

  men (Matt, Bob, and Craig) taking on several construction/renovation projects at the hospital. Over their two week stay, they will perform electrical work, tile an operating room floor, and take care of some carpentry issues. Carlos will also visit the village of Mahbita to encourage and minister to the Believers there.

• Sean (our President) is in Atlanta as part of a ministry conference facilitating organizational networking in Honduras. Sean departs for Rus Rus tomorrow (Saturday) and will spend two weeks in the village assisting Carlos's team, and working with two other teams scheduled to arrive over next week.  

• Shortly after Sean's arrival, a team of medical personnel is scheduled to visit the hospital for

  

  Sean

  meetings with our missionary staff and hospital staff in order to gain a better understanding of the medical needs and opportunities in Rus Rus. Carlos will interpret for the team.

• A good friend of MAG, Jim, has arranged for a Honduran team from Tegucigalpa to conduct a full site survey of our Rus Rus airbase and hospital facility. They should arrive shortly after the medical team departs. Jim, a US architect, is funding the entire survey effort and providing us with structural, physical, and topographical information critical to our long range planning and the continued development of the grounds, hospital, buildings, and air strip.

Paul

We're Excited About God's Work In Guatemala

• Paul (our Guatemala Program Director) deployed last month. Paul is working closely with Hospital Shalom to lay the groundwork for our new flight program supporting their medical efforts, is becoming acclimated to the county and culture, and is visiting villages to survey for possible air strip locations. Paul will be the pilot/mechanic of our Guatemala airplane once it's deployed.

• After his two weeks in Rus Rus, Sean plans to spend two weeks with Paul for meetings with hospital staff, to assist Paul in developing a base for aviation operations, and to conduct our first village outreach into the Peten region of Guatemala.

We're Excited About Westley & Denise

• Of course of this doesn't happen without Westley and Denise (our missionaries in Rus Rus) and the Cessna 206. Denise provides all the food, care, and hospitality for everyone visiting our base while Westley takes care of everything else including all the flying back and forth, north and south, east and west, required to handle three teams in two weeks and the logistics of operating a challenging ministry in a difficult and remote setting. And without the airplane, our trusty Cessna 206 "one-niner-zulu", none of this would be happening.

Preparing to depart for Rus Rus in 19Z.

Thank you for your gifts and prayers that make this ministry possible!

In The MAG Office And In MAG The Hangar

Reality

Okay, things are starting to fall into place. We don't work in a big green hangar on top of a hill anymore, we're blessed to work in a little brown building on the corner of Maple Avenue and Monroe Holt. We don't live in Ohio any more, we actually are living in North Carolina. Instead of having a pizza place on every corner like we did in Coshocton, we have a Biscuitville on every corner here in Burlington/Graham. Everyone should eat a Biscuitville at least once. I did. Biscuits truly are a way of life down here.

We're adjusting our lives from a rural mode (bicycling/walking around town, watching out for Amish buggies) to an urban mode (driving EVERYWHERE in heavy city traffic). We finally have a dog door in the back door but now Tucker and Tanner are waiting for their fence to appear so they can have unsupervised access to the back yard. They have, however, successfully tested the functionality of the doggie door as we consistently found them in the front yard during its installation! Those two dogs can be rather tricksie.

The house is nearly together, Karen's putting stuff up on the walls, and we're both integrating more into the daily operations of Missionary Air Group.

MAG Daily Operations
Now, these next photos will scare the CFO of MMS Aviation, Mary Sattertwaite (my partner for 16 years in the administrative office at MMS) no end, as they are of me reciepting donations and preparing the bank deposit! Mary, please take a chill pill--I really CAN do something related to numbers and money! And in just one deposit, I made sure MAG received a million dollars...oops...now where did I put that decimal point?

Carol (one of MAG's faithful volunteers) trains me in receipting MAG's donations and organizing the bank deposit.

Turned loose to receipt and organize deposits all by my self!

Video, Video, Video
We recently received three pallets of assorted medical clothing to be distributed to medical clinics in remote areas of Honduras and Guatemala. We needed help with the huge job of sorting, inspecting, and inventorying the clothing and New Covenant Fellowship Church's youth group responded to the task. See if you can find Karen in this video! As Medical Services Coordinator she was rather involved in the process.

Thanks so much for your continued prayers and gifts as we continue this transition!