Busy Traveling Days...

We are now 3 weeks into our 3-month traveling tour of the US of A.  It feels like we have already been everywhere and done so many different things!  We feel blessed to have this opportunity to travel, visit family and friends, and see Benji and Jozie enjoy the many new experiences they get to have. We have already shared some of the highlights from Benji's perspective....riding a train, seeing all the airplanes at Oshkosh, and riding the four-wheeler on the Thieszen's farm. 

Here are some of the other highlights:

Playing with Judah Mann
(son of close friends from Moody)

Walking through one the largest planes in the world

Snuggling with Grandpa (his great-grandpa)

Seeing horses up close...

...and getting to RIDE them!!

We are looking forward to the adventures that still lie ahead of us!  We have 2 more days in Lincoln, NE and then we head on to Spokane, WA.

Nebraska!

We've had spotty internet access the last days. Not that we didn't have internet, but rather that our computer would only load one webpage and then quit. We'd restart and get one more page before having to go through the process again.

 We based out of a farm in N. Central Nebraska, visiting family friends.

Benji loves four wheelers, he thinks Nebraska is great!

On the Road Again!

Today we're on the road again. This time further west to Nebraska.

For breakfast we're hoping to meet a guy who mentored me in my maintenance skills when I first went to Moody. He took me under his wing and taught me a lot of hands on skills I never learned as a kid.

After that we're headed out to Omaha to spend the evening with a family Missy grew up with.

OshKosh is Over!

 It's been a busy week. Missy and I feel like we lived seperate lives for 4 days. We stayed in an amazing house 40 minutes north of OshKosh and I drove in every morning to work the booth. Often Leaving at 6:00AM and not coming home till 8:00PM.

Having fun with my former student Joe (representing LeTourneau University) The 50kg rice bags were filled with packing peanuts.

Standing by the Helio Courier with Gregg (a good friend from LeTourneau) It was fun to have this airplane at OshKosh because I often rode in it as a kid in Indonesia when it was PK-JAA.

Another blast from the past when a pilot came by who used to fly me as a kid came by with his boys with whom I went to school.

For me OshKosh was a reunion of sorts to see people I hadn't seen in a long time. But also a time of new contacts who were pleasantly surprised to see young people with our organization.

Some people heard of Bible Translation for the first time, and despite some responses I think seeds were planted.

Oshkosh

Today we head up to oshkosh for the 2012 EAA Airventure.  For those of you who have never heard of OshKosh or the EAA Airventure check out http://airventure.org/.

 Here are some of the facts I found on wikipedia.

• It is estimated that 10,000–15,000 aircraft visit OshKosh during the EAA airventure.
• About 300,000-500,000 seperate people visit OshKosh during the EAA airventure.
• More than 4,000 volunteers contribute approximately 250,000 hours before, during and after the event
• Approximately 1,100 portable toilets are supplied for the event, and EAA estimates that more than 2 million sheets of toilet paper are used (you probably didn't want to know that.)

 All that to say that this is a huge event. Our organization has a presence here every year along with many other mission organizations. This year there are over 200 representatives from different missions. Kars will be helping man a booth, being the face of our organization, who many people have never heard of.

part of the main display at the airshow a few years ago.

The 75th anniversary of the Piper Cub