Over the last few weeks, it seems like we’ve had an uncharacteristic amount of “close calls”. Last Tuesday I had an accident with a motorcyclist as I was driving out to Ogle to wrap some plastic around a giant satellite dish that I was sending up to Kamarang.

Dear Friends,

As we speak, the weather on the areas affected by STY Haiyan are now under a “Tropical Easterly Wave”. It is very bothering that people with nothing are exposed to yesterdays heat and now rain for the next 24 hours.

Fifty years ago this past Friday I ate breakfast with then President John F Kennedy three hours before he was assassinated.

Hi Mommy and Daddy,

You won’t believe the troubles and blessings we have had getting Arturo and Tania tickets to travel!

Many of you are wondering where we are and what we are doing. Here is a much-delayed update.

Earlier this year when Melody was having pre-term labor in Chad at 27 weeks, we made an emergency return trip to the States. At the time, we were in the middle of a Bible school session. We did not understand why things happened the way they did. Yet God provided a way for the students to complete the course. God protected my wife and our baby.

Looking below at town after town completely destroyed by winds and flooding makes us shake our heads in disbelief. We follow the path of the storm in our mission plane, documenting each area with pictures and videos. It looks like a giant 20-mile tornado path. Trees are stripped of leaves and coconut trees are uprooted and laying around like matchsticks.

For a number of years, I’ve had a nagging feeling that we need to move our main flight operation completely out of the capitol city of Georgetown. Strangely enough, I can’t say that I can pin everything down to one particular reason.

A few years ago we learned of a medical mission group coming to Puerto Princessa to do free cleft lip/palate surgeries. We sent word out and were able to help several children and teenagers get the life changing surgery.

Tuesday morning even smelled like Independence Day. I stashed several watermelons to cool in the creek, and split some firewood for the kitchen, while the kids went to march in Yata to fulfill our legal obligation as an accredited school to participate in a minimum of one civic event annually.