Captain Daniel

Today was a sad day for our MAF team. Today we had a farewell party for our only Indonesian pilot. Daniel graduated from Moody in the United States just as I, Steve, was starting there as a student. After graduation, Daniel returned to Indonesia to serve his own people as he flys out of Tarakan. He has flown here for seven years and has been a tremendous asset to the MAF ministry here. He is leaving us to fly with a major Indonesian airline.

Tonight at the graduation party, Daniel encouraged us to reach out to the people we fly and to reach out in the community in which we live. Daniel has lived out this advice while he was ministering here and while in school in the US.

We wish Daniel well, and we know that God will continue to work through him wherever God leads him.

Natural Disasters Galore

This morning I heard about another earthquake. This one was 6.6 and it was felt on the Island of Sulawesi. This one was also too far away for us to feel from here.
I was just thinking about all the natural disasters that have happened here in Indonesia lately. Just recently, the beach town of Pangandaran was hit by a tsunami and somewhere around seven hundred people were killed. I ate lunch in that town once.
What are the odds that two tsunami can hit a country in less than a two year time frame? It’s unreal. Laura and I were able to visit Aceh, where the other tsunami hit on Dec. 26, 2004. I have never seen so much destruction in my life, and I was there a whole year after it hit.
While we were living in Bandung, we were always hearing about areas of our city or nearby our city that were land sliding and killing people. Just recently, the island of Sulawesi has been experiencing horrible landslides.
Then, you have the volcano near Yogyakarta. Just when everyone was afraid the volcano would blow they had an earthquake that killed thousands. We have friends from language school that went there to help translate for all the relief workers that flooded the area.
I’m sure all of these events were reported on the news in America. Some of them probably weren’t much more than a blurb on the evening news. Although these events in and of themselves are horrible. There are great things happening. God has been glorified through the outpouring of Christians to all these areas. Please continue to pray for the people of Indonesia.

First Day Flying In The Interior

Yesterday was my first day to fly into the interior jungles of Borneo. It was my first experience watching children stream out of their houses and buildings to meet the MAF airplane as soon as it came to a stop. I realized that these children probably have never seen a westerner other than an MAF pilot. What an incredible opportunity and blessing to try to model Christ’s love to them.

Over the course of 4.6 in air flight hours, we landed 10 different times! We were able to transport 7 Indonesian people to work with churches in the interior. I watched as 6 Indonesian families sent off their kids to boarding school, villagers slipped small folded up money to the kids so they could buy items they needed. We even loaded up bags of rice that were sent with the kids.
We also hauled several other Indonesians to different places in the interior.

I saw a tall waterfall, mile after mile of endless jungle, mountains that would be very difficult to hike over and around and tiny villages every once in a great while.

Thank you again for making this ministry possible for us. We could never do it without you, our faithful supporters and prayer warriors.

Driving in Indonesia

(To the left, Steve is with our motorcycle that we use to get around Tarakan.)

So what’s it like to drive in Indonesia? Well, it’s much different than in America. Here are a few of the things that are different.


Traffic flows much slower than in America. Often the normal speed of cars and motorcycles travel is 30-40 km/hr (17-23 MPH). Therefore, when an accident happens (which is VERY rare) there is much less damage and injury. By the way, the whole island is only 10 miles long so there is nowhere really to go.

Traffic travels on the opposite side of the road as it does in America. So that means we had to learn to drive in the left lane. The steering wheel is on the right side of the car so we had to get use to driving with more car to the left of us than we are used to.

There are lines painted on the roads, but nobody uses them or keeps in their lane. The lines are not even considered suggestions. The best I can figure out is that they are used to keep traffic parallel to them. Really you are best off if you can learn to swerve left and right as the motorcycles and cars weave around you. Sometimes it’s best to put the lane line right in the middle of your car so that other cars can more easily pass around you on both sides. Remember, they are only passing you at about 23 MPH.

When you go straight through a traffic light you turn your hazard lights on. That way everyone can see that you are not turning left or right, but are going straight. Your turn signals are used to indicate that you are going to be entering that side of your car into the oncoming lane while you are passing another car in your lane. It’s not a problem to pass into the oncoming lane. The oncoming cars will slow down if you don’t get out of the way fast enough. Everyone is used to it and is always watching in front and to the sides. People don’t seem to watch behind them, though. People pull out in front of you all the time. It’s your responsibility to be aware of traffic and make room for others. No one is in a hurry and everyone understands the ‘rules’ of the road, such as they are. You watch out for others, go where you want to go, and make sure to leave room for motorcycles.

There are even different uses of the car horn: Honk to let other know you are there, not necessarily if they do something that you don’t like. Honk to let a slower vehicle know that you are coming up behind them and want to pass. It’s not a rude thing, it’s just to give the other driver the information that they need because they are not looking behind themselves.

I would estimate about 80% of all traffic is motorcycles. Below is a picture of me and my motorcycle. If you don’t like motorcycles it gives you a reason to pray for us. If you do like them, then you would enjoy Indonesia. Since most of the vehicles on the road are motorcycles, that makes it safer for motorcyclists. When people drive they are almost always tuned into what’s around them. (By the way, it illegal to have a bike with more than a 250cc engine. In America that’s a small bike, here, it is considered huge as most are 125cc or 150cc)

Who wants to come over for a visit and driving school?

Check Ride

In order to be able to fly as a pilot here in Indonesia, I had to receive my Indonesian pilot’s license first. So, yesterday, I went in to take my check ride with an official from the government in order to finalize my pilot’s license. The good news is that I passed very easily. Actually, it was the shortest check ride I’ve ever done. I’d be glad to share the details with you if you email me. So Praise the Lord (Puji Tuhan), I can now legally fly here, and help the Indonesian people through aviation. Hopefully within three or four more weeks I can be a fully operational missionary pilot.

Where's the beef???

One of the hardest things about living in a culture where everything is new to you, is figuring out how to do some of the most basic, every day tasks. One of the challenges that we have been dealing with since our arrival in Tarakan is being able to find beef. Up until today, we have not found anywhere that you can buy beef, so therefore the only beef we have eaten has been when we go eat out at the hotel restaraunt nearby.
Due to a misunderstanding we thought that your can only get worthwhile beef once every two months, and that it had to be imported from Malaysia. What we learned last weekend from some other missionaries is that you can get beef, tough and lean, at the local market. It is a good idea, however, if you can ask for it a day in advance so that they can be sure to have it for you the following day.
The only way you can get the meat is by the slab. That leaves us to grind our own meat and chop it up into useful slices. So today we had a friend pick us up some real beef. It's going to be an exciting day this week in our house when we fix our first meal here with beef.