Update 2.0

Saturday: Today we went to a gun show where most of the group shot a lot of different guns. The people there were giving out free hotdogs and gun safety glasses. After that, we went across the street to the airport and toured around looking at all the different aircraft. I posted a lot of pictures up on Facebook. After this, we went to A&W and went on a hike to a waterfall, then went to a very pretty lake, then to a really good pizza place. After that we went to a sporting goods store, walmart, and then back to the ranch. It was a fun and relaxing day.

Sunday: This morning we went to church, came back and had really good turkey with all the fixings.

Monday: Made tags for wheels. Helped put tailwheel on the champ. Made repair to 200SD, Cessna 150 cowling. Tie wrapped oil pressure line on 200SD. Also helped with cabin- putting big heavy logs up into place.

Tuesday: I just remembered one day last week we went after dinner to try and move a cabin that was given to us. This is a fairly large project, and we have to haul it up a large hill and then take it 2 miles down the road. But anyway: Today I finished up the cowling project. We fixed the mixture cable as well, it was getting snagged up on a nut. After that, I went flying in the 150 and did some slow flight, steep turns, and stalls. I practiced landings as well at the ranch with Jon. After that was dinner, and now blogging/updating. I have been reading a book called Weird, which is very interesting and makes you think. I feel like a lot of it is tailored towards older people/people who are married/have jobs and kids already, but it is still good. I would recommended it to anyone.

I am at a strange time/place in my life. I’m done with college, and I am a pilot/mechanic in Alaska. I have no job lined up yet. There is a slight possibility I could stay in Alaska if a job does not come through in VA. I would prefer working in VA, being close to family and friends and all, but I have to think Anchorage may be my new home. I will be going with a friend of mine, Daniel, to take a look at different companies in the Anchorage area. Daniel bought a one way ticket up here. Please be praying for God’s direction for my life and where I should go/what job I should take. I had a good conversation with Dan, the head mechanic that I have been working with here, about what it is like the first couple years and dos and donts in the industry. This was very helpful and encouraging.

3 day Update

Wednesday June 15^th

First day at Kingdom Air Corps. I drove the van back after picking up Patrick and Daniel from Anchorage. We arrived at about midnight. No one was awake except for Zack. He was very helpful and had a list of where everyone was supposed to stay. However, no one knew where my cabin was. So I ended up sleeping on the floor of their office- I really didn’t care and could have slept anywhere since I was so tired. The next morning I went to breakfast which starts at 7am. (Lunch is at 12:30 and Dinner at 5:30 I think). Before each meal, we all sign a hymn and then pray. In the morning, we have devotions, and Dwayne King shared this morning. After that, I found the right cabin where I was supposed to be staying and put all my stuff in there. I then helped cut up, move, haul, lift, and burn a ton of logs. (More like 10 tons of logs!) Our burn pile was huge! Thankfully, it was raining on and off so the fire would not spread/kept us cool. I did that pretty much the whole day. I got to meet a lot of cool people so far, I’m just having a hard time keeping their names straight. In other news, I still have a cold that I have been trying to get rid of for quite some time now. Your prayers on this would be greatly appreciated.

At night in Alaska, it isn’t really dark at all which is very hard to get used to!

Thursday June 16^th

This morning the group went around and shared a bit about themselves, their background, experience, and what God has been doing in their life. It was cool to hear/get to know everyone. After that, I worked with Dan and Daniel in the hangar working on a super cub all day. We took off both front tundra tires and inspected them, cleaned/re-greased the wheel bearings, inspected the landing gear assembly, inspected the empennage, and worked on fixing several discrepancies. After dinner, a group of us went up to Victory Bible Camp just up the road to attend their chapel for the kids which are at camp now, but for some reason they did not have it that night so we will try to go another night.

Friday June 17^th

This morning I got to go flying in a Cessna 150. This was a great experience after not having flown in many many months (other than the sightseeing trip with Roger). I thought I was going to be really rusty, but I was surprised that all my landings were pretty good for not being very familiar with the aircraft. All of them were smooth and I got to even land on a gravel strip and the strip at Kingdom Air Corps. After the flight, the engine is shut down by pulling the mixture control- I pulled this, but it came out right in my hands. The aircraft is pretty old, so it was not a huge surprise, but we got busy trying to fix it. Turned out the cable snapped. When we took the cowling off, we found several other discrepancies that had to be fixed.

I am really enjoying my time here. Everyone is like a big family, working together. Each person has their own set job, but we all come together and form a community of believers. It is really cool to see how God works. One person donated like 200lbs of potatoes (we have been having them at every meal!). We have also been eating a ton of moose! Very tasty! (Some of it came from roadkill too!) Another person just donated a cabin about a mile down the road, and we worked today to try and move it. We will be putting it on a trailer. So many people come up and donate their time to cook, clean, build, and do whatever needs to be done. 

Live update from Anchorage!

This morning I woke up at 3:50am to catch a flight at 6am from Fairbanks. The flight was uneventful, only about 30 passengers on a 737. I had three seats to myself. I arrived into Anchorage just fine and began to wait, and wait, and wait. I arrived at 7am, and I met up with a group of people from Kingdom Air Corps at 9am. Thats the short story- The problem was that I did not have any cell phone reception so I could not get a hold of anyone from KAC. Thankfully, I ran into my tour director from Denali and the bus driver and they were able to let me use their phone. Three phone calls later, I met up with the 4 people. Two were flying out right away, and the other two I spend the day with touring around Anchorage. We hit up the market area, many shops, got burgers for lunch, and then went to an Air museum to kill time! Turns out they were also flying out from Anchorage... which means I'm left with a 16 passenger van all to myself! Needless to say, I'm still at the airport now, because I need to pick up someone who comes in at 8:30pm, and then another person at 10:30pm. Thankfully they have free wireless internet! After I pick up these two LETU friends, we will have about an hour drive back to the ranch. If your bored, get on skype, FB, or Gmail and we can chat! Peace out!

Links to all my pics so far:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10101153086846604.3583749.9391920&l=f4c441434a


http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10101157662961034.3585796.9391920&l=cdf5470fbc

Travel Pictures

By Train...

 By Boat...

The real boat:

 By airplane... with Roger from LETU in Juneau.. 

Alaska is pretty far away from home!

Uncertainty

The following is an excerpt from an e-mail I sent my family back on Feb 7:


So I watched fireproof last Thursday night (Feb 3) with the guys in my apartment. In the movie, they have something called a 40 day challenge. I thought the movie was great and I was in the shower and was thinking about the 40 day challenge. I was also thinking about what to do this summer. One idea, is to stay in Alaska after the cruise (*see below for more details) is done and go to Kingdom Air Corps with Dwayne King.  Anyway, in the shower I was thinking about just the idea of spending 40 days on something and the significance of the number. This brought me around to wondering how long it would be from the time our cruise was over to the end of the Bible camp that Kingdom Air Corps holds. I thought to myself, man that would be awesome if it was 40 days and how that would really be a confirmation of what I was supposed to do. So I went to my room and ran the numbers: we are supposed to leave Alaska on June 14th, Bible camp is the 2 middle weeks in July. The day Bible camp ends is July 23th, which is when I would probably be leaving, or the day after. Doing the math, this is 40 days exactly (17 days in June, 23 days in July). The Bible camp that Dwayne holds is up in the wilderness of Alaska for Eskimo kids. I had sent an e-mail to Dwayne King several days before that just asking to get together and talk with him about Alaska. I also had met with Mr. Poelman to ask his advice and talk about some concerns I had. One of the things Mr. Poelman said was that it was ultimately going to be for God to show me one way or the other what to do this summer. So right after I ran the math, I checked my e-mail and received an e-mail from Dwayne King. He wanted me to call him sometime and figure out a time to meet. (We met on 2-8-2010) When I saw that it was 40 days I started laughing, and then right after that I saw Dwayne's e-mail and laughed even more and wondered what the odds were of that. 


*Cruise info--- I just wanted to clarify and make sure that you guys know what is going on. Some may have heard about the cruise, and I wanted to make it clear that it was two separate trips. All the support that came in for me ($4,055!!!) is going towards my time at Kingdom Air Corps and NOT paying any part of the cruise. The cruise will get me up to Alaska, but I will just be staying longer once my family leaves. However, I may use some of the money towards my return flight from Alaska. 


Here is my Itinerary:

Flight summary

Thu 31-May-12 Newark (EWR) Depart 9:45 am  to  Seattle (SEA) Arrive 12:47 pm 2,406 mi (3,872 km) Duration: 6hr 2mn   Flight: 1581 Economy/Coach Class ( 25A ), Food For Purchase, Boeing 737-800 Total distance: 2,406 mi (3,872 km) Total duration: 6hr 2mn Tue 14-Jun-11 Fairbanks (FAI) Depart 6:00 am  to  Anchorage (ANC) Arrive 6:57 am 261 mi (420 km) Duration: 0hr 57mn   Flight: 62 Economy/Coach Class ( 15A ), Boeing 737-400 Total distance: 261 mi (420 km) Total duration: 0hr 57mn Tue 26-Jul-11 Anchorage (ANC) Depart 5:15 pm  to  Seattle (SEA) Arrive 6:23 am 1,445 mi (2,326 km) Duration: 3hr 20mn   Flight: 1476 Economy/Coach Class ( 24F ), Food For Purchase, Boeing 737-900 Seattle (SEA) Depart 5:15 pm  to  Newark (EWR) Arrive 6:23 am +1 day 2,406 mi (3,872 km) Duration: 4hr 53mn   Flight: 1476 Economy/Coach Class ( 24F ), Lunch, Boeing 737-900 Total distance: 3,851 mi (6,198 km) Total duration: 8hr 13mn (9hr 8mn with connections)

So now my trip has started. My 10 days at home between driving up from Texas and then flying out to Seattle have been quite the whirlwind. Leaving and coming back is always weird. Only seeing a good friend for a couple of days during a period of 1.5-2 years or every couple months is tough. I've had to say a lot of goodbyes to friends in Texas and in Pennsylvania over the last month. I was talking with one of my friends about this, and it is kind of turning into how it is with my family's brothers and sisters. My dad may only see his brother 3-4 times a year, and then only for a day for a couple hours. My only consolation for all the goodbyes is that one day we will all be reunited together with Christ in heaven.


Starting any new chapter of life is always hard. I don't know what to expect. Since graduating LeTourneau, I have had many many doubts and uncertainties face me. Graduation should be a joyous event, but for me it was surreal- wonderful and horrible at the same time. I had to say goodbye to so many friends, and missed saying goodbye to others. 


The greatest lesson I learned at college is the fact that I know so little. Upon graduating, you may think you know everything one needs to about a certain field- I wish this were the case, but it is not so. I am rusty on so many areas and have forgotten so much material just because I had not been reviewing or using it. With aviation, knowing your stuff is critical; life or death. There is no room for mistakes in maintenance or flying. Lives are at stake. The aviation job market is tough as well. Training is super expensive, and a starting job is only a bit more then minimum wage. I keep asking myself why? Why aviation? Why LETU? Why am I going to Alaska? The missions of Kingdom Air Corps is to give real world, hands on experience as a mission aviation pilot. 


I have to keep reminding myself of the story about the 40 days which I first related to you above. I had been thinking about Kingdom Air Corps for a while, knew about the organization, and had always wanted to go to Alaska. Staying in Alaska just made sense, especially since I do not have a job lined up right now.


I am unsure where I will be after Alaska, even unsure exactly what the day to day life looks like in Alaska. I know I will know a lot of LETU people there, but that makes me ask if I am just going along with the crowd or doing what is most comfortable or safe? Everyone who has been says they love it up there, but is this really the best choice for me? Alaska is remote. I keep wondering what if this or what if that... 


In the airport before I left, I sat down at a table with two chairs. An identical table/chairs was to my left and right. These tables had two different friends/couples at them. The chair across from me was empty. This symbolically represents one of my biggest fears- rejection/not having a companion. I am not naturally a very outgoing guy. Is serving God as a single person what God has called me to? Would I be willing to follow God if he called me to lonely, desolate, depressing situations just to make his name known? Would I still follow God if I did not have any friends or normal comforts of the western world?


If God has really called me to live a life that is bringing the gospel to people who have never heard, then I think I will find myself in many of those situations just described. Whole countries hate my God and hate me as a result. I need to be willing to give up everything in order to follow Christ. No matter what happens, only Christ matters. 


I am reminded of Romans 8:


"³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?³⁶ As it is written:
   “For your sake we face death all day long;
   we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
 ³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. "

The funny thing is, over the course of just a couple days, I was called a missionary by separate people on about 2-3 different accounts. Back in the day, missionaries went out on boats and traveled for months if not years just to reach people. The missionary's families in this time would hold a funeral service, not expecting to ever see this person who was leaving ever again. Many died and withstood great pain and hardship without ever seeing any fruit of their work; but they were faithful to the end!


Please pray that I can remain faithful to what God has called me. Pray against spiritual attacks on my life as I face this new chapter in my life. Pray for God's peace and guidance. Pray against depression, loneliness, and fear.


I love you guys!


Ken