After months of planning, weeks of preparation, and days of packing, cleaning, and stressing out a little bit in general, we finally made it safely to Alaska!  We’re deposited for the next 10 or so days at Kingdom Air Corps in the Sutton area (www.kingdomaircorps.org), where Jared will gain several hours of experience in a 206 airplane to prepare for the flying he will do this summer at Kako Retreat Center.  He’s looking forward to these hours of flying with Dwayne King, a good friend and mentor who has encouraged Jared since the very beginning in his pursuit of missionary aviation.  

This is the view from our bedroom window:

Our journey was exhausting–especially with a very active 21-month-old who doesn’t understand the unspoken personal boundaries involved in traveling economy class on a crowded jet.  But even with several negative experiences, we can reflect that the trip went well overall, with the worst parts being an inoperative toilet on one flight and losing our aisle seats on the next flight due to delays and nearly missing the connection.  But with slightly swollen ankles (on Carol’s part) and sick-to-deathness of holding squirmy Titus (on Jared’s part), we gratefully fell into bed last night after 23 hours of wakefulness and traveling…only to be awakened by that same squirmy Titus at  5 a.m. this morning!  

This is the view of “King Mountain” from the runway at Kingdom Air Corps:

Today we have explored the grounds of Kingdom Air Corps extensively–as far as “pyanes” and “twacktows” (airplanes and tractors) are concerned.  Jared has spent several hours getting the 206 ready for flight tomorrow, including fixing the starter (rather crucial).  The ground on the runway is quite soft in some areas, due to a late winter and permafrost.  Jared and Dwayne walked the entire strip today to decide the best method for take-off and landing without compromising the aircraft, the runway, or personal safety.

Titus likes to “dwibe” (drive) large vehicles:

Firsts for Carol and Titus so far (besides the whole State of Alaska) are: moose stew, moose tracks, and moose droppings–which Titus thought were very interesting rocks that needed to be played with.  We are looking forward to lots more firsts!  

Titus standing in a moose track:

Thank you for your prayers as we journeyed.  We’re grateful to God for His protection and orchestration of events so far, as well as for the wonderful people we are working with here at Kingdom Air Corps for the next week and a half.  We’ll continue to keep you updated as we go on into the summer ministry at Kako.