Merry Christmas!

Luke 2

¹ In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ And everyone went to their own town to register.

⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

That's the true meaning of Christmas, Charlie Brown.

Overdue Update

Well, I've had a couple people telling me over the past couple days that I need to post again, so here goes.

First, the good news: I survived finals!! I accidentally studied for the wrong final for two days, and found out 5 minutes before I was to take a final I wasn't prepared for. So I glanced at someone's notes for about 45 seconds, since mine weren't with me. I went in, took that, and got a decent grade - VERY good for not having studied for it at all. After that things went more smoothly, as I made sure to study for the correct finals.

Now for the great news: As most of you probably already know, I'm an uncle! Annette Grace Hewitt was born on Wednesday, December 8, at 4:34 PM CST (weighing 7 lbs. 4 oz, and 20 inches long, for those who care). I got to see her about 4 hours later, went to Tennessee to stay with my uncle and aunt for a couple of days, then came back to Alabama on Friday and will be staying here until probably Thursday morning. She is a beautiful little girl who is very content. To borrow the words of a friend of mine, "Touch her and I will SCALP you with my bare fingernails."

Thursday I will leave Alabama and drive back to Virginia (my parents got in shortly after I did on Friday and will be staying until this coming Friday). Friday morning I will get up and drive to West Virginia to pick up Becky, then we will drive to her house in Vermont where I will spend some time with her and her family.

So close!

Well, it's been a crazy couple of weeks.

Last week, Thanksgiving week, was absolutely awesome. I got to spend Wednesday through Sunday with my grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. It was great. I even got a 10 page paper mostly written before anybody else got to my grandparents' house on Wednesday! I had a good time with my cousins, although on break I averaged something like 5 hours of sleep, maybe a tad more, and I've become accustomed to 7 hours or a bit more every night. Without a doubt, though, it was every bit worth it.

I had a major reality check when I got back to campus on Sunday. My paper needed to be finished and turned in Tuesday, Wednesday I had 4 small papers due, as well as a final speech, and today (Thursday) has been quite full as well. I spent 5 hours last night writing out by hand the 12 pages of information for my test review sheet for a test at 7:05 this morning. Thankfully, I turned it in, the professor looked at it, wrote my grade on it, and said "you can go" - he replaced the test with the review sheet. Then I finished my Composites Lab work, took the final for that lab, and did my lab notebook for Instruments Lab. After that I had to study for my Instruments Lab final and a Composites class sectional exam. Took the Composites exam, went over the Instruments exam I took Tuesday, took the Instruments Lab final, and now I'm back on campus. This evening I have my last class for The Search for Historical Jesus, where I will be presenting my findings from my research paper.

Thank you for the prayers that have gotten me through the week. Please keep praying, as I have 3 regular finals and an oral final next week. Wednesday I get to leave LeTourneau and go to Tim and Beth's in Alabama!

As usual, I'd love to hear from you! Please, send me an email or give me a call!

Thanksgiving Week!

As I sit here going into Thanksgiving week, I am reminded of just how much I take for granted. I find it easy to sit here and complain about the amount of work I have to do, or how expensive college is, or the various things that my school's administration does that I don't agree with. In the grand scheme of things, though, I have so very much that I should be thankful for, and essentially nothing that I have any right whatsoever to complain about.

I am thankful for the opportunity to be in college. There are days when I am sick of school and just can't wait to be done, but there are so many people who would love to be in school, and for one reason or another can't. I am grateful to God for making it possible for me to be here and for making it clear to me what I am supposed to do with my life.

I am thankful for my family. Like all families, we have disagreements over some things, but nothing that we can't work through and come out stronger on the other side. No matter what I do, I know that my family loves me. And no matter what they do, I love them, too.

I am thankful for the friends that I have in my life. Some of them live much too far away from me for my liking, but that doesn't keep them from being great friends. I have been blessed with some friends that I can talk to about absolutely anything, and I know that they will listen to me and that any advice that I get will be godly advice. And with this, God has blessed me with allowing me to be there for my friends, too.

I am thankful for the opportunities that God has given me, and the protection that He has provided. Spending this past summer in Papua New Guinea was something I figured I would never be able to do, but God made it possible and provided for me, every step of the way. Both in this, and in other areas, God has provided me with protection. I think of last Thanksgiving. My then roommate and I decided to, even though we only had a couple days off from school, drive home for Thanksgiving. So we got in his dad's car that he was using, and drove east from Texas. I got out in Virginia, and he went on to Pennsylvania, with us both getting home Thursday. Saturday night he picked me up and we headed back towards Texas - and I fell asleep while driving. God provided, though, and although there was some damage to the car, there were no other vehicles involved, and Rusty and I were both safe. God has been, and continues to be, so very good to me.

Take some time this week to thank God for the many blessings that He has given you. Maybe some are like those He has given to me, and maybe they aren't, but if you look, you will see that God has blessed you. Now, what are you going to do with those blessings? Are you going to use them to bless others, and to be a blessing to God?

I'd love to hear from you, to know what's going on in your life, and some of the things that you are thankful for. Please, feel free to email me at danielmiller@letu.edu, or to give me a call.

May God bless you, and may you see His blessings for what they are.

Another week

It has been a fairly standard week this week. Continuing to keep busy, which is what I pay the big bucks for, so I guess that's how it's supposed to be.

I'm beginning to see my labs wrapping up to their conclusion, but seeing that I still have a fair bit of work left to do. The good news is, it seems do-able, I just need to really stay on task as I finish this stuff up. I'm also just eight days away from having my big paper for a class called "In Search of Historical Jesus" due, and I still have a lot of work left to do on that.

Please be praying for me with the stresses of life and for motivation to do what needs to be done, and that I keep God and His will the first priority in my life.

As always, it would be great to hear from you, so please, send me an email!

With just a month left to go. . . .

Again it's been a very busy week, but there isn't really a whole lot to tell.

Last week I dropped the engineering part of my major; I didn't plan on using it, so decided it would be better to lighten my coarse load and stick with just the aviation. So that has lightened my load a good bit for the rest of my time at LeTourneau - still very busy, but now it actually seems like it might somehow be manageable. I also ended up adding an Applied Science minor, but all that involved was 45 seconds worth of paperwork, as the work for it is already done.

This week has been, and will continue to be, very busy. I'm beginning to feel the pressure from due dates for projects, and would really appreciate your prayers.

Please also be praying for the missionaries where I worked in Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea. Some of the locals are having conflicts with the security company hired by the missionaries. Sunday night, local time, someone went out to the SIL aviation facility (where I worked) and shot and killed one of the guards on duty. Pray for a peaceable agreement to be reached, as the culture is very much a culture of revenge.

Please, feel free to write to me and let me know how you are doing, and how I can be praying for you!

October's mostly gone? Really?

As hard as it is to believe that October is mostly gone, I am so ready for this semester to be done with.

Fall break was good, and somewhat restful, but not nearly as productive as it should have been. Basically, it was an average break.

The rest of the week was busy, but went alright. This week I'm already exhausted, even though it's only Monday afternoon. In addition to the usual work, I have to prepare for my part of a group persuasive speech on Friday, and I need to get some serious work done on a paper comparing and contrasting Jesus with the Jewish expectations of Messiah.

Sorry this is short, but wanted to give an update. Please be praying for the strength and energy to finish out this semester.

Fall Break!

I am so grateful for a change in pace known as fall break, and for some awesome friends to spend it with.

The week was busy, with several tests and a couple of lab midterms, but overall it went pretty well. I got everything that I needed to done, and have been enjoying the first half of fall break. Friday night I drove Alden and Rebekah Daniels (a couple that started at LeTourneau a year after I did, and got married this past summer) to Alden's family's house, and spent the night there with his family. Then Saturday the three of us returned to campus.

This morning I went to church, which was good, and then came out with a bunch of others to Dr. Olson's house. Dr. Olson and Mr. Olson are such encouragements, and provide a great place for us to go on Sunday afternoons. With not having school tomorrow or Tuesday, it's been great to just have a couple of days to not worry about getting a whole lot of homework done, and just relax. Tomorrow and Tuesday I'll spend some time on homework and projects, but this break from those things has been really refreshing.

I would love to hear from you and find out what's going on in your life.

What an amazing weekend!

This has been quite a weekend. Friday I got to go to Little Rock, and Saturday morning we went to Thunder Over the Rock - the Little Rock Air Force Base air show - and it was amazing. Never before had I watched a jet fly backwards or hover, or seen 400 people jump out of an airplane within just a minute or two. Then we drove back to Longview, getting back around 11:30 Saturday night.

Sunday I got to go to Dr. O's, and as usual, that was a lot of fun. I came back and got to work a Hawk Nelson concert. Definitely the highlight of the concert, though, was when I went in while John Reuben was singing, and saw a lady that had to be pushing 80 years old, standing up in front of her wheelchair, with one hand on her oxygen bottle, dancing to John Reuben's music. That completely made my day.

Today was an odd sort of blessing. I woke up this morning and it was warm, and sunny outside - I got back from breakfast and it clouded over, and a little bit later started having an awesome thunderstorm with torrential rain. It hasn't rained here in weeks, so the rain we've been getting today has been great, and I absolutely love listening to the thunder, and watching the lightning. God is so good.

If you are going through a rough spot in your week, try to visualize the lady at the concert, having a great time at this concert attended largely by young teenagers, and hopefully that will put a smile on your face.

So I've fallen rather behind in posting to my blog. . . .

Well, last time I posted, I couldn't believe it was already September 4, and now here it is October 4.

The past month has been good. I have gotten into the rhythm of my classes, and although a couple of them are taking a lot of work, that's okay - if I wasn't working hard, I wouldn't be getting my money's worth out of being at LeTourneau.

I am amazed by the fact that midterms are next week. The semester is going by really fast, but that's okay - in some ways, I am ready for the semester to be over, so I can maybe have a better schedule and start working - we shall see.

I am enjoying living in the apartments, but getting to spend time with my old floor. I spent a couple of Saturdays doing work on re-siding and painting a house in the Longview area. This coming weekend I get to go to the Little Rock Air Force Base air show with a group from my old floor, so that should be really good. Then I will come back on Saturday, and finish up my homework for the weekend, so that I can work at a Hawk Nelson concert on Sunday - I'm looking forward to that, too.

This past weekend I was in Dallas from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon. My mom is in town for my grandfather's shoulder replacement which was last Wednesday, so I went up to see my mom and my grandparents. It was a really good trip, and it was great to see all of them again. Praise the Lord, my grandfather is doing amazingly well for having just had a shoulder replaced less than a week ago. Please be praying for continued speedy healing there, though.

I'd love to hear how you're doing and what's going on in your life! You can email me at danielmiller@letu.edu.

September already?

Hello!

Well, school is back up and in full swing. I can tell by the fact I've already had my first test (although Mr. Payton referred to it as a "quiz" - I say if it is 40 questions and covers 4 chapters, that's a test). Between that and the fact that I have three homework sets for Statics due on Monday, I'd say school is back up and going. Although it's going to be another very intense semester, I think it will be a good one.

I'm finally getting settled into my apartment, and really enjoying living here. I still spend a good bit of time with the guys on Quad 1, and I don't want to lose that connection that I have with those guys, but I'm really enjoying living with David, Ken, and Steve.

God is really teaching me this semester about depending on Him, and trusting in Him no matter what. There are so many things in this life, including school, that I cannot do in my own strength. But, thankfully, I don't have to! God is with me, and He will help me and give me His strength to make it through each day, each week, each semester, and each year. I'm still amazed that I'm over half way done with my college career now.

Feel free to email me, and let me know what's going on in your life, and how I can be praying for you.

Philippians 4:4-7 "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (NKJV)

Back at LETU

Hello!

Well, I am now back at LeTourneau! I had a good week at home, and an absolutely wonderful week (almost a full week) in Vermont with Becky, then drove from Vermont to Virginia Friday, to Alabama Saturday, and on to Longview on Sunday. I got moved into my apartment, and within a couple hours had started my Themelios work for this year. Now here it is, Wednesday night, and the freshmen arrive first thing in the morning. It's going to be a crazy weekend!

Please be praying that this weekend go very well, that everyone be safe in their travels coming here, and that nobody get upset if/when minor things go wrong during the process.

Also, if anyone is interested in looking at my pictures that I've uploaded from my trip, they can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=427317&id=860800003&l=3a4514689e

Home. . . .

Well, I am home, and have been since shortly after midnight Friday morning. I was blessed with mostly on-time flights and no problems.

Monday I went to work, Tuesday I finished getting everything taken care of, Wednesday I flew to Port Moresby, and Thursday I flew home; 29 hours of travel between 6:30 AM and 9:30 PM, because of crossing the International Date Line again.

I have spent the weekend getting some rest, and getting ready for my presentation/report at church tonight, which went very well.

I will continue to be updating my blog, but probably not every Sunday anymore.

Thank you for your prayers, and as always, feel free to write to me. danielmiller@letu.edu is once again the email address to use.

My last update from PNG

Four.

Four days until I am back at home in Virginia, if everything goes as planned.

Three.

Three days until I leave Ukarumpa.

Two.

Two months gone, quite quickly in most ways.

One.

One day of work left.

Zero.

Zero more times of being able to worship with this body of Christians.

What an amazing time this has been of being in PNG. I have gained knowledge, experience, and friendships. I have learned to love the people here, as well as their simple way of life. I am going to miss it here, both the people and the culture.

This week was spent just doing small jobs at work Monday through Thursday morning. After that they didn't really have anything for the interns to do, so Craig, Daniel Holtz and I left work at 11 on Thursday and took a PMV to Kainantu. We ate lunch at one of the Kai Bars in Kainantu, then went to the Cultural Center, a couple of stores and the market, then rode back on another PMV. I'm still amazed at how cheap public transportation here can be - the PMVs to and from Kainantu are 1 Kina each way. That comes out to between 35 and 36 cents. We had a great time in Kainautu, and it was great to get to just hang out with the other two interns for an afternoon. Friday was Remembrance Day, so no work for us again on Friday. Friday night the other two Daniels and I had Craig up to the house and we each grilled a steak.

I spent large parts of Friday and Saturday getting packed up and ready to go. I'm going to go to work on Monday, then spend Tuesday hopefully doing a little more laundry, finishing packing, and turning in various paperwork. I am currently scheduled to fly out from here at 8:30 AM local time on Wednesday (6:30 PM on Tuesday Eastern time back in the U.S.) I'll spend Wednesday in Port Moresby, spend the night at the MAPANG missionary home again, and catch a 6:30 AM local time flight from Port Moresby to Brisbane on Thursday. From Brisbane to LA to Chicago to Raleigh Durham, and then my scheduled landing time (as of a couple of weeks ago) in Raleigh Durham is 9:30 PM Eastern time on Thursday - just over 10,000 miles to travel on Thursday.

Please be praying that my last couple of days here go well, that I remember to take care of everything that I need to, and that I have no problems with any of my flights.

As always, feel free to write to me, and to the people of Chestnut Level Baptist, I will see you next weekend!

As the end draws near

Wow.

As I'm writing this, I'm amazed that my time in Papua New Guinea, at least for now, is nearly at its end. I have just five work days left at aviation, as this Friday is a holiday. In ten days I will leave Ukarumpa, and first thing in the morning on the eleventh day from now, I will be leaving returning home. But, I've still got a little more time, so more reflections on the trip and everything will come later. Just a bit of a "wow" at how close I am to the end of my trip.

This week had one work day for me, and I took an hour off during it, to make for a 7 hour work week. Monday I finished working on one particular part of my project working on the rig used for the engine rinses for the King Air and Kodiak. All of us going to Madang took a two-hour lunch break to go to finance and get some cash for our trip, as well as take care of a few other errands. Then Tuesday began our trip.

We were waiting just outside the main entrance to the Centre by 7:05, and had to wait until about 7:45 before the first PMV showed up. We climbed in and headed to Kainantu. Once we got to Kainantu, we got out of the first PMV, and immediately found another one headed for Madang. About 8:45 or so there were enough people in the PMV that we headed to Madang, stopping several times to pick up and drop off various passengers. At one point there were at least 22 of us in the 16 passenger van. I'm told that the trip to Madang by road takes about 5 hours in good weather, but our driver did it in 4 hours and 15 minutes, in heavy rain. Once we got there we went to the SIL Guest House in Madang and checked into our flat, then went into town for lunch and groceries. I had heard about the Flying Foxes, but was amazed when I saw them. There were literally hundreds of these giant day bats flying over Madang. We returned to the guest house, and the other interns and I all headed out to go swimming. We learned that it would have been nice to have had a beach, instead of rock faces made of sharp coral, and it also would have been good to go at a time when the tide wasn't coming in, with strong waves trying to throw us onto the coral. It was fun, though.

Wednesday was spent in Madang, then at a resort near Madang, snorkeling. Craig and Daniel Holtz and I swam out to an island and just did a lot of marveling at God's underwater creation. The schools of tropical fish, the small ones being very unafraid of us, were absolutely beautiful. And the coral, in its different colors and shapes, was quite stunning as well. I learned another important lesson that day, though: be very careful to make sure that you don't step on a sea urchin. I was watching a group of these spiny little critters, and stepped onto a large piece of coral near them. I was very quickly made aware of the presence of another sea urchin in a hole in the coral, as he decided to stick a spine into my toe. Thankfully, it didn't sting me too badly, so it just hurt for awhile. Again, very worth it.

Thursday we went out to Rempi, the village where Daniel Jezowski stayed during his Pacific Orientation Course. Most of the time we were there, Craig and Daniel Holtz and I were snorkeling again. We swam out to one of the islands where Robinson Crusoe was filmed, and just did a lot of snorkeling around there. The water was so clear, and again, I was amazed by God's creation. I am really hoping that our underwater pictures turn out okay. Both at the resort and at Rempi we found bright blue star fish, and at Rempi there were also several fairly large sea cucumbers. Yet again, I learned an important lesson, though: if you're going to be snorkeling about 6 degrees off the Equator, make sure to sunscreen your back. In our rush to leave to catch a PMV that morning, I forgot to sunscreen my back, and ended up with second degree burns over a large portion of it. Yet again a painful lesson, with an experience that was definitely worth it.

Friday we got up, cleaned up the flat, checked out, and went to the airport. We then flew back to Aiyura in P2-SIM, one of the 206's that all of us interns had gotten to work on. As good as the experience of the PMV ride down was, I really liked the 40 minute flight back. I came back to the house, dropped off my stuff, then walked down to the store for groceries. We ended up taking the day easy for the rest of Friday, and Saturday as well. Saturday night was a group movie night, and this morning I went to church at the English service. It was weird to sit there and realize that I only have one more service left here, at least any time in the near future.

Have a great week, and feel free to drop me a line and let me know what's going on in your life.

11 July

Hello!

Another week has come and gone already. Hard to believe that in about 2.5 weeks, I will be back home.

This week was good, with no "smoke" stories to tell, which makes the week less interesting, but better. I spent a lot of time this week doing various small jobs - it's getting to the point of our supervisor starting to pull out low-priority jobs in an attempt to find something to keep us interns busy. So I put ends on hoses and things like that for a large part of the week, just small jobs, but it was good experience. Then Thursday night one of the other interns told me "I hope you're not planning on going to market tomorrow, because we're getting picked up at 6:30 AM to go fly to Goroka in a helicopter." I was thankful I hadn't needed to go to market, although I would have skipped market even if I had needed something. So we got picked up at 6:30 for a 7:00 take-off, and took off a few minutes after 8:30, due to fog. It was an absolutely amazing flight, though. Craig, the third intern, ended up switching over and flying to Madang in the Kodiak, but Daniel Holtz and I both stuck with the plan of going to Goroka in the helicopter. He had never ridden in a helicopter before, so he got to ride up front first, but I got to ride up front coming back. Our pilot was Gavin Jones, a LeTourneau alum, so that was fun, too. Flying over the mountains here was stunning; we flew safely high, but low enough that sometimes we had to go up to clear ridges and fly over them by less than 500 ft. Seeing all of the mountains from above was breathtaking. Goroka is only about 25 minutes each way by helicopter, but I still took LOTS of pictures. This flight that we had on Friday may very well be the most fun thing I've done so far since I've gotten here.

This morning I got up and went to church on Centre again, so it was an English service. Our speaker was one of the Nationals, who has been serving as a Bible translator for many, many years. I had a hard time understanding him because of his accent, but his message was good.

Tomorrow will probably be my only day of work for this week, as our Madang trip will be Tuesday through Friday. On Tuesday we will take a Public Motor Vehicle there, will spend Wednesday and Thursday enjoying the city and the water, and will fly back in a Cessna 206 first thing Friday morning, if everything goes as planned.

Have a great week!

Happy American Independence Day!

Hello!

Well, it has been a great week, and I am amazed as I realize how quickly my trip is going. In some ways it feels like I've been out of the U.S. forever, but in some ways, wow - I just got here, and I only have three and a half weeks left.

I learned a very important lesson about working on airplanes this week. I was going out to do a compressor rinse on the Kodiak early in the week (with my supervisor, of course) and we were hooking up the external power to the Kodiak, so my supervisor told me to go ahead and turn on the master switch in the Kodiak (basically the switch that gives power from the battery to everything else on the airplane.) So I turned on the master, we plugged in the ground power unit, and we finished getting it ready to do the rinse. I had just gotten the hose in position for me to spray into the engine, with my head right next to the engine, when I heard yells of "smoke!" coming from behind me, where a man was working on the new hangar. So I turned and looked, and saw smoke coming off of the pitot tubes (part of the system for measuring airspeed and such; the Kodiak has a pitot tube on each wing). I yelled at my supervisor to wait on doing the rinse, and ran over and yanked off the pitot tube cover; as my boss saw me doing that, he ran to the other side and yanked that one off, right after turning off the pitot heat switches. These tubes have electric heaters to keep them from icing up, but you don't usually have the heat on unless you're in icing conditions. Thankfully, the only real damage was the fact that both pitot tube covers were melted/burned through, so we had to make new covers - annoying, but relatively easy and cheap. The lesson I learned was this: never assume anything, especially about airplanes. Don't just assume that the pilot left all of the switches in the correct position. The pilot should have had the pitot heat switches in the "Off" position, but my supervisor and I should have seen that they weren't. So I can't point fingers at anyone for having let that happen, I'm just glad that no further damage was done, and that it was cheaply fixable in a day.

This week we also started working on the 100 hour inspection for P2-SIM, another one of the 206's, so this week we've only had one operational 206. This inspection has gone very well, and should be finished up on Monday without a problem, with a scheduled flight for Tuesday. I spent a good part of one day taking out all the seats, removing the floor coverings, and opening up 30 some inspection panels in the floor of the airplane, with 6 to 20-something screws on each panel. I then spent about a day and a half to two days working on re-padding the pilot and copilot seats, and replacing the seat pan on the pilot seat. I am really enjoying getting experience with new things, like the sheet metal in the redoing of that seat pan, and getting more experience doing the compressor rinses on the Kodiak and the King Air. I was a bit surprised this week when my supervisor, Craig (another intern), and I were doing the rinse on the King Air. Craig was spraying water from the hose into the engine, and I was sitting left seat, motoring the engine while Craig was doing that, with my supervisor sitting right seat, monitoring what I was doing. Then the supervisor went out of the aircraft to help Craig get set up on the other engine; I figured he'd come back in and we'd do it again on that engine. So I was a bit surprised when I heard my supervisor yell "'We're ready" and had me go ahead and motor that engine as the only one in the cockpit. It's not a big deal to do, there's rather little error that can be made, but it's still cool to see my responsibilities and the trust in me increasing a bit.

This morning there was no English service here on center, so a bunch of us were going out to Mt. Zion Church for the worship service there. I got picked up this morning in the truck, with several others, and we drove out there, to discover that they weren't having service there this morning, either. So Daniel Holtz and Craig decided to walk with that pastor to the church where they were meeting. I went with the rest of our group and went to church in Ukarumpa Village, which was still a service in Tok Pisin. I really enjoyed the service - a couple of the songs were in English, but it was also cool seeing "How Great Thou Art" and a few other very familiar old hymns in Tok Pisin. Dave Smith sat next to me and translated for me during the sermon, so I was able to get what the pastor was saying. It was a very different experience, but quite good. I got back on center after the morning Lotu (worship) and went to have lunch with Dan and Jen Snow, along with the other two Daniels, Craig, and a lady from here on center. That was quite good, and at about 2:00 we saw Daniel Holtz walking by on his way home, he'd just gotten back from church where he went. So we called him in for lunch (we finally went ahead and ate without him and Craig, since they were running so late) and called Craig down at his house, so they came up and joined us.

This evening there will be a Fourth of July celebration here, with a pot-luck, a worship service, and I'm not sure what all else going on. Then the single's group will be headed up to my house again for games or a movie or hanging out (basically, we'll figure out and do something when everybody's up here). There are advantages to living in a community of so many Americans, such as still celebrating Fourth of July. It still amuses me, though, that one of the guys that may very well join us later is British. There's just a beautiful irony in celebrating July 4 with an Englishman.

Have a blessed day, and enjoy celebrating the Fourth! But while you're at it, take a minute to remember all of the sacrifice that has gone into making America free, and keeping it that way. Also remember that it is God Who has ultimately given us our freedom.

As always, I would love to hear from you! If you've got time for a lengthy email, that's great! If not, even a line or two is always appreciated. d.miller@ukanet.net, for any of you who haven't seen the earlier posts where I mentioned it.

Another week has come and gone

Now I am amazed at how short a full-length week can be. I know, I need to just make up my mind already and be normal. But then, since when has there been anything normal about me?

This week has been good, and quite productive. I finished up (again) on the Islander, helped out with some turbine compressor rinses on both P2-SIA (the King Air) and P2-SIB (the Kodiak), sat in on run-ups for both of them, and did some work on P2-SIT (one of the 206's). I got to actually do the full engine run-up and then taxi over to the hangar in Tango (P2-SIT) - my supervisor was sitting right seat as I did all of that of course, but it felt good to be running an aircraft and even just taxiing around on the ground with it. Makes me miss when I was flying. Tango is now in for its 1000 hour inspection (an inspection that has to be done every 1000 hours of flight time) which has been going on for most of this week and is expected to take about another two weeks. One at a time, I pulled all of the wheels off of it, checked the brakes on the main gear, replaced the pads on one of them, and cleaned, inspected, re-packed with grease, and reinstalled both sets of bearings on each of the three wheels, re-installing the wheels when I was done. I was also tasked with removing the "Kodiak" decals from the front of the Kodiak, as they were both peeling off.

We also had a bit of excitement this week. Wednesday morning we got to work and we were informed that we were in the middle of a medevac - the patient was expected to arrive at 9:00 to fly to Australia in the King Air for further medical treatment than is available here in Ukarumpa. That was all that pretty much any of us knew. Flights were busily being shuffled, as the King Air was supposed to make two other flights on Wednesday, and both of those had to be taken care of by our other aircraft; annoying because the King Air has a high capacity than anything else we have. The aircraft was ready, and at about 9:00, Lee (the clinic manager) drove out on the ramp and parked next to the King Air. As several of us watched from the hangar, we say Tyler Weaver, an aviation employee, his wife and one of his sons, Addison, get out of Lee's car. I noticed that the other three kids weren't there, but, along with several of the others, was trying to figure out who was the patient, as nobody was unable to walk or anything. They took off for Australia, and then we found out that Addison had fallen off of his top bunk at about 3:00 AM. He apparently landed on his head, and he had a concussion. So they took him down to Cairns, Australia, to have a scan done to check for damage. Cairns is far enough away that the two pilots, and the medical staff overnighted, planning to fly back the next day. Usually this is what is done in a medevac, and then the family being medevaced has to pay to fly back commercially to PNG. Well, Addison's scan showed that everything was fine, and the Weavers were able to fly back on the King Air on Thursday, which was a blessing as that meant they were just coming back on the flight already covered by medevac insurance, and didn't have to pay out of pocket to get back. Most important, though, is the fact that young Addison is okay - Praise the Lord for that!

This week we also made plans for a group of us to go to Madang for a long weekend next month and see the city and do some snorkeling. We talked about riding up there on a PMV (Public Motor Vehicle) but decided that we probably won't, since it's about a 4 hour drive each way, plus the hour or so you can expect to wait in the PMV as they're driving around trying to get a full load. Instead we will probably fill up one of the 206's (they hold 6 people, counting pilot) and fly up there for the weekend, with the pilot staying up there, too. This would make the trip pretty affordable, and a 30 minute flight each way with friends sounds much more pleasant than 4 hours each way in a vehicle full of strangers. I'll report more about that after it has happened.

I am thoroughly enjoying my time here; the work is good, and the people are a lot of fun.

I have been hearing from some of you, but would love to hear from more of you and find out what's going on in your lives.

God bless, and may you have a great week.

June 20

It's amazing just how long a short week can seem.

I call this a short week, because it was only a four-day week, due to the Queen's birthday. Somehow, though, it seemed very long and drawn out.

Most of my week was spent doing inspections on life jackets. So far (we're not done yet) we've unpacked, inspected, inflated, and the next day checked the pressure, on about 30-35 life jackets. Not a particularly difficult job, but very, very boring. I also worked on the Islander again a couple of days. I have now thought about four times that I was completely done working on it. I have to put a piece back on tomorrow, then I should, theoretically (again) be done with it.

I did learn a lot of things about how LeTourneau used to be, as the man I've been working with on inspecting life jackets is an LETU grad. Learning different pranks that were done and such has been fun.

The big event of my week was yesterday (Saturday) when I went to a mumu. For those of you who aren't familiar with mumus, some mumus have entire pigs cooked, but this one did not. To make a mumu, they dig a hole in the ground and build a fire, with rocks. The rocks get very, very hot, and they take out the coals, but leave the hot rocks. Several layers of banana leaves are laid on the rocks, then the food is laid in (we had pumpkin, carrots, potatoes, kowkow, and several other plants and grasses, sausages, and chicken). Then more banana leaves are put on top, and usually this is covered with dirt, although they used a tarp instead of dirt on ours. A few hours later, it is opened, the food is pulled out, and there's dinner. This was quite good, and an enjoyable way to spend my Saturday.

Next week I may have more to post, it all depends on how interesting the week is.

Thank you for your continued prayers.

After a week of work

Greetings!

Well, I have now been working for a full week, and I enjoy it. Monday I spent eight hours doing required reading before I could start working, and for the first hour to hour and a half on Tuesday, I finished that up. Before being able to work here, I had to read (and in some cases, just skim) several hundred pages of government regulations and company procedures/organization. But I got that done, and was put to work right away working on the Islander, a roughly 30 year old twin engine airplane that we're getting ready to sell. After working on that for awhile, I was sent to go ride along in the Super King Air for it's Return to Service flight, but due to another problem, we weren't able to fly.

Wednesday morning I got picked up at 6:30 to go in so we could do that flight at 7:30, but the fog (or "snow" as they call it in tok pidgin) was too heavy until 9:00. We went and flew it then, and everything was good, and it was an enjoyable flight. Then I got put to work calibrating torque wrenches, which is a good workout, and very boring. Thursday we didn't have work int he morning because it was the Half Day of Prayer (a monthly occurrence) which means that there was a three hour prayer meeting in the morning, which was good. Went back to work and spent most of the afternoon working on torque wrenches, then was assigned to work on some lights inside the Islander. I worked on those for a while on Thursday, all day Friday, and didn't quite get it finished.

Church was quite good again today. There is a different speaker pretty much every week, and today the speaker was a Swiss man who finished doing his translation about 2 years ago, and has been working in the high school here. The graduating seniors got to choose who to ask to speak, because this is the last Sunday before they graduate, and many of them return to other countries. He spoke on integrity, and it was a good message.

Tomorrow I have the day off; it's the queen's birthday, so most businesses are closed. Tuesday I'll go back down to aviation, and find out then what I'll be working on.

This past week I heard from several of you, and I really enjoyed that. Please continue to be praying that this trip be glorifying to God.

Have a great week!

The end of my pre-work time

Greetings!

I am writing this on Sunday afternoon, and it is a beautiful day. It's overcast, but it has not rained, and I got to go to church this morning, which was very good. I had expected it to be unlike any church service I had ever attended before, and was surprised to find out that it really wasn't very different at all; the most different thing was that people's attire was more casual than I was used to.

Now, let me go back and fill in on the rest of my week. Thursday after buying groceries and such I just settled in at the house, did some emailing, took some pictures, and read for awhile. Friday I went down to the market, to learn proper market etiquette from Mr. Smith and to pick up some vegetables. It was interesting to learn the etiquette - things such as there is to be absolutely no attempting to talk down the price on any vegetables, but with handcrafts and such it is acceptable to ask for "second price". I found it interesting that one of the nationals was trying to sell two American $1 bills - for either 4 or 5 Kina each, I forget which. The current exchange rate makes one dollar equal to about 2.80 Kina - naturally, I decided to pass on the dollar bills.

Friday evening Daniel and I went over to the Weavers' house for dinner, two houses down the street. We spent about three or three and a half hours there, visiting with them and enjoying being with Mr. and Mrs. Weaver and their four young children.

Saturday morning a group of six of us went to Kainantu and visited the cultural center, as well as several stores. One of the places that Mr. Smith made sure to take us was the coffin makers; a hand-crafted coffin here sells for about 300 Kina - not as fancy as what you find in America, but much, much cheaper.

I went down to church, and it wasn't very full yet, so I found a seat about 15-20 rows back. I then later found out that, although others were welcome to sit there, I was sitting back in the area where all of the families with young children sit, so it was a bit louder back there, but I was still able to hear and focus on the message, which was very good. The speaker this morning graduated from the University of Southern California last month, and is back here where he grew up. He spoke on Ephesians 6:10-18, and it was a very good message.

After church I walked back up to the house, met up with Daniel Jezowski, the other Daniel already living here, then we went down to a single's pot-luck/auction. (no, they weren't auctioning off the singles.) Apparently these events take place when a single is going finish, or sometimes going on furlough. I could definitely tell I was not at LeTourneau, as there were 20+ people there, and three of us were guys. The auction was interesting, because it involves no money. Anything that the person leaving doesn't want to take, they "auction off" - everyone sits down on the ground, and when an item is brought up, if you raise your hand first, it's yours. Or, in some cases, if nobody wants it, if you open your mouth and say anything at all, or they decide that it should go to you, you get it - whether you want it or not.

Daniel and I just got back from the singles' auction a little while ago, and I think the plan is to just spend the rest of the day around the house. Tomorrow I will go down to Aviation with Daniel and start working - well, start into all of the reading that I have to do before I can actually start working. Daniel Holtz, the other aviation intern, who will be living with Daniel Jezowski and myself, should be arriving tomorrow.

Please pray that the reading and getting ready to work goes quickly for me, and that I am able to recall everything I read and get started working soon.

As always, feel free to email me at d.miller@ukanet.net - I would love to hear from you.

I am here!

Hello!

First of all, thank you for all of the prayers up to this point. I am now in Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea, settled into the house. Best I can tell, I start working on Monday.

My trip here was uneventful, which is good. Although a few of my flights left late, the only one that arrived late was the one into Port Moresby, which was my last flight except for the SIL flight out here to Ukarumpa, so that was a good flight to have late, if one was going to be late. I arrived in Port Moresby on Tuesday evening, got through Customs without a problem, and was immediately met by William, who took me over to the M.A.P.A.N.G. guest house, where I spent the night. The next morning, William picked me up, along with a dentist missionary named Dane, who was also headed up to Ukarumpa, and we went to the MAF hangar to wait for our flight up here. We found out that we would be traveling here in the Kodiak (okay, aviation people, please don't ruin your keyboards by drooling on them - the rest of you, if you don't know what I'm talking about, that's fine). The plane ended up being later than we expected getting there, and then it took longer than expected to go get the other two passengers, but eventually we made it up here, landing at 4:30 PM local time on Wednesday. I got my bags, and was met my David and Anne Smith, who showed me around a little bit, took me to drop off my computer so that the required antivirus program could be installed, and brought me up to the house. The owners of this house are currently on furlough, apparently, so it is being rented by Daniel Jezowski, and now me, and, as soon as he can get here, another Daniel (whose last name I can never remember, for some reason). By the time they left it was about 5:15, and arrangements had been made for me to go over to the Logans' house, some missionaries that the Hewitts know, for dinner. So I settled in a little, showered, and walked over to the Logans'. Dinner was wonderful, and the Logans are wonderful people; I enjoyed visiting with them until it was time for the 8th grade girls to arrive for Bible study, so I walked back up to my house, where I did a little more settling in, a little bit of reading, and went to bed, trying to get over the jetlag.

This morning Mr. Smith came back and showed me more of Ukarumpa, showed me where the places I might need to know are, took me to pick my computer back up and to drop off my passport so it can be sent off to get my Visa corrected, and brought me back to the house. I then set up my internet connection with my computer and talked briefly to my parents and Becky, for the first time since I was in Brisbane on Tuesday, as my phone card has not been working. After this I went and ate a meat pie for lunch, bought a few groceries, came back to the house and have been working on my computer.

If you'd like to get in touch with me, please email me at d.miller@ukanet.net, as this is the email that I can use for free.

Sorry for being so long-winded - a lot has happened in these past several days.

Thank you for your prayers, and please keep praying, that I be able to set into life here easily and quickly, and that, above all else, God be glorified.

Wow - it's actually here

Well, today has been spent packing. I am now packed, except for just a few things that can't be packed quite yet. Even being almost entirely packed, though, I still have a hard time believing that I will be leaving the day after tomorrow - and today is almost gone, and I'll only be here for a few hours on Sunday. Everything has either been packed or I know where it is and will pack it as soon as possible, though, so I'm just about ready!

Please be praying that if there are any last minute things that I am forgetting, they be remembered, and that the trip go well. Be praying that I be a witness to others, and that if I am able to find the opportunity to be a witness in my travels, God provide the words.

I will be updating this site occasionally while gone, and will also be looking at any comments and checking my email, so please, let me hear from you!

The final week

Well, here I am on day three of my last week stateside before my trip. God has provided for everything I've needed, yet somehow I still find myself stressing at times. Right now I am trying to get an exception made to internship requirements; I found out yesterday that, although this will be a great trip no matter what, it might not count as my internship for LeTourneau. The problem is that the aircraft on which I will be working are all registered in Papua New Guinea, and my internship requirements include working on U.S. registered aircraft. I have emailed LeTourneau asking for an exception to be made, but have no idea whether or not this will actually be able to happen. So please be praying with me that God's will be done with that.

As I am doing all of my packing and taking care of the few things that remain, be praying that, no matter how busy I get, I remember to make time for the One Who is making all of this possible, and that I glorify Him in all that I say and do.

Praise be to God!

Yesterday (Saturday 15 May) I received my Visa in the mail. When I looked more closely, though, I discovered that it only allows me to stay in Papua New Guinea until June 13 - well short of my planned departure date of July 29. So we immediately started praying and working on figuring out what needed to be done.

Today we received a reply, letting us know what needs to be done. Apparently things like this have happened before, and because I will be arriving before my Visa expires, I will be able to arrive, go to Immigration, and have the date on my Visa changed. So, praise be to God, everything is fine!

Please continue to be praying as I spend these next two weeks preparing to leave; I will be leaving home the morning of Sunday, May 30. Be praying that I not forget anything as I am preparing, and that it be a great trip, with the Lord's work being accomplished.

At last

I have finally finished my sophomore year!

When I was registering for this semester, several students told me I was crazy, this particular load (four classes, four labs, with each lab meeting twice every week) should not even be attempted. The faculty members who had to clear me for registration questioned whether or not I really thought I could do it, and I questioned a little bit, too. But God is so good - He gave me the strength and endurance to make it through!

I do not yet know most of my final grades, but they should be decent, especially considering this semester's load. Praise be to God for providing the strength and determination to finish this semester, and to finish it well.

Thank you for all of the prayers throughout the semester and especially during finals week. They have been an immense help, and I request continued prayer as I finish preparing for my trip to PNG and then leave in 24 days.

Lots to report

Well, a lot has happened since I last posted on here.

This past week contained a group presentation, a test, four lab finals, three lab notebooks, and one big lab project. God proved His faithfulness once again, as He helped me finish everything successfully! All that I have left for this school year is four finals, for which prayer would be greatly appreciated.

The finals schedule for me is: (all times are Central time)

Monday at 9:45 AM: Powerplant Electrical

Tuesday at 7:30 AM: Airframe Electrical

Wednesday at 7:30 AM: Introduction to Reciprocating Engines

Thursday at 7:30 AM: Introduction to Aircraft Systems.

I ask for your prayers on all of these things.

And now for an update on Papua New Guinea:

Friday I received word that, although I needed to have a little more medical screening done, and do some paperwork with my doctor when I get back to Virginia in just over a week, my Visa has been approved!! So I spent this morning (Saturday) going to get the rest of my medical screening done, and have an appointment to do my paperwork on Tuesday the 11th, the day after I get back home. So this is a huge praise, as I will get my results back from this morning's stuff in time to take copies home with me next weekend, and can then send everything out on Tuesday or Wednesday, the 11th or 12th, and should have my stuff back very soon after that! So, although I had to wait much longer than hoped, God has once again provided everything that is needed!

Well, it's time for me to return to the books, preparing for my finals, but I wanted to give this update. May God bless you on this day!

Approaching Halftime

Well, I am getting very close to being half done with college. Although every semester is crazy towards the end, this one is particularly crazy. I am currently struggling to stay on top of things, as I am behind in 2 of my 4 labs, and lab finals are next week, so everything has to be done.

Last week my group finally finished our engine overhaul and ran our engine; it ran very well, so that was a huge praise! But it took us a lot longer to get to that point than it was supposed to, so now we are frantically trying to get caught up on all of the other projects from this lab. Please be praying that we succeed in this.

Tuesday I have a lab final, and I need to finish up the projects for this lab before I can take that final. Thankfully, this looks very do-able, but it will still take a lot of work.

Please be praying for me that I be able to get all of my work done; between now and next Friday I have two sectional exams, four lab finals, a group project due, paper and presentation, and catch-up work in those two labs. Prayers are very much appreciated.

Also, I am still waiting for my Visa to go through. Please continue to pray about this.

Another reminder that God is in control

After I posted that I had received full funding for my trip, I found out about some additional costs that I had not anticipated - the last part of my flight. I figured that they would be taken care of when the time came, and did my best not to worry about it. Well, this morning I checked my mail after I got out of my classes, and found a check in my mail box. This covered just over what is necessary for one way of that leg of my flight. God is so good! While I am struggling to trust Him about the Visa, He decided to send me this reminder that He knows what needs to be done and He is in control.

Although admittedly, the context is very different, I am reminded of the words from the second part of Mark 9:24: "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" This is my prayer.

Prayers needed

Just a quick update - I am still waiting for my Visa to go through. Despite having seen God come through for me with every other detail of this trip so far, I'm still finding it hard at times to trust that this will be another thing that He takes care of. So please be praying that my Visa come through, but also that I learn the lesson of faith that God is trying to teach to me.

All I have to say is "Wow! Thank you, God!"

Well, it's a busy weekend right between two busy weeks, but I wanted to give a quick update.

Today my church back home in Virginia (Chestnut Level Baptist Church) had a business meeting, and one of the things that they discussed was having the church help me out with the funding for my trip. As a result, I have reached my funding goal!

The only hurdle left (that I know of at this point) is getting my Visa - I finally got the last of the paperwork for that at the end of this past week, and have sent that in. With how He has seen me through so far, I do not expect God to let me down now; prayers are appreciated, though, that this go through quickly.

Praise be to God, and a great big "Thank you!" to all who have helped in the funding of this trip.

Spring Break

Well, this week is Spring Break at LeTourneau, and I am blessed to be able to spend the week at home with my parents this year!

I flew home on Saturday, and although things didn't go as planned, I did make it in safely. I was originally supposed to land in Raleigh/Durham North Carolina at 7:42 on Saturday evening, with Rebekah landing at 8:10, then my parents driving us back up to Virginia. Well, flights in and out of Chicago were delayed, and I was late enough getting to Chicago that I just barely missed my flight out, and the next one ended up being delayed, too. Eventually I was able to get out of Chicago, but I didn't land until about 1:46 AM - Rebekah had gotten in at about 8:30, so my parents had gone to dinner with her, then they came back and picked me up. By the time we drove the approximately two hours to get home, and then time change while we were on the road, it was 4:30 Sunday morning when we got home. But there were no safety issues, and we were all at church that morning.

My church family here at Chestnut Level Baptist Church, where my father is the pastor, had a spaghetti dinner right after church to help with the funds for my trip this summer. God is so good, and the people here are so loving - this dinner helped tremendously toward my funding, and I am now over half way funded!

Monday evening I had to take Rebekah back to Appalachian Bible College, in West Virginia, where she is attending college. I spent the night in the guys' dorm, had breakfast with Rebekah Tuesday morning, and then came home in time for my physical in preparation for my trip. Thursday I went in and got my shots, so now I am medically ready to go on my trip, too. The only thing I know of that I need to do now is finish up the stuff for my Visa, and I have not received the last form for that yet.

Saturday I will be flying back to Texas and Sunday I will pick up a friend in Dallas after church and then drive back to school, to finish out the last six weeks of my fourth semester.

Please pray that God help me to do well in my last six weeks, and to bring glory to Him in all that I do. Pray that the rest of the paperwork for my Visa come soon, and that everything be processed with that quickly.

Trying to remain focused

Another week has drawn to a close, and God has continued to show me His faithfulness, way beyond what I could have even imagined. I am now over 1/4 of the way funded for my trip this summer! And although not all went as I had hoped, I have completed all but one of my tests from the second round this semester.

Please be praying for me this week that I keep focused. For one, I need to keep the proper emphasis on my school this week; this Saturday I get to fly home for spring break, and Becky will be spending a couple of days with me! But I am having to try to remember that I must first complete this full week of classes and labs before I can allow myself to enjoy a mental break from school. And even more importantly, I must remember to keep my ultimate focus on God; somehow instead of it being easier during breaks, I find it even harder to keep my focus on Him when I am on a break. This week of struggling to stay focused on school will be an extremely difficult week for staying focused on my number one priority, God, as well. Please be praying for me that I be able to keep my priorities as they need to be.

Another week of relying on Him

God has continued to bless me with more support for my trip, including some from unexpected sources. He is so good, and my friends and family are absolutely amazing! To all who have helped me financially or are going to, I say thank you. But to those who are unable to help financially as well as those who are, I still covet your prayers. Financial help is what makes the trip possible, but prayers are what will make it a truly good trip and glorifying to God.

This week has been, and continues to be, very tiring. With various things coming up in school and out of school, God is teaching me to rely more fully on him. Now if only I would be a better learner. Please be praying that I be better at relying on God, while still doing everything that I am supposed to, and that I be able to get everything done that needs to be done.

God's provision

God is so good!

First, I am still amazed that He has provided this opportunity for me. To be able to do my internship in Papua New Guinea is an amazing opportunity, especially since I believe that God may very well be calling me to full-time missions.

Today I received my first actual financial support for this trip. I am so thankful that God is providing through my friends and family, because without His provision, and their willingness, this trip would not be possible.

Pray that I be able to take care of everything that I need to before my trip, even though I have a crazy semester. God has provided the strength so far, and I trust that He will continue to do so.