From :    Hildebrandt Family with AIMAIR

Mission
Website: aimair.org

email:     jon-ginny.hildebrandt@aimint.net

Date:      Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Dear Praying Friends and Family members,                

Ejok! That is the basic greeting fo the Turkana people who live around Lokichoggio.  The appropriate response is “Ejokaa” (‘ehjohkaah’).  So now if someone walks up to you in the supermarket and says, “Ejok?”, you’ll know to respond! J

Sorry for the dearth of news of late.  We hit the ground running very hard as soon as we arrived and are just now settling into the more normal frenetic routine which allows me a few minutes to sit down and write.  Overall we are glad to be “home,” and plugged back into our ministry, where we certainly feel very needed!

The biggest event since our return has been the visit of a missions team from Friendship Baptist Chruch in Blackfoot, Texas.  They arrived in Nairobi on July 13^th, and on the 14^th.    Jon flew them up here to Lokichoggio.  They worshipped with us in a church on Sunday, and thenm from Monday through Wednesday they conducted a number of different ministries in town.  Pastor Lyn Stroud held a pastor’s conference which was attended by about 20 pastors and leaders from various churches in Lokichoggio.  Audrey led a ladies Bible study each morning, which was attended by 20 women the first day, 30 the second and 40 on the final day!  She was blest to be part of the Turkana ladies’ jubilant worship, and the local women expressed their gratitude for her teaching from the Word.  Three men helped out with some construction projects at AIC Songot Secondary School, which some missionary friends of ours are building just outside of town.  And a final group of ladies led Vacation Bible School for the kids age 3-5 who were not in school  They had  80-100 kids each day and were so blessed to see the eagerness of the kids to learn the Bible stories and interact with them.  As we told the team, they were a real blessing, as most of the mission teams seen in Loki are on their way to or out of Suday; few come to minister to the Turkana here in town, so they were a real encouragement to the church and people of the town!

Here some of the  team are greeted by Turkana women in the village of Aposta.

After being in Loki for 4 days, on Thursday Jon flew the team of 9, plus Ginny and Josiah, into Torit, Sudan.  Here we work side by side with Phil and Linda Byler, our former neighbors here in Lokichoggio, who have just moved into Sudan .  The team spend one day painting most of the interior of the Bylers house, and the transformation from gray cement to bright crem was amazing!  The second day in Torit the team put on one day versions of the same ministries they had done in Lokichoggio.  They again had a big impact, and were especially blessed to hae 8 kids accept Christ during the VBS program!

After church in Torit on Sunday we depart in the plane and flew back to Lokichoggio and then on to Nairobi.  Monday morning we woke up early and Jon took the team on a short safari through the Nairobi National.  The Lord rewarded their commitment to coming on the trip by bringing us upon a group of 7 lion cubs with minutes of entering the park!  We also saw cape buffalo, eland, wildebeest, giraffe zebra, impala, and something I had never seen, ostrich doing their mating dance!  After some souvenir shopping in the local markets in the afternoon, the team boarded their British Airways flight and headed home.  It was so exciting for us to have them here and get to show some of our support team what life is like here in person.  It was also exciting to see the new ministry areas they were able to be involved in and how their love and enthusiasm for the people and for the Lord really made an impact!  We hope that more of you are able to come over for a visit and get to experience Africa first hand, not just through our poor letters!  Karibu Sana!  (Please come!)

Jon has been pretty busy flying since we returned.  The Nairobi based pilots (and their wives) were very happy to have us back, as in our absence each week two pilots would spend Monday throu Friday or Saturday here in Loki.   Now that we are back that is just one pilot a week, and usually not the full week, as I am able to fill in the odd flights htat come up at the last minute.  I have already flown about 120 flight hours since we have been back!  It is such a thrill for me to be back in the cockpit and see how each and every flight is enabling ministry to take place and God’s Kingdom to be grown!   I could fill many pages telling you of each flight I’ve done, but let me describe just one:

August 6^th through 8^th, I flew 3 members of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board around South Sudan.  This is what we call a “safari flight,”  where the plane and pilot go on a multiple day/multiple stop trip with the missionaries.  This gives them maximum flexibility and minimum cost, since they don’t have to pay any empty legs for the plane to return to base and then come back out ot pick them up.  The goal of this trip was to take 2 members of the IMB media department around to some of the current projects, and some prospective areas of ministry, in order to gather pictures and stories to put in their magazines and website for recruiting personnel and sharing with the Baptist Churches in the States.  Justin and Linda, the media folks were being shown around by Mark Kissee, the IMB Sudan team leader, who has been working in Sudan for 10 years, and whom I have flown around a number of times.

Monday morning I prepared our Cessna 206 with fuel and snacks for our three day trip.  Then I waited for the others to arrive on the commercial flight from Nairobi.  They landed at 10:50 am, and by 11:15 we were in the air heading into Sunday.  Our first stop was only a 30 minute flight away, at a town called Kapoeta.  This is the largest town among the Toposa people   The Toposa are a fairly unreached people group, related closely to the Turkana in Kenya, but bitter rivals as they both are cattle people and have raided for cattle back and forth since time immemorable.  Although the closest  tribe geographically to Kenya and Lokichoggio, they have been largely overlooked as missions and relief work has jumped over them to work deeper in Sudan, where the people were more affected by the civil war.  However road access is fairly good from Loki, and hopefully now that the Baptists and AIM are beginning to put an emphasis on reaching them, we may see the church grow and many come to Christ.  After landing at Kapoeta, we were met by the pastor and went to put down our bags where we would be sleeping.  Then we waited about an hour for someone to locate a vehicle to take us out to the surrounding villages.  Mark had sent this request ahead, but here in Africa thinking too far ahead is not encouraged, so generally people wait to see the whites of your eyes before putting too much effort into anything.  Finally we decided to kill some other birds while we waited for this stone to be turned. J

First we went to see the Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Secretary.  We greeted him, he inspected our visas and recorded our details in a log, and Mark explained what they were here to do.  After welcoming us to the area, he gave his permission for us to travel in the area and take pictures.  From there we walked to the Office of Central Intelligence.  There we introduced ourselves and Mark explained what we wanted to do, and asked for permission to take pictures around the town and in the market.  After welcoming us to Kapoeta, the Intelligence Secretary gave us his permission to walk around the town and take pictures, however being careful not to take pictures of the army barracks or airstrip.  Then we walked to the County Commissioner’s Office.  Fortunately he was not in and this saved us another round of greetings, introductions, explanations of our purpose, and gracious extensions of welcome and hospitality.  We informed the secretary who we were and where we were staying if the Commissioner wanted to talk to us later.  About then our vehicle arrived.  Not being able to find a  Land Cruiser or other SUV, Mark’s friend sent his big, 10 ton, all wheel drive truck!  It was a bit overkill for 4 of us visitors and the pastor, but it was better than walking!  We had landed at 12:00 noon, and even without stopping for lunch, it was now 3:00 by the time we were loading up and driving out of town.  It turned out to be about a 40 minute drive, during which we covered about 15 miles of muddy track and the truck came in handy as we stopped and gave many women and girls at lift out to the village who were returning from town.  It’s now almost 4:00 and we are happy to finally be approaching a large village, but we drive past it a mile or so and stopped  at some concrete buildings.  We have entered a new county we were told, so we climbed down and went in to meet the new county commissioner, introduced ourselves, explained what we wanted to do, were welcomed and told we could proceed.

The next morning we woke at 6:00 am and got an early start with the plane.  First a short 30 minute hop to Torit where we picked up Phil Byler to take him to Yei, which we would npas later that day.  IT was also a divine appointment, as Phil and Mark had never met, and as a result of my combining their two flights, not only did they each save money, but they also got a chance to spend a couple of hours together and discuss how their respective missions can work together in South Sudan.  From Torit we flew on to Kajo Keji, which is located on the Nile River, close to the Uganda border.  There was rain in the are, but we skirted it and were able to get into the airstrip.  Two UN vehicles pulled up asking if I was their ride to Juba, but I said sorry, their plane must still be on the way.  Mark had taken off by "boda boda", or motorcycle taxi, to track down the Baptist Church and Bible School.  The three of us were not sure what we were supposed to do, but the UN guys gave us a lift into the town center, from where we got directions and walked another mile out to the compound.  We spent an hour there hearing of their vision and observing the 16 students studying God's word in a one room "Bible School."  Every time I see one of these training centers I am struck by the vision of how many people the things these men learn will touch, as when they go home each of these 16 will probably lead 3-5 churches, which if they average 80 people in each congregation could be 6,000 + people growing in their walk as a result of this rudimentary pastoral training.  Just think of how the country could be transformed if there were a well equipped and well staffed Bible training center in each major town!

From Kajo Keji we dropped Phil off at Yei, then flew up to Mvolo.  This being an especially wet rainy season, there was rain all around Mvolo, but again we were able to slip in between the showers and get down.  With rain imminent I stayed by the plane while the team paid a quick visit to the pastor here among the Jur people.  Mercifully the rain held off, and we took off to fly the 40 miles to our refueling stop at Akot.  Don't be disillusioned, by refueling stop I just mean a place where there are some missionaries running a hospital, and we have put a 20 foot long shipping container beside the airstrip in which we keep barrels of fuel.  However, it was not to be as immediately uppon leaving Mvolo we started flying throu rain, and by the time we got  to Akot we were less than 400 feet above the ground to stay out of the clouds, it was raining heavily, and as I looked down at the airstrip it was mostly covered with water.  No landing here right now.  I diverted to my alternate airstrip, a major, gravel airstrip 30 miles away at Rumbek.  To add ot our predicament I had just heard another pilot departing Leer, our next stop, and saying that he got out just before a big storm mved over the airstrip!  At Rumbek I found we had one barrel of Avgas remaining despite having moved most of it to Akot.  We did this because last year they instituted a $400 landing fee at Rumbek.  Although if you arive from another airstrip with Sudan they graciously reduce that to $200!  With those kind of fees the cost of a flight can add up quickly, so we moved our fuel supply to Akot, where we pay just $20 per landing, thus saving the missionaries hundreds of dollars on each flight.  Since I had expected to fuel at Akot, and since we had filled up the maximum weight of the plane, I had not brought a pump to move the fuel from the barrel up into the fuel tanks in the sings.  No problem, we used the Africa Special pump, and after laying the barrel on its side and opening the bung hole, we held a bucket under the bung and rolled the drum until the fuel rose above the bung hole and flowed into the bucket, then roll it back to raise the bung hole, pass the bucket up to me on top of the wing where I pour it through a combination funnel and  filter, and then pass the bucket down to begin again.  I think my passengers enjoyed the opportunity to be personally involved in refueling their sole mode of transport.  J

Surprisingly I called for a weather report at Leer, and were told the weather was fine.  So we loaded up and  flew the 150 miles jup to Leerk, which is located on the western edge of the Sudd.  THe Sudd is where the Nile widens out to almost 100 miles wide and clogs up with papyrus to form the largest swamp in the world.  I think the airstrip is about 3 feet above swamp level and can get pretty muddy when wet.  Surprise, surprise, a very heavy rain.  So much for weather report number 2.  Having been to the strip before I knew that it is usually quite firm below the top couple of inches of mud,  and the plan I was flying was well equipped for taking off from soft, muddy conditions, so I elected to land.  The strip was indeed wet and slippery, but without any deep soft spots in which we might have been seriously stuck.  I elected to park the plane for the night pretty much where it came to a stop, as it was off to the side, and I didn't figure anyone else would be trying to use the airstrip in its current condition.

We waded through mud and water for about 20 minutes to get to the compound, and along the way met some new friends.  They were three pastors from Community Bible Church Vallejo, California, who were in Leer doing a pastors' seminar.  A week previously the plane bringing them in had been unable to land due to rain and mud, and they had to come in a day later on a different plane.  The entire week they had been there they had prayed for no rain and the strip had been dry.  Now, the day before they were to be picked up, it had rained, and the plane that as to pick them up couldn't handle muddy airstrips.  So I talked it over with them, and in the morning I flew them an hour south to Rumbek, where their other plane could pick them up.  Then I came back to Leer, picked up the Baptist folks, dropped Mark back at his place near Rumbek, and brought Justin and Linda back to Loki, where they caught a plane for Nairobi.

The sunrise reflected in the water on the runway makes even a tricky muddy airstrip seem beautiful. J

And that's what I do 4-5 days a week: organizing logistics that allow God's children to keep their divine appointments with God's would be children.  That is our ministry, and yours as well.  Thank you again for your faithful prayers, support and encouragement!  We love your and appreciate you!  Please continue to pray with us:

For good health; because of the abundant rain this year, there is more malaria going around than usual.

For a good experience for Tim and Deb Carpenter, who will spend Sept. and Oct. flying with us her ein Loki.  Perhaps God would have them stay on here long-term?

For the AIM Sudan team meetings to be held at Torit Sept. 7-9.  That God would bring the team together, and provide direction for the continued growth of the work in Sudan.

For Ginny and Josiah as they begin doing some preschool work together.

For Jon's brother Paul, his wife Sib and son Samuel:  They just had to evacuate from Jamaica ahead of hurricane Dean, with Jon's parents, who were visiting.  Praise they got out safely, and pray for them as they continue to investigate coming to server with AIM AIR.

For all of our wonderful friends and supporters, that they would experience God's blessing in their lives as we have experienced in ours because of them! J

Please drop us a note when you can , and we do pray you will have a wonderful summer with some divine appointments that may have an eternal impact!

Your Friends and Coworkers,

Jon,Ginny and Josiah Hildebrandt

email:   jon-ginny.hildebrandt@aimint.net