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Monday, April 03, 2006
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Friday March 31st, 2006 (JAARS TRIP)
Today so far has been a completely awesome day. I woke up at about 8:00 or so to get ready to leave for my trip to JAARS Center. I then got all of my stuff together and headed to the car. Allie was there waiting for me and we hit the road. The drive itself was going to be about 4 1/2 hours so we left about 9:45 and we tried to aim for between 1 & 2pm arrival. We ended up making really good time and we even had a chance to stop for Subway on the way there. It was just a great time in and of itself being able to be in Allie's presence the entire drive over. But then once we got here things got really exciting. We stopped in at the visitors center to ask where the person we were staying with was. His name is Alan VanDoren and he is a really cool guy. On the walk to the aviation admin building there were a lot of things to see it was fun just to walk by there. After we found his office we had to wait for a little bit for him to get out of a meeting. But once he came out of the meeting we greeted each other and talked for a little bit. He then gave us a quick brief tour on his own. (He didn't want to show us too much to ruin the tour tomorrow). He showed me thier flight simulator, which was really really cool and I kind of hope I'll have a chance to see it in action tomorrow. We then headed out to the hangar and he showed us all the planes they have there. One thing that was exciting was a helicopter pilot doing some practice work. I got to see him take off and then hover around for awhile. It was fun! He also showed us the machine shop and the metal shop and the paint shop and all the supporting areas of aviation. They had a lot of airplanes that are antique type things too. There was one airplane they had that was serial number 001. That means it was the very first plane of that kind ever produced. It was cool to see that. THey also had a float plane on display and one of thier main all purpose planes out in the hangar as well. Thier king air (used for people transport) was about to leave for a trip to orlando and that was out on the tarmac being loaded up when we got there. It was fun to just be there. After he showed us around, he then brought us back to his house where we would be staying for the night. We had the opportunity to meet his family and see the house and stuff. Alan was actually going to be leaving later that day to take all of his boys out on a weekend camping trip. So he had to pack and prepare for that while we talked to the family and looked at some of his picture albums. He ended up leaving about an hour later and then it was just His wife and three of his daughters left. So we talked for a little longer. The girls were actually having an in house basketball team pizza party later that night so they had to clean up a little bit and get ready for the people to start showing up. The missionaries actually had planned for another missionary couple to take us in for dinner that evening since thier house would be full of 12 teenage girls and a few of thier parents. We were there for a little while after everybody showed up though and we got to meet some of the people. But we ended up leaving shortly after to the other couple's house. This couple was a fun one to spend the evening with. I met the husband at liberty a couple years ago when he came for JAARS recruting. His name is Roger Krenzin and he had a really sweet wife too! The served us chicken, mashed potatoes, brocclli, fruit salad, and a really good brownie dessert. The meal was sooo good. But beyond the meal the conversation was really amazing too. Roger has worked with Steve Saint in Equador for awhile so he told us all about his storys of his time down there. It was really good to hear about that for Allie because she is going to be down this this May. She'll have the inside scoop somewhat before she even gets there. That was cool. He also showed us his blow gun and spear he had brought back from the woodani indians. He even had some poison darts along with the blow gun that still had poison on them. That was cool. Then he tried to demonstrate the blow gun tecnique and couldn't find anything to shoot. So he just shot a throw pillow that was decorating a nearby chair. His wife had fun with that one =). We also read part the woodani indian new testament, Allie loved that.. I think that was her favorite. He then also showed us one of the authentic hand made hammocks that they sleep in out there in the jungle. It was really beautiful. Anyway, we also had a great opportunity to interview him a lot about JAARS, and opportunities that are availalbe with them. He also told about some of the opportunities in Brazil and it was cool to hear what they are doing there. I really enjoyed the time we spent with this couple and I'm excited to be a part of the actual tour tomorrow. We ended up leaving thier house a little after 9:00 tonight and then headed back to the VanDoren's. Mrs. VanDoren was still awake and everything when we got back, but two of the girls had left to stay at friends houses that night. So now the household family was just the wife and the oldest daughter still living at the house. We talked to Mrs. VanDoren for a little while, then she spent some time in prayer with us. After that we headed up stairs and started to prepare for bed. It was a really good day. We even are able to get to bed early tonight. So that is great! We will be back at JAARS headquarters by 9:45 tomorrow. I'll be sleeping well tonight I"m sure. Night!
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posted by Jeremy Dillinger @ 1:34 AM
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