Sunday, November 21, 2010

getting our attention

Pray for the Aviation Church Planting work in São Paulo de Olivença

Is God is getting our attention?- we need prayer

Two weeks before we go home on furlough, we are robbed by our own guard
of two stainless steel drums of AVGAS- forcing us to move out all AVGAS
and leave the airplane in a hangar 150 miles upriver from “home”.

Military control turns to Civil Control in Aviation- result- Hangar license revoked.
The airplanes are taken to another shop for annuals. We are grounded for 3 years.
One airplane (above left corner) is now airworthy. The other airplane:
came up needing a lot of work…

To solve our woes, God supplied a new friend, Tim Lankford, BMM MK
now Continental pilot USA/Europe
who purchased a shop in Manaus
And a few weeks ago, along came a storm
and blew the hangar roof off.

Few weeks ago, our home town, with water at a record low and heavy rains, had a
landslide- leaving people without jobs, 200 without homes, and a fledgling church with a
lot to do.

For more pictures, check out our face book albums
IF you want the pictoral letters, please let us know via allenyoder@aol.com and we will add you to the list

Thanks for your prayers
Allen and Kimberly

Sunday, August 8, 2010

August

Dear Friend,

It is somewhat hard to write letters to you at this time, for we feel so "un-plugged" from our real life. Being at home visiting our churches is not only a great joy, but also has precedence (Acts 14:27- … gathered the church… rehearsed all that God had done with them…) But it is so hard to leave our beloved children and all the work, hard to slow down from a heavy teaching preaching schedule to a "devotional and slide show"… though for sure, we have enjoyed the delightful weather (!) and seeing the beauty of God's creation as we travel the many miles…

We just finished a week of ME (missionary enrichment) classes and a second week as a "facilitator" for the candidates headed to the field in a class to teach them strategies and methods of church planting. We now are headed up for a meeting in NY Sunday followed by a wedding in Oxford Michigan. The wedding is on a Saturday, then we have an overnight drive to Atlanta to catch our plane back to Brazil.

August is busy, with a weeklong meeting in Sao Paulo (down south) with the Brazilian Association of Biblical Counselors. The next week we will be in Manaus a whole week working on renewing my mechanic's license (which is vital to our aircraft maint. needs - we really need prayer on that one- Aug 16-20), The following week, we will be joining Randy Richner, Fernando (VP for the association mentioned above) and another Brazilian for a combined track 1 and 2 of Biblical Counseling training we are giving at a seminary in Fortaleza, Brazil.

GOOD NEWS from the field- Our church is going rather well, far better than we expected, praise the Lord! We had a half hour call last night and got all caught up. We won't go into details here, but to ask for continued prayer for our toddler whom it seems is walking on it's own! This will allow us (upon return) to work more on outworks as we help the church continue to develop its autonomy. They also continue to support the young Ticuna Indian missionary from our church that is covering all the Indian works in our absence. This is very exciting news in the life of a church plant.

OTHER GOOD NEWS:
Pictured on the next page- we are finding solutions to our aviation dilemma- we are forming a partnership in networking with other pilots from other missions in the area of maintenance. Tim Lankford is a BMM MK, now a Continental Airlines pilot, that has purchased a shop (see pics) in Manaus. We hope (with successfully renewing my mech. license) that this will allow us to do all inspections at our own place, give us two bases in our area, and greatly help the security situation. Please pray that all this works out, greatly enhancing our current work and securing a future for this (still) very needy work! We are also working (with special help now) at getting the plane documents changed over to our area in Manaus. Some documents are needed from the 1960s that we have not been able to find yet- so pray with us that we can find them or resolve the problem through a hired on attorney.

August 1, 2010

The new shop in Manaus is at the Airclub. It's success can keep the airplanes up and flying, and therefore keep the Indian works growing- and starting to reproduce.

GOOD NEWS- we received a letter from the two Indians that work on staff with us, one a missionary from our SPO church. They want teaching in how to organize a mission and start sending our missionaries from their own association- this is also quite exciting! We are prepping classes even now on the subject.

As weather changes, so does the interpretation of the law by those in power over us. It is becoming apparent that if we tie in with the NEW shop, we will not have to buy a rebuilt engine! But with the paperwork push and inspections at hand, and a lawyer now to pay, we still need to pray for and ask for funds to help. Thanks for joining us in prayer for that one!

As I write while putting through the Pocono mountains and the breathtaking beauty and majesty- I am reminded how big our God is, and how small our problems really are in comparison.

Thanks to all of you once again for your love, prayers, and support. God give you a blessed summer's end.

Always
Your servant and HIS bond slaves
Allen and Kimberly

Thursday, July 8, 2010

On the road

Dear Friends,

Hello to you all- crazy two weeks, 5000 miles on the road- sometimes I wonder if there is a better way… but wow, what a blessing it is getting to see you all again and have the sweet fellowship we so miss when on the field. Besides meeting in churches, we also got to work on a few planes with Phil Bowers, a man that has made it his mission to help us missionary pilots in a big way.

Next on the list is a renewal course in Nashville Tuesday, and then up north east to see Al's folks for the first time this furlough! We are really looking forward to that - Our nephew Robbie Colby will be getting married on the 10th, all gifts can go to the Yoder aviation fund (just kidding)…

We then have a week at the ABWE ME conference and will get to help out at the new candidate training school the week after. We have a meeting in the far north of New York state Aug 1, then a wedding in Oxford Michigan the 6th/7th, a long drive to Atlanta overnight as we board Sunday afternoon for Brazil again.

August: 9- 13 we are in the annual meeting of the ABCB (Brazilian Association of Biblical Counselors). 16 – 20 (please mark these for special prayer!!) we head to the other end of Brazil to Manaus where we hope to renew our Mechanic license, Move the other plane to a shop that will help me rebuild it, and work on aviation paperwork. 23- 27 we return to Fortaleza to team teach an entire track 1 and 2 conference in Biblical Counseling. We head back for home arriving Lord willing August 30, Atlanta.

Many pastors and churches have asked for project needs- our outstanding one now is the finances to do the rebuild on the airplane engine and equipment for the shop.

Please pray with us as this is no small project, but we have no small God! We should have (in about a month) a website with all the information, films, description, etc.

Thanks again for your love and prayers. Looking forward to seeing the rest of you in the months to come as we head to your churches for the needed report.

Your servant, HIS bondslaves
Allen and Kimberly Yoder