Meet the Mechanical Side of Boa Vista

Well, it's finally time to wrap up Boa Vista with some pictures of the maintenance project Jeyson was working on. I wanted to post this sooner but I've been knocked over by a serious cold! I am finally starting to feel better though and it's time to blog.



Here's the Asas hangar in Boa Vista where Jeyson spent most of the week.

He worked together with Vitor, a Brazilian mechanic (also of German descent) who serves at the base in Manaus. He also came over for the project and Jeyson really enjoyed working with him and learned a lot from him.

After my previous post saying that the project was not to fix the landing gear, Jeyson cleared me up and explained that I had understood exactly backwards...the project was all about fixing the landing gear. I"m not sure how I got that totally inverted....what can I say? I'm definitely not a mechanic :)

Since Asas's planes are always landing on really rough landing strips, after awhile the landing gear was starting to show wear from all of the stress on it.

And on a routine inspection, a crack was discovered inside one of the cavities that you can see on the floor of the plane above.

Here's the part that they took out that had the crack.....can you see it? (Jeyson's pointing to it)

REALLY tiny, huh? It is just to the right of my finger....super small and light.

However, when dealing with airplane mechanics, everything on the plane needs to be in PERFECT condition - this little crack could cause a serious problem and unlike a car, you can't pull over to take a look!


Jeyson really enjoyed his work in Boa Vista. He is very creative and mechanically inclined, so he really enjoyed the opportunity to improve his skills and knowledge.

But the part we enjoyed most about this trip was being able to be even closer to the "action" of our ministry. What a joy to know that when the plane is fixed it will be used to reach isolated people groups.

It is just such a joy to be part of that!

While Jeyson and Vitor worked on the plane, one of the pilots, Rodrigo, was getting ready to take off to one of the villages in the other plane. The first step is loading up the supplies.

The missionary on the left works with New Tribes Mission and he lives in Boa Vista. His ministry is shopping! Wouldn't that be a great full-time job and calling in ministry?!? The many villages where missionaries live receive a plane-load of supplies every two weeks. The missionaries send a list of everything they will need to this man and he shops all over the city for everything on their lists and sends it on the plane to them.

What's in the boxes? EVERYTHING you can imagine! Eggs, flour, medicine, diapers, nails, soap, meat, vegetables....

Every nook and cranny is packed...

And the back seats are taken out for more room. Things has to be packed very carefully though in order to distribute the weight evenly. The boxes are all organized by weight.

And off he goes! We met several missionaries who normally live in the villages but right now were in Boa Vista for various reasons. We had wonderful chats about their ministry, life in the villages, the tribe they serve, what God is doing, etc. They all say that without the ministry of Asas de Socorro their work would be impossible, all of the missionaries would have to leave the villages.

We are so excited and passionate about this ministry....thank you for being part of it!