Stay here! This is our blog!

Forget the last post in which I directed you to another website.  I have had a change of mind and am sticking with the Blogger site for our future postings.  Sorry for those of you who went off and signed up there.

Let's try a blog post-- just for the fun of it.

Really, I've done it before, but it's been months. I'm trying to catch up to the age of social media and networking, but it's a slow process. No guarantees how often we'll update, this, but given the news of the last few weeks, we've got reason to keep a lot of people updated more regularly than usual.

We've got hundreds, if not thousands of people praying for us since we found out last week that Carrie is pregnant . . .

with quintuplets!

You're likely thinking, like most people that we've told, that it's a funny joke and we can tell you the truth now. Sorry, that's it. Thus-- lots of people are praying for us. We have been humbled and amazed by the outpouring of love, concern, and offers of help in the coming months. God is amazing, you all are amazing.

For those of you who may not have read our newsletter, I'll try to post it and the past few newsletters to the blog.

Some details not in the newsletter: Carrie's only about 7 weeks along at this point. Full term would be November 3rd, but the doctor would be happy for her to reach 30 weeks.

March 2012 Jones' Clips

BIG news from the Jones family!  Read all about it.  Jones' Clips - March 2012: Quintuplets!

Dinner out

Last weekend, we went to the only restaurant less than 2 hours' drive away with my (Gavin's) parents. They are leaving in just a week, so we wanted to have a nice meal out together. We don't often get good family pictures, but we got a few this time.

Isaac is feeding a tree kangaroo, one of the interesting animals found in PNG

Made it to Brissy (Brisbane)!

This is a bit late, but better late than never. Thank you so much for your prayers for me during my trip down to Brisbane, Australia in the helicopter. It was a good trip. I'm happy to say that nothing remarkable or out of the ordinary happened all the way down. The helicopter operated flawlessly over the long stretch of ocean and the hundreds of miles of Australian outback. I enjoyed seeing so much of a country in which I've spent little time. It took 18 hours of flight time and 10 stops for fuel over three days to get there. I was able to get some autorotation training as well. It's good to be home again with my family. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Over the Torres Strait-- the part of the Pacific Ocean between Papua New Guinea and Australia.

Over the flat and seemingly endless outback of the Cape York Peninsula.

At my final destination before leaving the helicopter to its new owners. The machine served our mission and the people of PNG for 25 years. Thank God for tools like this that help bring God's word to people who have never had it!

Thanks again for your prayers!

On the Way to Oz-- in a Helicopter!

We just sold our Jet Ranger helicopter to an outfit in Australia. So on Friday, I departed Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea for Brisbane, Australia, 1570 nautical miles away. After flying 17.8 hours over three days, I arrived this afternoon at my final destination. I met an Aussie pilot at my first stop into Oz and he flew with me on the way down. We flew over miles of outback, along the Great Dividing Range, and along the Great Barrier Reef. It was a beautiful trip with great weather (once I got out of PNG). I thank God for keeping me safe and allowing me to deliver the helicopter to it's final destination.

"God nos best"

We had a new kitty-- for about 2 days. She was a cute little thing-- very playful and fun. Isaac loved playing with her. Just today, though, she crawled up under our truck and when Carrie drove away (not knowing she was under there, of course), she fell out and was run over by the back tire. Needless to say, Carrie's been having a tough day.

Isaac has been wonderful, showing his caring side and empathizing with Carrie. He said he wanted to make a "gravestone" for her. It has, in Isaac's handwriting, "God nos best" (God knows best), a picture of Carrie crying and carrying the kitten in her little box, and John 3:16 written out. His kindergarten class learned it two weeks ago at school and he came up to me and asked me for the paper with "that verse about Jesus dying for us" on it. As I was digging the grave, he was running around the yard finding the prettiest flowers to put around it. He then said, "Wait! One more thing!" He ran inside to the bathroom and grabbed the aerosol strawberry deoderizer, ran out to the grave and sprayed a good dose all over the fresh earth, saying, "There, that's good!" He's a precious kid. We are so blessed with such a sensitive and empathetic kid who's so much fun, too.