My Mirror Image

Some people are language experts and translate precious words into a people's heart language, others provide hope for at risk kids living in the inner city, still others are church planters, or evangelists. Me...I'm a pilot...and a mechanic too, but mostly a pilot!

It's so incredible to me how all of us are skilled and gifted and called to be and do such different things, yet we all have the same passion; we're all working toward the same goal--to never stop telling people about all the great things God has done until "every tribe, tongue, and nation has heard." I always tell people that I love flying, but my real passion is serving people (which is why mission aviation is such a great fit for me), and I think all those translators and church planters would say the same thing. Our God is amazing!

On the home front, things are looking pretty slim! After packing a lot of the little things and selling a small mountain of other belongings, the walls are becoming a little bare. I'm still dividing my time between packing and moving, and Servant Wings. I spent the better portion of today in the air riding shotgun, and in the hangar putting our 172 back together. It's not too often that I get to sit back and relax while someone else flies, so I take advantage of it. I was flying with David, one of the other members of Servant Wings. He's preparing to do MAF technical evaluation in August. We often ride with each other and offer each other feedback on areas where we can improve. Even though neither one of us is a flight instructor, the extra set of eyes (that aren't intently focused on flying the airplane) are often invaluable. In this picture, I'm focusing on the precise spot where David is lifting off during takeoff and touching down during landing. This is really important information to know, especially when you're operating the airplane close to its performance limits. It helps us get to know the airplane better, but even more importantly, it gives us a "standard" so we can gauge every other takeoff and landing based on that one. If the airplane isn't performing like it should, like we expect it to, then we know something is wrong and we can stop the airplane on the runway without hurting any people, or the airplane!

Keeping the airplanes we fly in good repair also helps when we fly them close to their performance limits. That's what we were doing today, correcting problems with our 172's engine (an important part of the airplane!). We had to replace some really small, seemingly insignificant parts inside the carburetor (yes some airplanes still use them, along with magnetos. The only other thing that uses them, besides airplanes, that I can think of are farm tractors from the 1930's). We put it all back together, slapped it back on the engine and then performed a test run to make sure it worked before we signed it off to be fly-able again. It seemed to work fine, and with a few minor fuel adjustments, we had that engine purring like a...well, a very large domestic cat! (Don't worry, I didn't shave my head and dye my hair blonde! This is David; I'm behind the camera)

Picture Perfect

So, the past few weeks have been quite a blur of selling, buying, packing, driving, planning, and surprises. And although most things around me are changing, and my head sometimes feels a bit hazy, one thing is made constantly clear to me.

God is too good at graciously giving me things I do not deserve. Among other things, my Joy is just incredible. So resilient and so radiant. She makes me laugh like no one else! I'm glad He is in control; He always knows best!

It's Been A While

Sorry...it has been a while since I've updated you on our adventures. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to show for it either. But I thought I'd just let everyone know that we're still alive and still plugging away towards our official indoctrination into MAF. We're actually packing up/selling a lot of our belongings as we'll be moving out of our apartment the end of this month. My parents have graciously offered to fly us out to Ohio so we can spend a few days with the family before all the craziness hits. We will be there until the 8th of July, visiting and have a grand time. And then, just like that, we'll be back in Vancouver, facing a 7 hour drive back down to MAF in Idaho for one more week of evaluation. At the end of that week, we'll receive our field assignment, so we will be able to tell everyone where we'll be serving. Following will be two weeks of orientation and two weeks of "ministry partnership" seminars. After that, we'll be driving to Colorado for the Boersma Family Reunion in the middle of August, and then on to the east coast, where we'll begin the support raising process. It's moving fast now!
My days now are spent usually packing and negotiating with people who would like to buy our belongings. Although, I'm writing this particluar entry from the lunch room at Moody Aviation in Spokane. Seems that some of the corporate members of Servant Wings wanted to use us to fly out here for some meetings instead of drive (I don't blame them!). So I get to see many familiar faces and update everyone here on our whereabouts and what we're up to.
Now, I'm sure some of those plans I told you all about are leaving some questions and maybe even some confusion in your head about when we're actually going to be here or there and what we'll be up to in the next couple months. That said, we'd love for you to shoot us an email so we can answer your questions! We'd be delighted to hear from you. Our email address is
chriskonop8@yahoo.com So if you're unclear on any of that, let us know so we can clear up any mud! Thanks for the prayers and encouragement and financial support--we have a strong team behind us, and you are appreciated!

Which One?

One of these photos will hopefully go on an MAF prayer card...but which one?

The last week has been filled with paperwork, paperwork, and...you guessed it...more paperwork. It seems that becoming a missionary requires, among other things, A LOT of forms and papers to fill out! I've also been working on our most recent newsletter (which is now done) that will soon be mailed out to all of our loving family and friends.

What about this one?

When I'm not followed by the seemingly endless trail of papers, you can still find me down in the Seravnt Wings hangars getting all greasy while mending unsafe conditions on the aircraft.

We are also excited to announce that MAF is now accepting donations on our behalf! Any donations received would be used for our initial outgoing expenses, including: housing during our summer orientation (5 weeks), MAF flight and maintenance orientation training, one year of language school, initial field assignment, shipping costs for our belongings to be shipped overseas, visa processing, immunizations, passports, and several other things.

One last photo, our first attempt at aerial photography. Featured is Servant Wings' Cessna 206 departing a grass airstrip about 10 minutes north of Vancouver, on an incredibly beautiful day!

A Few More Shots

On the maintenance side of evaluation, I had a lot of different projects--everything from disassembling a magneto to figuring out why a light wouldn't work on the aircraft tug!

Here I am working hard on my sheet metal project. I had to make an aluminum box out of one piece of flat metal, and then rivet it together. I also had to "write" my initials in the center of the box with more rivets. This project involves a lot of math, among other things, which is NOT one of my strong suits. But that's OK, I had a lot of fun!

Here's the finished product...not too bad!

An Inside Look

Here are some snapshots of the past two weeks that may help solidify the goings on down at MAF.

This is a photo of the actual wreckage of N5156H, the aircraft used by Nate Saint in the Equadorian jungle to reach many tribal Indian villages. While trying to reach a certain group of native Indians, Nate Saint along with four friends were killed by the arrows and spears of the very people they were trying to reach. While tragic, the event was a spark that ignited a fire among the mission community and as a result, many dedicated their lives to serving as missionaries overseas. The book Jungle Pilot is an account of the five men and their families who risked everything in order to share God's love with a people who had never heard. I was one of the people who read the book, which was a huge factor in my decision to become a missionary pilot. Seeing the wreckage is a great reminder that God uses everything to glorify His name.

My ride for the first week--flight evaluation. This is a modified, turbo-charged Cessna U206G, long the workhorse of mission aviation around the world. It is very much the truck of the airplane world, capable of hauling almost 2 tons of people/cargo in and out of very small landing strips. Training through Moody Aviation, and then Servant Wings, I came well prepared to fly this beast, which can be a very tough bronco to tame if you're not used to it.

I mentioned that Joy was my cheerleader during the past two weeks, well, here she is again providing moral support for team Konop!

Drum Roll Please....

The two weeks of evaluation are over, you know we already passed the flight portion, what about the maintenance?!? My instructor checked me off for recommendation from the maintenance department Friday morning, and the candidate committee invited us back to Idaho for summer orientation! We made it!! Although we are not officially missionaries under the banner of MAF...yet, we are semi-committed to each other. So what happens next? We will be traveling back to Nampa, ID, the second week of July and will be staying there for four weeks. During that time we will go through non-technical evaluation, orientaion, and a two week support raising seminar. Also during this time we will receive a "field assignment" for where we will be spending the next four years of our lives. Joy and I have no real preference on where we would like to serve, and with MAF being a worldwide ministry, we could be sent just about anywhere! We are excited to have come this far along the journey and during the past two weeks we walked away feeling God's confirmation again that this is what He has designed and prepared us to do. Halelujah! Praise be to God!

Joy was definitely my cheerleader during evaluation! (Among other things)