above: Elon Musk and his son X Æ A-12

X Æ A-12

If you are like me and are mildly obsessed with the future president of our solar system, Elon Musk, then you know that his son has a very odd name. X Æ A-12 or Ash for short, is not yet soaring to the top of any list of popular baby names. But it might after supreme leader Elon (from his office aboard an electric spaceship) decrees that “all baby names henceforth must contain at least one number”.

Names can be weird, people with weird names can be normal, and people with normal names can be weird. Take Wade. Wade is a completely normal name. A man named Wade played professional baseball. Baseball can be weird, and Wade was weird. Wade would only eat chicken before each game because chicken gave Wade good luck… Weird.

So, what’s in a name? Before I was called Flyin’ Bryan, I was called Hat Bryan, Crazy Bryan, Baby Bryan, and Cryin’ Bryan (thanks Adventures in Odyssey for ruining my childhood!!!). Names are impactful, and people grow into their name. Let’s look more closely at one of my former nicknames. Back in the day of voice change and pimple clusters, I was known by the name “Hat Bryan”. The reason I received this moniker was due to my large, diverse, and somewhat moldy collection of hats. At one point I had over 100 hats, which admittedly were mostly cheap trucker hats, labeled with some diesel product or trucking company’s name. I would almost never leave the confines of my house without first donning my noggin with one hat from the plethora of choices. I did this for three main reasons; 1. Because I did have some cool hats, and I thought I looked cool in them, 2. Because combing my hair took too much effort, and hats solved that problem nicely. 3. Because my head is oddly shaped, and covering more of it improved my self-esteem. During this time, I leaned into the title “Hat Bryan” and acquired more hats, always trying to live up to the name. Much to my wife’s chagrin, a large portion of these hats still live with us, slowly returning to dust from whence they came.

There is one name that is above all others. At the name of Jesus all will bow, including X Æ A-12, Elon Musk, and yourself. We that have the hope, we that have the promise, we that have the forgiveness, are selfish if we remain silent. There is a big world filled with billions of unbelievers, and there are houses that are next to us filled with the same. Here is another name, Roger. He is my 86-year-old unbelieving neighbor. It took me nearly two years to build a relationship with him, mostly because I am so busy. But looking into Roger’s sweet eyes, and knowing he is at the edge of eternity makes me shiver. So pray for Roger, and pray that the church will complete our God-given assignment. Because shiny electric rockets ain’t gonna save us.

Currently at MMS

MMS is celebrating with UIM Aviation as they return to service a previously badly damaged airplane. UIM Aviation operates a small fleet of Cessna 206’s that they use to fly doctors, Bible translators, local pastors and perform med evacs into some of the hardest to reach areas of northern and central Mexico. There is a chance that I will get to spend time with UIM as I sharpen my mountain-flying skills in the near-ish future. UIM had an unfortunate accident at one of these bush mountain airstrips. After much creative packing, grunting, and praying, UIM was able to load up the plane and send it to MMS. MMS did a great deal of the sheet metal repairs needed even harvesting needed parts from two other donor planes, and shipped the mended bird to UIM’s USA base for completion. After much more grunting and praying, UIM was able to return N8352Q back to service just this year. So far 52Q has been used for a medical evac and for flying doctors into the bush for a few medical clinics.

The annual I was performing on “Flights for Christ” Maule M5 is finally finished, now all that is left is the fun part… PAPERWORK!!!!

We have been waiting on some parts to complete the Maule airplane, and in the meantime, I have been reassigned to repair the fiberglass cargo pod bolted to the bottom of the “Flights for Christ” other airplane called an Airvan. Fiberglass repair is fun, and feeling itchy again feels good, but feeling not itchy feels goodest.

Here is a quick update about the end of Mar, Apr, and the beginning of May.

We went mini-golfing at Coshocton’s finest indoor mini-golf course. We had Maria’s brother Joseph and his wife Wendy drive out here from PA to visit us for a weekend, and since it was cold outside we looked for fun indoor activities. We discovered that Coshocton has an indoor mini-golf course! We walked through the door expecting lasers, blacklight and extreme courses! What we got was 8 “holes” built out of various 2x4s painted yellow, fake turf, with different childhood toys as obstacles. All hope was lost. But after a few holes, and desperation for indoor activities, we discovered it was actually a great little hang-out spot. We had a blast, and I even won a free game with my pro golfing skills

Evelyn’s surgery is coming up on June the 16th. She is doing well, and the doctors are happy with her development. We will not have to drive up to Akron until the preop so praise the Lord for that🤲. The constant 3 hour trip to and from Akron was wearing down just about everything! I can’t wait to see the changes in her after this surgery. Many people say that after clef surgery, their previously suction-less children, will start sucking on everything, including walls, windows and floors 😂. If she is anything like her sister Aria, she will be eating shingles in no time.

Freddie’s homeschool co-op had their spring concert. It was fun watching Freddie sing in between picking his nose, talking to his peers, waving at us, and staring into oblivion. All the children did a great job, and Freddie will miss his friends from co-op greatly when we move later this year.  

Here is a timeline of our next few months,

Pray for Evelyn’s surgery on June 16th. I know it’s a small surgery and a common one at that, but it’s different to know something, and actually handing your baby off to a surgeon.

Pray for Maria as she will be very busy after the surgery ensuring Evelyn doesn’t shove the nearest fork into her mouth.

Pray that the other children will be long-suffering during the time right before and after the surgery.

Pray that Evelyn will not experience a lot of pain.

Pray for our neighbor Roger. Pray that God would move his heart.

Praise that Evelyn is doing so going so well!

Praise that my inspection went so well and that the Maule can return to kingdom service.

Till next time,