Work and Play

We worked hard last week calling, emailing, writing, and talking with a lot of people and churches about our new ministry. We scheduled appointments, went to meetings, and asked for referrals. By the week's end, we logged nearly fifty hours of "work" and we definitely need a nap! I never imagined this could be such hard work! It takes a lot out of you keeping good records and meeting with people. We got away yesterday though and drove out to the beach and went for a l o n g stroll through the sand. It was nice not to think about raising money and keeping track of everything!

Just an update on "How Goes It" We're currently just under 10% of our monthly goal and have received several pledges to help cover our outgoing expenses. We've been encouraged by God's faithfulness and provision so far and know that our God will supply everything we need to accomplish this work. To stay on target, we need to be at 18% by September 15--that's 19 individuals at $25/month, or 10 individuals at $50/month. Or we could have a church support us for $480/month! That would work too! We are looking forward to seeing how God is going to meet our needs.
We have a lot of phone calls to make this week, not so many meetings yet.

"Home" Again

We made it back to Vancouver--albeit we didnt' get in until 10pm. Our reunion was fun; Colorado is a beautiful place, and our family is beautiful too! It was great to see everyone. Too bad it was only four days long. We woke up to our first day back with sore throats and pounding headaches. Neither one of us is feeling real well, but we plugged ahead with work anyway...calling, writing, scheduling, and meeting. Right now, with our friends and family behind us, we're a little over 8% in our monthly support goal. To remain on schedule we need to gain about 3% every week or $270/month. We're ahead of the game!

So, Colorado was really nice. Joy and I visited the top of Pike's Peak (the tallest point in CO), as well as the Garden of the Gods before heading up to Estes Park.

We'll be in the Portland area until October 23, when we'll head to Ohio and Maryland to meet with churches and individuals.

Hit the Road, Jack!

We are officially done with all of our classes and training (for this phase) at MAF. We've been in Colorado for the past couple days, visiting friends and family, and building our support team. Wednesday is the beginning of Joy's family reunion. After that we'll be on the road again, heading back to Washington. We've been encouraged by the enthusiastic response as we share our passion with people. Here's our timeline:

100% support by Feb. 14, 2009

MAF flight/maintenance training Feb. 23, 2009

MAF Orientation April 20, 2009

French language school (Quebec) Sept. 1, 2009

Our language school will be 9 months long, and after that we will leave straight from there for Africa. We're excited as we look forward to the future and all the things God has in store for us!

Almost There!

The past couple days we've been in classes learning how to make telephone calls, how to present to pastors and missions committees, and how to write good newsletters. We only have a few days left before they kick us out the door to begin Ministry Partnership. Our goal is to be done with ministry partnership by February 14, 2009, so we can finish up the additional flight, maintenance, and orientation training at MAF next spring. We will be going to Quebec to learn French; that starts in August every year. So, we're hoping to gather all our ministry partners in the next 6 months, then be at MAF for about three months to finish training, and then have a few months to complete all our packing and shipping and tie up loose ends (and visit our families) before leaving for language school in August. It's a very ambitious goal, and a huge task, but we serve a huge God! Joy and I can't wait to share our new ministry with you! We're so excited and privileged to serve God in this way. We have no idea where God is going to take us this coming year, but we know He will take care of us and provide for our needs even more than we can imagine.

You can see why even when there are roads in some countries, it's much more desireable, safe, and efficient to use the airplane for travel. Days are turned into minutes!

It Is Finished!

Our presentation is complete, along with a powerpoint slideshow and a short video! We'll be presenting tomorrow morning in front of lots of people we've never shared with before, so it will be just like the real thing! We will also be going as a couple in front of a mock mission committee, and they'll ask us all kinds of questions.

Joy is feeling a little better, but the cough is still hanging on. Thanks for the prayers. I think we're both glad it's getting to the weekend--we need a break. Next week we'll be designing and writing our first official MAF newsletter (and it might be different than the ones you've been seeing lately). We'll be polishing our phone skills and learning how to meet with pastors. Then they're going to give us a nice lunch and kick us out the door.

Off to dinner...see ya!

Of Presentations and Illnesses

The past two days have been filled with creating presentations, practicing them in front of live audiences, and refining them as folks provide their input and criticism. We've been coming up with videos and powerpoints to use during our presentations, and collecting pictures and music to incorporate as well. Joy and I are both pretty tuckered out from constantly thinking, speaking, and listening to pointers and input. We're also studying MAF under a microscope, to prepare for meetings with church pastors and mission boards. We need to know how MAF operates and how they do things so we can answer any questions that may come up during the process. We've got a lot on our plate right now; I wish you could see how feverishly I'm typing, so I can get back to powerpoints and presentation materials! As if all this wasn't enough, Joy hasn't been feeling too well the past 5 days, and isn't really getting any better. So today I made her go to the doctor and they said she probably has some kind of viral Bronchitis--not good, especially when you're in front of a lot of people trying to give a presentation and you keep coughing! Luckily, I haven't really been affected by whatever she has! Please pray for Joy, and that she will get better.

It seems that the MAF apartments are FINALLY nearing completion...just in time for us to leave! We saw a furniture truck in the parking lot today, hopefully delivering the furniture and appliances that will furnish the new apartments. It will be nice if we do get into one of these, because they're right across the parking lot from the MAF headquarters where all our classes are. So we won't have to go anywhere, we'll just walk across the parking lot to and from class every day.

Ahead of the Game

Our weekend has been pretty fun. We've gotten lots of opportunities to get to know other candidates a little better. We had a game night last night where a lot of us played card games and outdoor family games. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so I didn't get any pictures of it. When we weren't playing games and having fun, we were working hard on coming up with a good presentation, complete with video and slide shows for your viewing pleasure. I think we're a little ahead of the game; our homework assignment was just to think about what we wanted to include in our presentation, but we pretty much have a full rough draft of the entire thing. I guess Joy and I are both over-achiever's or something!

Here's a photo of this summer's new career missionary staff, one of the largest classes in MAF's 63 years of existence! These folks came from all over America, and will be sent out all over the world...Africa, Central Asia, Latin America, and Indonesia! All of these people have responded to God's call as missionaries around the globe. Statistics say that this class represents less than half of all the people who formally trained to be missionary pilots/mechanics. Praise God that He has brought us this far! This photo does not include all the short-term (1 year) missionaries that went through candidacy with us.