Looking forward to Haiti!

Erin and I are excited to announce that we have been officially assigned to serve with MAF in Port-au-Prince, Haiti!  MAF plays a vital role in Haiti - supporting the Haitian churches, and enabling many church mission teams and NGO's in their ministry efforts.   We are excited to receive this assignment and feel it will be a great fit for our family!  We are looking forward to connecting more with the rest of the team that is already serving, and learning as much as we can about the program as we move into our next steps in our journey into the Lord's service.

Thank you to everyone who has mentored us and encouraged us over the years as we have considered and responded to the calling the Lord has placed on our hearts.  We are eager to join the Lord where He is already at work, and see lives become transformed by the power of the gospel!

If you are interested in learning more about the MAF program in Haiti, please visit:

https://www.maf.org/what-we-do/where-we-serve/haiti

Exciting week ahead

Thank you to everyone who has been supporting us through prayer for our first week of candidacy at MAF!  We have shared great fellowship with staff and other newcomers in our class, and have been greatly blessed to hear story after story of how God is powerfully working through MAF's ministry. Elsie and Sammy have been enjoying themselves with other kiddos their age too, as you can see from the video!

We will meet with the candidacy committee Monday afternoon to receive our regional assignment (Africa, Latin America, Asia, etc.) and will receive our base assignment later in the upcoming week. These upcoming weeks are going to be busy for us as we continue our training for sharing what our future ministry will look like with MAF.  We ask you to continue praying for us in the following ways:

-  For strength and energy to learn all we can during our training here
-  For continued peace and trust of where God is leading us
-  For Elsie, Sammy, and Isaiah to continue to share joyful times with new friends

Erin and I hope you and your families are enjoying great times this summer!  We will share our exciting news as soon as we are able this coming week!

Upcoming MAF Candidacy

At Isaiah's dedication

We have been enjoying our summer here, spending time with family and friends.  We have adjusted to being and family of 5 and are loving it!  The older kids really love Isaiah and it's been fun watching them all interact with each other as Isaiah is getting older and able to smile and laugh.  He really gets excited to talk with his big sister and brother too.

Our family is getting more and more used to living in a state of transition.  I have been done working as a nurse for just over and month and have been able to spend my days with our kids which is very special, albeit difficult some days.  Lessons on love and grace abound!  Dave has just a few days left at his job as a aircraft mechanic at UND.  He has enjoyed his time there and is thankful for the experience he gained during this time at UND.  As we are closing this chapter of the journey, we are excited for the next step!


We will be heading back to MAF headquarters in Nampa, Idaho for Candidacy very soon! We will begin our road trip west July 9th and will be starting classes July 13th.  During Candidacy class we will be able to hear about the programs in each of the countries where MAF serves.  We will then be given our country assignment, which we are very excited about!  This is decided through dialogue with staff at headquarters as we learn about each base and have opportunities to talk with MAF staff during Candidacy classes.  Knowing where we will be going will help us answer many questions we have as well as common questions others have for us!  We also look forward to teaching the kids about the country we are headed to and being able to share with them some of the specific ministry opportunities we will have.  We know God is sovereign and He will send us where we are needed.  



We will be in Idaho for another 3 weeks following Candidacy
class.  The rest of this time will be security training and also ministry partnership (MP) classes.  During MP classes we will be learning all about sharing our story and inviting others to join with us as partners in our ministry with MAF.  We would love your prayers during this time!


Prayers for preparation for trip- there is a lot to do and never quite seems like there is enough time to get it all done.
Prayers for safe travel to Idaho - and an extra dose of patience for all of us during the long car ride.
Prayers for Dave and I as we discern our country assignment with MAF staff.  Also just for peace for the decision, as we aim to keep our hearts open to God's direction and will for us and our family.
Prayers for wisdom with schedules and plans following MP seminar.  We know we will head to the Pacific NW for a trip, but unsure as to many of the details at this point.  

Stay tuned for updates.  We will try to post a little on our road trip west and during classes.  We can't wait to share with you all where we are headed with MAF!  Thank you to all who continue to pray and encourage us as we follow the Lord.  We hope to connect with you soon, and hope the Lord blesses you!

Lord of the Harvest

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"And He was saying to them, 'the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.'" (Luke 10:2)

We had the opportunity recently to attend a friend's church out of town, and they were praying for and sending out a team of women to Haiti for a mission trip.  Another friend of mine is a pastor of a church, where they are serving currently in Nicaragua on a mission trip.  Our church has a team currently in Ethiopia right now - sharing the love of Jesus and the hope of the gospel on the other side of the world.

As we continue following the Lord 'out into His harvest field, there are two ongoing desires of mine.  First, He is the Lord of the harvest, and it is His harvest field.  As we follow His lead in every step of being sent out, we aim to have others see Him high and lifted up as Lord in any fruit that results.  We are responders to the call, but He is the One calling, and the One they will see.  Second, we need to keep asking Him to send out laborers.  God's plan for revealing His great Name and inviting people to respond to the good news involves men and women of His choosing.  We are His vessels!  It is staggering to think of how local the disciples were reaching with the hope of Jesus as they were sent out in this section of Luke's gospel.  But, many years later, teams of disciples are being sent out to every corner of the world!  And yet there are many who have never even heard the Name of Jesus before.  The need is great!  We should be asking in deed.  May God be glorified in all the earth!

 We are so blessed with our wonderful children!  Isaiah has been doing great, and the kids have been adjusting very well to having a new baby in the home.  Thank you for all who continue to pray for us!  This season of life certainly comes with great challenges, but it is humbling to remember where it all begins - in a great place of need and complete dependency.


                                     We hope you and your families are enjoying the Spring!

Accepted with MAF!

We successfully completed our technical evaluation and have been welcomed back to MAF for the next phase of our journey!  Our two weeks at MAF's headquarters in Nampa, ID has been confirming and made us feel supported and encouraged for where God has been directing us for some time. We had great opportunities for fellowship with other missionaries who were back from the field, receiving training, or in-process toward the field.  Elsie and Sammy enjoyed playing with the other kiddos, and had a lot of fun catching up with some old friends from Washington who live in Boise now.  We have been very blessed during our travel and throughout the process these past two weeks. We are especially thankful for all those who have prayed for us over the years as we have responded to God's leading and invitation into this ministry.

We are excited to engage in this next phase of our process, which will involve inviting many others to become part of our team to share the love of Jesus throughout the world.  Specifically, the next step for us with MAF will be to return to Nampa, ID for training in ministry partnership in July of 2015. At that time, we will know our country assignment and receive the specific training for the road ahead.  MAF has two times of the year in which they conduct what they call "candidacy" training. We chose the July time slot because we are expecting a new baby in February, which would be right in the middle of the January candidacy training classes.  July seemed like a better option for us and our family.  I will continue to work as a mechanic at UND Aerospace while remaining proficient in my flying skills.  Erin will continue to work as a nurse while managing our home and homeschooling Elsie.

Thank you again for all your support and encouragement!  We are looking forward to the road ahead, and know we wouldn't be here without prayer and faithful friends/family behind us.

God bless you all in Christ!

Green light for maintenance!

We haven't had a lot of time this past week to provide updates for everyone, but thank you so much for your continued prayer and support.  We got a thumbs up on the first week's portion of the interview, which was a technical evaluation of my maintenance skills!  This next week will involve more testing and evaluation of my flight skills.  Continued prayer for safe flying and good performance during this upcoming week's evaluation process would be greatly appreciated.  We have been very blessed to visit with a lot of other MAF families who are here in various stages of their ministry.  We have made a lot of new friends, and continue to see God working powerfully through MAF's ministry and partner organizations around the world.  

Our trip out here was full of adventure as well!  We had some great family time, and got to go on our first official road trip together.  We are so grateful for how God's loving hands continue to guide us and protect us each step of the way through this stage of our lives.  Here are some great pictures of our trip!  God bless all of you and your families, and thank you again for your support!

The shirt says it all...

 We went caving at Craters of the moon national park.  It was pretty amazing!

We even get to enjoy quality time with special visitors!  Elsie and Sammy love their Papa's and Grandma's!

Love that surpasses knowledge

"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Eph 3:17b-19)

It's kind of hard to believe that the time has come for us to interview with Mission Aviation Fellowship these next couple weeks!  It has been a bit of a process since we first heard God tugging on our hearts to consider this ministry opportunity.  God has been faithful to us at every corner through this journey, and we have been continuing to see His hand in our lives in the here and now as we continue to follow His lead.  This interview consists of several interviews for both Erin and I, but it is mostly focused on my technical skills in both flying and maintenance.

As I have been spending time reviewing all the technical training I've received over the course of the last 10 years or so, I found it beautiful that in the midst of my study, God confronted me with this verse.  At the heart of any ministry, or cause for Christ, is Jesus Himself, and His Holy Sovereign work for us.  The gospel leads back to the cross, where any of us could really spend forever just trying to grasp what exactly is going on.  This is a love that surpasses knowledge!  It is unimaginable to us, and far from intellect altogether.  It was Paul's prayer that the church would have power to "grasp" it -which has to mean more of an anchoring of ourselves on it rather than a complete understanding of it.  But as often as we can return to that posture of reflecting on the cross of Christ, and continue to ponder and receive that love that is freely given there to all who believe, He promises to fill us abundantly from the inside out.  And so, I find myself fixing my eyes on Jesus - knowing that He has His eyes fixed on me.  When all is said and done, the goal in all of this is to follow Jesus' lead in His effort to reach those who have never spent time at the foot of the cross "grasping it."

Thank you to all who have prayed for us and encouraged us throughout this process!  We ask you to continue to lift us up especially over these next two weeks.  We will be traveling with the kids a long way for the interview, and will need prayer to arrive healthy, rested, and ready for the interview process.  We also are asking for prayer for our kids as they travel a long way from normal comforts in small, five-point car seats.

May God bless you and your families richly!