As we approached the first mountain pass on our way to Idaho I was conflicted between a sense of finality and the feeling that the whole world was about to open up before us. I had never been to Mission Aviation Fellowship headquarters before, and I was nervous that things would not be what I had come to expect over the last three years. For me, finally making it there represented both the end of a tireless season of waiting (Alex started Moody seven years ago) and the beginning of a whole new life filled with unknowable joys and challenges. However, we still had a few hours of driving left, and I was already full up from a week in Spokane of being blessed by much needed time with old friends. So while Alex drove on, I drifted off leaving the sorting out of emotions for another time. MAF headquarters turned out to be everything I expected. Settled about twenty minutes outside of Boise with mountains on the horizon in every direction we found a beautiful facility full of friendly faces. What ensued was two weeks full of testing, interviews, new faces, and old "war" stories. While Alex spent his days testing for flight and maintenance, I filled my time with getting to know the place and its people and catching up on some reading. We were also able to spend a few evenings in staff homes, learning about their experience with MAF including many joys and struggles from years (even decades) overseas and their transitions to life in an office stateside. One story in particular that stands out to me was an older couple describing a time when they first began fund raising to head overseas many years ago. They were strapped for cash and had a two year old at the time. One month it came down to a choice between buying milk for their kiddo and buying a pair of nylons for church the next day (I can't say that I am old enough to remember the time when that was an undisputed essential to Church attendance). Of course they chose to take care of the family first. But as it turned out, that very day an unknowing family member dropped off a whole bag of unopened and otherwise unwanted nylons in hopes that they might be more useful in someone else's closet. This seemed like a silly story to me initially, but upon further thought there is much to be learned from it. Not only does God provide above and beyond our need when we often least expect it (silly us), but he cares about even the smallest things. As this woman put it: all things are small compared to him, so why not ask. In the end it seems they liked us enough to give us the green light. Some of you may be surprised that we even passed the psych evaluation! his means that we are currently on track to head back out for five weeks of training in mid July with a newborn in tow. At that time we will make the whole thing official, find out where we are headed overseas, and begin the process of partnership development. When We head back to Iowa in August we will be bonafied missionaries. A little crazy if you ask me!
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AuthorsWe are just a couple of kids from Iowa learning to trust Christ daily and aiming to serve Him though mission aviation. Archives
August 2023
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