A Look at Our Timeline

 

Currently we are in Washington State, working on building up our partnership team.  This is people who are committed to praying for us and/or supporting our ministry.  We have the privilege of meeting with many different individuals, families and churches to share about Mozambique.  Sometimes we have people over for dinner or go to their homes.  Other days involve large group presentations at churches, bibles studies, mission conferences and civic organizations.  Often it finds us working at connecting over the phone, internet or by mail.  It is a full time job!

NOVEMBER 10, 2014: DUE DATE

Along with the ongoing team building, we are also growing our family.  We are preparing to welcome baby boy #2 this November.  Diego is especially excited to have a brother, and has proven to be an excellent helper.  His arms become a forklift with which to organize baby clothes and he is so eager to introduce his little brother to the world of baby toys!

Diego began pre-k classes three mornings a week in October.  We wanted him to have the opportunity to adjust to school now, rather than among so many other changes coming next year.  He walks in confidently carrying him Thomas backpack by the handle since there is NO WAY he will wear it on his back and waves goodbye when his teacher reminds him. He is already saying that he’d rather go all five days…

The Pre-K classes are also making our work time more efficient and that gives us extra time devoted intentionally to Diego when he is home.  We’re trying to make the most of our days off as well, enjoying friends and family in the area and crossing a few things off the family “before we leave we should _____” checklist!  Visiting the space needle was high on Diego’s suggestion list.  We visit the pool to keep progressing on his swim lessons from this summer too.

 

JANUARY 12, 2015: MAF FUNDING DEADLINE

We are very excited to let everyone know we have reached 97% of our outgoing funds! It is such an encouragement and blessing to see the many different ways the Lord provides. Friends, family, strangers… we are so thankful. Monthly support is also growing weekly. To date we are over 2/3 of the way to fully funded. Our goal is to reach 100% on both by January 12th. That is the MAF deadline to sign up for the next scheduled training session offered March-May.

  

Assuming we are funded by January and that our timeline is the Lord’s, that will give us time to pack up/sell our belongings in January/February.  We will be making decisions on what to take to language school in suitcases on the plane, what to put in crates bound eventually for Mozambique and what to leave behind/sell.  We also have work to do with visas, school applications, immunizations and such.

MARCH 9 ~ MAY 16, 2015: MAF STANDARDIZATION AND ORIENTATION

The training we will do March-May is at MAF headquarters in Idaho.  There’s ground school, flight standardization and maintenance training for eight weeks which are followed by two weeks of orientation.  Flight standardization is what every airline or air taxi does to make sure all their pilots are flying their way, but at MAF it is a little more than that.  MAF uses very short strips in remote areas, sometimes built into the side of a mountain.  Landing on that kind of slope is something we have never done before, so MAF will teach us how to do it safely.  Here’s a link to some footage from the spring 2014 flight training by our fellow MAFers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2phgCmTrmRk

Grady will do something similar in maintenance.  In the US, when most components need overhauled, the mechanics' job is to pull them off, send them to a specialty shop, and install a new one.  But in Mozambique there is not a specialty shop, so often we are overhauling the components ourselves.  Grady is excited to learn how to do this, as well as MAF's general maintenance procedures.

Orientation is MAF's cross cultural and ministry training.

JUNE 2015 ~ 2016: LANGUAGE SCHOOL

After all of these classes are complete, it will be time for us to head to language school.  Because Mozambique speaks Portuguese, we will be attended a university in Coimbra, Portugal for classes similar to English as a Second Language classes here.  The university has over 700 years of experience and is also used for language studies by Wycliffe.  Classes there begin in June and will last about a year.  While we are there, Diego will be in school too – kindergarten – and the new baby will be in childcare during our classes. 

 

Photo by: Andreas Trepte, www.photo-natur.de

JUNE 2016: MOZAMBIQUE

Then it will be off to Nampula, Mozambique in June 2016.  MAF terms run in four year cycles with 3.5 years on the field and then 6 months back in the states for updating supporters and family time.  Our first term includes language school so it will actually involve 1 year in Portugal, 2.5 years in Mozambique and then 6 months in the states.  We intend to remain indefinitely with MAF, which means the cycle will begin again with another Mozambique adventure June 2019. 

 

Whew, I can tell it will be a whirlwind!