Tyler and I have now lived in Spokane for over 4 years. When we first moved here, our immediate plan was: attend Moody Aviation flight school for 2 years. After that we knew Tyler would need to gain more experience and we would need to pay off student debt, but did not know the "where" or "how" of these two things. Neither of us thought we would end up staying in Spokane as long as we have.
The move to Moody is not that far, only down the road.
The Lord certainly surprised us by opening up the doors of the Spokane Turbine Center (STC) internship, and allowing us to be missionaries with Proclaim Aviation these last 2 years. We are so grateful for the time we have spent with STC, but as we continue to move towards to an overseas missions, we are taking another step in that direction. Starting in December, Proclaim is allowing Tyler to switch his responsibilities at STC over to Moody Aviation as a maintenance instructor for the 4th and 5th year students. The goal of this is to give him the required maintenance experience on the single piston engine (like a car) that he will need for the technical evaluation (TE) he must take to join any mission organization. We are also hoping that switching over to Moody will give him a little more time to fly the aircraft he will also be tested on, a Cessna 206.
Cessna 206
Our original plan was for Tyler to take his TE in 2012 at Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF). As we continue to pray about this, we face two issues: Tyler may not have enough time in flight and maintenance to prepare him for the test by spring, and, our other big obstacle of our student debt. We still have a little over $21,000 in school debt and to be able to join MAF we need to be debt free (or very close). Because of these two factors, it is more likely that our goal will be for Tyler to take the TE in 2013 sometime. We are in constant communication with the MAF recruiters about our time table for TE and a date has not been nailed down as of yet. It will still be an act of God (a miracle) if we can get our debt down to almost zero by that time. But when things are impossible for man it just opens up the way for God to work in a mighty way, and this is a great opportunity.
Sometimes I (Renae) feel like we are often in "limbo land". We know we're not here to stay, yet we are not at a point where we are able to go overseas. It makes it hard for me to feel "settled", and to make permanent connections. We are still learning how to "live in the now", and make all the relationships and interactions we have here as important as if we were going to live here the rest of our lives. I, personally, am learning how to ask God to help me live how He would want me to each day; to love Jesus, to love people, be myself, and take advantage of the opportunities we have here and now while we wait for the next bend in the "Schmidt journey."
Please pray for us as we:
- Make a plan for Tyler to take the Technical Evaluation (TE) in 2012 or 2013
- Reduce our school debt to zero by our TE date
- Try to take advantage of opportunities to know and serve people better
- Learning how to love God more and teach our kids to love God through our actions
the Schmidts
