Schmidt Journey: January 2013

Thursday, January 10, 2013

MAF Winter Candidacy

After a wild ride from Spokane to North Dakota, back to Spokane for one day, then down to Nampa all during Christmas break, we are finally here at the Mission Aviation Headquarters in Nampa, Idaho for a 4-week long candidacy class.

Candidacy can be split into two sections that look like this:

2-week long "engagement" time with MAF; during this time we learn more about MAF and it's operations and locations, and they learn about us and determine where to place us. At the end of this time (this coming Tuesday, to be exact!) we will find out where we will be serving and also become full-time staff missionaries with MAF.
2-week long Ministry Partnership training; during this time we will learn the basics of raising a support team around us, including putting together presentations, preparing newsletters, and much more.

Our Candidacy Class of 11 families

We are just about finished with our first week, and while it is exhausting and busy every day, we love the process of gaining a deeper understanding of MAF's mission and how that is accomplished. If you are unfamiliar with MAF as an organization, please check out their website, https://www.maf.org/, or email us with questions, we would love to share with you the fantastic impact MAF is having on the world through the ministry of aviation.

One of the best parts of our training so far is the close community and friendships we are developing with our classmates. There are 11 families in this class, so it is fairly large, and we all are enjoying sharing our hearts about where we feel God leading us and sharing a deep connection of going into overseas ministry of the same kind.

Please pray:
-for continued stamina as we still have 3 more weeks of intense training.
-for the candidacy committee over the weekend and on Monday, when they will decide where to place each family on the field. We look forward to sharing the news with each of you soon!

praising God,
the Schmidt's

The outside to our cozy apartment

Kids playing amid our attempts to unpack

Spending quality time with Uncle Kyle one last time

Renae showing off our fireplace

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We have spent the last month with the high anticipation of Christmas, seeing family, preparing for two long trips of travel, and making sure we are ready for our candidacy classes with MAF starting January 7.

Caleb looking out at the scenery on the train

We spent 20 hours on a train traveling to North Dakota to spend almost two weeks with Renae's family for Christmas. What can we say except that the boys LOVED the train so much it almost made Caleb cry to leave it. He continues to talk about the train ride, and when we ask him if he needs to go potty he says, "I already did on the train!". Let's hope it hasn't been 5 days since he last went! With lots of little toddlers around we enjoyed a cold but uplifting time in North Dakota. Renae's family continues to expand, with 8 grandkids already and two more on the way, there will soon be 10 kids and 8 adults! While we enjoyed lots of time playing with the kids, we also played many games as adults and enjoyed sweet fellowship.

Less than two days after we got home to Spokane on the train, we packed up (half our house it seems!) and drove to Nampa to spend the next 5 weeks here. We are enjoying our last vacation time with Tyler's family and soon will move into the MAF apartments for the next 4 weeks of candidacy. While we are excited about this next phase, there are a lot of transitions for us and the kids that we would appreciate your prayers for. Especially all the moving from house to house to the one-room apartment we'll be in soon, and also for the kids to adjust to not being with Mommy and Daddy all day for the next four weeks as we will be in classes. By the middle of January we should also find out where we will be going, and appreciate your prayers during this time while they examine all the candidates and pray about where to send us.