Schmidt Journey: March 2014

Monday, March 24, 2014

Standardization

Tyler is on day 12 of standardization training here at MAF in Nampa. It's hard to believe that 3 weeks ago we were driving down here with all our belongings in a moving van, unloading it all at Tyler's parents, and moving into our apartment at headquarters. We are thankful for a relatively smooth transition and the AWESOME community of 3 other families here to do standardization also. We have all moved out of our homes, are in the process of or have already packed our stuff for our assigned countries, and are trying to figure out how to do this with little kids! If you can believe it, there are 9 kids here between our 4 families and Caleb, who is 4, is the oldest! We are all pretty busy mommas, re-learning to do daily life without our husbands as they are at training, but enjoying the help and encouragement that living in community provides.

As for Tyler...I can't really tell you all the details of what they are learning right now, but so far it is a lot of classroom lectures to go over procedures and everything else they need to know before they jump into the maintenance and flight portion. Tyler will first spend a couple of weeks doing maintenance, and then switch to flying. He is definitely looking forward to getting back in an airplane! If you want more information about that, you'll have to ask Tyler!

A little of what life in community looks like:

Headquarters (will post more pictures of the grounds

and our apartment later)

Tyler's classmates and instructor looking for an ELT (Emergency Location Transmitter) signal
or looking for ET...one of the two

The MAF hangar

Sitting in classes

Doing "story/craft" time for the no-nappers in the

afternoon. we made friendship necklaces and trail mix

The kids made friendship necklaces to exchange and

gave one to their buddy Ethan, who they play with

pretty much non-stop every day

Aaron, Ethan, and Caleb; Ethan leaves tomorrow to go back

to Indonesia...they will miss him like crazy!

Soon I will try to post some more pictures of the MAF buildings and our apartments here. The kids have adjusted pretty well to being here, helped a lot by having many other kids to play with! Thanks for your prayers for our family. We are thankful for each of you.

Tyler, Renae, Caleb, Aaron, Jocelyn

Sunday, March 9, 2014

The SENDOFF

A couple of weeks ago our church blessed us by "sending" us off to complete our training with MAF in preparation to leave for Indonesia and begin our ministry there. During the time of our membership with New Hope, we truly have felt like family and completely become a part of the body there. We are so thankful for the sweet fellowship, genuine relationships, and accountability to spiritual growth that we experienced during our time with them, and look forward to continuing as we partner with them for the sake of the Gospel.

THANK YOU New Hope!!

We love you all and can't wait to share with you our experiences and continue in fellowship and partnership with you.

We had a great turnout during our Send Off Open House, during which friends from various walks of our time in Spokane came to visit. Here are a few snapshots

A gorgeous cake

Will miss this family greatly, such sweet encouragers with so much wisdom

When we moved to Spokane, I did not know I had family nearby.

Brenda is a relative of my grandma, and has been a blessing and encouragement to our family

Love this couple, Chris and Gerri Wright. Chris has been a great

encouragement and mentor to Tyler!

Awesome couple from Moody Aviation, also hoping to head overseas one day

What a sweet blessing the McCauley's are, a humble and generous family

I will miss this lovely sister, Jessa!

A wonderful, God-fearing family

Some old friends stopped by to say hello

Thanks for everyone who stopped by, even if I didn't get your picture in here!! You were much appreciated and we enjoyed visiting with everyone who came by. It was so helpful to have this time for some closure before we left.

Coming up next

What we are here at MAF for: Standardization and Orientation

Saturday, March 8, 2014

The Big MOVE

Well, here we are. In Nampa, Idaho. Over a year after joining with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), we are at the final 10-week stretch of training here at headquarters. This means that not only are we at about 99% of our goal for monthly support (hooray and 1,000 AMENS!), but we are just months away from departing for INDONESIA. It has been quite a journey for us, and will continue to be, and we are so thankful for each one of you who are praying with us on the journey and making it possible through your support so that we can GO.

Though not our first big move, this move from Spokane, WA, our home for almost 7 YEARS, was the most difficult . We've enjoyed really establishing our marriage here, starting our family, and building numerous deep relationships. Part of my heart is still there and will be for awhile. It does not seem possible that we won't be going back to stay, and yet we had some wonderful closure with friends and family there, and are SUPER excited to be in this final phase of training here at MAF.

Here are some pictures of the moving process, which in the end went much more smoothly than we had anticipated, thanks to much appreciated help with meals, some cleaning and childcare during the weeks beforehand!