Christmas music before or after Thanksgiving?

I would rather not get into a debate, knowing that many of you are advocates for the "after Thanksgiving day listening to Christmas music idea", but we have never been able to hold out that long!  Ever since we got married, Tyler and I have either been year-round Christmas music listeners or would start about mid-summer.  However, this year we have actually made it until October!  That's right, for the past few weeks we have been enjoying the heralds of angels and the anticipation of family togetherness that Christmas music alone can bring.  It strikes me that though all the sentiments of Christmas are great to look forward to, I do not spend much time anticipating the true reason we celebrate.  That is why during our pre-Christmas listening time this year, I am trying spend more time thanking the Lord for the perfect Gift He gave us.  (having a baby moving around inside me does help me remember to do this too!)

This past weekend Tyler and I were blessed with the chance to attend a Weekend to Remember marriage conference.  What a gift to married couples!  If all couples could attend one every few years, I think it would help many more marriages stay together.  I was reminded and convicted of the importance of making our marriage a priority above the family.  Since becoming parents it is so difficult to love and cherish Tyler the way I did before our precious boy came along!  I am so thankful of the reminder and commitment to put our marriage first (which will hopefully start including some fun and creative dates planned by both of us!).  I am looking forward to the challenge of showing Tyler how important he is to me both through dates, prayer, and special reminders through the week.

Tomorrow I have my 20 week ultrasound to make sure the baby is healthy, and also to find out if it is a boy or a girl.  We did not find out what we were having before, but are most likely going to this time.  Of course I could wait another day and then post this blog so all of you would know, but you will just have a wait a week or so while we let all our family members know!

I hope this entry finds you healthy and joyful, abiding in the strength of the Lord.

More Fall Happenings

Goodness, time flies when you have a full work schedule and a family at home to keep you busy!  Since our last update we have had several things going on...

First off I had the option to go to Prairie School of Mission Aviation at Three Hills Canada.  This was the last flight on the summer tour with the Kodiak.  It was only a day outing but was a good opportunity to show off the plane to some of the future missionary pilots and tell the students there that they could also get their turbine training at Spokane Turbine Center.  I was also excited to go because this would give me some more flight time in the Kodiak.  As we were passing over the Rockie mountains, I was once again awed by God's power and majesty in the creation I was looking at.  Some of the mountains went straight up 3 or 4 thousand feet  with no interruption in its climb for the skies.  Even though we were cruising at 19,000 feet I still felt very small compared to the peaks that were jutting up all around me.  On our return trip back to Spokane we started to run into weather and the night time.  The temperatures were starting to drop and ice was starting to to form on our wings faster than it could sublimate, so that started to get the heart rate up trying to think of our "outs" (ways to get out of the weather) and options.  It was good experience for and it was amazing to use the full capabilities of the G1000, using the XM weather which overlays where the precipitation is happening over your moving map.  All in all the flight was completed successfully even if it was long day and we didn't arrive back home till the wee hours of the morning.

 

Most recently I have finished my Certified Flight Instructor Instrument rating as of Oct 22.  This has a huge burden mentally for me and hasn't been easy.  I had been working on this rating for almost a month and was starting to get some pressure from work to get it finished since they needed me back at the "office" and not boring holes in the clouds all day. 

Caleb is lovin' life as he figures out new skills and develops his own little personality!  Around 14 months he finally took off walking, and now he never stops!  He is a busy little guy, and keeps us entertained and on our toes at all times.  He's really smart too.  One of his favorite activities right now is taking at least three of our pot lids and spinning them on the floor.  We watched him the other day and he has a method:  he holds them a certain way to be able to throw them so they always spin, and he can have all three lids spinning at the same time!  It's pretty incredible the things they can figure out to do.  One of the cutest things he does is "talk" on the cell phone.  He has a toy phone that he holds to the back of his head and walks around gabbing like he's talking on it.  Precious! He also loves to stack things and knock them over, and if we'd let him he'd pull all of the toilet paper off the roll.

Big news in our lives right now:  Caleb will soon be a big brother!  Renae is about 19 weeks pregnant and due around March 20.  We should find out soon whether it is a boy or a girl.  We are SO excited about the blessing of another child and the joy it will be to have two little ones to train and love. 

Renae still loves the blessing of being a stay-at-home mom and is keeping herself busy with a women's Bible study, Tots and Co. at church, spending time with other moms, and teaching a couple piano lessons.  She also enjoys the "baby" reading time at the library once a week, which apparently is just a hilarious time observing fifteen babies together with their parents singing and listening to short stories.  

I realize this entry is a little lengthy due to our lack of current updates...I will try to post sooner so that you don't feel as if you are reading a novel!  Hope you enjoyed the current news, and feel free to send us an update on your lives too!  We would really enjoy hearing from you.  God bless!

We love the fall...

Fall just happens to be my (Renae's) favorite season.  I love September in Spokane, and especially  love picking peaches and apples and enjoying pumpkin donuts at the local fruit orchards.  Life has been busy since we returned from our 6-week long trip this summer.  Though I enjoyed the time with my family, I am so happy to be home again.  As fall starts, so do programs that I am going to try being involved in this year.  I will soon be attending my church's women's Bible study, and also Tot's and Co.  Both will be a nice outlet for Caleb and I.

Tyler and I were so encouraged by several people who have committed to supporting us during our vacation/deputation/work(for Tyler) time.  We were especially blessed to share at my home church in Rugby, and experience the love and support of those that I have known for a long time.  I am sometimes still overwhelmed and discouraged by the amount of support we need to raise, and the lack of traveling time we have to visit churches or people.  But we have seen God provide so much already and know that it is not anything "we" can do, but what He can do.  Tyler has to remind me often that God will raise the support we need, not us.

Though Tyler is back to at STC, he is spending much of his time at Moody Aviation once again, working to get his CFII, which certifies him to instruct instrument flying.  Pray that he would continue strong with his studies and work hard for his flights and the lessons he has to teach, as studying can get very tiresome!

Caleb continues to outgrow the baby phase!  He has taken several steps on his own, though does not try it very often.  He babbles all the time, but not recognizable words yet.  And last week he decided to see what it is like to play in the toilet. "Why haven't you let me do this before, Mom, this is fun!"  He could probably spend the entire day outside and be a happy boy, except for meal times of course.  We love watching him change and grow all the time!

Thanks so much for all your prayers, hope this gives you a snippet of our life recently.

End of the Line

My first Kodiak tour has come to an end.  I am excited to be going home and seeing Caleb and Renae but also sad that I won't be able to fly the Kodiak on a regular basis.  We have traveled in the last 10 days from Grand Rapids Michigan to Akron OH to Norfolk VA passed Washington D.C's busy airspace and then back up to Lancaster/smoketown PA.  I have enjoyed getting to "know" the Kodiak by flying for several hours and just familiarizing myself with the G1000 avionics package.

We just finished yesterday the biggest mission aviation air show in the world! This is located in Smoketown PA, just a few miles east of Lancaster.  The airfield is located in a contrasting environment with aircraft  flying overhead and buggies driving in the middle of Omish country.  Even some of the locals came out to see what all the noise was about.

At the moment I am waiting to board my first flight of three today.  Even though it is 5:30 am here on the East coast it is funny to think that I was awake and driving to the airport when in Spokane the clocks were only showing 12am.  I only wish I could be with my family for breakfast this morning, guess I just have to wait only a few more hours.  The trip was a good one but I am very ready to be home with my son and beautiful wife.

How many people can you fit in a Kodiak?

The answer to that is 74...well 74 people over the course of 10 flights.

We were very busy giving rides to some students from Western Michigan Aviation Academy. This is a new charter high school for students that are interested in aviation as a career.  We were there to help start the school year out with a thrilling ride in the Kodiak to almost 160 total students over a two day period.  It was a great time seeing the smiles as they bounded out of the airplane, chatting and talking with their friends.  For some it was their very first flight and they were nervous when I first sent them off on the flight but were grinning from ear to ear when I opened up the rear door.

Tomorrow we will head over to Virginia and then to Smoketown Pennsylvania.  This has been my second business trip away from Renae and Caleb and I am excited about return home already.  This has been a great opportunity for me to be able to gain some more flight time in the Kodiak as well as meet a lot of people that have been praying and supporting Spokane Turbine Center. 

Kodiak Tour in Full Swing

Spokane Turbine Center has been giving rides for the past week in the humid air of Missouri.  The reason we are doing this is to let people know more about what mission aviation is and how it is a necessary part of overseas ministry.  My job for these tours is to get people to sign up and give their weight (oh the horror!) for a weight and balance calculation for the Kodiak, and then give them a safety briefing like you get on a big airliner.  This group above is from a church in Muskegon MI where most of the kids have never been on an airplane before.  It was funny to hear Jeff (the pilot) comment that as soon as they started to taxi the kids would start to scream with delight and they would not stop screaming till they touched back down on the runway.  All of them had a wonderful time and would pile out of the plane with huge grins on their faces asking if they could go up again.  This is one way that we can influence some of the kids into thinking about becoming pilots and hopefully for missions as well.  I did talk to one lad that was in sixth grade and because of this flight he was very interested in wanting to learn how to fly. Just like me when I was a young boy.  It is amazing what one experience and the Lord can do to shape the rest of your future.

Oshkosh has been a BLAST!  In between working at the Spokane Turbine Center booth I have been able to visit the many different exhibits, see vintage aircraft, watch air shows and talk with different pilots.  This air show has so many different aircraft that come from all over the world, and it is fun to see new designs of aircraft as well as the older "war birds."  One of my favorite parts was being able to go to the section of the airfield that was a reenactment of the old WWII base.  There were reinactors that were living just like they did on the battlefield almost 70 years ago.  They had the tents set up, full gear on, the trusty jeeps and other vehicles and some various weapons that they use to back then.  I had a lot of fun taking pictures and talking with them.

As I "work" the booth I met many people that have a passion for missions.  To be able to talk with people that have the same focus is refreshing.  My job was basically to network with the mission people and to let the reps from different colleges know that we offered turbine training at a low cost for their students.  I also met some wonderful people that encourage me about our support raising.  As some of you already know that we are only at 25% of the needed support level that we need to be at.  These veteran missions told me that they had been in many hard situations but every time the Lord would provide just enough to see their needs met.  Those words were helpful to me to stop stressing about what we were going to do about deputation while in North Dakota, since not much interest was generated from different emails and phone calls.  Our support will come from the Lord and I should not be concerned about thinking of what people would be able to "afford" to support us financially.  All that is needed is trust what we do will please the Lord and He will meet our needs.