While the boys are away...

Tyler and three other students in Standardization left yesterday morning (Monday) for 4 days of back country Idaho flying!  I did get to hear from him this afternoon, and it sounds like they are having a great time learning new skills and appreciating the beauty of Idaho mountains.  While it may sound like they are "roughing it", they actually get to stay as guests at a ranch house and enjoy the stillness of the mountains around them. 

So....while they are away, we women are holding down the fort with our kiddos.  This is our last week of swim lessons for Caleb and Aaron.  Aaron is fighting a cough and both him and Jocelyn had eye infections requiring eye drops.  Despite some not so restful nights, we are keeping busy with our swim lessons, today we visited a Wildlife Refugee in Nampa, and tomorrow we'll complete our last swim lesson followed by a picnic with our friends from swimming.  Of course we are also enjoying sweet fellowship just as wives and the bond that is created from depending on each other when our husbands aren't around.

The guys should get back on Thursday, and on Friday we all begin Orientation classes for the next two weeks.  After we finish that training, we'll move out of this apartment and in with Tyler's parents.  Then it's time to "wade through our stuff" and focus entirely on packing.

Speaking of...a few people have asked us if we have a list of physical needs that they can help with as we prepare to go to Indonesia.  We have put together an Indonesia Wish List on Amazon, and you can view it here if you are interested in helping in that way:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/1FPJMVUF3RGG2/ref=topnav_lists_2

If you have any questions about the list or other needs we have, feel free to contact us!

Pray that we would make good decisions about what will really be useful and stand up to hard use in a 3rd world country.

God is good, we are thankful that He is in control of every situation around us.  Be encouraged!

Sweet fellowship

You know that feeling of joy, fulfillment, thankfulness, encouragement, enrichment, companionship, and community you get after an amazing retreat with fellow believers?  or after a really good Bible study/small group or church service?  Or maybe after you've had a holiday with your family?  Imagine experiencing that almost every day for 10 weeks!

I think all of our families here for Standardization would agree that living in community hardly ever gets tiring.  We may not accomplish much inside the house, or keep a normal schedule, or maybe the bread burned and the floors didn't get vacuumed, but hey, it's SO hard to come inside to work when there is constant fellowship to enjoy when we are all outside just hanging out together and watching our kids play and ride their bikes all day long.  Yes, this is a snapshot of our lives here at MAF while the husbands are doing the dirty work fixing and flying airplanes as they prepare for their future in aviation overseas.

So...here are some pictures of our life in community.  I am thankful, humbled, and encouraged that we get to serve alongside these beautiful families with MAF.

 In only 1.5 weeks, we celebrated 4 of the kids' birthdays,

including Aaron (3) and Jocelyn (1)

 It was fun to invite all the families to Tyler's parents to 

celebrate their birthdays!

 This girl is such an encourager!

 We went to the zoo one afternoon with another family

that is headed to Indonesia

 The boys visiting Daddy in the hanger

 During Easter week, one of the wives did an awesome kids 

lesson on the Passover

 Learning about the Passover

 Drinking their first cup of juice for Passover

 "Who's the cutie with the carrot?"

 Another Easter lesson on the Resurrection

 Using marshmallows and crescent rolls to demonstrate Jesus

in the tomb and rising again

 Egg hunt on Easter morning

 First time flying a kite with the kids!

 love of my life

 Playin' games with the neighbor (he already left for Indonesia, sadly)

 Always have to have one kitchen drawer just for the baby

 Fun times in the sandbox (they were making the sand fly from behind their back tires)

 Community meals at MAF on Friday nights

 duck duck GOOSE!  games for another kids birthday party

Another MK birthday party

Until next time!

Tyler and Renae

"Mech-e-nick" (Mechanic) time

For the past 3 1/2 weeks I (Tyler) have been going through the standardization for mechanics.  Just learning how things are done in Mission Aviation Fellowship and having to get my hands dirty with grease :)  Here are a few photos from last week.

 "Wow...that is a lot of twirling gears and buttons."

 "I don't think I want to touch it"

 Doing a 500 hr magneto inspection

"It is the new turbo encabulator"

Watch this video to get the joke. 

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

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

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!

 We rented a 16 ft truck and filled it almost to capacity!

Uncle Jon workin' his muscles

 Church volunteers and friends helped us empty the garage and load the van

 Saying goodbye to my piano was one of the hardest goodbyes for me!

 Lots of sweet memories with my piano, but it is going to a pretty awesome home!

Breakfast on moving day, picnicking on the cooler before we take off for Nampa.

 Auntie Heidi saying goodbye and helping us load up

 

One of the dearest and most faithful friends we could ever ask for!

 Final family picture in our little home.  We will miss you, Spokane!

 The kids excited about leaving.  And yes, they did get buckled in.

 Jocelyn apparently thinks she is ready to drive.

 We have arrived, Buelo and Lita!  (Tyler's parents home)

 Unloading all of our possessions in Tyler's parents garage.

We are so thankful for the men from their church that were there to help unload when we arrived.

 Well, there it is.  Now to find what we need for the next 10 weeks...and sort all the rest later.

The boys were just happy to have their bikes and see the sun

 (we've been missing the sun for some time in Spokane)

Much more news soon to come!! 
Rejoicing in Christ,
Tyler and Renae