6th and Final Term!

I have reached 6th term at my school for my mechanic's certificate. Graduation date is just around the corner! (Feb 19th). I will be off of school for 2 weeks from the 24th to the 5th of January, then it will only be another month and a half!

We are very excited to have a reasonable schedule again. God has been faithful to bring us through this time together and it will be very rewarding to be finished with this chapter.

My plans for the time being will be to stay at CAMS flight as a flight instructor part time and also to work in the maintenance shop part time to get some valuable hands on experience.

We are still waiting to see which direction God will be leading us in regard to who we will be serving with. Our applications are in process with both MAF and JAARS/Wycliffe.

The family is doing fine and all the kids are healthy and happy. We are enjoying immensely having the baby around!

Check Maggy's blog for more pictures.

Been Busy!

I have been extremely busy the last several weeks. I was afraid that when the time changed, I would see a decrease in my workload since we have less daylight and I am only able to work after 3:00pm. Turns out, the same God who put us on this path is also in charge of my workload as well. I have almost doubled my workload after the time change! Praise his NAME!

The holidays are coming up and I am looking forward to some much needed time off to spend with the family.

All is well, thanks to God.

More Ratings

I passed my multi-engine rating on Friday of last week. Now I am certified to fly airplanes with two fans!

Our flight school purchased a twin engine airplane like the one pictured above and gave us instructors a great deal on getting our ratings so we could teach in it.

I still have to get my instructor's rating in it. That shouldn't take long, though. I will be able to increase my student base with being able to instruct in this airplane.

I also went over 200 hours of instruction given last week. That is a decent milestone.

All is well here. Kids are great and life is grand!

JAARS Day!

October 4 was JAARS day at the JAARS center in Waxhaw, NC. Maggy and I really wanted to go to visit, but we weren't sure if we would be able to make it. Flying was out of the question and driving was not attractive as an option because it was about a 10 hour drive.

We decided that we would try to make it and it worked out great. We drove up Friday night and arrived Sat morning in time to look around a little and have breakfast in the neatest restaraunt.

The tour started at 10:00 and we spent a lot of time visiting the places and talking with the staff. One of the highlights of the trip was the Alphabet museum. We could have spent hours there! It was fascinating to see the origins of the alphabets throughout the world.

We got a lot of our questions answered about how JAARS operates and the application process. Overall it was a very nice trip. I will try to post photos later on today.

We still have not made a firm decision on which way we will be going. For now, we are applying to both MAF and JAARS to see if either of them will have us. We still have some time. We are depending on God's guidance in the matter.

Mead News

Sorry, no picture this time.

It looks like the MAF maintenance internship in Idaho is not going to happen. Due to budget cuts, that program has been shelved for the time being. So we have something new to pray about! We will see what God's leading is for our future after my school ends in February. For the time being, I have a fairly secure job as flight instructor where I am working now part time.

We will probably go ahead and apply directly to the mission to see if we will be accepted to the summer candidacy program in 2009. I still would like to get some work in between in maintenace to sharpen my skills, but we will see.

School is 2/3 over for me. I started fifth term of six today. It looks like we will be kept busy with projects, so that is very good news.

Family is well and the kids are doing well in school. The baby is growing and his disposition has changed much. He smiles and laughs almost all day now and only gets a little fussy at meal time and when his diaper needs to be changed.

Cessna 400

Today I had a unique privelege of flying a Cessna 400. This airplane is the fastest production fixed gear airplane in the world. Cessna claims it will cruise at 235 knots at altitude. Although we never made it higher than 3500 ft today, it is by far the fastest airplane I have had the pleasure of controlling!

All else is going well. The kids are great and growing. The clock is ticking for A&P school to be finished in February.

More news as it happens.

Kodiak from Quest

Last week Maggy and I had the honor and the privilege of becoming some of the first passengers in a Quest Kodiak. The Kodiak is a purpose built airplane to replace the aging fleet of regular aviation gas burning airplanes currently on the field. The Kodiak carries much more than the airplanes they will replace and use Jet fuel which is much more available around the world in addition to being cheaper to buy.

It was phenomenal! It accelerates quickly, climbs rapidly and is very smooth. It is also very simple despite having the latest in avionics technology. I can't wait to fly them on the field! (If it is the Lord's will!)

We went over with a fellow classmate who is also interested in mission aviation. I caught up with a few old friends from Venezuela that I grew up with who are living or visiting Sanford, FL, headquarters for New Tribes Mission where the airplane was on display. Additionally, Jonathan went on his first airplane ride! We went over in an airplane from the flight school where I work. He did great!

I was fortunate to be able to sit in the front seat and I even got the pilot to sign a logbook entry!

Baby is doing very well. Kids are excited to go back to school next week.

God has seen fit to bless me with new flight students at work and I am flying much more! Last week were a few new milestones: I went over 500 hours total time and over 100 hours of flight instruction given.

School is still very boring, but each day is a day closer to graduation. Next week I will be eligible to take my test for powerplant license. Then on to Airframe.

I have succumbed to peer pressure and have signed up on Facebook, so you can find me on there as well.

Baby is Home

Jonathan and Mommy returned home on Thursday. We were happy to get them home and settled in. Both are doing very well. Mommy was able to get some much needed rest as Jonathan went to the kids' VBS performance. Everyone was very suprised to see the baby out and about so soon, but he took it all in stride.

David's brother's kids are still in town and Josh and Karina are having a wonderful time with their cousins.

Karina celebrated her 11th birthday on Saturday. She had a few friends over with cake and presents. Daddy took her out for a special night out on Friday night. She bought a new swimming suit, they went out to eat at her favorite restaurant China Buffet and then they went and played a round of mini golf.

Josh went camping with his cousins and Grandma and Papa.

See the photo tab to the right for more pictures.

IT'S A BOY!!!!!!

We are proud to announce the birth of Jonathan Daniel Mead, born at 8:56am today on June 24, 2008. Weighing in at 7lbs 14 ounces and standing (laying) 21 inches, he is the champ of the day!

He has brown hair with blond highlights and blue eyes.

Maggy started having strong contractions at 3:30 this morning and we started to the hospital at 4:30. We arrived just in time for her to have the epidural and she started pushing at 8:00. After a relatively uneventful labor the baby came out strong and crying! Daddy cut the cord and we have the first picture laying on mommies chest about 5 minutes after birth.

Please see the photo album for more pictures!

School frustrations, baby news and kids update.

David's school situation reached a low two weeks ago. Dealing with some of the issues with the interaction with the instructors became very frustrating and we looked into transferring to another school. There was at least one very attractive alterntative and we started planning to make the transfer. But after thinking and praying about it, it became evident that God's will was for David to stay and finish where he was at.

So after a short and very refreshing break, David is back at school and was able to catch up on all the work he missed in only 3 days. God is faithful.

Flying is actually beginning to bring an income and we hope and pray that it will develop into enough to cover all of our living expenses so that Maggy won't have to go back to work for quite some time.

Both mommy and baby are doing very well. The baby is in no hurry to come early even though we thought he would. She has dropped some and had two very intense contractions this morning. July 5 is the due date and it looks like he is happy to stay until then!

My 3 nieces (my brother Michael's daughters) are in town for the week. My kids are very excited to have them in town. They get along very well and are so happy to see each other as it is usually just once a year.

More as new happens!...

Overdue Updates

Well, I have not been faithful in updating but I have a very good reason. I have been very busy with flying and with school. Last week I set a new personal record and logged 24 flight hours in a single week! And I didn't pay for a single hour of it! In fact, I got paid for most of it; how exciting.

Above photo is a picture of my flight instructor, Pete Crawford, who signed me off for CFI. I am so glad that I met him. He is a very good instructor and I learned so much from him.

A&P school is going very rough and we are looking at making a change. The family visited another school today and we were very impressed. A lot has to happen to transfer and we are exploring options and praying a lot about making the decision.

Maggy is doing very well with her pregnancy. Less than a month now for the due date! No one thinks that the boy will wait that long, but we will see. He is very active still despite not having any room to move around. He pretty much makes his own room!

The kids are out of school now. Wed was their last day. They are very happy, of course.

Hope to be more faithful with updates.

Another Milestone!

One of the requirements to apply to MAF as a pilot/mechanic is to have 400 hours logged flight time. Today, I officially passed that mark! Praise God!

Since passing my CFI checkride, I did get the job at the flight school where I trained. They are a bit slow right now and have not picked up any new students yet. However, a friend of mine who is also a pilot is trying to get his commercial certificate. He asked me to finish his training and we have flown twice together now, putting me past that mark.

It is very fun doing instructing and I do believe I am going to enjoy it. We are confident that God will provide just the right number of students for me in his perfect timing.

Maggy and kids are doing well. More pictures soon.

Finally, I passed my CFI checkride!

Praise God! After 5+ months of studying and preparation, I have passed my Certified Flight Instructor's practical exam. I could not have done it without God's help. There were many times I felt that I just couldn't comprehend the material and commit it to memory, but God gave me the ability after asking him.

I am able to start instructing right away. I have a couple of students who are ready to go now and hope to add to them for a full schedule soon. My new place of employment is CAMS Flight School.

I still have more training to do and will start that right away. In order to expand my customer base, I will add the Instrument rating to my Instructor's certificate to instruct instrument students as well as familiarize myself with more technically advanced aircraft as the school has several of those.

Thanks so much to those of you who have been praying for me!

Idaho Bound

We had been invited to the wedding of one of the Trempert kids, Craig and since David hadn't seen them in a very long time and Maggy and the kids had never met them, we decided to make the trip. Everything worked out well for the trip.

The flights were messed up, as usual and we were rerouted with less than a good chance of making it to Nampa, Idaho as planned on Friday. We wound up with standby tickets and full flights in Salt Lake City, Utah. We still had quite a bit of daylight left and the weather was gorgeous, so we cancelled that last leg of our flight and rented a car to get to Nampa and the wedding on time.

It was a gorgeous trip. See the photos in the album on the right.

The trip was great, other than that. We had a wonderful time with the Tremperts, a family that David grew up with in Venezuela and also stayed weekends with when he was in California in the Marines as they were stationed in nearby Redlands. MAF has since moved its headquarters to Nampa.

The wedding was beautiful and it was wonderful catching up with the Tremperts and meeting new people from MAF. We stayed with a very nice couple who have been with MAF in several different countries for many years.

We also discoverd an additional opportunity for us to proceed with our desire to join MAF when David finishes his school. MAF offers a paid mechanic internship to build aditional maintenance skills before going out to the field. Maggy will also have a chance to be exposed to missions and her role as missionary during that time. It will last a year if we are accepted and will much better prepare both of us for missions work.

We will be in prayer about that decision to see if that is God's leading. Please pray for us as we make that decision soon.

Picture of TamaTama, Venezuela

Here is a random picture of TamaTama, Venezuela where David grew up. I don't know when it was taken, but I copied it off of another MK (Missionary Kid)'s website. Thanks, Jonathan!

Partial Pass

Well, David took his oral and practical test today for his Certified Flight Instructor certificate. He passed the oral portion which was the most challenging to study for but hit a snag on the practical test. He has to retake the remaining practical portion next Tuesday.

All in all it is a positive thing as the most difficult part of the test is over. Fortunately, the examiner agreed to waive the fee for the retake as there is very little to do. Praise God for that!

2nd term is over for the A&P school. Third term begins on the 1st of May. 1/3 of the way there!

Maggy is doing well with the baby. He is very active and keeps her up at night, but that is a good thing for now. Doctor cleared her to travel, so we should be on our way to Nampa, ID on Friday for a wedding and a chance to see some friends we haven't seen in a very long time. We are excited!

Events

Things seem to be coasting along fine for us right now. Maggy had some abnormal contractions last week, but we found out that they were due to dehydration on her part. She has been chugging water and feeling much better. Due date is July 5.

This coming Wednesday David has his Flight Instructor practical test. He has been preparing for this for over 5 months and is finally ready, thanks to God. He has been promised a job at the flight school upon completion of his license.

We are also preparing to go to Idaho this weekend to visit some friends from MAF that David grew up with in Venezuela. One of the kids is getting married and we are going to attend the wedding. They have not yet met Maggy and the kids, so it will be very exciting to see some old friends again and hang out with some people that David hasn't seen in about 10 years.

Surfacing Again

Sorry that I have been so silent. After returning from Ecuador, we hit the ground running and have been very busy. And after we got caught back up, we got sick.

Maggy got the flu a little over a week ago. She visited the doctor and was told that it shouldn't hurt the baby, and after several days in bed, she started recovering. Then I got it. I was in bed for 4 days. Fortunately, I only missed a little school.

Last week was Spring Break for the kids and I had 2 days where we visited the Fantasy of Flight museum for a class day field trip and I was able to take the kids. See picture page for some pics of that. Also, Friday was Sun-n-Fun and the whole family went. We forgot the camera, so no pictures, but just imagine us next to some cool airplanes, and you won't need pictures!

Saturday we had a nice surprise and went to visit a JAARS day at the airport in Clearwater. We spent several hours talking with the missionaries and hearing about all the neat things they do.

Banner towing is not going very good. They haven't called me since before we went to Ecuador, but I do have my CFI checkride scheduled for April 30! Praise God I am almost there!