September Newsletter

September 2, 2009

Dear Friends and Family,

A lot has been happening with the Mead family and we want to keep you up to date on all the goings on. We have been trying to keep in touch with most everyone in one form or another, but it looks like sending out a regular news letter is going to be the most effective way to keep everyone up to date. Especially as our lives change so quickly!

We want to make sure everyone is filled in on what has brought us to this point, so here are the details.

David has spent the last 2 years getting his Commercial pilot’s license and aircraft mechanic’s certificates. We both feel strongly that God was leading us into full time mission’s work after our construction business failed and he has provided tremendously to accomplish all that David needed to fulfill the requirements of most aviation mission’s organizations.

At the beginning, it seemed obvious that we should go to Ecuador, where Maggy is from, to serve with Mission Aviation Fellowship. But as time went on, we realized God doesn’t always work in the obvious ways, so we expanded our search to see if God may be leading us to work elsewhere. We moved up to Waxhaw, NC where David was invited by JAARS to do a maintenance internship. It was a great opportunity to build skills and to get a close first hand look at how JAARS operates. Maggy and the kids enjoyed the time as well, connecting with missionaries who were returning from overseas or headed back.

As we searched for God’s leading, he made it very plain that we were indeed uniquely prepared to serve in Ecuador. But instead of heading through the normal channels of the US branch of MAF, we applied to the Ecuadorian run branch called Alas de Socorro – Ecuador. The Ecuadorian government is no longer issuing pilot’s or mechanic’s licenses to foreigners, so it has been very difficult for MAF to staff the work in Ecuador. David will be able to gain Ecuadorian citizenship because he is married to an Ecuadorian citizen. Thankfully, he will not have to give up his American citizenship as Ecuador recognizes dual citizenship.

Our application to ADSE has been reviewed and is only pending David’s flight evaluation down in Ecuador. We are making plans for David to go down to spend about a week or so to do the evaluation and he will also use the opportunity to try to arrange housing, get information on the schools for the kids and be more informed in general about our new lives there.

There will be costs involved with the trip as the cost of the travel and evaluation itself is the responsibility of the applicant. David will need to brush up on his skills in the airplane before going down as it has been about 5 months since he has flown. We know God will provide for these costs if we are following his will, so we depend on him.

In the mean time, Maggy has been busy adding to the family! Our kids are now: Joni Karina, 12 and in 7th grade; Joshua, 10 and in 5th grade; Jonathan, 14 months; and baby Jennifer is due the middle of September. The older kids have such a great attitude about moving and even about going to a Spanish speaking school. They have been to Ecuador numerous times, although not specifically to the jungle, so they are somewhat familiar. Maggy, also, is very excited to be going. Even with the little ones, she knows we will be well taken care of there. She has had a burden for many years to work among her own people and is very happy God finally got through to me to do that!

We will be living in a little town called Shell in the province of Pastaza. The town was named after Shell oil who continues to do much work down there. It also is the same town where Nate Saint lived with his family. (If you haven’t seen the movie The End of the Spear yet, please do!)

Our plans at this point will be to move in early January. Since we are joining the Ecuadorian branch of MAF, things are a little different. All of their applicants to date have come from Ecuador, so we are unique in that we will be coming from the U.S. Most of the details of the move and our financial support are going to be largely up to us. I still don’t have all the details and we are learning as we go, but we are very comfortable with the arrangements so far and are trusting in God to supply as he so faithfully has been doing.

Until our application is finalized after my flight evaluation, we are unable to receive donations through MAF. Should you desire to send donations, you can send them directly to us for the time being and we will advise as soon as that changes.

We are so grateful for your prayers that have helped us to this point. We ask that you commit to continued prayer for us as the details continue to be worked out and our progress in getting to Ecuador proceeds. Our blog is updated about weekly and you can find specific prayer requests and praises on there. www.davidmeadfamily.blogspot.com

Right now our prayer requests are: health for mommy and baby, good decisions about details leading up to moving, funds for the trip to Ecuador and evaluation, strength to continue trusting God.

We commit everything we do to God,


David, Maggy, Joni Karina, Joshua, Jonathan, Jennifer