1st Day of School

Both kids had a great 1st day of school. I didn't work today, so I was able to take both of them and walk them in and get them settled a little bit.

Both met many friends and are very excited to be here where many of their school friends live right on the center.

Josh lost no time in making friends. As soon as he got home, he got a call from one of the boys and spent the whole afternoon out with them. It is so nice to have that here! Josh was very surprised to get a call from one of his friends from school. That never happened in Tampa.

I was able to get my tool box organized with my new tools. I took it up to the hangar and put it with the other mechanic's. I also got to see some of the planes close up. See pictures on the picasa site. (Link to the right)

Kids in School

We got both Joshua and Karina enrolled in school. They both start tomorrow. They seem like very nice schools and the staff at both were very friendly and warm.

Karina gets a real kick out of the southern accents and we tease her that she will be talking like that soon. We are so happy that both of them are excited and happy to be here. Every day we learn of more neat things to do either on center or nearby. We will not be bored here!

We had dinner tonight with a couple who are on furlough from Indonesia. It was their first term and are gearing up to go back. It was very fun getting to know them and swapping stories.

The kids are having so much fun being outside all day. They are free to ride bikes and run and be on the razors all over the center. We are having fun leaving the doors unlocked again. It is such a great community.

One of the guys who works at the hangar stopped by our apartment today on his way home from work to introduce himself. He ended up staying about a half an hour talking and getting to know me. He has been a part of JAARS now for about 14 years and has worked over in Papua New Guinea. It was so neat that he just popped in to make us feel welcome! We have had quite a few of those.

I was supposed to start work on Wed, but it looks like I will need to wait another day for administrative reasons. I have plenty to do, though, so no big deal. I have to take both kids to school tomorrow, but after that, they will be on the buses from now on.

Photos Updated.

I have updated the photos on the Picasa site. Link to the right. I have taken photos of the apartment and some other photos of the site.

We are looking forward to getting the kids enrolled in school tomorrow and getting some administration stuff done.

We made it to Waxhaw!

God is so good. I could go on for awhile telling all the wonderful things he has done for us just in the last two weeks! For now, I will stick to the major highlights.

We had quite a hectic time our last few weeks in Tampa. I was hoping for a little reprieve from my school full time/work full time schedule once school was finished. It turned out I was just as busy with packing and finalizing as many of my flight school students! God did bless with a lot of work which translated into much needed income.

He absolutely provided in every way for us. We finished packing right on time without excess stress. Our biggest trial was what to do with our dog. Long story short, we have some issues with a false accusation of an attack and so we are unable to give him away until that is resolved. My aunt and dad stepped up and offered to take care of him until it is resolved. THANKS GUYS!

Our expenses to move were minimal. Less than I expected. We had an absolutely event free drive up to North Carolina. We saw many animals that had been hit and many broken down vehicles. We realized any one of those could have been us, but our Lord protected us all the way! We also realize if one of those had been us, God still would have been in charge!

We felt very emotional as we opened up our new apartment that will be our home for the next 6 months. It is bigger than we expected. It is just too good! The folks here at JAARS are so fantastic. We hadn't even gotten out of the van when a fellow came up to introduce himself and offer to help us carry stuff in. He also invited us to his house for lunch. It was so good to have such a warm welcome!

So much more to come...stay tuned!

Almost Ready to Move!

A lot has happened since the last post. School is finally over! I have both mechanic's certificates now: airframe and powerplant. It is so nice to be done with that phase!

We are finishing up the packing as we prepare for the move to Waxhaw, NC on Friday, the 27th. Since JAARS housing has provided us with a FULLY FURNISHED apartment including linens and dishes, our move is going to be relatively easy! We only have to take our clothes and a few personal things.

My parents have offered to trade us cars for the time, so we have a minivan now that we are soon to be a 6 member family! That is a huge blessing! And since I am going to be working so close to home, we only need one car, another blessing! We are so grateful to God that he is working out the details of this time for us so nicely!

We have begun the very sad process of saying goodbye to our loved ones here. Today was our last meeting with our congregation. We got through it fairly well. My mom threw a little going away party for us and my sister and brother in law from Winter Haven were able to make it as well as my brother in law who is visiting from Dubai as well as those family members who live here in Tampa.

This is a nice warm up for us as we will only be gone 6 months this time and back for at least 4 months as we understand the process so far.

There are still a few things that need to be worked out, but we are relying on God to continue going before us as he has been so faithful so far.

One More License!

On Friday I passed my "Power Plant" practical exam. I now only have one more written exam and one more practical exam to complete my mechanic's license. I have those scheduled for early next week.

Feb 19th is my graduation date and it is coming up fast! We are excited as a family to be moving on to the next step soon. We are making preparations to move to Waxhaw, NC at the end of march. There is so much to do!

Thank God that JAARS is providing a fully furnished apartment for us. We only have to take our clothes and other personal things that we want. That will make the move much easier initially for us! The hangar where I will be working is withing walking distance of the apartment, so we only have to take one car with us. Another huge blessing!

God is being so gracious to us and providing for everything right at the right time.

Maggy and I celebrated 12 years of marriage on the 13th, as well. I guess that means it is going to work out after all!

Lots of changes!

I have been very lazy about posting updates here. Since joining Facebook, I have mostly just updated that site, neglecting this one. So for those who haven't caved in to join Facebook, here is our latest news!

We have been praying and waiting for God's leading on our next step once I finish maintenance school. We have had several opportunities, but we wanted to be sure that we were following God in our path.

We have accepted an invitation from JAARS to serve a 6 month maintenance internship in Waxhaw, NC. I have felt very strongly that I need to have more hands on training after finishing school before going overseas as Pilot/Mechanic and this is the perfect opportunity to be trained by very experienced people on the airplanes I will most likely by flying/maintaining once reaching a field assignment.

Although we have very strong ties with some MAF staff and originally had set out to join with them, both Maggy and I feel God's leading to join JAARS. We are both passionate about Bible translation work and serving with JAARS puts us in direct support of those who are doing that work.

We plan on leaving Tampa the last week in March to start work in NC the first of April. There is still so much to be done and many details to work out, but God is in control of it all.

Additionally, I passed my checkride for Multi-Engine Instructor today! Not one of the more difficult ratings, but a milestone never the less.

Class ends Feb 19th and that can't come soon enough! I will be busy the next few weeks trying to wrap up all the loose ends in school to have the mechanics certificates soon after graduating. God has provided tremendously emotionally and financially for us through this time. Words cannot express all that has happened since starting down this path.

We are doing very well as a family. Josh and Karina are doing very well in school and both are supportive of our move. Josh more so than Karina right now. Little Jonathan is growing too fast! He never is still and is a delight to have around.

Maggy is getting the typical morning sickness with the new one. She will most likely be delivering in NC.

More news as it happens! Lots will be changing soon so we will post more often.