A full circle moment!
December 7th. That's the day we will be back at JAARS for my Technical Evaluation. I swear I'll blink and find myself in the car already on my way there. We are excited to be going back soon to see our new friends at headquarters. It turns out I did make a mistake in my last update. The day after posting I received both an email and a call from the wonderful folks at JAARS who informed me that there was a miscommunication and that I do not have to choose between flying and maintenance. However, after continued prayer with Anna, I have decided that I would actually really like to be a maintenance specialist. So we are sticking with it and I will be going back for a maintenance specialist test come December.
Back when this whole journey really started in 2014 when I was graduating high school and deciding what to do with the rest of my life, I did a lot of research into what school I should attend for my maintenance and flight training. I looked at program lengths, reputability, price, and even the male to female ratio. After all of my searching I decided to go to Moody Bible Institute for their aviation program. I figured I could save money by doing their online bible school for the first year or two to get classes out of the way before moving. After a year of classes and some talks with my parents, we decided to begin looking into other options, desiring to avoid the financial burden of the expensive program. So I joined I-TEC and you know the rest. I tell you all of this because we have a real full circle moment coming up.
The folks at JAARS always recommend their applicants go to a pre-TE prep course. The one they recommend most highly is the one at Moody Bible Institute. So, on November 13th, I'm going to Moody in Spokane, Washington for one week of training. I am very excited for the chance to meet the men and women there who are responsible for training so many missionary pilots. You know that poem by Robert Frost called “The Road not Taken”? It's not very often you get the change to spend a week on the road not taken.
In other news we have a sending church! I know I already sent an update about this, but it’s kind of a big deal for us to already have a church partnering with us on this endeavor. They have been very encouraging and supportive to both listen to our desires for missions and give the effort to help us make it happen. Anna and I had provided any options for anyone to support us until now because we felt that to receive aid without any accountability concerning how we use it would not be wise or good stewardship of kingdom money. I know this is a shorter update but we really want to keep everyone in the loop on what is happening with us on this journey. We are both really encouraged by your prayers and I can't wait to tell you how my trip goes.