source: www.smythe.me
Click here to read part one of this post.
In January, we were able to go to dinner with our MAF recruiter and his wife, which was neat. Over Arabic food, we heard about their own experiences with MAF and learned more about the process and what is still ahead of us:
1. August 2011 – May 2012 ~ Jesse has two more semesters left of school. He’ll also finish up a few more Bible classes, while he continues to work part time at Coast. I’ll keep working at First Lutheran, as usual.
2. May 18, 2012 – July 2012 ~ This has the potential to be one of the craziest six weeks or so of our lives! Jesse completes his training program May 18 (step one). After that, he needs to pass his FAA exam to get the mechanic’s license (step two). This is a several hour process including an oral, written, and practical exam. Then, we both need to go to MAF headquarters in Nampa, Idaho, for two weeks for “technical evaluation” (step three). This includes a week of flying in the back-country and a second week of mechanic work for Jesse, enabling MAF to make sure he has the necessary skills, and enabling Jesse to be sure this is really what he wants to do. We’ll also both undergo some medical, psychiatric, and spiritual evaluation, as well as learn more about MAF.
3. July 2012 ~ Candidacy at MAF. The reason May and June will be so crazy is because we can’t officially start service with MAF until we’ve done Candidacy. This is a four-week process in Idaho where we’ll receive additional training, learn even more, spend more time flying, and will receive an actual assignment to a particular country. From this point on, we’ll be officially “on board” with MAF (and won’t work our current jobs any more). Candidacy only happens twice a year, so if it doesn’t work out to do it in July, we’ll wait and do it the following January (2013).
4. 12 months (ish) of preparations in the US. After Candidacy, we’ll begin preparing for service with MAF. We’ll spend quite a bit of time training and doing “standardization” with MAF, meaning Jesse will learn how to fly and fix planes “their way.” We’ll also spend quite a bit of time traveling and visiting different churches and individuals to raise up a team of people to support our ministry. Finally, we’ll spend quite a bit of time doing the other preparations necessary: packing up our belongings, etc.
5. Language School. After our support team is in place, we’ll head off to language school for a year. One thing I love about MAF is that they recognize that we can’t be very good missionaries if we can’t communicate in the native tongue of the people we’re living with. For a full year, we’ll just devote ourselves to language training. This will take place somewhere outside the US, but probably somewhere different than our final destination. For example, many people moving to DRC in Africa go to Canada to learn French, and most people serving in Indonesia go to a different city than where they’ll eventually serve…
6. Service with MAF!! Finally, after language school, we’ll be done “preparing.” Well, mostly. Jesse will still have some on-field flight training to do, and there will be plenty to learn and figure out once we’re in our final destination. But this is the last “step” of the process. We’ll commit to four years at a time (starting with language school): 3 1/2 years on the field, plus six months back in the U.S. We hope to be able to serve several terms.
So, that’s it! There’s our update. A few final words, though:
I think it’s easy to write all this down and to get caught up in this being The Plan. Honestly, we have no idea what The Plan is for sure, in terms of God’s sovereign will at work in our lives. We do know with certainty that Christ’s desire and purpose for our lives is to share His gospel with all peoples, because that’s His desire for all of His followers. We believe that serving with MAF is the way He wants our family to do that, but we don’t know for sure what will happen.
It could be that someday we’re looking back on this post at the end of 30-some years of service through Mission Aviation Fellowship. We’ll remember when it all began, and all the preparations it took to get there. It could also be that we never serve with MAF. Perhaps we’ll end up serving with another mission aviation organization, like JAARS. Perhaps we’ll serve overseas in another way, as English teachers, business-people, or some other way. Perhaps we’ll never end up living overseas. But for now, this is where we believe God is calling us, and for now, we’re saying, “Okay, we’ll follow!”
