We moved this week (same area, just a new apartment). I’m sitting in the middle of boxes and bags that need to be organized and unpacked, but I thought I’d take a quick break to reflect on the past year, thanks to some great questions from incourage.

1. What was the single best thing that happened this past year?

Finding out we are having a baby!!! Today I am 15 weeks along with our first child! :)

2. What was the single most challenging thing that happened?

Feeling like I ‘missed out’ on most of October, November, and December because of pregnancy sickness – morning sickness, tiredness, etc. It wasn’t anything terribly bad, but I feel like I am just now coming out of a fog where I can finally get back to being myself. It was tough having two months or so where I basically accomplished nothing at home – no projects or things crossed off my to-do list, no exercise, no cooking… in fact, I think I went about a month without even opening up the refrigerator! (because it smelled bad to me). I am so thankful for Jesse who took care of me for that time!

3. What was an unexpected joy this past year?

Work was great this year. I generally enjoy my job (youth ministry director at a church), but I had an especially good year with lots of fun. I love the girls I get together with on Wednesday nights for Impact. I had an idea for forming an “adult mentor team” of people who want to reach young people in their own lives (grandchildren, neighbors, friends, etc.), and had a surprisingly good response – so much so that we have two different teams. We meet once a month and I thoroughly enjoy those times. Finally, summer had several fun weeks – VBS at two locations, plus a week of leadership camp for young people, which was very enjoyable.

4. Pick three words/phrases to describe 2011.

enjoyable, too-quick, trying new things

5. With whom were your most valuable relationships?

Jesse, of course! Also, my immediate family and Jesse’s family (I am thankful we get to see them on a nearly-weekly basis!).

Our Tuesday night Bible study group – several people/couples/families who get together every other Tuesday for Bible study, but also at other times for just being “friends,” like going camping together this summer. This year several new people became a part of this group, which has been delightful.

People from church – this was a good year for branching out and deepening some friendships with people from church. We had people over to our house several times for dinners and activities, plus I joined our choir in September, which were both great ways to get to know people better.

I have done a pretty crummy job of keeping up with old friends this year, but the times I have gotten to connect have been great! Kelsey (my college roommate) and keep up via phone and got to see each other in May; plus had some quick visits with other college friends – Jesse, Bethany, and their new daughter; got together with some girlfriends in September for a too-quick dinner; Kim, who lives in the area, plus LeAnna, who moved down here this summer and is now our neighbor in the next building over! (we just moved this week). Also, got to see Danielle, a high school friend, and her new daughter, for the first time in two years… plus some nice connections with Jesse’s friends, including a trip to Mexico for the weekend with some of them in March.

Finally, I love spending time with Brayan, our friend from Hacienda orphanage in Mexico. What a sweet kid. A close second to being with him is being with the kids from Afternoon Blast, a weekly after-school program we do at an apartment complex near church.

6. In what way(s) did you grow physically?

This summer I probably was in the best physical shape of my life – I walked every day and ate very healthy most of the time – lots of water, fruits, veggies, good protein, and not much bad stuff. Unfortunately, when pregnancy kicked in, a lot of that went out the window (just when I needed it the most, right?), but I’m thankful I started out with a good foundation and am excited to resume these good habits as the new year begins!

7. What was your single biggest time waster in your life this past year?

Google Reader, facebook, and Netflix.

8. What was the best way you used your time this past year?

Walking in the mornings, decluttering our house, spending time with Jesse, especially on our weekly “Sabbath” days, spending time with friends and family

9. What was biggest thing you learned this past year?

I’m content with my life, but I’m ready for something even more meaningful. Taking Perspectives this summer continued to prepare my heart for long-term service overseas and made me excited for a life of meaningful work for God’s kingdom (both overseas and here in the US!) Unfortunately, I don’t think I did a good job of actually living out that life this year… between the aforementioned pregnancy stuff, along with a (somewhat justified) feeling that I still need to get things “figured out” before I can do that (have a simpler schedule, have less possessions and be more organized, etc.), I didn’t do a good job of carrying that out. However, I caught glimpses of it as we went to Mexico, as I taught about global missions at Impact on Wednesday nights, as we got to do some really neat things with our “giving” money this year… but I’m excited to grow in this area in the year to come.

Today we’re going to spend the afternoon relaxing, then will head to dinner at Jesse’s grandma’s house. Church tonight, then again tomorrow morning. Tomorrow afternoon we’ll spend time at Jesse’s grandpa’s playing games, watching movies, and having Christmas dinner. On Monday we’ll go visit my family in Orange County… my dad and I are going to a party where we’ll sing Handel’s Messiah in its entirety! He goes every year but it’s my first time – I am excited. :)

** What are you up to this Christmas?

Photo: Warneke Christmas, mid-1990s

Smell: Christmas trees. I’m allergic, so Jesse and I have a fake tree, but when I was walking past the lot at IKEA this week, I was reminded of how much I like the smell! Also, Christmas cookies in the oven and hot cocoa.

Tradition: For most of my childhood, Christmas celebrations looked like this: going to church on Christmas Eve (oftentimes to a church in Long Beach with a stop at a neighboring Fuddrucker’s first), then coming home and getting lots of snacks ready. We would have sausage and cheese and crackers with my sister’s favorite cranberry mustard, crescent roll wrapped little smokies, orange slices, eggnog, and shrimp with cocktail sauce. Or occasionally this would be replaced by meat fondue – yum! Then we would open presents. In my family, we open one at a time – none of that ripping into presents all at once. Presents are ooh’ed and aah’ed over individually. Then on Christmas morning, we open stockings.

Flower: poinsettia.  Not that these are necessarily my favorite flowers, but I can’t think of many other Christmas flowers!

Movie: Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol. Every year we watch this with my family – it’s my dad’s favorite. We all sing along, especially to the “La-La-La” song and the “Razzleberry Dressing” song.

Hymn: Of the Father’s Love Begotten (especially this version, actually called Hope for Resolution), I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day (the new version), Away in a Manger, and Angels We Have Heard on High.

Memory: When I was young (3rd or 4th grade), we went to my aunt and uncle’s in Seward, Nebraska, for Christmas. I think it’s the only Christmas I’ve ever had snow. I have vivid flashes of memory from that trip: a cardinal in their backyard, wearing a beautiful Felicity-ish dress to Christmas Eve church, getting the American Girl teddy bear as a gift, driving my grandparents motorhome from Denver to Seward and re-writing all of the songs from my school’s Christmas program to be about Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. (I was a weird kid. “I love Christmas, Christmas is for me” became “I love chocolate, chocolate is for me.”) My school Christmas programs are probably my second favorite memory, followed by playing handbells in the Christmas concerts at Concordia.

Easy gift: donations to help others through organizations like Compassion, World Vision, and Samaritan’s Purse. This has been our main gift to family the past two years and we love knowing that others are being helped rather than Christmas being all about us. Plus, it’s really fun to pick out the best “cause” for each person.

Sight: kids dressed up as characters from the Nativity.

Dislikes: Santa Claus, plus feeling like a lot of people don’t “get” Christmas, even most Christians… even me!

** What are your Christmas favorites?

from onemangotree.com

So, lately we’ve been trying to be more “ethical” and just with what we spend our money on. I’ve been doing a lot of reading on fair trade, ethical labor practices, human trafficking, and modern-day slavery. I like to think I’m very far removed from those things… until I start to peek at the labels on my clothes, chocolate bars, stationery, and knick-knacks.

When it says “made in Indonesia” on my shirt from Target, does that mean my shirt was produced by people who voluntarily worked a nice 8 hour day, in a temperature-controlled room, with no toxic chemicals, and got paid a deserving wage? I like to think so. Unfortunately, it’s probably more likely it was produced by people who got paid very, very little, who worked a very long day without breaks, and who worked in pretty terrible conditions. They might have even been forced to work there.

If you’re interested in reading more, I recommend the following blog posts:

Here, Let Me Ruin Halloween For You

My Name is Heather and I’m a Recovering Slave Owner

Refugees from Burma {click on the links at the bottom of this post for lots of great articles}

The Better World Shopping Guide

However, today isn’t about making us feel bad about ourselves… it’s about providing a great way to do GOOD with our purchases, specifically clothing ones! One Mango Tree is a fantastic company that produces cute women’s clothes AND does it in a way that fairly supports its employees in Uganda, where the clothes are produced.

from onemangotree.com

They use a fair trade model to provide jobs for people in northern Uganda. They aren’t a non-profit, since the revenues from their products are used to support their business. They are committed to using environmentally-friendly materials like local organic cotton (which is SUPER soft!) They promise to have good labor practices and help the communities where they work. You can read more about their mission here.

from onemangotree.com

I ordered some clothes from them a couple months ago, and I love them. (In fact, the images in this post are the items I bought… but, a couple of them are sold out by now). Right now, they’re having a mega-clearance sale, and they’ll have a lot of new products out soon. Everything is priced very reasonably, especially when you consider you know how it was made… it’s not a mystery item off the clearance rack at Old Navy, and who knows who made it or how much they got paid and how they were treated!

from onemangotree.com

I encourage you to check out one mango tree soon! {this final link will take you to their facebook page}

P.S. Another similar company is Sseko Designs. Someday I’ll have to do a post about them, too… I love their company as well, and they produce pretty much the world’s coolest shoes. You can visit their site here.

from ssekodesigns.com

So, over the summer, my husband and I have been doing Perspectives, a fantastic 16-week course on Biblical missions. The other day I was doing some reading for the course and ran across this statement about the cause of poverty:

“When those who have power over others use it to benefit themselves, poverty results… People in positions of social privilege are often tempted to use their power for personal advantage, ignoring the consequences of their decisions for those who have less power… Even if we desire to be fair and righteous, we continually face temptations to believe that we are due certain privileges because of the positions we hold. This view makes many of us uncomfortable. It means we, too, are part of the causes of poverty” (“What is Poverty Anyway?” by Bryant L. Myers, found on p.609 of Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, edited by R. Winter and S. Hawthorne, 2009).

I underlined and starred and highlighted that statement more than anything else I read in this week’s lesson. So imagine my surprise when I read James 1 the next morning and encountered very similar wording regarding poverty and position:

The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. (James 1:9-10)

I’m rich. I’m guessing the fact that you’re reading this, in English, probably means you’re rich too. (Don’t believe me? Check out this site.) I don’t mean that I go around blowing my money on Lamborghinis or 10,000 square foot homes, but I do recognize that I have more money sitting in my bank account right now than most individuals in the world will possess in their lifetimes. I also live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world and experience tremendous freedom and privilege from living here.

So, when I read James 1:9-10, I have to admit that he’s not talking about me when he’s talking about the brother in humble circumstances… I’m the rich one.

And you know what? I’m ashamed to admit that sometimes I sinfully think I deserve to be the rich, privileged one.

That’s what struck me so much about the quote from Perspectives. It said,

“Even if we desire to be fair and righteous, we continually face temptations to believe that we are due certain privileges because of the positions we hold.”

In other words, sometimes I (incorrectly) think that because I was born in the United States, because I received a great education, because I did well in school, because I worked hard… I somehow deserve to be more privileged than other people.

Does that sound ridiculous? It does to me! But as I do a bit of soul-searching, I’ve been realizing it’s true.

Think of it this way:

I spent most of today sitting in air conditioning. The greatest fear I experienced all day was encountering a daddy-long-legs in my garage. I ate organic Greek yogurt with homemade local-honey-sweetened raspberry fruit compote for breakfast. I spent two hours tonight reading blogs and checking out crafts and recipes on Pinterest.

My day is probably one of the most “privileged” on earth. I know the majority of the world did not experience a day like mine. They encountered real fear (not harmless spiders). They starved (rather than eating great, healthy food). They sat in the hot, dusty, drought-ridden desert (not an air-conditioned private office).

And yet, I didn’t do anything to change either of our existences.

Sure, I give money toward global causes, and I spent an hour playing with kids this afternoon from a less-than-desirable neighborhood in our city. I even visit our friend Brayan in Tijuana several times a year. But I’m still not doing much, in the whole scheme of things, to help bring about change or to even the playing field a little.

And somewhere, deep down, I realize part of what’s stopping me is that I feel like I’m entitled to my life. I hold a position as a wealthy, upper-class, educated American woman, and there’s a part of me that thinks I deserve it. I feel entitled to this privileged life.

It goes back to what I read about last year in Radical in terms of things making me uncomfortable. Sure, I’m willing to give up some of my privilege and my life as I know it.But all of it? I don’t know about that.

Sure, I’ll give up a Saturday to go to Mexico once every three months. But go live there? Well, I couldn’t do that. Why not? Well, because somehow I think I deserve to be safer than my friends on the other side of the border.

Sure, I’ll go help out at that apartment complex once a week. But go rent an apartment from there and save $500 a month on rent and use that money to bless some of the other families in that complex, most of them refugees of the Iraq War? Well, I couldn’t do that. Why not? Well, because somehow I think I deserve to live somewhere without roaches or noisy neighbors more than my friends from Iraq.

Going back to James 1, you’ll notice that he says my rich, organic yogurt eating, Pinterest-using privileged life is not the one associated with the high position (whatever the world might say to the contrary).

I’m the one who deserves to be low. I’m entitled to humility, not privilege.

So, I’ve used up 1000 words and that’s where I’m at, and I have no neat and tidy conclusions to offer, other than that maybe I should stop participating in Marla’s read-a-longs because every time I do I end up with a million thoughts swirling in my head about how to respond as a follower of Jesus. (Haha, just kidding – I love these read-a-longs!)

Overall, though, the lessons I’m walking away with today are:

1) I want to ask God to humble me so that I don’t have any trace of feeling like I deserve to be richer or more privileged than anyone else. I want to be the brother (or sister) in humble circumstances from James 1:9. I continue to realize how insidious and pervasive our attitudes of privilege and entitlement to be… I’d love to remove those attitudes entirely!

2) I am so, so thankful for the tremendous grace of God. It’s not something that’s mentioned in James too much, so it can be easy to get wrapped up in the “should’s” and “do’s” and forget about it. So I think it’s a good thing to remember that “all is grace.” :)

****

What do you think? I’d love to hear other thoughts on this passage or these ideas. Leave a comment below! :)

Anyways.

Yesterday I shared my goals for the summer.Here are some goals I have for the next three months:

autumn goals {september, october, november}

1. Learn something new was the goal I set back in June, but now it’s a little more specific: learn to be a volunteer doula. I talk a little more about the program here.

 2. Learn to sew, meaning take a one-day beginner sewing class.

3. Do a marriage book or go to a seminar with Jesse. Any recommendations?

4. Work on making our home greener. We’re planning to eliminate plastics in the kitchen (aside from a few special exceptions), explore composting (is it ridiculous that we have bins already in the backyard but we don’t know how to use them?), get rid of all non-organic/non-toxic cleaning products and replace with good ones, explore ways to recycle better, and explore line-drying clothing. With the last one, I’m trying to convince Jesse to let us buy one of these darling racks. He’s not easily swayed, haha.

5. Prepare for emergencies. We have a home emergency kit but it’s not complete, so I want to finish that, and also make one for the car. In addition, I’d like to: get a fire extinguisher, videotape/photograph our possessions and store online in case of fire, copy papers and store in a safe and online in case of fire, and develop a fire escape plan and practice. Finally, I’d like to make a list of things to take with us just in case we had a wildfire evacuation.

6. Develop cooking skills. I’m pretty capable in the kitchen these days, but I’d like to broaden my horizons a bit. I want to: roast a turkey (but not for Thanksgiving), bake bread again and get comfortable with it, and bake a pie from scratch, including the crust (that could be for Thanksgiving).

7. Set up scholarship fund. We have a bit of money set aside that we’d like to use as a scholarship for someone. Jesse had a vision last year for setting up a scholarship for a student in our area who is a refugee from the war in Iraq (we have the 2nd largest Iraqi population in the US in our city). However, we’ve had some trouble with getting that set up, and now we’re thinking about setting up a scholarship fund for Brayan. It’s not a lot of money, but we’d like to do something with it by the end of the year. This goal involves contacting Corazon de Vida, researching setting up a donor-advised-fun, and lots of prayer.

8. Make/prepare Christmas gifts. For the most part, we’re doing no gifts at all. However, we’d like to give some photos from our wedding to our family, and I’ll need to do some assembly of everything together. Finally, I think I might put together or order some gifts for gift exchanges, etc… perhaps some trail mix with fair trade nuts and chocolate chips?

9. Deal with memories. This includes: type up journals, print, and bind together (a space saving move, as we envision moving across an ocean), sort through memory boxes and condense to a much smaller size (for the same reason), make memory box files for Jesse and me (a great idea from the Happiness Project), and sorting through other memories (yearbooks, photo albums, etc.) Unfortunately, I didn’t get done with my photo goal this summer, so perhaps I’ll also get the photos done too: make some photo books, scan all our photos, make our wedding album, and finish scrapbooking.

10. Have fun.

11. Get faith passed down blog going. 

12. Connecting – this is a carry-over from summer. Comment on MAF blogs (I read lots of blogs of MAF families but never say hello!), make a list of birthdays and holidays and remember them better with friends and family, and do a better job of staying in touch with friends and family in general.

We’ll see how it goes!

I thought it would be good to check in on the goals I had for the summer (today), and to share the goals I have for the next three months (tomorrow). So, without further adieu:

summer goals {june, july, august}

1. have fun! (especially with Jesse). I think we did a pretty good job having fun this summer, especially since we never left southern California. We went on vacation to Palm Springs, to Newport Beach with my family, and to Sea World with my mom, aunt, and sweet cousins. We had a Bavarian Birthday Bash for Jesse’s 25th, saw Transformers and went to Hooley’s after, went swimming at the Sipan home, and spent a day at the Del Mar Fair. We went to the OB Street Fair and Hodad’s, to Little Italy Farmer’s Market, and visited a garage sale. We walked a lot - at Lake Murray, Balboa Park, and in our neighborhood. I tried out a couple ballet classes, and Jesse got to work a bit on his Mustang. We went to a concert in the park in El Cajon, went camping with our Bible study group, and got to connect with out of town friends who came to visit us. Considering that we both worked full-time and only took a week of vacation, I think that’s pretty good!

2. do Perspectives study. We still have about four weeks left, but this goal is well on its way to completion. For awhile I got behind on the reading, I’m ashamed to admit, but I’m back on track and have plans to go back and do all the reading I missed.

3. get Faith Passed Down blog developed and running. This is a goal I haven’t really worked on at all. I posted yesterday for the first time all summer, and I’m hoping fall will be a little more friendly to this endeavor.

4. declutter our house, especially the office. There’s still more to be done, but we did get rid of a lot of stuff (actually, most of it is still in a corner of the office, but it’s designated to be “gone” someday). It’s kind of hard at this point because there are things we’ll get rid of if/when we move back to an apartment, but in the meantime, it seems kind of silly to get rid of them when we have the space for them!

5. photos: scan, wedding photos, scrapbook, photo books we posted our wedding photos on facebook, I worked on our wedding scrapbook, and I made a collage of some photos for free from Walgreens that’s hanging in our living room now. Not too much other progress in this department.

6. health and fitness Lots of progress here, although you wouldn’t know it based on the cookies I ate for lunch today! I feel like I’ve gone a long way with curbing my sweet tooth. I’ve been walking a lot – the past two weeks, I’ve walked at least 30 minutes every day, most of the time at 6:30 am. I have been doing a lot of reading and recipe compiling as well… still don’t think we quite have a “rhythm” for our healthy eating, but we made a lot of progress this summer.

7. financial planning and budget Lots of progress here, too. We changed our life insurance to one that is cheaper and covers Jesse while he’s flying, and met with our great financial planner several times. We went a little spend-crazy this past month, so I think we might try out cash envelopes for awhile to get back on track. Another area I’ve been researching/exploring is spending our money on the right things – fair trade and all that.

8. goal with Jesse. This is going to sound cryptic, but Jesse and I have an issue that we’ve been facing throughout our marriage – no problems between us or anything, just something we had to deal with together. It has been a source of stress and lots of prayer, and I’m happy to report that it is 100% all taken care of! I wish I could share more, but it’s something we’re going to keep private, but it is such a relief. If I wouldn’t have accomplished any of the other goals here, but would have done this one, it would have been enough! But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. {Romans 8:25} We are thankful that our time of “patient waiting” for this to be resolved is finally over!

9. hospitality I sorted through some thoughts on hospitality and entertaining, resolved to stop reading party planning blogs because they make me too crazy and stressed, and had people over several times. We got some entertaining “stuff” – glass water dispensers, made-from-recyclables partyware, and cream and sugar holders. We also got to do some overnight hospitality when our Polish friend Mateusz stayed here for a few different weeks. This goal is officially done, I think. We’ve both worked hard to get comfortable with hospitality and entertaining, and while I can’t say we’re perfect at it, I think we’re done putting lots of effort into it for awhile, and can just enjoy having people over!

10. appearance I had a few random goals in this category… trying out different hairstyles, etc. but mostly resolved they weren’t very significant. Some things I did do: stayed out of the sun without having to use sunscreen for most of the summer, started the oil cleansing method (like it so far!), and ordered some new clothes (fair trade, of course!)

11. connecting I had a few goals in this area, like getting a birthday/holiday list put together of friends and family, that I didn’t do. However, we did get a chance to connect with friends like the Petersons, Brubakers, Risches, and LeAnna, and we also got to connect in sweet ways with both of our immediate families, and with my aunt and cousins.

Tomorrow I’ll share my goals for fall!

{books} I racked up $6.00 in fines from the library because I was reading…

Love Wins

365 Ways to Change the World

Birth: the Surprising History of How We Are Born

The 1-2-3 Money Plan

When Wanderer’s Cease to Roam

The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times

The Happiness Project

The Better World Shopping Guide

Social Justice Handbook

Growing Up Global

on the “books to read” list…

September is looking pretty busy, so I don’t think I’ll be able to get much reading time in. I think I’ll try to read Mercy Rising because I already have it from the library. I’m also revisiting Stones into Schools – I started it in January but never finished. My Bible study group is starting Crazy Love, so I’ll start rereading that again too.

{television} here’s what we’ve been watching…

Psych – my mom has watched this for several years but I was always a bit disinterested. Well, let me tell you, disinterest no more! It is hilarious. It streams on Netflix, and we have been known to watch several episodes every evening.

Expedition Impossible - we missed the first couple episodes, but this actually turned out to be a really great season of a show. It’s a pretty “tired” idea for a new show, but there were some twists that made it very fun to watch. I think you can see the final 5 episodes on ABC.com – I recommend it!

{movies} in or out of theatres…

We went on a short vacation to Palm Springs and watched all of these:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1 (on DVD from RedBox)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 2 (in theatres)

Despicable Me (on DVD from the B & B)

We had some free Blockbuster Express codes thanks to Smart Cents Mom, so we watched Rango and I Hate Valentine’s Day.

{music} been listening to..

Shaun Groves‘ Third World Symphony. Love it. You can listen free here or buy on itunes (which I did so I can sing along in the car, too).

{internet} using up all my spare time…

the usual blogs… I reduced quite a few in my google reader recently to save some time, but I kept all the ones that belong to people I know personally, like Bethany, Kelsey, and Heather, and I also added Kitchen Stewardship and Inspired to Action.

Pinterest, of course. Click here to see my boards.

I like to scope out Money Saving Mom, too. I don’t subscribe because it’s so many posts (and I love having an empty google reader!), but she has the best deals. This week alone I got two free boxes of cereal, a photo collage of our wedding pics, and a swatch of fabric free in the mail.

{life} What I’m Looking Forward to Next Month…

Lots! Bible Study Fellowship starts next week. I just found out that my wonderful leader from 3 years ago is my leader again this year. I am so happy! We are doing Acts.

Youth ministry stuff will be back in full swing within the next few weeks. We took a break from a lot of stuff during the summer so that everyone could have some breathing room. It’s been nice to rest a bit and get caught up on things, but I miss hanging out with everyone!

finishing Perspectives, the online missions course Jesse and I have both been doing this summer. It has been fantastic!

Marla is hosting another read-a-long on the book of James. Hopefully my posts will be appearing here starting next week (meaning I’m keeping up with it!)

Jesse and I are going on a date to Sea World on Friday.

I’m joining the choir at church. The last time I was in a choir, I think I was nine. I’m a little nervous but mostly excited, especially because it’s right in time for Christmas music!

Beth Moore Simulcast next weekend.

A trip to visit my favorite 11 year old in Tijuana.

I’m hoping to volunteer as a doula. I’m very nervous. I was excited a month ago and then the class filled up, so I had to wait, which has provided time for anxiety to creep in. If it weren’t for my beyond-supportive husband who keeps telling me I should do it, I think I would have chickened out by now, but at the moment, I’m planning to start two days of training in a few weeks!

At the end of the month, I’m volunteering at and attending the National Youth Worker Convention. It’s always good, so I’m looking forward to, especially since this guy is speaking. I emailed with him a few years ago for a project I did on short-term missions, and he was so kind and gracious in answering my questions.

Whew! August has been a full month, and September looks to be quite fun as well! Thanks for checking out what I’m into this month!

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!”

source: www.maf-uk.org

MAF is an organization whose mission is “sharing the love of Jesus Christ through aviation and technology so that isolated people may be physically and spiritually transformed.” Basically, they send pilots, airplane mechanics, people skilled with IT, and teachers around the world to support the work of the Church worldwide. Pilots and mechanics (the part we’re most interested in, naturally!) spend their time flying in locations where roads are unavailable, dangerous, or inaccessible. They transport supplies, doctors, medical patients, pastors, missionaries, groceries… all kinds of things to people who would otherwise be quite isolated. It’s a pretty unique organization that supports all kinds of other organizations (from Christian aid groups to the United Nations) in carrying out their work.

Long before Jesse and I were a pair, he and I both had brief encounters with MAF. Jesse met a recruiter from MAF at a career fair at Embry-Riddle (his university) in October of 2007. They chatted and Jesse was vaguely interested in MAF, but working for the airlines was the goal Jesse had been pursuing for a long time, so that was his priority.

Meanwhile, I took a class on World Missions during my junior year at Concordia, and each of the students in the class gave a report on a missionary. My report was on Nate Saint, the pilot who was working for MAF when he and four other missionaries were killed in Ecuador in the 1950s. I had actually wanted to do a report on Jim Elliot, another one of the missionaries (but not a pilot), but another student chose him first, so I resigned myself to giving a presentation on this pilot. In the end, I was fascinated by his story and talked for 25+ minutes (way longer than I was supposed to) about Nate Saint. Later that year, I went with some friends to go see End of the Spear, which tells the story of the five men.

By the time Jesse and I started dating in fall of 2008, I was working as youth ministry director at First Lutheran, and he was pursuing his Certified Flight Instructor certificate, after having been hired by Comair, but never actually working for them because of the economic downturn. We started talking about MAF – he mentioned his previous interest in it, and I had always been interested in global mission work. However, it wasn’t until after we were married that we began to really feel “called” to MAF.

There’s not a day that we can point to when we “heard a voice from God” and suddenly decided that mission aviation was what we were supposed to do. Rather, it was something that slowly, gradually creeped into our reality. The “maybe we could do MAF someday” changed to “if we end up doing MAF…” then changed to “what are the steps needed for MAF?” (On a side note, sometimes I’ve doubted whether we should really do MAF because we lack that awesome story of hearing the voice of God… I am so thankful for this post that addresses that issue perfectly!!!)

One key part of keeping MAF at the forefront of our minds was blogs. It’s amazing that through the wonders of technology, we can read the stories of a number of different families serving in mission aviation. As we read their stories and their thoughts, we started to imagine ourselves in their shoes and realized this is something we wanted to do.

At the same time, we also started reading books like Crazy Love and Radical. While we were already taking steps toward MAF prior to reading those books, they really helped affirm and encourage the heart God has given us for serving Him globally.

After several months of scoping out the MAF web site, doing some google research, talking, and praying, we had decided by the summer of 2010 (by now, we had been married about six months) to take the next step. To be the most useful for MAF, Jesse needs his Airframe & Powerplant mechanic’s license, meaning he can be an airplane mechanic.

Jesse started taking A & P courses full-time last August (2010). Thankfully, the only A & P program in our county is at a community college, located just 10 minutes from Jesse’s work. We know of other pilots who have had to quit their jobs or move across the country to get their A & P, but for Jesse, he can split his day between work and school.

He’s now finished three semesters (fall, spring, and summer), and starts back up again in August for his penultimate semester (I really wanted to use that word! Haha). As long as his class schedule works out, he’ll be done on May 18, 2012.

In the meantime, we’ve been doing some other preparations. Jesse needs 12 hours of Bible units before he can begin service (so do I, but my Concordia degree earned me plenty), so he’s doing some distance-learning classes through Moody Bible Institute. They are pretty old-school classes, with type-written textbooks and tests he mails back to the school! We’re also both taking Perspectives online over the summer, which is a SPECTACULAR missions course. We love it… it’s just a lot of work! That has really given us both a renewed heart for what we are preparing for.

We’ve also been trying to prepare for life overseas in practical ways, like opting to spend time with our families as much as possible, and going through our possessions to reduce “clutter” that we’ll have to get rid of before moving. We continue to read MAF blogs (mostly because they’re fun!), and Jesse’s gotten to know a couple guys (via the internet and through his A & P school) who are in the midst of the same process we are, which has been a neat encouragement for him.

This post is plenty long, so I’ll save “what’s up next” for tomorrow…