The next steps?.......

I had a very special opportunity to talk to a couple named Jason and Joselyn Thiemann the other day. (www.maf.org/thiemann). Jason and Joselyn are exactly where Heather and I hope to be in about a year. Jason has finished all of his training as a pilot and a mechanic, and they have gone through the interview process with Mission Aviation Fellowship, and they are accepted and getting ready to go serve in a small country called Lesotho contained in South Africa. So I talked to them for a long time about the process they have been going through. They had nothing but encouraging things to say about what they have experienced with MAF. It was very refreshing because, as friends and family know who ask us, the exact process we need to go through to become an MAF staff member has been sort of fuzzy. We know the big picture...which is get flight training, get maintenance training, get bible training, then apply with MAF. But since we are getting close to applying, we are trying to figure out what all of the next steps are. We had an idea, but after talking to Jason and Joselyn, the picture is very clear. When we apply with MAF, we will go out for two weeks for an evaluation (they test my flying and maintanance capabilities) as well as our maturity and spiritual preparation. If they accept us after the evaluation, we go back a couple months later for a six week time called "canidacy" which is a pretty intense time of preparation. It is at that point we would be official staff members. Then we are sent out to raise our ministry support, which takes their staff on average six months. After that we go back to Boise (where their headquarters are) and I would do a few months of intense flight and maintenance training to prepare me for the type of challenges missionary pilots face. There would also be classes preparing Heather and I for life overseas. So after that three months we would be ready to go! So from the day we go out for evaluation, to the day we are fully trained and ready to go it could be about a year. And after that our first year on the field could be language training. So from now until the day I am actually flying for MAF on the mission field could be a few years. We knew all of this coming in. That is part of the reason why we chose to come to SMAT for training. The 1 year maintenance program and the at-your-own-pace flight training (without having to earn a degree) were the quickest (and also most cost effective) options. But we also know that the time and preparation is very well worth it. I will someday be flying the Lord's precious children and servants into some of the most difficult landing strips in the world. It is a huge responsibility and privelege and to cut corners in preparation would not be a good idea!