Some cute videos!

We are excited to have Dave and Ellen, Heather's mom and step dad in Nampa this weekend to visit. We "went out on the town" tonight to Boise. We ate at the cheesecake factory, and went to the attached mall afterwards. Elise kept trying to get the attention of the people and kids at the booth over the wall from us! We walked around and she was delighted to see all the lights, shiny things, and her favorite....people!! Elise is especially enjoying all the extra attention!

This week has been especially challenging as MAF has been teaching us how to speak in churches. Especially nerve wracking, yet a privelege. We spoke at the MAF chappel this morning, so it was a good experience to get out there and give it a try! It is especially fun to tell your story knowing it is what God did in your life, and it is for His glory and not your own. That helps put me at ease a little bit (notice I said a little bit).




Soooo.......where's the hair you may be wondering. Well, Elise "lost her hair priveleges" a few weeks ago. Elise had a little bit of an obsession with mommy's hair. And when she started realizing she had some of her own, she began to pull hers out. So after attempts to get her to stop, and some web research, we realized the best thing to do was to give her a "clean slate" to help break her of the habit!

Where does MAF fly?

Here's a neat video I found of some MAF flying. It is a good illustration of the type of terrain that MAF flights carry people across.

While some of that was shot at their airstrips around the world, it looks like some was shot here in Idaho where they train us, the pilots to land in those types of places.

I do get excited about this type of flying, but I get far more excited about the people whose lives are impacted by these flights (something the video doesn't really show). Our vise president Dave Fyock gave a speech when the staff gathered around to send off the airplane to Haiti the other day, and he said it well when he said the airplane is just sheet metal, but we pray that in the hands of the pilots it is a tool to show people that there is a God who loves them.

Videos and Pics!

Last weekend we got to see Aunt Debbie, Uncle Rod and cousin Laurin. Debbie and Rod happen to live right here in Boise. Laurin just happened to be home for a few days after boot camp with the Marines, so we lucked out to see him. We went out to Mexican food and had a fun time. We forgot to get a picture of everybody at the restaraunt but here's Aunt Debbie with Elise.

Elise and Mommy looking rather cheerful!

We got a picture with the Kodiak right before they sent it off to Haiti. For more on that see our previous posts.

The Krul Family on TV

Jason Krul of the MAF family that we mentioned on our blog a few days ago were interviewed on Canadian television. I couldnt get the video to post on the blog but below is a link to it. He describes what the quake was like:

http://www.southwesternontario.ctv.ca/news.php?id=6626

MAF Kodiak sent to Haiti

Here's some local news videos of something cool that we got to witness here yesterday. MAF decided to send a new Kodiak aircraft they had ready to go to Indonesia to Haiti instead for the time being. It will join their other aircraft there to act as a vital link between the port au prince airport and the rural airstrips where many people are entirely cut off from the port city and basic things that they need. Many MAF pilots and mechanics will take turns rotating in to serve in Haiti. This is a unique privelege and opportunity that MAF takes advantage of when needed, to divert resources when needed in the event of natural disasters and crises, and is something that I am very excited to be a part of.

MAF is also using their hangar on the Port Au Prince airport as a logistics base for other relief organizations to store and distribute their goods, and they are also using their relationships with and knowledge of the airport to help other relief flights successfully arrive and deplane.

Fork In the Road

Today Heather and I were officially invited on board with MAF, with an assignment to Indonesia!

A whole swirl of thoughts and emotions went through our minds as the candidate committee informed us, with no emotion really overtaking all of the others as our mouths were just sort of dropped in shock. We are excited, excited to get to begin to learn about the people we will live among and serve. Excited to have an answer to the previously wide-open question of where in the world are we going to live. We are not excited to be so far away. Although we knew that we were going to be overseas, some places are closer than others to the US, and Indonesia is about the farthest away. Most of all we trust that the Lord is putting us where He wants us. We both have sensed him doing that in our lives, before we were married and since then. So we trust Him! And we thank Him! We want to say thank you too to the friends and family who said they were praying for us. That means alot to us.

Fowl Play

(watching the Cardinals right now down 21-7 to the Saints in the first quarter....hopefully the title of this post doesn't apply to this game when all is said and done!)

An Inside look at Haiti

Heather and I visited the personal website of an MAF family in Haiti the night before the earthquake. We browsed through many of their photos from Haiti and we spent some time praying for them. So we were a little extra surprised when we heard the initial news of the earthquake the next day, and we had fresh images in our minds of them and the people of their country. Heather and I just re-visited their website thinking that of course there would be no new posts since the earthquake. But MAF managed to get satellite internet set up there and they had made a couple of posts. Their names are Jason and Willemien, and they have a baby boy named Jayden. Willemien had posted a couple of lengthy first person accounts of their experiences during and since the earthquake. She communicated it in a very engaging way and Heather and I were fastened to the computer screen as we read it. Here's a link to Jason and Willemien's blog if you want to read it yourself.

Haiti

Im sure if you've been watching the news you know about the earthquake in Haiti. It goes without saying but they definitely need all kinds of prayer right now. MAF has seven staff families there and received word yesterday that they are all OK. But there are massive casualties and destruction it appears. I just saw a slide show of what it looks like there and it is very bad. These will be critical hours no doubt of rescuing survivors.

New Material

Some info about what's going on here. So far we have been learning alot about MAF's purpose and the way they operate. and We've also been learning specific information about the different countries they serve in. We have a pretty big meeting with their committee on Thursday to talk about placement. This is our one chance to express our desires for placement. Please pray for us if you can! Here's some pictures and videos for fun!

Today was day two of Elise and Mommy being apart for most of the day. We are blessed with a baby sitter named Bethany who Elise really likes and who does a good job with her. All in all she is handling it pretty well. When we get home and say goodbye to the baby sitter, she is super happy that mommy is home, but on edge that she is going to go "bye bye" again. In fact she kind of breaks down when anybody goes bye bye for a while after that (including the baby sitter)! When we left this morning it was kind of sad, yet we had to laugh a little when Elise realized what was going on and cried while waving and saying "bye bye bye bye".

A little while ago....

Go Cardinals!

There's my twin Kelly and little cousin Isla geared up for the Cardinals game today! Isla is sporting her little Larry Fitzgerald jersey. I hear she is his biggest fan. Well, by big I mean, well you know what I mean! They're beating the packers right now at halftime, knock on wood! It seems the Cardinals winning playoff games is becoming a regular occurrence in recent years. Kinda wierd! Go Cards!

Post game note: Wow what a game! The Cards were lucky to escape by the skin of their teeth with the victory in the highest scoring game in NFL post season history!

Nampa Idaho, Round 2!

Elise made some new friends today!

She shamelessly flirted with the folks behind us (who egged it on), and just about everybody else on the airplane as we ventured out to Nampa Idaho today.

Her favorite thing to do was poke her head up and say "Wow!" over and over, as loud as she can in hopes that everybody would laugh at her.

Okay so she really didn't say wow too many times there. I think I said it more than she did. That seems like a theme. We have a hard time catching Elise's cute little habits because by the time we grab the camera. she is over whatever she was doing (or maybe a little camera shy?)



Elise didn't get much sleep today, but there she is catching a cat-nap between flights!

It is our second time visiting MAF headquarters. This time we will spend one month here, and MAF will collaborate with us during these first two weeks to educate us more about the different countries where they serve. And after those two weeks, we will know the country where we will be headed and become official members of MAF!

We are excited and a little nervous all at the same time. Please pray for God's wisdom for us and MAF in the next two weeks. And please pray He would give us ears to listen to Him to be the people He wants us to be, no matter what country we serve in!

The second half of our time here will be spent training to equip us to seek a team of financial and prayer supporters who will participate in this ministry with us. Immediately following that, in one month, we will begin that process, which should last several months.

We will try to share some of what we learn here as we go, as well as maybe a few cute pics and videos of Elise as they happen!