Candidating!

The light of the sun is deceptively warm looking on the city of Spokane. Unlike last year we are not buried under four feet of snow, but our apartment is still quite chilly even when the golden sun rays are streaming in the windows. The dawn of a new year gives us the opportunity to re-calibrate our hearts onto God's purposes. We remember that we have been saved out of the mire of our own sin and selfishness. We are no longer enslaved to the things that we thought would bring significance or success. We are no longer under condemnation of trying to live a good enough life and continually failing. We live in the freedom to do good out of joy rather than obligation. That is such an amazing promise that we are often too busy to remember and reflect on how incredible it really is.

Our next year is already filling up rapidly. We have plans to attend Africa Inland Mission's candidate week in mid February. All prospective long term missionaries are required to attend as part of their application to work with the organization. This means we will spend a week at AIM's headquarters in Pearl River, NY for what might be described as a week long interview, company orientation, and counseling retreat all rolled into one. At the end of the week we will find out if we have been accepted with the mission, so it is a rather intense point in the process.

If we are accepted my(John's) technical evaluation will be scheduled, and if I pass that then we will be accepted into the aviation arm of the mission. And after that (yes, there is more) will be my technical orientation. I know you don't know what those are either but I did not want to overwhelm you in one blog post. We are really excited about this next step, it brings our dream of working and serving in Africa into a more real and possible light. Every one keeps asking how long it will be before we are actually overseas long term, and we are still measuring that distance in years. Candidate week will move us more strategically forward and give us more complete answers on what is required next.

Whew, it is a long process and an expensive one, candidate week alone will cost $750 a person plus air fare. Please continue to pray for us as we raise funds for our current work at Moody and the candidating process with AIM. Thank you for taking the time to read this and thanks for praying.

A quick preview of what is on the horizon for us: We are planning a short (2 month) trip to Kenya this summer that has a two fold purpose. The first is to lead a small team of aviation students from Moody on their internship, which furthers their ability to complete the program. Second, it will be a vision trip for us. We will be looking into housing options, and getting a feeling for how we as a couple (and eventually family) will be able to fit into the work there. More on all this later. Thanks for letting us share with you as we go though this process.