What is Missional Living?

Perhaps some of you have heard us use the word "missional". We know that it may have some meaning to a few of you and to others of you it may be completely foreign (even our computer doesn't recognize it, as it is currently underlined with the infamous dotted red line).

This is how one person explains it:

Missional Living at its core is living as a missionary in whatever context God has placed you. It is adopting the posture, thinking, behaviors, and practices of a missionary in order to engage others with the gospel. This involves understanding the culture, language, and background of the people you are trying to reach and meeting them where they are with the gospel of Jesus.

Another person stated it like this:

There is no better advice I can give for missional living than this: stay close to Jesus and draw close to people far from Him.

OK, so that sounds not that revolutionary. And, in many ways it is not. However, as we have attempted to actually live this out, we realize that it requires that we rearrange our lives and move beyond our comfort zone.

When we first started thinking about serving overseas someday, we realized that if we could not learn to live as missionaries here and now, and learn how to serve the people in our lives in Spokane, then we surely wouldn't suddenly be able to do so in Africa.

So what does missional living look like?

• It means letting other people (even people we don't necessarily like!) interrupt our schedule.


• It means letting our identity in Christ be public, not something private and hidden away.


• It means learning how to listen to people's stories and walk the journey of life with them.
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• It means viewing our time, energy and money as not ours, but as resources God has given us to bless and serve others.


• It means recognizing that where we live, work, and play is no accident. God is calling us to love the people around us by knowing them, serving them and blessing them.


• It means getting to know our friends and neighbors intimately enough that we can see how the gospel would be good news to them. (Where are they trying to find purpose, satisfaction, identity, redemption?

We have been reflecting on this a lot over the past year, and it has been humbling to realize how unnatural this is for us. However, we are confident that whether we are living on the cobblestone streets of the lower South Hill in Spokane or the bustling African Melting Pot of Nairobi, missional living is something that God is calling us to embrace.

Burning Heart

John recently took a little break from teaching maintenance at Moody to get some more training himself. Here are his reflections.

The Kodiak is an airplane designed by missionary aviators with missions aviation in mind

I have come to believe that a jet engine is a brilliant example of the gospel.

It is possible that I will bore you. You may find that what I have to say is of little interest to you. After all, my topic is that of jet engines. Some of you have already stopped reading. For those that have braved your way through my preamble, I promise that these engines have much to do with the gospel.

A few weeks ago I attended specialized training for the Quest Kodiak, an aircraft recently designed specifically to fulfill the very demanding needs of mission aviation operators. The ideal missionary aircraft must be able to take off and land in short distances; it must be able to carry a lot of fuel, cargo and passengers, and it has to do it cheaply. The Kodiak has been engineered with all this in mind, and since this aircraft is in many ways the future of missionary aviation, it is essential that pilots and mechanics become proficient with this aircraft. Thankfully, Spokane Turbine Center is providing this necessary training!

This Kodiak is currently being used to do relief work in Haiti

We spent a good portion of the training looking at the heart of the aircraft: the engine. We went through it system by system to understand all the pieces that make the engine turn. Lives depend on our comprehension of how the fuel control unit works (among other things), regardless of how interesting it first appears.

John removing the accessory gearbox

Titanium compressor blades spin at 38000 RPM in order to push enough air into the combustion chamber to feed the ignited fuel that has turned into a ring of fire driving a turbine that drives the propeller.

It is that simple.

A controlled inferno that brings life to those in need. It pulls an aircraft through the air carrying the sick and dying. It carries translators and Bibles, men and women who have devoted their lives to the gospel.

Similarly, the gospel is the fire fed by the Spirit that propels us as believers. It drives us desperately toward Christ and we find Him serving the lost, speaking, and being good news to them. And so we are compelled to do the same.

After 3 weeks of class, John and the rest of the "students" are now ready to work on the Kodiak.

Out of Africa, or rather into it, Part 1

Last summer we spent our days tending to our community garden, going for long walks, drinking homemade smoothies on our front porch and talking to our neighbors. John worked on his motorcycle, and Claire experimented with baking bread.

This summer will be different.

This summer we will be going to Kenya for two months. This summer we will be leading a small team of Aviation students on their internships. This summer will be spent practicing Swahili, eating fresh tropical fruits, praying that our matatus(15 passenger taxis) don't crash, working on airplanes with Kenyans, and visiting villages only accessibly by small aircraft.


We will be serving primarily through aviation with Africa Inland Mission. We are enthusiastic about joining in the ministry at the hanger knowing that we will be part of a vital cog in the machine that moves the gospel work to as yet unreached peoples. We will be working alongside Kenyans in the hangar, as well as living alongside them in the city. We are eager and humbled to see and participate in the work that God is doing in Nairobi and all over east Africa. In many ways this 8 week trip will be a preview trip for what our lives will look like when we move to Kenya long term.


There is a lot that has to happen with us leading this team and it can easily feel overwhelming when we consider the position of responsibility we are in.

It is by faith that we are taking this on. Faith because neither of us has ever lead a missions trip before (and Clarissa has not yet even been to Kenya). Faith because Nairobi is a crazy city often referred to as "Nairobbery". And faith because we have to raise around $7000 extra on top of the monthly support we are currently depending on for our work at Moody.

We need a lot of faith.

However, we are thankful and are often reminding ourselves that our faith is not just wishful thinking, but it is trust in a God who is faithful. And as we were recently reminded by our upstairs neighbor, if God isn't bigger than all these things, then we are in big trouble.

We need faith, and we have hope. Please pray for us:

• That God would give us deep trust in Him
• As we raise these additional funds.
• That we would be brought together as a team on this trip.
• That we would be useful and not burdensome to the long-term missionaries we partner with in Nairobi.

If you would like to partner with us for this trip you can send checks to

Proclaim Aviation Ministries
PO Box 356
Worthington, MN 56187

Or give through their website. www.proclaimaviation.org and click on the donate tab.

Please be sure to specify that your gift is for our Kenya trip this summer in the comments section at the bottom, as the money is handled differently than our monthly support.

Africa Inland Mission Video

This video provides a great introduction to Africa Inland Mission's heart for Africa.

From Candidates to Appointees

The snow was falling all day. A thick blanket of the stuff covered the ground outside the window and I couldn't help but smile at the irony of the situation. We talk of Africa, of getting (or not getting) malaria, of life in remote villages, of learning new languages, of how God is bringing redemption to peoples who live amongst the red dust and the heat. It is almost surreal to think that as we sit watching the icy crystals fall, on the other side of the planet people wipe the sweat off their brow as they walk under the indelible African sun. A delightful juxtaposition.

Our time at Africa Inland Mission's Candidate Week was amazing. Being surrounded by so many people who have a passion for Africa makes my heart smile and we find ourselves happy to think that many of the friends we made we will possibly see across the pond someday.

Here are a few things that made Candidate Week an enriching time for us:

• Seminars on interacting with and living in African culture
• Our 3 hour counseling session in which we learned a lot about ourselves
• learning about AIM's vision for ministry
• Learning how to live healthy lives in Africa
• Learning all the nitty gritty details of how AIM finances are structured, what our health care will look like, what education will look like for our kids someday, having a retirement account, taxes and the like
  
• How to have healthy relationships, conflict resolution and how to say goodbye in a healthy way and transition to life in Africa
• How to share with others what God is doing in Africa and how we are planning to be a part of it
  

We have now returned from Africa Inland Mission's US Headquarters in Pearl River, New York.

When we left, we were candidates and now, we return as appointees (being "appointed" is the official term to signify that we have been accepted with the organization)

Our tentative departure date for Nairobi, Kenya is January 2012.

In some ways that date seems very near. It seems near when we think that we are planning to move to Kenya indefinitely. It seems near when we think about the amount of financial support we have to raise. It seems very near when we think about saying goodbye to family and friends and places that we love.

In other ways that date seems very far. It seems far when we think about the people in Nairobi whom will be our neighbors. People whom we don't know yet, but already feel a deep desire to know. It seems far when we consider that we have been looking forward to this for years.

We want to say thank you to those of you who have been praying for us and specifically to those of you who prayed for us as we went to Candidate Week.

Because of the generous gifts that came in almost all of the cost of Candidate Week was covered! There is a remaining balance of only $500. Information about making financial contributions to Candidate week is here.

March 17the Update: Due to some more donations for Candidate Week, we now have a balance of only $300 remaining.

A Posse ad Esse

A posse ad esse
- From possibility to actuality

This Latin phrase seems fitting in light of the fact that Africa Inland Mission Candidate Week is nearly upon us. It begins on Monday, February 15th. At the end of Candidate Week we will know whether or not we are accepted to be long term missionaries in Africa with the organization. Something that has for so long been a possibility (our dream of living and serving in Africa) may perhaps be on the cusp of become a reality. Considering this though, we don't want to be presumptuous about our acceptance, nor do we want to make conjectures about our future, knowing that it is God who turns the pages and writes the narrative of our story.

With all that said we want to ask you to pray with us and for us as we fly to Pearl River, New York in the next few days. Pray we have hearts that would be humble to learn from those at AIM. Pray that AIM has discernment and wisdom about whether or not we would be a good fit for them and them for us...And in light of recent weather conditions on the East Coast, please pray that we have patience during potential delays and that we would not find ourselves stuck in Chicago (our layover) for days on end.

Regarding Financial Contributions to Candidate Week

In response to our previous blog, Candidating, a few people have asked how they might go about giving financial gifts to help make this trip possible. Just like any other contribution, financial support can be given through Proclaim Aviation Ministries by clicking on their "donate" page, or mailed via snail mail to:

Proclaim Aviation Ministries

PO Box 356

Worthington, MN 56187

***Also, please make sure to designate that the gift is for "Holtz AIM Candidate Week"