Our family spent four days this December visiting a ministry in Burlington, NC. MAG, Missionary Air Group, is an organization that provides air ambulance services to indigenous and national people in remote regions of Honduras. We have known several former apprentices at MMS Aviation who continued their training and field preparation at MAG. Our friends invited us to come visit MAG and see what God is doing through the ministry of MAG. We thoroughly enjoyed reconnecting with the two MMS Aviation families still in training at MAG (three families have completed the apprenticeship and are already serving in other countries). It was refreshing to catch up with our friends, share similar life experiences about training for cross-cultural ministry, and learn about how God has led each family to make unique decisions about how they fit into the overall picture of God's mission to spread the gospel. Many of our conversations affirmed our desire to continue this journey of following God wherever the next step leads. Our visit also provided the opportunity for our family to investigate whether God would be changing our direction to a ministry position in a mission organization that would allow us to live in the United States for health reasons.
David and I appreciate the vision MAG has- intentional ministry that provides a platform for engaging people with the gospel and discipling believers. However, we discovered the organization would not be a better fit for our family than the bond we have developed with Ethnos360 and the staff in McNeal, AZ or Roach, MO. We also confirmed our suspicion that North Carolina is not a "healthier" climate for Allison than Ohio or Missouri have been. We believe God used this trip to encourage our pursuit of membership with Ethnos360 Aviation rather than redirect our course. We thank God for answering our prayer for clear direction, even when that answer is a clear "NO." Please email us if you have questions about specific reasons that helped us make this decision.
We've attached a link to the web page for Missionary Air Group here https://www.flymag.org/ We hope you will visit the web page and learn more about this ministry. We encourage you to consider partnering with the organization if you have interest in medical missions. We know several of you have participated on a medical missions trip or know someone who has been blessed to serve in such a way.
March 23, 2020
Another example we've faced recently brought tears to my eyes often. Our daughter has grown very close with her teacher in preschool. She loves the structure and the friends she gets to play with every morning (Monday through Friday). Out of respect for the health of our classmates and childcare staff, there are reasonable guidelines for what illnesses require a parent to stay home from class to keep sick kids from infecting other kids. We have been unable to attend classes two weeks out of each of the past three months. Our daughter misses her class, so every day she prays to ask God that we would get better and be able to go back to class.
Our campus has chosen to switch to live streaming in respect to the federal and local Covid-19 recommendations to restrict gatherings to groups of ten people and enforcing the 6ft restrictions for appropriate distance between those present. At first it seemed childcare may still be able to be offered within the recommendations, but every member of our family needed to be healthy to be able to utilize this resource during our final two weeks of the semester. Our classmates' Graduation ceremony was cancelled. Our daughter's teacher is not returning next year to teach the preschool class, and our family will be moving from the area. Our daughter's prayer was so sweet and trusting, just the childlike faith we are all commanded to have. What was God's answer going to be to her prayer? Would she be able to have a few more days to go to class and say goodbye to this place she loves?
The day came quickly upon us with an email announcing the final day of childcare. Friday... tomorrow.... We felt that all our family members were finally without symptoms of illness. We could return for our final day of class and the fellowship of our classmates and friends.
Our daughter's class threw a birthday party, for everyone. Our daughter loves celebrating birthdays, especially with friends from "class". While her birthday would be two months in the future, she was able to celebrate just as she hoped and play with those she loved. Some of her classmates moved away the very next morning. God had answered her sweet, innocent, faithful prayer with a "yes" one last time.
June 6th, 2021
June 6th, 2021
We have been serving in ministry at Ethnos360 Aviation Headquarters for ten months, and David has been receiving additional training with the maintenance team. Allison completed the required course for aviation wives to prepare for responsibilities as a missionary wife and mother in another culture or overseas ministry context. When we interviewed (also called a candidate evaluation) in January of 2019, the leadership was clearly focused on accepting candidates capable of meeting ministry needs in the overseas locations they serve. Now we are waiting for the answer: in which country will the leadership assign our family to serve? We are anxious to begin the visa paperwork and negotiations to gain permission to move our family overseas in the coming year. Our meeting with leadership left us in shock. The leadership does not intend to send our family to serve in ministry overseas, possibly not ever. The aviation headquarters has a department that needs additional employees to serve the entire organization from the Aviation headquarters-this position would be a chance to serve all five ministry locations. NO OVERSEAS WORK EXPERIENCE REQUIRED. They want David to begin work immediately after our sending church gives the approval for this assignment. We won't be moving overseas after all. We don't have to choose or be assigned to a foreign field location. We won't even have to move from one house on the center to another housing situation. Is this what God was planning to ask of us all along?
The season we have faced in the past two years with Covid-19 pandemic is a constant reminder of timeless truth. We do not know whether our plans for the future will stand firm or fade away like a mist. God's truth teaches that he alone is in control of what the future holds and that he knows every moment he has laid out for our lives. I wrestle with wanting to be in control of my plans; bitterness threatens to extinguish my joy when plans change or life takes an "unexpected" (to me) turn. I am learning how true James' words are when he wrote "Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:14-15) and Proverbs that remind me, "Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails." (Proverbs 19:21) "In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps." (Proverbs 16:9) Our family has made a lot of plans that have evaporated like mist, especially in the current season of limitations. However, I am so grateful that God loves with gracious, wise, and powerful actions that establish my steps according to his sovereign plan so that I need not fear if I ask for his guidance, seek counsel, and submit to what he reveals his plans are. I am learning to be grateful for the clear answer of God's word and his counsel through his people because his ways are good. He knows what is best for me and my family. I am thankful for this opportunity to wrestle and practice following my gracious God as he leads our family through whatever life is ahead.
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