January 31, 2008

God is so good to his children. He gives us our hearts desires even without asking. Yesterday Scott was informed that his leader (Ian Hengst) apparently went to the president (Dwight Jarboe)and asked his permission to do something a little different with his team (which consists of only Scott and himself). He asked if he could be the mechanic instead of the chief inspector and to let Scott be the Chief Inspector for this next job. He told Dwight that he thought it would build Scott's confidence and Dwight agreed. So, Scott is now the Chief Inspector for this next annual job and his leader (supervisor) is the mechanic. What a HUGE honor. We are still blown away by last weeks invitations to the 2 Rapid Responses that Scott was asked to go on. His tickets were purchased for the FL trip and as of yesterday, they were in the process of booking the tickets for Alaska. He leaves Sunday, Feb. 24th at 10:30 a.m. for FL and returns on March 6th at 4:30 p.m. I don't know the specific dates for the Alaska trip yet as we are waiting for the ticket confirmation email. He is going to FL with Ian Hengst (his leader) and he asked Ian if they could visit the two other organizations down there and Ian said sure. Also, if they finish in enough time, Ian wants to take Scott deep sea fishing. Ian used to live down in FL and worked with MFI for a number of years, so he knows the area pretty well. :-)
Bob Schwartz is going with Scott to Alaska. Just the two of them are going. Bob was a missionary with SEND Int'l in Alaska for 20 years. It is totally his stopping ground and he is a pilot who can't wait to take Scott around and show him the area and the other missions there as well.

Our time in NC went really well. We visited with 3 of our supporting churches and God was totally in control of that. One of them had a word for Scott and Scott asked him afterwards to write it out for him because it was full of stuff. Ultimately, things were going to happen and to remember that God was in control. I told him that he shouldn't tell me things like this before he takes a trip. Not the part about God being in control but the other stuff. I rest in the fact that God IS in control!! :-) Another one of them said that God's timing couldn't be better. He said they had moved into a new building, lost a few of their people and received some new ones but that the new ones (2 of them new deacons) didn't know us and wanted to drop us but that he was fighting to keep us on. By us coming and sharing, he thought, would make a huge difference. We knew nothing about this until we arrived there. It was very last minute for us to even think of going...go God!
We expected to speak for a few minutes (like 5) but the pastor gave us the entire service. Wow! He told us to come anytime, that we were always welcome. Their CD player wasn't working for some reason, so I ended up playing the piano for several of their congregation who sang specials. What a trip.
On our way home we went to JAARS and spent the day checking out the hangar and asking a ton of questions. We had went about 5 years ago but wanted to catch up on stuff. Scott received a list of things which he has to know to pass the TE (Technical Evaluation) that they do. If they do it, it is very highly favored by all other organizations. They set a very high standard. We checked to see when Scott should schedule that to take and all. It seems early in the process but actually it isn't. They only do them so many times in a year and the list to get scheduled is pretty long. It is hard to believe that MMS has us completed/done as of July 2009, that is next year already. Wow! Sounds weird and looks weird on paper.
My cousins wedding went really well. I ended up being the photographer for it. Talk about husseling around all night. I never sat for anything.
I tried to upload a couple of photos from our weekend but blogger is having issues. :-)

A friend here is video taping American Idol and House for me (last week and this week...waahoo):-). We actually feel like we are in the modern day again. The one bad thing is that we see commercials for other shows or news that we want to see and notta. We would like to follow the presidential runnings and notta. We didn't even know who was running until about a week ago. They don't cover things like that here, if it aint' local, it ain't covered. :-) Neither the radio or paper covers it. We are talking very small town. :-) We watched the whole first season of the Beverly Hillbillys and the boys laughed and laughed. They now love Bonanza too. Shaughn gets a huge laugh out of them. He likes "stupid" comedy kind of stuff. I laugh at watching him. We are going to get Daniel Boone next I think to watch. I told them these are the shows I grew up on. They also have been introduced to the Walton's and love them. We rented 1 season from the library of them. They want to see more now. :0)

Nathaniel's hermit crab died. Eli. He is very sad about this and cried and cried. Daddy bought him a candy bar to make him feel better. He ended up sharing it with all of us. He has such a generous heart. He thought it died because he wasn't a good enough daddy, I told him he was a great daddy and that these things just happen.

Well, that is about all of the updates I can think of. I just wanted to write and share them while I had a moment. Thank each of you for your prayers and encouragements. We love you all!

Lela and boyz~