WE GOT MAIL!!!

Candidate Committee Meeting
Today, we met with the candidate committee at 11 AM and discussed all of our preferences and concerns for specific locations. The candidate committee will keep these in mind while they continue to pray regarding our placement. Kevin and I won't exactly be in Hawaii, but we do understand that we want to be placed where God wants us to be. A few of our requests were: a location with reasonable access to medical care; a warm climate; family friendly; close community ties; and a place we could utilize as many of our skills as possible. All of the following regions are taking as many people as they can: Latin America, Eurasia, Asia, Africa, and Haiti. At this moment, we have no idea where they will assign us, but we do know they will place us where we will be served best and can best serve.

Cross Cultural Living
After meeting with the candidate committee, the next speaker was with John Karetji, an Indonesian who has served with MAF over the last 40 years. He grew up in Papua and began working for MAF in 1968 and began doing office work. By the providence of God he worked his way up to program manager! He learned to speak Dutch, French, English, and Spanish! Not only that but he has been to 35 different countries! He was a wonderful guest speaker and kept us on our toes the entire time! We enjoyed his "true stories" about the different "shocking" things that occur in other cultures. Whether it was a word mispronounced (changing the meaning of the sentence), to hand gestures, to the different ways we eat, and even our idea of affection.
A great example of this was a story one of Kevin’s co-workers told him. While serving in the Air Force in Iraq, he noticed a lot of the Iraqi men holding hands. He then assumed many of them were homosexual. In actuality, it is a totally non sexual practice-even common place for male friends to hold hands. He observed another culture from the American context. The big point was for us to realize other cultures are not superior, or inferior, just different. In order to share with a new culture, we have to learn it. When Paul went to the city of Athens, he appealed to them on the basis of their culture, much like we learned about today (Acts 17).

 We’ve Got Mail
On a happy note, WE GOT MAIL!!! It was the best feeling to walk by our "mail box" in the hall and see something in our box. Our friends in the class with us were all talking about it and were so excited! We took our coveted letter to the classroom. It was a word of encouragement from Carolyn & Nels Walker! Thank you SO much!!! You don't understand how excited everyone in the classroom was to see someone get mail! They were rejoicing with us! I wanted everyone back home to understand how much a little card or note means to us here on base. In fact, if you have some free time and a few stamps, I would like to encourage you to also send some letters to our friends as encouragement as well! We would also like to thank those who respond to our blogs. It truly means a lot.

It is the same address as ours:

Mission Aviation Fellowship
Atttn: FAMILY NAME
P.O. Box 47
Nampa, ID  83653

Laura Cahill - Maintenance intern for Oaxaca, Mexico
Pete & Ashley Greenwald, and baby Cade (5 mo) - pilot/mechanic Career Staff
Rich & Megan Harrell, Alex (8), Aden (5), Aron (4), Abe (3) - pilot/mechanic Career Staff
Matt & Lisa Lind, Levi (2), & one due in 8 weeks - Base Maintenance, DRC, Short Term Staff
Miles & Dion McClure - Aircraft Mechanic/Teacher for Papua, Indonesia, Short Term Staff
Pete & Joy Neal, baby Anders (6 mo) - pilot/mechanic Career Staff
Eric & Kristine Reed, baby Jennavieve (10 mo) - Pilot/IT - the GOLDEN JOB!!! Career Staff
Matt & Ellis Scheer, Blake (2 yrs), baby Callie (2 mo) - Pilot/mechanic Career Staff