YOU can reach Indonesia without even going there!

Hello everyone!
It's been a few weeks since we've posted, but we'll get better about posting more frequently. Life with a little one gives us little time to sit, think, and reflect...well in blog style. We sent out Christmas cards this week, so if you want one and didn't get one, let us know! :)



Confusion
 There's been some confusion about whether we're in Indonesia right now or the time frame for that. We are going to add a FAQ section to the blog and as we get great questions, we'll add info there so that everyone can benefit from the great questions we are getting.

We are not in Indonesia YET, but we are raising a team of ministry partners (both prayer warriors and financial partners) to help us get to Indonesia. Back this summer Eric left his work so that we can spend our time full-time on ministry partnership. As missionaries with Mission Aviation Fellowship, we need to raise our full support goals ($7200 monthly support and a large amount in outgoing expenses) before going overseas. It seems like a lot, but we can give you a breakdown of the costs if you'd like later. That amount is not straight salary, it covers a lot of things including medical, housing, schooling....etc. We are hoping to raise the full amount and be in Indonesia by January 2013!



(Remember this photo? It was taken this summer when we found out we are heading to Indonesia! Jenna was super small then!)

Team Players
1 Corinthians 12:27 ,"Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it."

The need in Indonesia is great! While the Lord has blessed us with the skills and desire to serve the people of Indonesia, we need your help to get there. Is God calling you to be a part of this team? We are merely one part of the body of Christ, it takes others who answer the call to be the other parts of the body to help the Lord move in Indonesia. There are many ways to join this ministry. Check out the tabs above (Partner though giving, Partner in prayer and Other ways to partner)to see where you might fit in this vitally important ministry.


Why this ministry is important-flooding edition
https://www.facebook.com/notes/mission-aviation-fellowship-canada/food-flights-needed-in-papua-maf-is-there/10150407332795688

This past year there has been a tremendous amount of rainfall in Papua, Indonesia that has caused landslides to take out entire gardens. This means that people are without a food source because once they replant, it takes a while for those plants to grow. MAF has been actively involved in flying food and relief supplies in and out of the region. This means people that would not get food otherwise, are able to have food. How scary would that be, watching...waiting...for a plane to arrive so that you could have food for your family. They can't just go out to the store to get tons of pre-made items, nearly everything has to be done by hand. If there are no supplies to make things by hand, it can get bad quick. There are only so many flights that can happen daily and so many flight hours the pilots can safely fly. Which is why more planes and more pilots are needed in Indonesia. Flights are being turned away all the time because there are a lot of needs.

This is one reason why this ministry is SO important. We need people on our team with a heart for reaching others with the Gospel of Christ. Without you, this ministry cannot happen. We ask that you take a moment to stop...pray...and ask the Lord whether he would want you to be a part of this life changing ministry. You don't have to go to Indonesia, to make a HUGE impact on the people there. By joining our team through prayer, financial or other methods, you will be impacting those that MAF serves.

Isn't that amazing? God's reach is THAT big. Remember the song, "He's got the whole world in His hands"? It's true. God cannot be contained. He CREATED the universe. He CREATED us. He just wants to see us come to Him and be obedient to His calling. How will you be obedient to His calling in your life today?

Help change lives for less than $1 a day!

December is known as a season of giving. We give presents, cookies and good cheer. What if we gave a gift that could literally impact countless of lives? This December we are inviting you to join with us in the ministry of Mission Aviation Fellowship to Indonesia. We want to invite you to look into your daily lives to change one daily purchase and to give those funds towards ministry.

One example is a cup of coffee. Just giving up one specialty drink a week and choosing to have coffee at home saves approximately $5 a week, which means $20 a month could go towards ministry! Amazing! We know through giving ourselves that God often blesses us and teaches us more than we thought. We invite you to pray and to be open to God's leading and give according to that. No amount is too big or small if it's coming from a heart that longs to serve the Lord.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. If you'd like more information about our ministry please contact us at: ereed@maf.org or call Eric at the number on the flier. We invite you to check out MAF's Indonesia program websites for Kalimantan: http://www.maf.org/page.aspx?pid=414 and Papua: http://www.maf.org/page.aspx?pid=415. You can also check out this video on Youtube to see how Papua, Indonesia has been impacted by MAF and partnering missions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YEJVh1yc5c&list=PLFECB664AF2BC4A9D&context=C2db0cADOEgsToPDskJbC1qMxpcg9sIrUCTqi2ZE

We've got a December Challenge for you!

Hello Everyone!

We’d love to invite you to take our December Challenge! We’d love to grow 25% in monthly support by December 25^th to help us get even closer to reaching Indonesia. As we’ve mentioned before though, this ministry cannot happen with just one person, but many. For December, we’re challenging each of you to look at your daily life and to pray about what you can change to be able to enact change in the world for Christ!

For some, it might mean making coffee at home once a week and giving that money to God through the ministry of Mission Aviation Fellowship. (Each drink typically costs $5. Choosing to drink a at home just once during the week would mean less than $1 a day or $20 a month towards helping reach the unreached people groups of Indonesia!)

Here are some recipes for delicious coffee drinks made at home:

Mocha Frappuccino

Top Coffee Recipes on Allrecipes.com

If coffee isn't your thing, and pizza is, you can choose to give up two pizzas a month for Christ! (A typical pizza costs $10 or more depending on where you get it. Giving up two pizza's a month would mean less than $1 a day or $20 a month towards MAF planes being utilized in life saving medical evacuations!)

Here are some recipes to make delicious pizza at home for cheap:

Pizza Pockets

Spinach Feta Pizza

Pizza Pinwheels (Great Idea!)

Think about it, Pray about it, and if God leads you… join with us in ministry! Just go to our website at https://maf.org/reed and click or type in the amount you'd like to donate in the section to the right, not the donate button on the top of the screen; (Pictured below) or you can go to the Partner through Giving tab above. That will lead you to a secure page where you can enter in further information. It's quick and easy and by joining with Mission Aviation Fellowship in ministry, you are helping to save countless lives both physically and spiritually for Christ!

We will be posting updates as we get closer to our goal. Share this goal with your friends, family, small group members, churches…etc. Everyone can be a part of the ministry that God is doing in Indonesia through Mission Aviation Fellowship. Let’s grow 25% by December 25^th!

It's been a busy time!

It’s been a while since we’ve written! We apologize for that and vow to update this web page at least every other week. These past few months have been a whirlwind of activity. We’ve met with family, friends and have visited several new churches. We’ve been so busy that we’ve forgotten to update our website regularly like we had planned. We hope to remedy this! We vow to update this website every other week. If you don’t see an update, let us know! Keep us accountable. J The above picture is of Jenna on a Washington State Ferry with her hand on her best friend, Monkey. Below is a picture of Jenna with Eric getting ready to pull the seeds out of her pumpkin.

Our New Newsletter!

Reed MAF 2011 November Newsletter

Wisdom from God through Veggie Tales (posted by K)

It's amazing how God chooses to speak to us through random means. We've been mildly sick around here for the past couple of days and trying to complete tasks both around the house and for the ministry and it's been a little draining. Sometimes tasks and goals seem insurmountable at times and those little thoughts like to pop into our head to discourage us.

Today we were watching my (Kristine) favorite Veggie Tale movie with Jenna. It's called, "Sumo of the Opera." I love it because it has so many fun elements to it. Among those, it includes St. Patrick and it has a musical parody of the Mikado. Seriously, it's the best Veggie Tale movie out there, you should check it out. OH! I almost forgot that it's also got the BEST silly song ever on homophones. It's silly AND educational. The best combo.

Towards the end of the movie, when they come to the memory verse part, the computer broke because one of them tried to "fix it". This made me laugh because recently my computer broke and because we've been so busy, someone *cough* has been too busy to fix it. :) But that's okay... we got an Ipad 2 to take with us to show people MAF videos and pictures, so it's all good.

Because the computer was broken, the little guy had to write a verse out from memory. It was Hebrews 10:36, "You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised."

That was the exact verse we needed to hear today. A reminder that often the things that are of God aren't easy. There's no yellow brick road to make it easy, but we need to persevere through slow times when the task seems insurmountable so that we will accomplish and learn what God has for us. God has a plan and we just need to be faithful and listen to His leading. I know today I will be listening a little harder and trying even more harder to accomplish what God has for me to do today.

Back Again...

We are back here on good ole' blogger again for the time being. Yes, we love the fancy Wordpress site, but we just realized that we could do a lot of what thought we could only do on Wordpress, right here on this blog! Amazing. So for right now, we aren't switching sites and are staying put!

In other news, we had a wonderful time on our first trip to Washington State. We got to visit some wonderful friends and family and look forward to going back up there in a week or so. This was the first time Jenna had met many of our friends. It was fun to see her interact with our friends and the children that she met. She's a born traveler.

Right now we're back in Oregon and gearing up for our next trip to Washington. We are also resting a little bit. Jennavieve is teething and getting in her one year molars. She also has a slight cold and has been waking up A LOT at night. So prayers for her health are much appreciated.

We hope to update this website much more often. In the beginning of November be looking in your inboxes and mailboxes for our new newsletter! In it we'll let you know where we're at in the process and how you can help! If you are interested in joining us in ministry, we'd love to have you! Check out the pages above to see just how you'd like to partner with us in ministry.

Blessings,

The Reeds

Virginia

Virginia (posted by Kristine)

So our trip to Washington started off with no sleep, or at least just three hours of sleep. I had worked hard the night before to try to get things ready for our week-long trip to Washington and was exhausted by the time I got to bed. Not more than an hour later Jennaveive decided she would scream and scream (Which isn’t normal) and so I got up and tried to calm her down. Unfortunately there was no calming her, so I took her to bed with us. Yeah…not such a good idea either. While I was able to get her to sleep, she was inching me out of my side of the bed and hitting Eric with her arms and legs. I tried to cope with this and just sleep, but no sleep happened for I think another hour or so. Then I finally gave up and took her back to her room where she fell asleep after a little coaxing.

I get to sleep and before I know it, we’re awake. The alarm didn’t go off, but we woke up anyhow. We packed and sorted and tried to organize the best we could and the house still wasn’t where I wanted it to be but I kinda gave up and said,”This is life!” (Or something like that.) We are blessed to have people watching it while we are away and good neighbors who keep an eye on things. The cat is being fed by Eric’s mom, who was very gracious in doing so. (Speaking of cat….if anyone wants one…please please please take him! He’s free and becoming a burden when we go on these long trips and have to always have someone take care of him. Talk to your friends, neighbors, old folks centers…etc. We definitely need YOUR help to get him a home.)

On the road I’d realized that in all the shuffle, I’d forgotten to eat. So we decided to stop at Denny’s in Kelso. Before we entered Denny’s I looked at Jenna’s hair and noticed that it was getting a little mangy, so I took out a baby band to pull it into a top ponytail. (You know, those classy baby ponytails on the top of their head…) When I pulled her hair back I saw brownish yellowish patches on her head! Yikes! They were the same tone as my freckles, so at first I thought,”Woah Weird, this baby is getting freckles on her head!” Eric thought it looked like she had gotten food up there. So we agreed that we might wash her hair in Denny’s to see, but we still weren’t sure if we’d do that or wait until we got to my parent’s house.

During Dinner Jenna got food all over her hair. So that solved our question of whether we should wash her hair. I got the baby shampoo, a new dress and hauled her off to the bathroom. When I got there I started talking to Jenna about how I was feeling like a homeless mom right now, or at least one that lived out of her car that needs to use the diner’s sink to wash her baby. I didn’t notice that there was someone occupying a stall behind me. As I soaked Jenna’s hair with water and lathered it up with soap, the lady came out of the stall.

“Hello! I am not walking too well these days, I have bandages on both legs!” she said. “Well you are doing great and moving around for having those bandages, that’s a good thing!” I replied trying to move along the conversation. “I’m 92 years old and still moving around! Oh my that baby is cute, her hair is all wet. Mom you should wipe her tear (it was a drop of water)” she told me. So I wiped Jenna’s face and explained to the lady that I was attempting to wash Jenna’s hair. The lady still didn’t quite understand me and after she washed her hands she told me to wipe the baby’s face off. Which made sense, because by that time some of the “no tear” shampoo was getting into Jenna’s eyes. I did and explained again that I was washing Jenna’s hair because she got food in it and proceeded to rinse Jenna’s hair off in the sink. The lady decided that she was going to “help” me by giving me a ton of paper towels. “Here, take these to dry her hair, she needs these. I’m not infectious, that’s not why I have bandages on my legs.” So I took them and used them on Jenna’s hair, even though I had just planned on using her old dress because I had changed her clothes. Then the lady, the one who has two bandaged legs and could barely walk, took some paper towels, put them on the floor and proceeded to wipe up the floor with her legs. ”I can do that, don’t worry about it,” I told her. She insisted on helping so I took some paper towels and began wiping up the floor with my hands. “No! You need to use your feet. Then after you do that you need to get a new paper towel for your hand and grab the paper towels on the floor,” she insisted.So what was I to do? This lady is um several years my senior and kept reminding me of how old she was practically every minute. (No I mean literally. She said, “Well I am 92….etc before every other sentence”) So I did what I was told while trying to wrangle Jenna to keep her off the floor. “Now you need to wash your hands,” she said. So I washed my hands and when I went to go out, the lady (you know the one with the bandaged legs) held the door for me. So I went out quickly and held the door for her.

While out I thanked her for helping me and she commented on how pretty Jenna was. We talked for a few minutes and I asked her what her name was,”Virginia, and I’m 92 years old” she said. She told me that she was in no pain from her legs, and I told her that was good. I walked with her to her table so her husband would understand what took her so long and I thanked her in front of him for helping me. Then we went to our table, paid the check and went off to Washington.

It’s amazing the people you find in the strangest of places. For some reason Virginia really really felt like I needed help. I think she was right. She was very selfless and even though she was having difficulty walking, she took the time out to help someone she thought was in need. May we all be like Virginia and seeking opportunities to help others no matter how we are feeling that day. It’s definitely something to think about and put into practice.

Workin’ on the Ole’ Homestead..

Lately we’ve been hard at work on the ole’ homestead organizing, painting and putting up molding. (Not all in that order) Up above you can see wood that we’ve purchased to make a fence on the side of our house. If you look really closely to where Eric is pointing, you will see a praying mantis. Yep, I had no clue they were here in Oregon, but they are. We’ve found two so far. Some people would be grossed out by this large bug, I kinda find it intriguing. Maybe this is a good sign for when we are living in Indonesia and surrounded by large insects. Time will tell. We hope to be able to put the house finally on the market sometime early spring if not sooner. There’s much to be done and it gets complicated doing it with a young little lady in the house that wants us to play all day. By the grace of God we will get it done!

It’s exciting to think that in a couple of years we’ll be living in Indonesia. This is a culture very different from our own and definitely in a climate different than our own. We’ve been told it’s quite hot and humid there. An upside to hot and humid means that I’ll get to wear more dresses and capris daily. A definite plus in my book. I’ll blog more on that later. Right now the little lady is up from her nap and demanding attention.

How to get to Indonesia as a MAF missionary 101

Lately it seems we’ve been establishing a new drum beat to our lives since we returned from Mission Aviation Fellowship. We have been officially accepted by the board as new missionaries assigned to Indonesia. Eric will be a pilot/information technology specialist and Kristine hopes to be involved in the local community as much as possible with Jennavieve. We are very excited for this assignment because we’ve had Indonesia on our hearts for a while and it’s a blessing to have that calling confirmed.

Some of you have asked us when we’re going to Indonesia. Some think we have already jumped on the plane and are over there. We’d like to explain a little about the process to help clear up confusion.

Where in Indonesia will you go?

We know we are assigned to Indonesia, but will find out when we are closer to getting there where specifically we are assigned. MAF has nine bases in Indonesia: Manokwari, Merauke, Nabire, Palangka Raya, Sentani, Aceh, Tarakan, Timika and Wamena. No matter where we are assigned, we are still serving in Indonesia and wherever we are assigned, we’ll serve the needs of those people. We do know that we will attend language school on the island of Java.

What will you do once you get there?

First we will be focusing on learning the language and culture of Indonesia at our language school on the island of Java. Then depending on where we are assigned after that, we’ll help with the specific needs of the people there. Eric will be a pilot/information technology specialist. This means daily he flies people and supplies into and out of remote areas and he also will help with computer needs and setting up satellite phone and internet connections. Kristine will be at home with Jennavieve but hopes to get involved in the community as much as she can with Jennavieve to build relationships and to see what needs the community has. Before we can even get to Indonesia, we need to go through a process called, “Deputation”.

Deputation (14-16 months or less)

We are currently still in the United States. From the time we left Nampa, Idaho we’ve been in a period called, “Deputation”. This is the time period before going overseas where missionaries raise support. Mission Aviation Fellowship requires us to raise full support before leaving for Indonesia. Currently we are raising $7200/month and a significant amount in outgoing expenses. The monthly amount goes towards a multitude of things including (but not limited to): housing, health care, taxes, living expenses..etc). We have a more detailed sheet for those interested. During this time we also need to sell our house and our airplane, get the paperwork completed for our Visas as well as take care of other fun details such as vaccinations. The sooner we get this accomplished, the sooner we get to the field.

• Currently we are looking for both prayer and financial partners in ministry. There are also other ways that you can join in and support us. Check the “Join Our Team” page for more information.

Standardization and Orientation (Three Months)

When we reach full financial support (or close to it), we head back to MAF headquarters in Nampa, Idaho to do a three month training. This is when Eric will get more specific training to MAF standards. Included is mountain flying and training to the level of precision required to operate safely on some of the most challenging airstrips out there. Kristine will learn how to make a few things from the basics, which will be good practice for when we are in Indonesia. We’ll also get a little bit of cultural training as well during this time. When we are finished with this, if we are at full support and have our paperwork finished, we head to language school in Salatiga, Indonesia on the island of Java.

Language school and finally in our assigned program

We will go to a language school on the island of Java for about eleven months to learn the Indonesian Language. Once we are there we will also purchase any other items that we need for our new home in Indonesia and ship them to our program. After we are done, then we’ll be in our program.

Hope that clears up a little confusion. We would love to answer any questions you may have. Please feel free to e-mail us at: ereed@gmail.com and check out the other pages on this website on the top right corner of your screen.

Right now we’d love to meet with YOU

We would love to meet with you to talk with you more about what MAF is doing in Indonesia and you can be a part of it too. Please e-mail us if you are interested in setting up a time to meet. E-mail us at ereed@maf.org

MAF Reed Newsletter August 2011

She's number one!

Our baby girl Jennavieve turned one year old September 12th! It was a day filled with fun and friends. I made lemon cake balls with cream cheese frosting and covered them with chocolate frosting. She dove into the cake like a champ and got it all over her!

Lately she is walking everywhere and really prefers it that way. Only if there's a really scary walking area then she'll choose to crawl. But right now she walks, and walks well. You see that baby chair strapped to the dining chair in the picture? Typically it is on the floor in the living room and often she is seen sitting in it. She still chews on most everything she gets in her hands and finds a lot of things around the house that we forget are there. So she keeps us on our toes!

Right now she's not saying many words, but we are certain her first word is, "Uh Oh". At first we weren't sure where she got it, but then Eric remembered that he used to play a game where he'd pick her up and gently toss her on the bed so she'd bounce and before that he'd say "Uh Oh". So we think she got it from there.

She's at a fun age though now because she is more mobile, loves to clap and loves to share things with us. Many a time she can be found handing us different toys, snacks...etc around the house that she finds. She also follows us most everywhere we go and tries to copy what we do. I (Kristine) would say I love this age MUCH better than the age she was a year ago. I love when kiddos develop their personalities. It's so much fun.

Yesterday we went to the zoo with some friends. Jenna had a blast. Here are some of our favorite pictures:

As you can see...one of the animals is native to Indonesia! We took a good long look at this animal and decided that we never want to run into it! :) We are so enjoying this stage of Jenna's development and hope to be the best parents we can be while we have to travel around to raise ministry partners so we can get to our new home away from home! :)

Blessings,

The Reeds

Our MAF Webpage is working!

Hello everyone!

We wanted to update you to let you know that our MAF webpage is now working. You can reach it by going to: http://www.maf.org/reed . We hope to have a link to this blog sometime on it, but for now at least you can go there if you wanted to donate online or go to just check it out.

Blessings,

The Reeds

A FYI regarding donating online via our MAF website

Hello Everyone!

We are going to try to update this regularly as we go through this journey. We wanted to give you guys a heads up about the MAF website. They are doing a major update to it right now that should debut in September. Because we were accepted this summer, our web page is not on the website right now. It should show up in September. (Hopefully a little sooner than that!) The website I am referring to is http://www.maf.org/reed. This website is on our prayer cards, business cards and I think perhaps our newsletters.

If you wanted to give online, you can:

1. Go to this website: https://www.maf.org/donate/quick#

2. Near "Where would you like your donation to go ?"Click on: "Choose a missionary"

3. Choose: "Eric and Kristine Reed"

4. Then choose how much and how often. (Give whatever you feel led to give)

5. Fill out the rest of the form and submit it!

Again, we're sorry it's such a long process. We got accepted right at the time when everything was switching over to new databases and new websites. So bear with us and this process will indeed run more smoothly in time. If you have any questions for us, please feel free to ask us at: ereed@maf.org (Eric) or kreed@maf.org (Kristine) and we'll do our best to answer questions. If you'd like to talk with us via phone, please e-mail us and we'll give you our number!

Blessings!

The Reeds

On the MP trail..

Hello everyone!

It took us nearly 13 hours to get from Nampa, Idaho to Salem, Oregon but we did indeed make it! We made a few stops along the way to get out and stretch our legs. As you can imagine, having a very mobile eleven month old makes it difficult to travel far without getting out. But she's awesome in the car for the most part, so we are very blessed. We decided to stop near John Day to check out the Painted Hills part of the John Day Fossil park. It was pretty cool! (Pictures to follow soon!)

We got back to our home and saw long green grass in the front yard. Yes that's right, our reseeded lawn grew and grew while we were in Idaho! Now we can have a nice place to lay in the grass. For the past couple of days we had roofers come to re-roof our home. This was no easy task because they replaced the old shake roof with a composite shingle roof. The guys worked really hard and I think it came out well. (Photos to come soon as I can get on the other computer)

Jenna has been doing pretty well since being home. It's been hard for her not having as many kids around or other adults, plus at home she is confined to the living room to roam, so she's adjusting. Now that the roof is done I see many long walks together as a family wherever we are at. She loves to be outside and prefers it over any area of the house. She's definitely a little adventurer.

Now begins the task of sorting through our belongings, organizing our home and contacting friends, family and churches to seek partnership in ministry. This process is different for everyone, but averages around a year.

We are very excited about going to Indonesia and hope to get there by January 2013! Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world with over 85% of it's population practicing Islam. There is a great need there for MAF because a lot of the places in the jungle are remote and have no roads or really bad roads. Recently, MAF had the privilege to fly in the bibles for a bible dedication ceremony for the Kimyal people. This was the first time they'd had a bible in their own language. Here's a video of the celebration:

Isn't that amazing! God is working in the remote areas still! If you are interested in partnering with us in this amazing ministry please let us know! You can contact us at: ereed@maf.org

We'll update the pictures on this blog a little later but we wanted to get a short update out while we had a little time.

Blessings,

The Reeds

We're taking off again!

We are nearly complete with our initial training here at Mission Aviation Fellowship. It's been a wonderful time getting to know the MAF staff and other new pre-fielders. Here's a picture of our pre-field class:

In this photo are families that are going all around the world to Lesotho, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia and Nampa, Idaho. We all got along really well despite having long school work hours and other family pressures. Often you could find us eating at each other's apartments, encouraging each other and talking outside until the late hours after the kids have gone to sleep. It's really been a blessing getting to know each couple, we are sad to leave such a wonderful community but excited for our next adventure!

What is this next adventure? We're officially "on the road" to visit friends, family and churches to see what's happening in their lives, share what's happening in our lives and share the opportunities to be involved in ministry with MAF. We are excited for the opportunity to see everyone again and really look forward to spending this year in great fellowship with them too!

We'll try to keep this blog updated at least every other week to keep you up to date on what's happening in our lives and where we are in the process. First we're heading back to Oregon to our home.

If you have any questions about what's going on in our lives or are interested in partnering with MAF in ministry, please feel free to ask! You can e-mail us at: ereed@maf.org (Eric) or kreed@ maf.org (Kristine). If you have any prayer requests please feel free to ask us too and we'll pray for you!

Blessings,

The Reeds

A Little Update

Halo. Selamat Datang! (Hello. Welcome!)

We are excited to be going to Indonesia! Above is a hint of the language we'll be learning in about a year or so. We praise God that He's allowed us to come this far in the process. Just in case many of you were wondering, we're officially on staff with Mission Aviation Fellowship! We have our name tags and everything. It feels so different to walk the halls and realize that we now belong here. This is our new job and our new wonderful extended family.

Jennavieve is loving hanging out with her sitters and playing with all the other children near our apartments. It's fun to see her really try to follow different kids but it makes us cringe when she crawls across concrete and lava rock (they use rock in the plant beds here) to follow them! This girl has no fear and a pretty high pain tolerance. She doesn't let anything stop her. Once she starts to walk we'll really have to watch out, but at least she won't continue to scrape up her little legs as much!

We will be celebrating five years of marriage together tomorrow! It's a huge blessing that we got a sitter for a couple of hours and we're celebrating it now as MAF staff members. It's been a long road and we're not in Indonesia yet, but we're definitely closer. God has been faithful through so much. We look forward to what He brings next.

Blessings,

The Reeds

PS: We'll add pictures later!

We'll be serving in.....Indonesia! :)

It's been amazing how God is teaching us and stretching us during our time here at MAF headquarters in Nampa, Idaho. We've been learning more and more about MAF and the more we learn honestly the more we have a peace from God about going with this organization. In fact, they are starting to become like family to us. Especially the other candidates that are in our class and are living among us in the apartments located across from headquarters. It's been great to see them playing about and to see Jenna enjoying being with them. It does definitely give us strong hope for the future program/country we'll be in. What country is that?

Well many of you are connected with us via facebook and found out but for those that aren't connected via facebook personally or aren't a member of our "Reeds Journey to Mission Aviation" page, MAF is sending us to Indonesia! We'll find out where specifically in Indonesia the closer we get to going there. Many of you have asked questions (which we love!) as to when we're going to be leaving. Well to calm your hearts it's not immediately! After we complete our training in a couple of weeks we'll be going out and visiting with churches and people about what MAF is doing in Indonesia and how they can be a vital part of the ministry. We'll also finally have a little time to really visit and talk with a lot of you then to hear about what's happening in your lives as well! We'll have more details about that at a later date, but the goal is to raise 100 percent of support by this time next year. Then we'd head off to language school on the island of Java. :)

We are very excited about this assignment and about Indonesia! We'll give you more updates as we go through this process here. If any of you have any questions about this process please feel free to ask and we'll answer how we can.

Blessings,

The Reeds

Tomorrow is the day!!!

Tomorrow we'll meet with the committee and find out what country we've been placed in. We're pretty excited about it even though we act low-key when we're out and about. We know that God will equip us to serve wherever He's called us. :) So look this week for a post update, we look forward to sharing it with you when we can.

We had a good weekend. It was pretty laid back which was a little different for us. We aren't used to having so much free time! When we were in Oregon we were busy every second we could getting the house ready for the house sitter and remodeling the house in general. We went to a farmer's market in Eagle, ID, a park in Nampa and on Sunday the kids played in the sprinklers.

We've been getting to know the other candidates/short term staff too on our time off. It's been fun to hang out on the lawn with them talking. It's always new and interesting when you are thrust into a class with people you've barely met. Guess it's good prep for when we go to our location and bond with the staff there. Some relationships take more effort, some come more easily. We're learning a lot through our new friendships here. Amazing how God always has something to teach us. :)

We look forward to updating you this week on how things are going. As always, please feel free to ask questions and we'll answer them when we can!

Blessings,

The Reeds

Meetings

So we met with the committee today... and no we didn't find out where we're going just yet. We basically were: just meeting with them to tie up loose ends, sharing our hearts and thoughts on the type of place we'd like to serve and listening to their ideas about where there might be openings for us. We felt like we got to convey everything we were hoping to convey to them and we think the meeting went fairly well. We are very blessed to have such a great group of people making the very hard decision about where we would best fit within Mission Aviation Fellowship. We won't tell you the places we talked about but we can tell you that we'll find out on Tuesday of next week where they think we should be placed. We are very excited to see where God would send us.

In the meantime we've been going to different classes to learn more about Mission Aviation Fellowship and how to prepare for foreign missions. Today we had a great class dealing with issues related to cross-cultural living. The man teaching it was from Indonesia and the class was both informative and entertaining at the same time. We feel very privileged that he would take time out to come to MAF twice a year to teach the class.

We also have been getting to know the short term staff and other candidacy class members during our time thus far. It's been fun to stand outside and visit with them about life and also about where they think God will lead them. Jenna's loved getting to know the other kids and playing with the cars. She loves the grass and loves the lava rock in the flower beds even more! We have to constantly keep on her to stop her from eating it!

We will try to keep you informed as we go. If you have any questions about this process please feel free to ask us and we'll let you know!

Day One at MAF!

Today was a day of learning more about MAF and a little more about the African program. We are continuing to pray and to really seek where God would have us serve. There were a few possibilities that we didn't know about and we're taking the time to research and pray about those options too. We met some new friends and even had a picnic with them to celebrate a birthday. We'll continue to update you on our progress as we go throughout the week. We definitely covet your prayers! Please pray for wisdom for both us and the candidate committee during this next week or so. Please also pray for Jenna's time with her babysitter that God would be with them and help them while we're away in class!

Blessings,

The Reeds

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, We'll be in Nampa Tomorrow, It's only a day away....

Actually... it's less than a day! It's a matter of hours until we hit the 9+ hour road trip to Mission Aviation Fellowship headquarters in Nampa, Idaho! We don't have much time to blog because we need to pack, but we wanted to thank everyone for their continued support and prayers. It's definitely a team effort from everyone, it's not just something we're doing by ourselves.

Here are some things to pray about:

1. For safety on our journey, that God lead us where we are to stop and rest.
   
2. For Jennavieve during the car trip that she get plenty of rest and enjoy it.
3. For wisdom regarding where God is going to lead us with Mission Aviation Fellowship.
4. For the babysitters that are going to watch Jenna all day while we're at class. Pray that they have a good time with Jenna and that Jenna have a good SAFE time with them.
   
5. For the rest of the candidates that God continue to lead and guide them in their journey.

Things happening on our trip of note:
1. We'll find out what country we'll be serving in after the first two weeks! Praise God!
2. We will celebrate 5 years of marriage on July 29th.
3. Kristine will celebrate her 29th birthday on August 4th.
4. Jenna will turn 10 months on July 12th and 11 months on August 12th.


We'll try our hardest to keep you updated as we go and we'll also try to include pictures! But now we need to pack! We love you all!

Blessings,
The Reeds

Ten days...

Ten days might seem like an insignificant number to most people, but for us it is the exact number of days until we pack up and drive to MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) in Idaho for our Candidacy! What does Candidacy mean?

Well the easiest explanation I can figure is that for two weeks we meet with MAF and they go more over operations and tell us about the different countries and we get a full picture of their organization. Prayerfully during those two weeks we (Candidacy Committee and us) look at the options and see which is the best fit for our family/talents. Then if all goes well, we find out which country we're assigned with MAF and become official missionaries in their organization. Pretty amazing eh? After that we have some more trainings for a couple of weeks then it's on the road to share our story and our hearts with as many people as will listen to hopefully raise the support we need to go overseas.

These past few weeks I (Kristine) have been thinking about my friends and family and how blessed we are to have them in our lives. I thought about college friends whom I haven't seen in person in oh... three years and how wonderfully we are still in touch via the internet and phone. That got me thinking... a typical term for a MAF missionary is 3.5 years. It seems more and more doable with the fabulous technology we have these days. We can keep connected in each others lives even though we are oceans apart. Heck, we can even talk via video chat if the connection is good! That's almost like being in person. Quite a few steps forward from the letters from yesteryear. :)

We're having a house sitter while we're away and we have great alert neighbors so I know the house will be taken care of. In these ten days I'll be finishing up sewing projects and organizing the house so things are in order. When these ten days are over we'll be on the road starting the path in what will shape our entire life from that point forward. We prayerfully and faithfully walk forward, excited to see where God will lead us.

It's not about me

by Kristine

As Candidacy with MAF draws near things are becoming more real to me. The fact that in two years or less I'll be saying,"See ya later" to many family and friends. It's natural to think,"Whoa... what am I doing? Is this what I wanted? Do I really fully understand what this path I feel called to means? What about Jenna getting to know family and friends we adore?" Questions like these flow through my mind most daily. Typically I know many people don't talk about this stuff, but I like to be about as real as possible with all of you because I feel it's important. I am a normal person with thoughts and feelings and yes, I do think about all the things I know you probably wonder if I think about. :)

As I was sitting in church this past Sunday these thoughts were still in my head. I decided to give them to God and pray about them. It was then that I realized something, it's not about me. I know it seems silly because yes we are taught to give it all to God but me being a typical human being likes to think about how things affect ME. How selfish is that? I realized that yes, it's going to be super hard saying,"See you later" to everyone but God's called my family to go overseas as missionary aviators. I don't have to worry about my close family and friends because I know that God has them in His hands and most of them know Him.

What about those in the other country we are going to? The ones that don't know Him? The ones that think they have no hope in life? What about the children who've been abandoned and the battered women and the youth that think that they've done too many wrong things to ever be worthy of God? Who will talk to those people? Who will show the orphans that there's love for them? Who'll show the battered women that they can have healing in Christ? Who will help the youth know that no matter what they've done in the past, God has a future planned out for them and can give them hope beyond compare? What about the kids who need a good education too? Couldn't I provide that with the skills and talents that God's given me?

Specifically to mission aviation: How will those injured get to a hospital when the nearest one is a few days walk away? How will the diseased in remote villages get the life saving medical supplies they need to live? How will people with the know-how to administer those medicines get there in time when it takes days to reach them? What about those who want to contact loved ones or even get a message out in remote villages? Who will show these people serving them in this way that Christ loves them? These are things mission aviators do! There are a lot of people who can drive cars, but not a lot of people who can fly a plane let alone feel called to serve God using that plane!

Those questions flowed through my mind throughout the church service and I was filled with such a calling to serve the Lord through missions. We feel called to serve and go. Yes that means leaving the comfort of home and the safety of a good job and the security of family and friends. But it also means that God's leading us on a journey to help those that don't know Him overseas. How amazing is that? It's time to get excited about the journey and to trust that God has everything planned out in advance to use us in ministry.