Taking off with the Reeds...

Though we are many, we are one body (Posted by Kristine)

2012-01-22T22:50:00.000-08:00

I love meeting new people and learning about their lives. I think I really can't get enough of it. It's such a joy to sit down with someone and hear about their lives, their world from their perspective. Throughout this process we've gotten to meet many new friends and it's been wonderful.

Anyone that really knows me, knows I love checking out different churches. I love seeing how others worship, how they choose to do ministry, whether there is an outreach ministry, hear what songs they sing and hear how the pastor/reverend/bishop...etc teaches. In the past few months we've had the opportunity to worship with quite a few different churches. Let me just say that I love it! We did a Google search the other day to check out different churches in the area and so many came up! To think, on Sunday (or Saturday for some) there are many people traveling to go to these churches to worship. Many many people I've never met, nor might ever meet, but would love to meet. All these people believe in the same Lord, pray to the same Lord and worship the same Lord.

When I think of how many local churches, I think of how many national churches there are and international believers that are meeting and lifting their voices and prayers to God. It really reaffirms to me the belief that the "church" is not composed of bricks or wood or stone, but people. Everyone who believes in God and believes that the Lord Jesus died for our sins is a part of the church. Amazing eh? So even though we are in different locations, we are one.

One of my favorite passages of scripture talks about this very thing. It's found in 1 Corinthians 12:14-20 and if you've heard us speak, you've heard this verse. I'll post it below for others to read:
1 Corinthians 12:14-20
"For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, 'Because I am not a hand, I am not part of the body,' it is not for this reason and less a part of the body. And if the ear says,'Because I am not an eye, I am not part of the body,' it is not for this reason any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now, there are many members, but one body.

All the members, all the people around the world that believe in God are a part of this body. From China, to Canada, to Russia to Indonesia, to Kenya....etc. God has a plan and a purpose for each one of us. Seriously... if you are a believer in Christ, He's got a plan for YOU! Are you listening to where He's leading? Or are you content focusing on your own goals and needs?

There are many many ways to serve the Lord. It could be: through living out your faith at work, serving in a local rescue mission, going on a mission trip, doing homeless ministry, doing elderly ministry. if God has blessed you abundantly with finances it could mean that you become a part of a ministry by helping it to keep going. God has a role for each of us. I want to encourage you to spend some time in prayer this week seeking where God would be leading you to serve. You can think about what you like to do and seek out a ministry that does that. A very good first step if you are unsure is to start getting involved in your local church. Try out different ministries and pray that God will reveal the one He has for you. You'll definitely be blessed. :)

In Christ,
Kristine

Welcome Wednesday!

2012-01-17T19:44:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Taking off with the Reeds!

This blog is home to Eric, Kristine and Jennavieve Reed. We are new missionaries with Mission Aviation Fellowship assigned as a Pilot/Information Technology family to Indonesia. Mission Aviation Fellowship's mission is to share the love of Jesus Christ through aviation and technology so that isolated people may be physically and spiritually transformed. We are not in Indonesia yet, but are in the support raising portion of our ministry. We are looking for people who want to join us as prayer and financial partners in ministry. Is that person you? Do you know someone who might be interested? If so, let us know! We'd love to have you on our team. Just e-mail us at: ereed@maf.org for more information.

In the meantime, we'd love for you to check out our blog! There are several tabs above you can click on to learn more about us and Mission Aviation Fellowship. If you want you can check out our MAF website at https://maf.org/reed

Two of the main locations Mission Aviation Fellowship flies out of in Indonesia are Papua and Kalimantan. (Click on the names of the locations for more information about what MAF does there.) In 2010. MAF had the privileged to fly in bibles and missionaries for the dedication of the new translation of the bible into the Kimyal language. It was a joyous occasion because this was the first time the Kimyal had the gospel in their own language. This translation took many years to complete. From the beginning MAF was there flying missionaries, supplies and tools in and out of the location to enable the effort to continue. It's still continuing today translating the old testament.

You can check out the 5 minute video here:

We'd love to have you join our team! Follow our page via Google Friend Connect, Email and Networked Blogs on Facebook. We also have a Facebook Group called Taking off with the Reeds we'd love for you to join as well!

We hope to check out your blogs as well! May God bless you and keep you safe!

In Christ,

The Reeds

Obstacles abound, but we press on!

2012-01-16T15:17:00.000-08:00

A steep runway in Kalimantan, Indonesia

It's amazing the closer you get to God, the harder yet clearer things become. We've been finding this true over the past few months. We know this is a time of refinement, for the task to which we have been called is great. Serving the Lord in full-time ministry is not what the enemy wants. It's the exact opposite. Therefore, there WILL be trouble, there WILL be discouragement. The good news is, that Jesus has overcome these obstacles (John 16:33) and He is the hope that gets us through them.

Lately we've had a string of things fail on us: We got rear ended by a semi-truck at a stoplight in town. We are safe, our car's bumper needs to be replaced though. We are slated to get that taken care of next week. Our car's touch screen went out and had to be replaced. Soon after we replaced this, our 12v battery went out in the car as well. (Thank the Lord the car died at a gas station VERY close to our home.) We've replaced it and now it's working well. But it's interesting that our car would be such a target. The very thing that helps us get to meetings and destinations to share our ministry with Mission Aviation Fellowship.

We just replaced the battery and now our furnace in the house is starting to fail and we'll likely need to replace this. Coming into the winter months, replacing this is definitely a must. Our kitchen sink is also in need of replacement, but we're holding out as long as we can. We're kinda waiting on pins and needles to see what else starts to fail around the house. It's been our goal to finish up projects on the house by the end of February so we can sell our house. Lately it's been one delay after another. We may need to ask for help to get everything finished. We'll see though!

There have been other obstacles we faced and are still facing, but are are pressing on. We know God's called us to this ministry. It's amazing to see how the unique gifts He's given both of us fit so well with missionary aviation. Right now we're working on sharing the ministry of Mission Aviation Fellowship as many people as we can so that they may join with us in ministry.

Do you know someone who might want to hear about MAF? A friend, relative, teacher...etc? If so, we'd love to speak with them to share our hearts and get to know them. We are looking for many people to join our team, we cannot do this ministry by ourselves. In fact, without others joining our team financially and through prayer, we will not make it to Indonesia. We'd love for you to prayerfully consider partnering with us in ministry. There are many ways to partner. We invite you to click on the tabs above on our blog (Partner through prayer, partner through giving and other ways to partner) and pray about whether God is calling you to join our team.

Thank you again for your prayers and support. We are very blessed to have such friends and family interested in our family's life and our ministry.

Blessings,
The Reeds

My Hearts Song..(Posted by Kristine)

2012-01-03T21:31:00.000-08:00

God transcends time. Often I (Kristine) find that songs pass the test of time as well. As I was sitting and reflecting tonight a song came to mind. It's a song I've heard many times, but tonight, it just resounds in my soul. It was written years ago (1873) by a woman named Dorothy Greenwell and it's called, " I am not skilled to understand." Little did she know how God would use that song in so many lives, including mine. I find that God speaks often to my heart through song and when I am singing and writing music, I feel a strong connection too. Someday, I might play a song for you, but tonight I wanted to share this song how Dorothy wrote it:

I Am Not Skilled To Understand
By: Dorothy Greenwell

I am not skilled to understand
What God hath willed, what God hath planned;
I only know at His right hand
Is One Who is my Savior!

I take Him at His word indeed;
"Christ died for sinners"- this I read;
For in my hear I find the need
Of Him to be my Savior!

That He should leave His place on high
And come for sinful man to die,
You count it strange? So once did I,
Before I knew my Savior!

And oh, that He fulfilled may see
The travail of His soul in me,
And with His work contented be,
As I with my dear Savior!

Yea, living, dying, let me bring
My strength, my solace from this Spring;
That He Who lives to be my King
Once died to be my Savior!

God is amazing. He died for each and every one of us. I may not understand why certain things happen and don't happen, but God does. God has a plan. As Aaron Schust wrote in his version of the song,"My Savior loves, my Savior lives, My Savior's always there for me. My God He was, My God He is, My God is always gonna be." How wonderful is it to believe in such a Savior. The God of hope. The God of healing. The God who gives grace. The God who loves. The God who teaches...etc. He is THE GOD.

As I start a "New Year", I vow to do my best to praise God all the day long. To show appreciation to Him through song and through my words. Will I fail at times? Yes, I am human and born into sin. Unfortunately failure is in my genetics. But guess who doesn't fail? God. When I fail, it's an opportunity for God to teach me. An opportunity for Him to work through my heart and my mind to perfect me and draw me to Him. It's also an opportunity for me to show others that don't believe in God, that I am a real person with real struggles, but the difference is that I have the hope that comes from Christ. I know that no matter how hard things get, no matter how many times I fall on my face in failure, I've got someone in my life that will NEVER give up on me. How amazing is that?

It makes me want to dance, to sing all night, to proclaim this truth to the nations. My soul sings out. I definitely long to share this love with the people of Indonesia. To the people who are losing hope. The people who are hurting. The ones who have given up on believing anything and the ones who think they know the truth, but don't. The ones who think that they have been forgotten and left behind by life. I want to let them know that they are not alone, they are never alone for God is omnipresent and is with them. God can heal their hurts and give them a renewed hope for the future, if they only choose to believe.

Right now because I am half a world away from those I feel called to minister to, I pray. I pray for those whom I've only met in my dreams and in my thoughts and for those I've never met that they know the saving grace of Christ. I pray for those who believe and are already there that they be open to the opportunities God provides to share the truth and for the protection of God in their lives as they do. That's what's amazing about believing in God, even though I am here, HE is in Indonesia working and hears my prayers. He hears my heart's song.

YOU can reach Indonesia without even going there!

2011-12-16T07:33:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-12-05T13:16:00.001-08:00

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!

2011-11-28T09:05:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-11-27T13:05:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-11-16T07:33:00.000-08:00

Reed MAF 2011 November Newsletter

Wisdom from God through Veggie Tales (posted by K)

2011-10-15T09:37:00.000-07:00

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...

2011-10-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-06T13:15:00.000-07:00

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..

2011-10-01T13:14:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-30T13:12:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-27T11:20:00.001-07:00

MAF Reed Newsletter August 2011

She's number one!

2011-09-23T13:28:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-08-22T09:52:00.001-07:00

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

2011-08-20T21:34:00.001-07:00

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..

2011-08-17T20:43:00.001-07:00

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!

2011-08-11T21:23:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-28T19:24:00.000-07:00

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! :)

2011-07-21T04:57:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2011-07-18T16:33:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-14T19:55:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-07-11T21:12:00.000-07:00

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....

2011-07-08T22:18:00.000-07:00

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:

For safety on our journey, that God lead us where we are to stop and rest.
For Jennavieve during the car trip that she get plenty of rest and enjoy it.
For wisdom regarding where God is going to lead us with Mission Aviation Fellowship.
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.
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...

2011-06-29T23:12:00.001-07:00

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

2011-06-07T21:00:00.001-07:00

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.

We need your addresses!

2011-05-22T20:02:00.000-07:00

Lately we've been pretty busy. So busy in fact we've forgotten to update this blog. Right now we are working on getting our house fixed up so it can be sold. After we get back from MAF this summer we plan on selling most everything we don't want to take with us and hopefully selling this house quickly. We are hopeful it will sell fast.

In the meantime other than home renovations we've been busy completing bible studies and other things MAF would like us to finish before we go in July 11th. One of those tasks is getting names and addresses of people who would like to receive our newsletters and keep in touch with us. We've contacted many of you, but there are some that we've not yet contacted. Some of you actually just follow our blog and aren't on facebook with us yet.

If you'd like to receive our newsletters, please e-mail us your name and address to: ericandkristinereed@gmail.com and we'll send them to you!

We passed our MAF technical evaluation!

2011-04-28T16:40:00.001-07:00

Huge news! The past couple of weeks we've been at MAF headquarters in Nampa, Idaho doing our technical evaluation. We are pleased to report that we've passed! Praise God! We've been invited to come to the Candidacy for two weeks in July. During that time we'll find out which country we've been assigned to. Then for three weeks or so after that we'll be doing some different trainings. It's a very exciting time for us! It's totally a God thing and He opened lots of doors for us on this trip. I don't have much time to write and will write more later, but we passed!!

Blessings,

The Reeds

It's Tech Eval time!

2011-04-17T19:19:00.000-07:00

Yes indeed, we are in Nampa, Idaho for our Mission Aviation Technical Evaluation. We'll be here approximately a week and a half. During this time Eric will be evaluated on his flight knowledge and skills (written and practical), we'll be evaluated by a psychologist, meet with the board, get to know several MAF staff and talk about our IT (Informational Technology) and Teaching skills. At this end of this evaluation we'll know if we have passed this step in the process and can proceed further. It's a huge deal!

We are praying for God's will in this. As many of you know this has been on our hearts for a long time. With Kristine she's felt called to be a missionary for years. Eric's also wanted to use the skills God gave him in flying, programming and technology to serve for years as well. We're going to work hard and try our best to pass. If we don't pass, then God has other plans. It could mean we should try again or it could mean that we need to look into a different organization to serve with. God is the only one who knows. And we are actually content with that. If we do pass we'll be invited back to Nampa, Idaho to do a longer training.

So that's the basic information. Here's where our story begins... several hours ago in Salem, Oregon.

We both stayed up super late the night before packing and making sure that we had everything we needed. Kristine worked on a few last minute sewing projects and Eric worked on compiling all his required flight materials for the evaluation. We got to bed really late that night and woke up a few hours later to leave for Nampa, Idaho where MAF headquarters is located.

Taking the I-84 route seemed the fastest and easiest. Plus Kristine had already figured out places to stop for food along the way that seemed safe. It was a long trip but Jenna did pretty well. We stopped in Hood River to eat at Bette's Place. The food was good, reasonably priced and Jenna did great there. We put her in a high chair for the first time at a restaurant and she decided to make it her own and lounge in it. (Pictures will come later) It was pretty funny. She dumped a glass of ice water all over the table. That was not so funny. After we ate and had a good break we were on our way.

We stopped at a rest stop after a few hours and had some fun. We can't remember which one it was but Jenna got a good break. (Photos to come later) Also we swear she has red hair.... sometimes it's hard to see but I got it perfectly in the sunlight during this rest stop.

After this rest stop it was time for me (Kristine) to drive. I think we were getting near Pendleton at this point. The Sun was shining and we were doing great. Then...out of no where it seems...the rain started. It poured and poured on the road. Which is not quite nice when you have semi-trucks all around you! A few times I couldn't see the road! To make matters worse, since we are getting close to having to replace the tires, the car was hydroplaning on the road! I was feeling tired before, but not anymore! The fact that I REALLY had to pay attention to what I was doing or else we'd go off a cliff or crash with another car or just get into an accident myself woke me up. I was so afraid! Going around curves and not knowing if the car was going to hold it or not. Believe me a lot of prayers were said. It was by the grace of God that we're here. :)

After a while Jenna woke up again and we decided to stop in Baker's City. We stopped at Sumpter Junction restaurant. I really don't think we would have stopped here had I not researched it. It sounded like a fun place. They have a little model train running on a track around the restaurant. It was fun. Jenna liked it there and liked watching the train. The waitress wanted to hold Jenna and she didn't look scary, so I said okay. :) (Pictures of this part of the trip to come later)

We got back in the car and made it to Nampa! We got into our MAF apartment and it's really nice. They have apartments at their headquarters for missionary families who have to do training or are back home on furlough. They let us use one apartment during our technical evaluation time. We are very thankful they let us because it makes the costs a lot less than what they would have been had we stayed in a hotel. Plus living here for a week or so lets us meet other people who are here during our stay too. We've met a few other couples, one who's due with a little one any day now! It's been fun.

Tomorrow we have an introductory meeting with the committee and Eric starts his flight eval process. Please join with us in praying for 1. Sleep (Jenna has to adjust to being in a new place and we have to adjust to her adjustments!) 2. Clarity of Speech and the most important 3. God's will.

Blessings,

The Reed's

Being Crafty

2011-04-06T11:57:00.000-07:00

In an effort to help bring the every day life into this blog, I (Kristine) wanted to show you what I've been working on the past few months. It's definitely been a learning curve, but fun. I wanted to make Jenna some dresses, but couldn't figure out how to read the pattern, so I made my own pattern. :)

I took some women's dress socks and made some cute tights for Jenna to wear. It's super easy to do.

I took some old headbands and cut them in half, then sewed flowers on them. Jenna seems to like the headbands...until she pulls them in front of her eyes!

My parents bought me a food dehydrator for Christmas; so I decided to try it out!

This is just a sample of what I've been up to in my "free" time the past few months. I like it because I am learning new practical skills that I can use forever. I hope to make myself a dress if I get good enough. Luckily, I have Jenna to practice on! :)

-Kristine

Educator.com

2011-04-05T07:24:00.000-07:00

As a teacher, I am always looking for new ways to help people learn. I got the opportunity to try Educator.com for free for a month and thought I'd share that with you. All you have to do is sign up for an account, click on the Basic one month plan and below under special payment put in this code: BUZZFA626 and you'll be set!

I've checked it out a little so far and it seems to have a lot of math and science stuff on there. It seems maybe geared towards adults or high school students but perhaps upper elementary would help too. I could see parents looking at this to be able to help their students with math and science. So far it seems pretty good with a video lecture and it give you time to practice what you've learned. :)

So I invite you to check it out, afterall.... it's completely free for a month and the sign up is only for a month so it would seem you don't have to cancel anything. :)

The Ultimate Blog Party 2011!

2011-04-01T12:47:00.000-07:00

Welcome those of you who are joining us from the Ultimate Blog Party 2011! For those of you who don't know what this is, click on the button above to check it out. It's a great way to get to know other people in the blog realm and get exposure for your blog! Now for those who are new to this blog, let us introduce ourselves.....

We are the Reeds (Eric, Kristine and Baby Jennavieve) and we feel called to become foreign missionaries for Christ. Specifically we'd love to use our skills as a pilot (Eric) and a teacher (Kristine) to serve others for Christ. Right now we are prepping for a technical evaluation with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) April 18-29th. That's right...in two weeks! Through this evaluation we'll find out whether they'd like us to serve with their mission agency. We've been working specifically towards this goal for the past five years so it's a huge time in our lives. :) We'd love it if you'd pray for God's will regarding this. We place it entirely in HIS hands.

I'm sure you'd love to know more about us! Well you now know that Kristine has a teaching degree and Eric has his pilot's license. (Above photo was taken while Kristine was pregnant.) On September 12, 2010 we had a baby girl named Jennavieve Elizabeth. You can read about it on our family blog This Little Life in Mine! She's got a great personality and is quite adventurous. Which should serve her well if God wills for us to serve overseas! Right now Kristine is a stay-at-home momma and Eric works full time as a software engineer for an aviation gps company. :) Here are some pictures of our little love:

Over the years God's allowed Kristine to take a few mission trips. She's been to Esperanza, BC, San Francisco's tenderloin district and Nicaragua to name a few. Eric was able to go to Mexico with a church youth group and serve there. We both had the opportunity to go to check out what Mission Aviation Fellowship does in Quito and Shell Ecuador. It was a great trip and helped solidify our desire to serve with them. Here are some pictures of our trips:

In case some of you are unfamiliar with MAF, they use aviation and technology to reach people for Christ. For example, when the disaster struck in Haiti, they were already there in the country. They were able to set up satellite communications, evacuate people in remote areas, do air ambulance work, fly supplies into remote areas and also fly humanitarian crews in to help some of the worst struck areas. You can read more about MAF's vital role serving Christ in Haiti on their website here. They provide a vital service in many countries this way.

Imagine you were injured in the middle of the jungle. Your choices are riding in a canoe up a river for several days, trekking through a dangerous jungle for multiple days or you could take a short flight to a hospital. Which would you choose? Right...unless you were delirious... the airplane choice sounds the best! :) But...how would you let the airplane know you wanted them to come? Well MAF solves this too by helped to establish satellite communications in remote areas so missionaries and aid workers can communicate with the outside world. Amazing eh? You can probably see why we want to join this agency to continue this important work. MAF does this and much much more. Please check them out at their website at http://www.maf.org/home .

Hmmm....what else can we add here for fun? Kristine LOVES to cook so maybe a recipe? Here's one of her go-to recipes found on Allrecipes.com. Photo by Manda taken off the Allrecipes.com site.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Ingredients

1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
1 (10 ounce) can chunk chicken
1 (15 ounce) can black beans
1 (10 ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chile peppers, drained

Directions

Open the cans of corn, chicken broth, chunk chicken, black beans, and diced tomatoes with green chilies. Pour everything into a large saucepan or stock pot. Simmer over medium heat until chicken is heated through.

--------------------------------------------

See it's super easy! She loves making lots of recipes but these days because of the little one it's hard to find time to make the detailed ones. We invite you to check out the recipe above. Kristine didn't create the recipe, but she uses it a lot.

Finally, what would our blog be without a bible verse to send you on your way! Here's a little encouragement: Philippians 4:19 "..and my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus. "

How wonderful it is to have a God that knows what we are going through and will help us out in His own way and in His own timing? It's fabulous! No matter how tough it gets, God is there for us. Praise God for that! If you are interested, we'd love for you to follow our journey! On the left you can click to follow via Google Friend Connect, Networked Blogs or Subscribe via blogger. Also you can add our button to your blog too if you like us a lot! :)

Blessings to you and yours,

Eric, Kristine and Jennavieve Reed

Welcome Wednesday

2011-03-23T08:22:00.000-07:00

We are participating in Welcome Wednesday! It's a great way to gain more exposure to your blog and to check out new blogs!

For those who are new, Welcome! We are working towards becoming a missionaries with Mission Aviation Fellowship! This blog is mainly about that! If you have questions feel free to ask!

We invite you to follow our blog via Networked Blogs on Facebook or Google Friend connect! They are on the left of this blog! We'll try to follow you back. :)

Blessings,

Eric, Kristine and Jennavieve Reed

WHEN not IF

2011-03-23T07:22:00.000-07:00

While doing my bible study this morning God brought the verse Mark 9:23 to me, '"If you can?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for one who believes."'

It's amazing how God just brings the right verse into focus at the exact moment we need it. For those unfamiliar with the context of this verse there was a man who had a boy who was possessed by a demon. The boy had seizures it sounds like since birth, he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, gets thrown to the ground and becomes rigid. The man wanted the disciples to drive the demon out (heal the boy) but they could not and he didn't understand why. The man was talking to Jesus about the boy and said, "If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us." Jesus responded: '"If you can?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for one who believes."' The man then responded that he did believe and Jesus drove out the demon. When the disciples asked Jesus later why they couldn't drive out the demon, He said this type could only be driven out by prayer.

So how does this relate to us? I've been saying the word "If" more often then I can remember with regards to missionary work. I've felt called to go overseas and work as a missionary for a long long time and the "If" word continues to float around: "If God allows us." "If it's His will", "If we are able", "If we get these things done". As you can see...there are a lot of Ifs in there. Instead of just writing IF, I need to start writing WHEN. God is all powerful and has a plan for us. We are unsure of the exact plan, but instead of writing IF all the time, we need to have faith and replace it with WHEN. That sounds like a simple change, but that simple change brings along with it a great mindset of belief. It's not a matter of IF something is going to happen, but WHEN.

The other part of that passage that struck me was the part about prayer. Sometimes there are obstacles in our way that we cannot see. We think that we can do things apart from Christ to change it ourselves. But, there is power in prayer. We need to get on our knees and ask God for what we need. Ask God to take away obstacles and to show us where we should go. Sometimes those obstacles can only be removed by prayer. I think we forget that often. It's good to remember!

So with stronger faith in our hearts we are continuing to pray more frequently and change our mindset from the "If" to the "When" mindset. When God allows us on the mission field. When God provides for us. When God brings along relationships. When God works in our lives. No more if words, it's time to believe. :)

Okay my baby is up. I might elaborate this more later...but duty calls!

Blessings,

Kristine Reed

God can use tragedy to teach us

2011-03-02T07:30:00.001-08:00

"If you've walked with God for very long, I have little doubt that He has used what you perceived as very negative means to achieve a positive result"- Beth Moore

I read this nugget of information this morning in my bible study and it simply is too true. It also helps us to understand when horrible things happen, that God could be using those things to help push us closer towards Him. What refreshing news. Seriously. I've seen it happen in my own life many many times.

With God, things are both predictable and unpredictable. You can be certain that God is always going to be there. That God always wants you to pray and to stay in His word. You can be certain that God wants you to look at the best in others, even though it's tempting to just see the worst.

In my bible study this morning it took a look at Peter and John and how God called them to Samaria. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Peter and John are Jews. Jews of that time hated Samaritans. They have a HUGE prejudice against them and basically feel they are the scum of the earth. To be called to go there and the preach the Gospel and to accept them into their own fold seemed unthinkable. Yet, God called them to do it. They obeyed and the Samaritans accepted the Holy Spirit. Think if they didn't obey? What would have happened? The people would have not known not received the Holy Spirit. They would have not received the very Holy fire from which God works in us.

I firmly believe that God has called me and my husband to be missionaries. Where or how, that is His choosing. Could he call us to a place where we wouldn't ever think of going? Yes. Could this place be our Samaria? Yes. Are we called to pick and choose where we'd like to go, where it'd be the most comfortable and convenient? No. We are called to follow Christ, wherever that may lead us. If it leads us to a closed country, we'll go there. If it leads us to witness to homeless, we'll go there. If it leads us to a place where we thought we'd never go, we'll go there.

The important thing to remember is that in these places, we are not alone. Yes God could call us to a scary place or neighborhood, but we are not alone. We have Christ. We have the Holy Spirit living within us. I've seen time and time again how God has protected me wherever he's called me. I was called to serve the homeless in San Francisco's darkest neighborhood for a little while one summer. I spoke with drug addicts, prostitutes, drug dealers and I do believe a gang member or two.

Were these conditions safe? No. Were they comfortable? No. Was I safe? Yes. Was I comfortable? I didn't really think of comfort. When I was with those people, my thoughts were solely on Christ and on serving Him. Christ protected me AND gave me the words to say to those who were hurting. As long as I trusted Him, I was safe. When I let my mind wander and let my fear set in and stopped trusting, that was the moment I felt unsafe. I had to pray and reign in that fear, rebuke it even, to feel safe and secure again. Life outside of Christ is scary, I much prefer life with Christ.

But you can see how God can use our fears, our prejudices to really work miracles through us. To speak to others and heal by the power of the Holy Spirit using us. We just have to be willing to be used and to give up our fears.

So what does this have to do with the quote up above? Everything. God can use anyone and any circumstances for His glory. We just have to continue to walk in the light of grace to be willing to see that when the going gets tough, the tough don't get going away, they get on their knees and pray for the endurance to carry on and to see what God is teaching them through the hard times. That's definitely something to remember and to pray about!

For me, one of the hardest times in my life was losing my first precious little one. I was so elated and excited to be pregnant. It's something I'd dreamed about for a long time. I'd even gathered some baby items years prior to this because I knew God would allow me to be pregnant someday. We went to Idaho and served at an aviation camp and I led worship. We went to Hawaii and go to see our dear friends. Life was going great! I got to see my little one's heart beating on the ultrasound and was elated at the new life. Then, tragedy happened and my little one was no more. God took him/her up to heaven. I was devastated. Devastated. Why would God take away my child? Why would this dream end so soon?

I realized that even though I was devastated, to understand the reasoning, I needed to turn to Christ EVEN MORE, not turn away. God led me to talk with others who had also had this happen to them. God led me to council THEM and by that helped heal me of my own tragedy. I couldn't have done this had I been pregnant. Later on in that year God finally allowed me to become a teacher for a short time. If I was pregnant, I wouldn't have ever lived that dream. While I still dream about seeing that little one in heaven and wondering what life would be like had he/she lived on, I praise God for allowing it to happen to me so that I could reach more people for Him. Now I have a beautiful little girl, so God did fulfill that promise of life. It was just in HIS timing, not mine.

I want to encourage those of you who read this blog to think about times in your life where you had the most sorrow, the most pain, and think about what God was teaching you in those times. Did you allow God to grow you? Did you allow God to teach you something from that experience? Did God have you go through that experience so that He could use you to help others who were also going through that experience? I hope so.

Love in Christ,

Kristine

2 Corinthians 5:16-17.

We choose to fight!

2011-02-17T07:53:00.000-08:00

1 Timothy 6:11-12

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Paul wrote a letter to Timothy to encourage him to flee away from false teaching and the love of money (amongst other things earlier in the letter). Even though these words were written centuries ago, God still uses them today to encourage the rest of us to continue on. Human nature hasn't changed much since those days. People are still greedy when it comes to possessions, money and trying to figure out life apart from Christ.

Why are we writing about this? As we get closer to the Technical Evaluation date for Mission Aviation Fellowship and start to whittle down our bible classes, medical checks, flight prep requirements and everything else that needs to get done; other things are popping up to try to discourage us from our calling and moving forward. Which is to be expected because the closer you get and the further you get to serving God, the enemy will fight THAT MUCH harder to discourage you and try to get you not to serve.

So... after being discouraged for a few days and questioning everything, we choose to fight. We believe that God has called us to use our abilities in aviation/computers and teaching in some arena for Him. Right now we are pursuing missions because we both feel this is the direction God is calling our family. We are content whatever the outcome of the tech eval because we know that if God tells us that MAF is not the route to go, we'll pray and search out where he wants us to use our talents. Just because He closes a door, doesn't mean he can't open others. We just faithfully fight for what we feel called to do and press on (See Phillipians 3:14) towards Christ no matter what things come our way that try to discourage us so that Christ be glorified through our faith.

We encourage all of you to keep fighting the good fight for what you feel called to do no matter what the enemy throws at you. Nothing is more important that serving Christ. Nothing. Reminds us of a saying we hear moms say from time to time,"I put you in this world, I can take you out!" While this is said in jest, it's really true when you think about it from Christ's angle. God brought us into this world, He can and will take us out. When that happens is determined by Him. So in the mean time it's very important to seek God and to follow Him with all your heart.(see Matthew 6:33) Things of the world will try to distract you, but if you follow Christ...things will fall into place according to His plan for your life.

That is what we are trying to do. It's easy to get distracted by money and other things. Instead of focusing on those unknown questions of the future, we focus on what we do know... Christ. If we focus on Christ then the rest of it will come into place in HIS timing, not ours. We just have to be obedient to listen and follow where He leads.

A new avenue for ministry

2011-02-04T07:49:00.001-08:00

I (Kristine) posted a little about this on our baby blog, but I thought it would be quite fitting on here too. Yesterday I had kind of a revelation. Yes I had strange dreams last night, but that's not what I am talking about. I realized even more so yesterday how God giving us our precious Jennavieve will aid in my being able to reach out and minister to perfect strangers. Here's what I posted about the Winco trip that was kinda surreal for me (you can read the original post here):

At Winco I put her in my front pack because she was too active to just sit in a car seat. The moment we stepped away from the car, the stares started. Everyone was looking at us. It was kinda like that Inception movie, but in a good way. Actually, I should say everyone wasn't looking at US they were looking at Jenna. When we got into Winco the stares continued and people stopped to comment on how beautiful she was and how cute she was. Perfect strangers stopped from their grocery shopping to come look at Jenna and smile and talk to me. It was surreal. Jenna, decided to step it up a notch and held onto the grocery cart handle with me. When I stopped to let some people look at her cause they were commenting about her I tried to step back from the cart but Jenna held on and pulled the loaded cart back! Then we got the stares of amazement at how strong she is.

One teenage girl was overwhelmed with emotion and came over to us and said how Jenna was the most beautiful baby she'd ever seen. She wanted to hold Jenna's hand and talk to Jenna. So, against my better judgement I let her. Jenna smiled at the girl and the girl was overjoyed. (No, I am seriously not exaggerating!!!) She couldn't contain herself and told her guy friend how beautiful Jenna was and everyone stopped and looked at us and smiled. It sounds like something out of a movie, it was the weirdest, nicest strangest thing ever.

That whole experience got me thinking... God's using this little girl to help me reach out to people that otherwise would be hard to reach or talk to. Neighbors talk with Eric and I more because of her. Actually, everyone talks with us more because of her. I just need to be on my game and ask people what their names are and get to know their stories. Then REMEMBER those names the next time I see them or just pray for them. You never know who you are going to meet while out and about. God can use you to change someone's life dramatically. Jenna may just be the key. (Yes, I am VERY overprotective of her. So no worries about me handing her to perfect strangers or putting us in un-necessary dangerous places.)

I can see how in the future God could use this to help me branch out and meet people. In the US and outside the US. You generally look less threatening when you have a child with you AND sometimes people are less apt to mess with you when there's a child involved. Sometimes that's the opposite, but I like the idea of being less threatening. :)

Blessings to you,

Kristine

Psalm 127:3-5:

³ Children are a heritage from the LORD,
offspring a reward from him.
⁴ Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are children born in one’s youth.
⁵ Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their opponents in court.

Join the Blog Party!

2011-01-26T07:28:00.000-08:00

We've decided to link up with these great Wednesday Blog Hops/Parties to help gain exposure for our blog! Click on the links below and you can link up with them too!

Welcome Wednesday

Feeding Four

For the new people viewing our blog....

We are the Reed Family (Eric, Kristine and Jenna). We're working towards becoming missionaries with Mission Aviation Fellowship. MAF is a Christian organization that utilizes aviation and technology to help reach people with the gospel of Christ. My husband is a pilot and a computer guy and I am a teacher, so we hope to serve with them in those areas. In April we have our technical evaluation with them. You can read more about that in our newsletter below! If this interests you, we encourage you to ask questions and to follow our blog!

Blessings,

The Reed Family

It's about the call...

2011-01-17T15:16:00.000-08:00

As I (Kristine) was going through my Beth Moore "The Beloved Disciple" study and something I read today really resonated within my heart. She wrote, "Beloved, if you are willing to cast away all your fears, hindrances, and unanswered questions and follow Him, you're going to see His glory".

These past few weeks as we work through paperwork, studies and preparations for the MAF Tech eval I've been hit with the reality that it's all coming down to this! After the tech eval, if we pass... we'll be on our way to becoming missionaries with Mission Aviation Fellowship. Something we've been working on for close to five years or so. Seems like yesterday we were meeting with Perry Pust as a couple and taking about what this journey would look like and how God could use our talents to further His kingdom. Now it's getting closer and closer and becoming more and more real. It's also feeling more and more right. This is the perfect timing of God.

Beth Moore's study resonated with me this morning because as many of you know, I am a planner. I like to know all the details and information to make an informed choice. Sometimes I rely too heavily on my knowledge in decision making and don't rely enough on God's perfect wisdom.

In thinking about the places we could be called to and praying about those places a lot of questions pop up in my mind: Will it be too dangerous? What if we're called to a closed country? What if learning the language is going to be too hard? Will it be safe for Jenna there? Will we be able to raise enough support to make it overseas? ...etc. Questions upon questions fill my head, sometimes worries and fears.

Then I remember that if God called me to some place, no matter where (even a closed country), HE called me there for a reason. He's the ultimate provider, protector and deliverer. His wisdom is beyond understanding, greater than my own. I need to put aside my unanswered questions, my fears, my worries and to follow Christ. This doesn't mean that I brush aside common sense and safety, but I need to trust that God's protecting us and leading us on this journey. We'll be blessed beyond belief if we just simply trust in His calling and do our best to follow His will. This is what I am choosing to remember from now on as we continue towards this journey to mission aviation. If God chooses to lead us elsewhere, then we'll be blessed there as well. It's all about being obedient and trusting Him.

Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
⁶ in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.^a]">[a] (NIV English)

(Arabic Life Application) ⁵ اتَّكِلْ عَلَى الرَّبِّ مِنْ كُلِّ قَلْبِكَ، وَعَلَى فِطْنَتِكَ لاَ تَعْتَمِدْ.⁶ اعْرِفِ الرَّبَّ فِي كُلِّ طُرُقِكَ وَهُوَ يُقَوِّمُ سُبُلَكَ.

(Portugese O Livro) ^5-6Confia no Senhor e nunca em ti mesmo. Em tudo o que fizeres põe Deus em primeiro, e ele te dirigirá nos teus caminhos.

(Haitian Creole) ⁵Mete tout konfyans ou nan Seyè a. Pa gade sou sa ou konnen. ⁶Toujou chonje Seyè a nan tou sa w'ap fè. Li menm, l'a moutre ou chemen pou ou pran.

Friday Blog Hop!

2011-01-06T19:39:00.001-08:00

We've chosen to include our blog in Frugal Free Gal's Friday Blog Hop!

If you are unfamiliar with this type of event, it's a great way to get more exposure for your blog. It's also fun to check out other people's blogs in the process.

If you are new to this blog/website welcome! We are hoping to become missionaries with Mission Aviation Fellowship. This blog follows our journey to the field and beyond! We invite you to follow us via Google Friend Connect, Facebook's Networked Blogs, or subscribe to our blog!

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,

Eric, Kristine and Jenna Reed

2010 Taking off with the Reeds Newsletter

2011-01-01T21:02:00.001-08:00

2010 Taking off with the Reeds Newsletter

Looking Forward...

2010-10-17T07:56:00.000-07:00

Soon, yes very soon our newsletter will come out. It's been quite a while since we've sent one out and I bet some of you are wondering what we've been up to and what our future plans are! Well we are still prayerfully headed towards joining MAF and becoming missionary aviators.

The past month or so we've been focusing on learning how to be parents to our little girl Jenna. We're now starting to learn how to multi-task while doing that. It's definitely a process and we are thankful for the people at Servant Wings for giving us the heads up to move our tech eval date so we can transition more smoothly. Our MAF tech eval is in April 2011. So it gives us plenty of time to figure out how to multi-task as parents, get more involved at church, and for Eric to continue his flight programs.

In our next newsletter we hope to give you a glimpse of our life right now and show you where we feel called to be in the future. We hope to show you how what Eric hopes to learn as a CFI can be utilized on the field and give you an opportunity to be part of that ministry. We hope to also explain more about Kristine's future varied role as a missionary wife and give you more information on countries that MAF serves in. In order for us to continue on this journey it's definitely important to have support and people that come alongside us to help support the mission. Because without people back home supporting those on the field, the work doesn't happen. Everyone is connected. :)

For now, we just wanted to post a quick update to let you know to really expect the newsletter sometime at the end of this month or in November. If you have any questions for us regarding our lives or our goals as missionary aviators please feel free to e-mail us at ericandkristinereed@gmail.com.

Blessings,

Eric, Kristine and Jenna Reed :)

Welcome Wednesday!

2010-10-06T13:02:00.000-07:00

So for those of you who don't know. There are often "events" that blogs have to help gain readership. Today is one of those events, it's called Welcome Wednesday! Today it's being hosted by Take It From Me.

http://takeitfrom-me.blogspot.com/search/label/Welcome%20Wednesday

What you do is you go to their website, add them, add a few other people to your blogroll and then people can come to your website and choose to follow your blog!

We want to welcome those people who are here for the first time via Welcome Wednesday. This blog needs to be updated, but it's primarily focused on our journey to become mission aviators. Right now we are actively working towards becoming missionaries with Mission Aviation Fellowship. Eric is a pilot and I am a teacher. We have a daughter named Jennavieve that was just born this September! We are part of an organization called Servant Wings that helps people that want to become mission aviators by helping them gain the flight hours and experience working on the planes owned by the organization. They've been a great help for us to build the last few hours needed and the people involved have been great at mentoring us.

We encourage you to check out MAF and Servant Wings for more information. If you'd like to ask us any questions, please feel free! We'd love to chat with you. You can find us also on Facebook via "The Reeds Journey to Mission Aviation" page.

Blessings,
Eric, Kristine and Jennavieve Reed.

Licensed!

2010-09-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

I forgot to update this, but I (Kristine) finally got my teaching licensed back and I am now up to date on everything and licensed to teach for another three years. I am not sure if I am going to teach in these three years, but I am legal and have the opportunity if we need it. I figure if we needed I could sub once in a while. We'll see! Praise God it all worked out though!

Blessings,
Kristine

Meet baby Jennavieve!

2010-09-26T07:53:00.000-07:00

I knew I was forgetting to update this blog! Our little girl arrived on Sept 12 at 7:55am and her name is Jennavieve Elizabeth Reed. We've been busy the past couple of weeks on the learning curve of being parents as you can imagine. If you'd like to read more about daily life in the Reed household, check this blog:

http://littlelifeinmine.blogspot.com/

I (Kristine) mainly write on that blog site. We hope to get back on track starting in October with other commitments. Starting then, we'll go back to doing Bible Study Fellowship once a week, Eric will hopefully start to fly a little more and we'll get more of a routine established. We are thankful to the members of Servant Wings for giving us the heads up about moving our Tech Eval date to a later time. There's no way that Eric would have been able to focus on his studies and show all that he's learned to MAF with our little one still having sleeping issues. :)

I'll try to update this blog more often! Feel free to add us on Networked Blogs if you are on Facebook or add us on Google Friend Connect/Google Reader to keep up to date on the latest in the Reed household. :)

Blessings,

Kristine Reed

Mozambique

2010-09-02T17:13:00.001-07:00

So I (Kristine) was changing the channels on the tv the other day and saw this travel show on the public broadcasting network. It was mostly over (which saddened me) and had this man going into villages getting to know the locals and learning about them. I wasn't sure at this where this country was, but I was overhearing them speak a language that I mostly recognized as Spanish with some french sounding words mixed in. I checked the channel guide and it said the man was in Mozambique, so I watched on.

Singing Children
My brain is a little cloudy right now due to being nine months pregnant, but I remember him going into villages and learning about what food they typically eat. I think he mentioned that there weren't many roads here and I saw airplanes taking off and landing in the show. Towards the end, the part I remember the clearest was when he went into a local school. The teacher was teaching in this familiar language and the kids were listening. They sang the tv show guy a song in the language and his guide sang it too. It was very sweet to see those kids singing, made me want to be there! The show soon ended and I decided to check to see what the language was.

Portugese
I checked the language and it was Portugese! My dream language pretty much because I LOVE how it sounds and have always wanted to learn it. I listen to Joao Gilberto's (He's from Brazil) bossa nova music frequently and the language is beautiful even though I don't understand it. When I was at WWU taking a Jazz class a professor who knew this man personally and played with him, translated one of the songs...it really was beautiful. Who knew there was an African country that spoke Portugese? I didn't!

MAF in Mozambique?
I decided to check to see if MAF had an operational base in that country, just to see if they were there. To my surprise, they are in fact in Mozambique! Here's the link: http://www.maf.org/mozambique I looked at it and they've been there for a little while and have a few families stationed there. If you'd like, you can go to their website and check out the families and also see their personal newsletters. I do this all the time to see what's going on in-country that isn't typically mentioned in the overview on the website. Plus it helps me connect with the people in that country more. Turns out they work with many New Tribes Mission missionaries and even Wycliffe missionaries there among the other groups.

Openings in Mozambique?
I decided to take my search a little further to see if Mozambique had any openings. To my surprise, they have a Pilot/IT opening right now. That's exactly what Eric's going for. What a shock really. Was this coincidence that I happened to go to that channel on that day... I think not. I think God was allowing me to see the other opportunities there are for ministry in other countries and encouraging me to encourage us to continue to pray and seek where God would have us in ministry. Being open to an African country was never something I had considered. However the prospect of learning and speaking and teaching in Portugese is very tempting to me. I showed Eric what I had found and he seemed really interested too. Would I survive the climate though? I don't know...but it's something to think about!

Excited for potential ministry with MAF
What's most exciting about this is not learning that Mozambique has Portugese as one of their languages, but it was the spark that ignited in me when I was looking again at the tv show and realizing just how much I'd love living as a missionary in another country. I watched MAF's AOTW Haiti episode and just continued to fall in love with the ministry. It's so easy to become so set in your ways, to think, "Oh, I am going to have a baby soon. We could just live in the US with our house, work our jobs and help at church and not worry about this mission stuff".

Life often times gets in the way of calling. Somehow I don't feel satisfied with the status quo. I don't feel like staying in the US long-term is what Eric and I are called to do. The more I read and watch about MAF the more I can really see Eric and I helping out there and making a difference in the world. Our children will get a rich experience no one can take from them and learn a different set of values than they would if we just lived our mundane lives. I could see the benefits of living a life for Christ that are more rewarding than possessions. In all the trips I've taken, I feel more at home in other countries often times than I do my own. I love learning about other people's ways of life. Eric and I often watch survival shows and travel shows with great intrigue because it fascinates us. We'd love to instill that same fascination and love for other people in our children too.

We'll see what the next year has in store for us. God can change things in an instant. For right now, we are encouraged to keep pressing on towards ministry with MAF until God changes our direction elsewhere.

Small Video Clip About MAF

2010-09-02T16:49:00.000-07:00

Getting Closer!

2010-09-02T16:48:00.000-07:00

Hello! We've been a bit neglectful of this blog, but will work harder to keep it more up to date. In two days Kristine will be due with our baby! She's trying everything she can think of that's safe to help encourage the baby to come out, but the little one kinda likes it in there. We both are really ready for the baby to come out. We have the house pretty much clean, the baby room done, car seat in the car, our bags (and baby's bag) packed for the hospital and grandparents are on stand by in Oregon and Washington. :) Eric's had to work extra hours at work because of a work project, so he's ready for a break too!

Ministry at Church
Lately both of us have been thinking more about ministry and getting involved more at church once the baby is born. We know this sounds silly to some of you, but we really enjoy helping out at church, especially in the Children's ministry. Because things were so up in the air with when we were going to do the tech eval for MAF and the baby coming, we didn't want to make commitments we couldn't fully keep. With the baby we feel more "grounded" and ready to make longer ministry commitments while we are here in Oregon. Plus we really enjoy the Children's ministry at our church, it's got great women and men serving in it.

BSF Starts up Again!
We both are excited that BSF is starting up soon, so we can start studying Isaiah with our groups. Kristine will most likely go during the day so that she can take baby with her. The day BSF class will allow the baby to be with her until it's mobile and then it'll go into the nursery there. Eric will most likely go to the Monday night men's group again. We both love the teaching that we get with BSF and it helps us to be able to train ourselves to study the bible individually using just the bible! We both are working harder at creating a better devotional life for ourselves to help strengthen our walks. BSF is a great place to help that to happen.

Facebook Page
We have started Facebook group for those interested in following us on there. It's called "The Reeds Journey to Mission Aviation". On that page we'll try to keep people updated via Facebook on where we are at in the process. It's great because when we type something in there it gets sent to all the group members. This blog is actually on networked blogs on Facebook too. If you are on Facebook and want to get updated when we post new stuff on this blog click here. From there you should be able to join networked blogs and get updated every time we post via your Facebook page. Saves you from having to remember our blog address and checking all the time!

Newsletter
Once the baby is born after a few weeks we hope to have the new newsletter available for you to view. These past few months so much has happened and since it's been so long since we're written a letter we figured we might as well wait until the baby comes to introduce you to our little one. :) We am sure you'd want to meet him/her too! We are still debating about how many pictures to post on this website. We might post a few and direct you to our family website depending. We also might make that website password protected in the future so that only family, friends and supporters can view images of our baby for it's protection. We'll see though! One thing at a time!

Thanks so much for being faithful and following us! We appreciate your love, prayers and support! We'd also love to talk with you abourt our passion and our call in life. So feel free to contact us at ericandkristinereed@gmail.com and let us know if you have questions! Or find us on Facebook!

Blessings,
Eric and Kristine Reed

New Changes coming to "Taking off with the Reeds"

2010-07-30T08:59:00.000-07:00

Upon the advice of a friend, we're going to start posting some of the baby related posts on here as well as: http://littlelifeinmine.blogspot.com/ Eventually we might merge the two blogs into one as we get nearer to the mission field. :)

This Saturday from 11-3pm we'll be at the All Church Picnic in Vancouver at the Pearson Air Museum. http://www.allchurchpicnic.com/ If you are in the area you should come by and visit us! Eric and Will G. will be flying people around in Servant Wings planes for a donation. If you'd like to check out Servant Wings and get to ride in an airplane check out this event! We had several flights last year and people had a blast! Bring your cameras!

Soon we'll have our newsletter out. We might wait until baby reed is born to put out the next newsletter. But in the mean time keep checking out this blog for new updates and photos! :) As always, if you have any questions please feel free to contact us!

Blessings,

Kristine Reed

July 23, 2010 Update

2010-07-23T13:58:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a while since we've posted. We were hoping to get a newsletter done....but we've been super busy lately. Here's what's new with the Reeds:

New Tech Eval Date

Perhaps the most significant change with us is that we've changed our tech eval date from October 2010 to April 18-29, 2011. We did this for many reasons, here are a few:

1) The baby is due Sept 4, right in the middle of the training schedule Servant Wings had set for Eric to prep for the tech eval.

2) Our baby is due! As new parents we'll still be adjusting to the new lack of sleep schedule. For the tech eval it's super important for Eric to be on top of his game so that they get an accurate picture of his skills. With a tiny baby around, it would be hard for him to focus because of the lack of sleep.

3) Did I mention our baby? We are new parents and need time to be able to learn how to be effective parents. By waiting a little longer and rescheduling the tech eval, we'll have a few months under our belt to get used to the lack of sleep and to develop routines. By April we should have things figured out to be able to put our best foot forward as a family.

There are other reasons....but those are the main reasons!

Eric Update

Since moving the tech eval date Eric's had more time to focus on finishing up the repairs on his hiperbipe and hopes to fly it soon! He also now plans on proceeding towards earning his CFI (Certified Flight Instructor) certificate between now and April. This is something he's wanted to do for a while, so this extra time will allow him to do that!

Kristine Update

The pregnancy has been going well with Kristine. It's really been a blessing so far. Every day she feels our baby move and kick and we are thankful every day we have with this little one. The weeks are counting down until the birth of the baby! She's been organizing the house and figuring out which baby things we still need. She's also been trying hard to visit with friends while she can drive.

Most of the pregnancy updates are found on our baby blog : http://littlelifeinmine.blogspot.com/ if you'd like more info on that, please feel free to check it out! She keeps it updated pretty regularly.

Financial and Prayer Update

We are looking for people to partner with us financially and through prayer in ministry. There's no way that we can make it to the field without the support of wonderful people like you! If you are interested in helping us out towards training costs or praying for us, please feel free to e-mail us at ericandkristinereed@gmail.com . We'd love to chat with you!

New Newsletter and Following Us!

The new newsletter will probably come out either in late August once the baby prep is done, or after our baby is born to show you a picture of our little one! We encourage you to choose a method to the right of following us. There are a few options:

1) Networked Blogs: Our blog is on Facebook's Networked blogs. When we update and you have a Facebook account, you'll automatically get updates.

2) Google Reader/Friend Connect: If you add this an update will be sent to your Google Reader Account.

3) Blogger: Many people that have blogs can add a particular blog to "follow".

I am sure there are other methods...but those are the main ones. If you need help please contact us and we'll hook you up with a method to follow our website! We'll try to update this with new pictures soon!

Blessings,

Eric and Kristine Reed

MAF Applications SENT!

2010-05-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

Today we officially e-mailed our applications to MAF. We didn't know that we could do that until Perry mentioned it last night at the Servant Wings meeting and our friend Nan (who also applied to MAF) confirmed it. :) So this first step is now complete! Next we wait for them to review the application, check references and then potentially send us more materials to complete for the next step in the process.

Quick update on where we are at:

Kristine:

She has her last day of tutoring with Sylvan today. After this she'll officially be unemployed unless she can get a few sub jobs. We knew that this day would come, so we aren't worried. We are just budgeting a bit more these days. :)
She is continuing to take classes at WOU to renew her license in August. She's almost done with her ESOL linguistics class. In June she'll take a "Making Music with Digital Tools" and "Digital Storytelling" class.

Eric:

Figured out his magnetic compass problem (Part of the plane is magnetized) for his airplane! He just had to move it two feet in a different direction and it's pretty dead on now. He will get it inspected in June and hopefully not have too many things to fix so he can get up flying in it again!
He hopes to soon fly the 206 again with Servant Wings to build those last few hours for MAF before October. (If you are interested in helping contribute to the cost of this training, let us know!)

Baby Reed:

We still don't have a definite gender yet, but they really think the baby's going to be a girl. So we're going with that and if it proves true, her name will be Jennavieve.
Baby is right on track with growth and looks great in all areas. We go in for an ultrasound on Tuesday so that the techs can hopefully get the pictures of the heart they need. Prayer for this would be great! :)

So there's a small update. We hope to get the newsletter out soon! It might take a back seat to Kristine's school work in the next week, but it WILL come out. :)

Blessings,

Eric and Kristine Reed

MAF Application

2010-04-08T08:44:00.001-07:00

We received our MAF application via e-mail a few days ago! It's exciting to finally be at this point in the process. We plan on filling it out and seeing if we make it to the next steps in the process. We aren't sure yet if Eric will have all of the necessary IT requirements, but if he doesn't he'll just take more courses until he does!

Kristine is just tutoring right now but continues to apply for and interview for different jobs in the school district. It's her hope to get a job that she can work at until the end of June.

Right now the baby stuff is going well. Next week on April 16th we find out the gender of our baby. We are excited to start calling our little one by name. So far we have a crib and a changing table that we got for deals at random places. It's an exciting time. :)

That's the update for now....but getting an application is huge thing!

Update!

2010-03-17T10:58:00.001-07:00

In hopes of keeping you all up to date, we are going to update this blog fairly often, well as often as we can!

We want to remind you that most of the family news and baby news right now will be posted on our other blog: http://littlelifeinmine.blogspot.com/ There fairly regularly you can go and read what's happening regarding the baby. :) We'll keep it updated with pictures as we get them and every week we'll post an update on where the baby is (or could be at) in development and an illustration of that.

Right now I (Kristine) am looking for another job. The temp position at the Christian school ended, which is a good thing because it means the person I was taking over for has recovered enough to teach again Praise God! I knew there'd be an ending sometime so I am only sad that I'll miss the school and the kids. But it was great experience for me and helped me know about a great school! I am still tutoring with Sylvan Learning Center a couple hours a week, so I am still involved with kids. Even though tutoring is proving harder and more frustrating at times.

Starting March 31st I am taking an ESOL class with WOU (Western Oregon University). I need to take 4.5 credits to keep my teaching degree. From what I hear, it's better to try to maintain and keep your degree than to let it go and try to get it back again. It does mean that we have to pay out of pocket for my education right now since I am not employed in a district. That's kind of a hard thing to take, but you gotta do what you gotta do!

Eric is hoping to take a break after this current quarter (Winter) so he can work on the house stuff and focus on airplanes more. We think this will work out better for us so we can finally get the house into a sell-able state. Yay! Then we can figure out life from there. In October we have the tech eval and that will help us and MAF know whether we are ready for candidacy or not.

So big things this year! We are excited about the journey!

It's been a while...

2010-03-10T20:18:00.001-08:00

As I sit here reading other blogs, I realized that we haven't blogged in quite a while! Here's a small update:

Eric is still working on his tech classes at PCC. Hopefully this spring he'll get up in an airplane to get more flight hours. He still needs around 10 more hours to meet MAF requirements.

I have been working as a temp teacher for math and historyat the Christian School since Jan 25th and it's been great. It's a 5-7th grade class and I've learned a lot about planning for multiple grades. I also realized that I really do like teaching math. History is interesting, but I am not the best at it. I try my hardest though!

I've also been tutoring with Sylvan Learning Center. I thought this would be the easier job, but man was I wrong! I've had to deal with difficult students and lots of other issues. At least it's only three days a week for an hour. I can make it through that!

Eric and I have been going to BSF classes on Monday nights and really enjoying it. It's been nice to have a structured bible study to go to. We still love and enjoy our Saturday night group because we can go together and the people are great. BSF has been good because it's looking at a bible in a different way than we have before. It will also count towards our bible credits! Yay!

Baby is doing well. He/She is due Sept 4, 2010. The pregnancy is still a dream to me. Other than waking up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and my abdomen growing, it's been hard to tell that I am pregnant. Praise God! :)

On a continued note, as I've been looking at blogs and reading up about what's happening in the world and it really has solidified the call I continued to feel to serve overseas. I can picture my husband working in an MAF hangar with tech equipment and flying people and supplies to where they need to go. I can picture myself going out into the community to teach and reach the lost as well as raising our kids with Eric to care for others, live for Christ, and appreciate different cultures.

The amazing thing to think about is, in October is our tech eval. If we do well there and they think we are ready, we could be invited to candidacy in January 2011 or July 2012. If they accept us, we'll be well on our way to being missionaries with MAF.

We plan on sending out a newsletter in April when we find out the gender of our baby and have an updated photo. Those of you who haven't gotten a Christmas card, most likely will get an update of our newsletter in the "Christmas" card. :) Please keep us in prayer!

We are PREGNANT again!!!

2010-02-18T20:16:00.000-08:00

Praise the Lord! We are pregnant again and due Sept 4, 2010. We are still using our other blog to talk about pregnancy and children stuff so you can check it out for more information. It is at: http://littlelifeinmine.blogspot.com/

Jobs and the future

2010-01-16T08:43:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick update on where we are at in the whole missions process. :)

Kristine just got a temporary teaching job with a local private Christian school. This job is teaching 5-7 grade students math and history. It's a small school, and all five kids (two fifth graders, two sixth graders and one seventh) are in the same room. She is not sure how long this job will last as it's for a person who has to have surgery. It's only a couple of hours a day, but she feels this will be great experience to use later on the mission field either with our own kids, with the mission or national kids. She still has a dream of helping somehow with an orphanage and helping those children become more educated and adoptable/find good homes.

Kristine also got another job. This is working at Sylvan Learning Center. Yes, we mentioned before that she turned down this job initially. She wasn't quite sure about the three hours a week thing. But, with the other job being two hours a day in the middle of the day, she felt adding this job would be good experience too. Right now she is just training, but hopefully sometime she will start going out to the schools and tutoring children in math. Yes....math seems to be the subject God wants her to teach everyone this year! She's boldy stepping out and doing it, even though she's kinda afraid to! But this is what following God is in this instance, going out and trusting that since you've been equipped with the education that God is going to allow you to REMEMBER that education and build bonds and relationships for that education to be put into action.

Eric has started two new IT courses at PCC. They are proving to be a little more difficult, but he's able to finish them. We've been pretty busy the past couple of weeks, so he's had to find time to finish his homework in the midst of meetings and gatherings. He's still working full-time at Garmin AT too.

We both started BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) class on Monday night. We are excited to finally have a good way to start a daily devotional habit. This is something we've wanted for a long time. This will be excellent practice for us for the future when we are out on the field and have to study the bible for ourselves with no extra groups other than other missionaries or nationals.

So all these things are also things to pray about! We'd love for you to join us in prayer that we be able to continue to trust in God throughout this process. We hope to complete all the requirements to apply to MAF by January 2011. This means finishing up a bible credit each, Eric needs 10 more flight hours in a high performance plane, tech evals and a few other things.

It's amazing to know that we are less than a year away from applying. Before this seemed like a distant dream, and not it's becoming more and more real. We are following MAF blogs and reading about what they are doing in other countries. We can envision ourselves there doing the same thing. We think about what we would do if we had a sudden disaster where we were at or how we'd serve the Lord no matter what. It's actually encouraging to think about.

We pray that as this year goes along that God can continue this vision in us and that we can share it with all of you. Because honestly, if the Lord allows us to go out into missionary service....yes we are the ones on the field, but you are vitally important in this vision. It's you who are the arms reach out for us the hands to do the work. Without your prayers and support, the work on the field could not be done. Lives would be lost. People would NOT know about the Lord. So please, keep following and sharing in our vision...maybe God will allow you to see how it can become yours as well. :)

Blessings,
Eric and Kristine Reed

Our Christmas 2009 Newsletter!

2009-12-21T12:35:00.000-08:00

Christmas Letter 2009

God will meet all your needs...

2009-12-06T10:25:00.001-08:00

I was lamenting about working 9 days straight, having school work and not seeing my husband very much and hoping for a better job when I came across this...

Title: Women in the Work World

Author: Elisabeth Elliot

Because I want to be faithful to what Scripture does say I often refer to that passage which tells me, as an older woman, what I am supposed to say to younger women: Titus 2:3-5. But, they want to know, is it wrong for a single mother to work? Is it wrong for a woman who has no children at home to work? Is it wrong for a woman to work because her husband insists on it? The last question is not quite so difficult, since a wife must submit and trust the results to God. I cannot answer the first two. So, for you who so far have found it necessary to work I want to offer some encouragement and comfort.

"My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19, NIV). Just remember that God must be the judge of your needs. Being wise, powerful and loving, He can be fully trusted to do just what He says.
You only know what you have to do today. None of us knows the future. Be faithful today--do your work faithfully, thoroughly, honestly, and gratefully. "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving" (Colossians 3:23-24, NIV).
Be a lady. Betty Greene, pilot during World War II and later with Mission Aviation Fellowship, told me, "I made up my mind if I was to 'make it in a man's world,' I had to be a lady." A true lady is recognized and respected by men. Keep your honor, your distance, and your close touch with God. He will protect you.
If you are truly abandoned to the Lord, He will show you if/when He has a different assignment for you. Stay in touch with Him

I got it switched!

2009-11-21T15:25:00.000-08:00

By the grace of God I was able to switch my schedule so that I don't have to work on my interview days! Let's keep praying it stays that way!

New Interviews!

2009-11-21T09:27:00.000-08:00

Hello!
Kristine still is working at Macy's....but has two interviews next week for other jobs! One is on Tuesday and is for a secretary job at chemeketa in the social services/childcare dept and the other is on Wednesday for a preschool teaching position!

Please say a special prayer for her schedule to work out for Wednesday's interview! She has it at 8am but then has a teaching interview observation scheduled for 1pm that day. This was fine when she wasn't working that day....unfortunately last night her boss scheduled her to work 12-5pm that day! Yikes! She didn't notice it until she got home.

Today (Saturday) she is going to talk with a manager to see whether she can switch with someone or give someone else that shift so she can go to the interview. Pray that she have the wisdom to know how to talk with her manager about it, and that God help her manager be receptive to what she's asking!

We'll let you know how it goes tonight!

Blessings,
Kristine and Eric Reed

November Update

2009-11-16T10:07:00.000-08:00

It's been hard to remember to keep the blog updated, but we are going to try to do it as often as we can!

Kristine got a job at Macy's as an on-call associate for the holiday season. It's not a glamorous job...but it helps pay the bills. Right now she's in training mode and trying to do her job as best as possible. There's a lot of things to learn, and she gets to learn them quickly!

We both are working hard to complete our NT Survey class by mid-December. It's a lot of material that we have left to cover, but we are hopeful that we can complete it.

Eric is working on TWO classes at PCC this quarter to gain experience in the IT field. These classes are both networking classes. He's trying hard to juggle work, bible class, school and other commitments to be able to get everything done. So far, by the grace of God, he's been doing well but as the quarter ends it's crunch time everywhere...so prayers that he be able to be focused and complete things is essential.

For those who still ask...no our house isn't on the market yet. With everything going on right now the house is kinda taking a back seat while we get other things done. All we need left is painting, moulding and some yard work. Well and maybe some work on the master bath floor (we've got the materials, just haven't completed it yet). So prayers for timing and such with this would be great.

We really appreciate the thoughts and prayers of those of you who have chosen to support us this way. We also appreciate those of you who have decided to help us out financially with training costs associated with us getting ready for missions. There are always more costs than we realize, so your support is definitely appreciated. If you would like to sign up to support us financially or through prayer we'd love to talk with you! Either give us a call...or e-mail us at: ericandkristinereed@gmail.com.

Love in Christ,

Eric and Kristine Reed

Tis the season for job hunting...

2009-10-24T21:38:00.000-07:00

Yes...tis the season...to be hunting for a job! This is around the time that school's get more money for extra helpers, stores start to hire seasonal help and other work places begin to wonder if an extra body would help them get their work done faster.

I (Kristine) have tried to be extra diligent in applying for jobs. This past week I think I had three interviews and one orientation (first stage before interview). One of the jobs was for an educational assistant, one for a bank, one for a tutoring service and an orientation for an online English language job. It's funny how everyone happens at once sometimes for the good and bad in our life. Do I know if anything is to come from these interviews? I don't. All I can do is pray and hope that God has something special out there for me picked out and that I find it. :)

As I was thinking about this and about various things that have happened the past couple of months I started thinking more about prayer. In the past when bad things happened I'd get angry and upset at God for not having things go my way. When really I should have been praying and hoping for things to go HIS way. Today I stumbled upon this devotional on the Elisabeth Elliott site. It talks about how sometimes God's answer is NO, to bless us with something we couldn't have even imagined. I encourage you to take time out to read it.

Love,
Kristine

Title: Lost and Found

Author: Elisabeth Elliot

Here is a little story about a simple answer to prayer. Lars was away. I had to take the car to the repairman's house. Li Zeng, our live-in student, followed me in his car to bring me home. Directions to the house had been ambiguous, and Gloucester, Massachusetts gets the prize for town-easiest-to-get-lost-in. I prayed that I might not get lost--Li had to get to class, the repairman had to leave at 7:15.

I got lost, made a quick turn without checking to see that Li was still with me. He wasn't. "Lord, Li will be late for class, the man will leave in a few minutes--what shall I do?" It's a long story, but after a phone call I found the house, left the car, declined the man's kind offer to take me home because I wanted to find Li so he would not miss his class. How was I to find him? "Lord, help me." I stood at an intersection and prayed that he would come along--an absurd request in a place like Gloucester.

He'd been on a one-way street which would take him far out around the shore drive, with no reason to happen upon the intersection where I stood. Within five minutes there he was! God teaches us to ask so that He may answer our prayers. This reminds us of the source of our blessings. The answer to my prayer not to get lost was No--in order that I might be specially blessed in the way I was found.

Remember how the Lord brought Israel out (of Egypt) in order to bring them in (to Canaan)? He got me lost that He might get me found! Let's never forget that some of His greatest mercies are His refusals. He says no in order that He may, in some way we cannot imagine, say yes. All His ways with us are merciful. His meaning is always love.

New Job Interviews for Kristine

2009-10-15T14:09:00.000-07:00

Hello! We just wanted to keep this as updated as possible to help you continue to be informed. Kristine has two job interviews for next week that we'd love for you to join with us in praying for:

1) Monday at 5:30pm she has an interview to be an instructional assistant for Yoskikai Elementary in Salem. It's a 5 hour a day position. Which would be perfect.

2) Wednesday at 7:00 AM she has an interview/orientation with Berlitz Language Services online teacher position. This is a part-time position.

So pray for wisdom and for confidence and clarity in her speech as she goes through these interviews. Pray for the interviewers to see her true qualities despite any nervousness she may have. We'll let you know how it goes.

Blessings,
Eric and Kristine Reed

Mid-October Update

2009-10-13T09:14:00.001-07:00

Things are going good overall. Believe it or not the fall weather is welcoming when you have a lot of work to do. Although it does make it harder to paint the house! :) Here's a small update:

Eric is going to his classes twice a week and likes them. He actually finds that a lot of the content from the one class is repeated in the other, so that makes it a little easier for him which is a blessing!

Kristine has an orientation for the Berlitz Language School to be an online virtual classroom English language teacher next week. After the orientation they do more formal interviews, then decide whether to hire her or not. It's an interesting process and Kristine is excited to check it out. This job would be part-time, so it would work around another work schedule.

She is still looking for another part-time type job or full-time depending on how this job goes. She's applied to a few banks and for a health care call center type job. Depending on if she can get her subbing badge from WESD, she might start subbing there again...that is if there are any open sub jobs! There are a ton of new teachers out there and old teachers without a job that are subbing as well.

We are still working on our New Testament Survey class. With everything that's happened the past couple of months it's been hard to focus on the class, but we need to complete it before January. :D So if you could keep us in your thoughts and prayers that would be great! :)

April-October Newsletter

2009-10-08T16:19:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,
It’s been quite a while since we last wrote you and much has happened since. To remind you, we are actively working towards finishing the requirements to become missionaries with MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship). Currently we are involved in an organization called Servant Wings based in Vancouver,WA. Servant Wings exists to help pilot candidates get the training they need to join a mission’s organization. Here’s a rundown of what you’ve missed the past couple of months.

MAF Brigade Air Camp
In early July we had the wonderful opportunity to help out at a MAF Brigade Air Camp for students interested in becoming mission aviators. This camp was held in Idaho and had a pretty good turn out of students. There were even three girls who decided to come! Eric helped Ralph Dawson (MAF pilot) with taking students up to fly as part of their first experience with flight training. Kristine had the opportunity to come and help Valerie Dawson in the kitchen as well as be the girl’s counselor. It was a great experience and gave Eric the desire to pursue a flight instructor rating.

Visiting Friends in Hawaii
The week after we were in Idaho, we were blessed to be able to visit our dear friends Alex and Lael in Oahu, Hawaii. Alex is stationed there with the Navy, so they were gracious to offer us to stay in their home and borrow their car. We loved visiting with our friends and seeing God’s creation. We went with them to see the Big Island of Hawaii as well. There we saw the famous Kilauea volcano, went exploring in lava tubes and saw some pretty amazing waterfalls.

Loss of our little one
We were debating about whether to share this part of our life with you, but feel since you are now a part of our ministry team we should. Late June Kristine found out she was pregnant. Most of you know that Kristine has dreamed about this day for a very long time and has even gathered some baby items ahead of time. We were very excited about the pregnancy and Kristine was careful to make sure she did everything right. Unfortunately at 8 weeks and 4 days we lost our little one. It’s heartbreaking, but we take some comfort in knowing that the baby is now in heaven with our creator. In a few months when Kristine is fully healed physically we plan on trying again. We are still going through the emotions of the loss and probably will be for some time. We feel blessed to have supportive family and friends like you to share in our triumphs and tragedies.

Kristine Update
Kristine completed a year with the Northwest Regional ESD’s autism program as an educational assistant in Beaverton. Because we are no longer looking to move to the Hillsboro area, she decided to pursue other employment closer to home. Currently she is signed up to substitute for a few different districts and is looking for full-time employment. This winter she is working on completing her New Testament Survey Correspondence course by December.

Eric Update
Last June Eric earned his instrument rating through instruction with Servant Wings. Now he has his commercial license and instrument rating praise God! The next rating goal he has is to complete the CFI (Certified Flight Instructor) training by the start of next summer. He also has decided to train and apply to MAF as a Pilot/IT (Informational Technology) candidate instead of a Pilot/Mechanic. We’ve been thinking and praying about this change for a while and really feel this is a better fit for him given his knowledge of computers and software engineering degree. We are working with MAF to make sure that Eric takes the right courses to help prepare him to be an IT person on the mission field. This fall Eric started his first two IT night courses at PCC Sylvania. He goes there two nights a week and works full time for Garmin during the day. It’s a lot to tackle, but by the grace of God he’ll be able to focus and complete the needed courses. He plans on taking one or two courses every quarter until he has what he needs to be ready to apply to MAF.

Training Update
As you’ve read on the previous page we are continuing on in our training. Many of your have
asked for specific details regarding what we need to be ready for MAF and tangible ways that
you can join with us in ministry.

Prayer Partners
The first way that you can join with us in our journey is through prayer. We’ve seen time and
time again the power of prayer. Matthew 18:20 states, “For where two or three are gathered together in MY name, I am there in their midst.” As we near the end of our training, it’s more and more important to have powerful prayer partners. This stage is where the enemy likes to discourage us and create roadblocks because he knows we are close to applying to MAF. So please join with us in praying for strength, wisdom, clarity and funding to be able to complete our training.

Last Few Requirements
MAF requires pilot candidates to have their commercial license and instrument rating. They also
require pilots to have a minimum of 400 flight hours experience and 50 hours experience in a
high performance plane. Eric has 650 flight hours, unfortunately at this time he only has 30 hoursof high performance time. That means he still needs 20 more hours in a high performance plane.MAF also suggests that pilots have a certified flight instructor rating, something Eric hasn’tearned yet and hopes to complete by Summer 2010 if possible. The expected cost for this training will be around $5000.

Opportunity to Help
Servant Wings has a Cessna 206 plane that he can rent for $141 an hour. This plane is a high
performance plane and will help him complete his high performance requirement. As you can
imagine, the costs associated with obtaining flight hours and training add up quickly. Would you
be interested in joining us as ministry partners by donating financially towards Eric’s goal of
completing his flight requirements for MAF? You can donate directly to us or if you want a tax
receipt you can give through Servant Wings.

Ministry Partnership
We’d love to talk with you personally about partnering with us in our ministry. We encourage
you to check out the Servant Wings website: http://www.servantwings.org and the MAF website:www.maf.org. There you can learn more about the ministries we are serving in and hope to serve in. You can also check out our website http://www.reednewsletter.blogspot.com for periodicupdates between letters. We cannot accomplish this goal without your help and prayers. Thank you for reading our letter, and we hope to hear from you soon.

Blessings,
Eric and Kristine Reed

Pregnancy :)

2009-08-05T17:09:00.000-07:00

Oh the joys of pregnancy! We are primarily going to write about our pregnancy on Kristine's pregnancy blog: http://littlelifeinmine.blogspot.com/ . Soon...very soon... we'll update this website with the new newsletter. We kinda want to wait until the next ultrasound to put that photo into the newsletter. That photo should show a more human-like baby. :) Until then...here's our first ultrasound. Our due Date is March 6, 2010.

We've got news!

2009-07-25T15:39:00.000-07:00

We're officially pregnant! :) We have our first appointment this Tuesday. Kristine is around 8 weeks pregnant right now, maybe a little more. We're keeping this blog mostly for missions related developments and newsletters...but if you want to follow our baby progress go to: http://littlelifeinmine.blogspot.com (Name still up in the air) Kristine will post photos, pictures, info on how she's feeling, and Eric might post some stuff too. :)

We are now working on our updated letter, we might get to have an ultrasound in it, we'll see! We are very excited though!

Blessings,
Eric and Kristine Reed

2009-06-10T18:46:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been almost a month since the last post...and I bet even longer since we send out a newsletter. We promise to remedy the newsletter situation shortly. :)

Today was my (Kristine) one of my last days at my current job. My last day will be June 16th. It's a LONG story, but I am resigning my position as an educational assistant for NWRESD. It'll be sad because I really did enjoy working with my team this year. I love getting to know different people and hearing about their lives. It will be sad when I leave on the 16th, but I hope to be able to keep in touch with these women hopefully for years to come.

I've learned so much this year about God's provision. At first I wasn't sure how I could be an EA for a year, but I learned so much on this job that I couldn't with textbooks. This knowledge I will carry with me and use in my future classrooms and with my own children. :)

Right now I am applying to different teaching jobs and praying for God's wisdom and provision for the future. I have a definite peace about leaving my current job and look forward to seeing where God is going to lead me.

NEWS FOR ERIC! :)
Eric passed the written portion of his instrument rating test with a score of 92. On June 20th he'll take his check ride and hopefully after that he'll have the instrument rating! Whoohoo!

After he earns this rating the last things on his to-do list for pilot requirements for MAF are: 1) More high performance airplane time and 2)His certified flight instructor rating (This last one isn't a requirement, but is really good to have).

This is a short update, the newsletter will hopefully be the next update!

Blessings,
Kristine (and Eric) Reed

Small Update

2009-05-14T08:34:00.000-07:00

We're going to try to keep this more updated!

An update on Kristine's job interview.. it went well overall. She won't find out more until later but she thought they liked her.

Eric's continuing to work on flight training for his instrument license.

Kristine has been sick lately with a cold. Yes..the sneezing, sniffling, stuffy head and runny nose type. She ended up taking a day off from school(she works at a school) to rest and hopefully get better. She would take normal meds, but since we're trying to get pregnant she's avoiding all meds. This of course makes colds last much longer, but in reality all the meds would do is to mask the symptoms so it's just as well.

That's kinda it on our updates...other than we are working on the house in-between other things. We're painting doors, molding, finishing the floors, and working on the bathroom. Fun stuff! Hopefully in June we'll list it. We know we've been saying that over and over again but with the two of us so busy it's been hard to complete the tasks unless the weather is good on the weekends. So prayers for that would be great!

God Bless,
Eric and Kristine

Prayer :)

2009-05-10T16:52:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!
The May newsletter is coming out soon, but we'd love you to keep us in prayer about a few decisions.

For Kristine:

On Monday May 11th Kristine has a job interview with Sylvan Learning Center in Beaverton. Please pray that she presents herself in the best way possible both in appearance and clarity of speech during the interview questions.

Kristine also has a few job applications out there for teaching jobs. One being the Oregon Virtual Academy. Please keep her in prayer as those applications reach eyes that are going to decide whether to hire her or not. Just pray for the Lord's will in the decision making process and peace for Kristine no matter what happens.

The last prayer request for Kristine would be just for a peace and patience in these last few months of her job. Sometimes it gets hard to continue to work when you know the program you are in is probably going to change dramatically. There is a lot of negativity at work right now, so prayer that Kristine try to remain positive despite being surrounded by negative people would be awesome.

For Eric:

Eric is still working to complete his flight training. It would be awesome if you could pray that he stay consistent with his flying ability and consistent in training. Prayers for clarity of thought and clarity in ability during training would be great.

We'll have more on this in the next newsletter but Eric is considering changing his future missions pilot focus from Pilot/Mechanic to Pilot/IT (Informational Technology). He is exploring what classes he needs to take to complete the IT route and talking with MAF missions personnel to see which classes would best suit their current needs. So prayer that if this is the route that we are to go that he continue to have a positive response from missions personnel would be great. Again we'll have more about this later, but we thought we'd put a word out there.

For Both of Us:
We are still working on our house to get it ready to sell. We're making progress, but with classes and other things taking priority it's slow going. Prayer for motivation and planning to complete the rest of the repairs would be great!

We want YOUR help!
In June we will be distributing fliers to churches taking about the Northwest Mission Aviation Fly-In July 17-19th. Servant Wings helps to put this on annually and really would love a huge turn out so people can see, hear, know and maybe even become a part of missionary aviation in the future. We'd love your help in this! If you wouldn't mind we'd love to give you a flier to post at your church, at airports, colleges...wherever we can to help get the word out about this event. Soon we hope to have a short video clip even to show to churches about it too. If you think that you can help us out in this please contact us at: ericandkristinereed@gmail.com and we'll set something up. You don't have to live in Oregon or Washington to post a flier. Since this is a fly-in too technically people can fly-in from anywhere.

Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers, we really appreciate them!

Love in Christ,
Eric and Kristine Reed

Update and Prayer Request!

2009-04-29T17:39:00.001-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,
We wanted to write a quick update about what's going on in our "neck o' the woods". Turns out with the budget cuts in Kristine's school district that she might lose her job at the end of the year. Nothing's been finalized, but she can take the hint from the fact that her coordinator keeps asking her how the job hunt is going that she's LOW on the list. Oh and the fact that right after she was hired there was a hiring freeze... So she's looking for a new job with full-time benefits to start at the end of June or fall. Because of this setback, it's caused us to re-evaluate our plans for the Fall for Eric's schooling. We are looking at all options right now and will fill you in on the details soon. Please pray for wisdom for us in our decision making so that we make the best informed decision possible. Soon we'll have a newsletter out explaining these things in detail, but I thought I would send out a note to you guys! Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers!
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We also wanted to say that we want to know what's going on in YOUR life lately? We really miss hearing from some of you. We Bcc'd the list, but if you could see it you'd notice it's quite long. we'd love to send a personal e-mail to you all, but with time right now it's not feasible. HOWEVER, if you send us an e-mail we'll make every effort possible to get back to you ASAP. :) we miss you all! Hope you are doing alright. God Bless!

Love,
Eric and Kristine Reed

April 2009 Update

2009-04-11T13:16:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,

Hello! Another month has passed and we thought we’d update you on our life and our progress towards becoming missionaries with MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship). Last month we told you that we’d been accepted as candidate members in an organization called Servant Wings.

Servant Wings

To jog your memory, Servant Wings is a ministry that exists to help missionary pilot candidates get the training they need to join a mission’s organization. They are essentially a stepping stone on our path to joining MAF. Because of Servant Wings Eric is able to get valuable training and time in Servant Wings planes both through maintenance and flying to help him towards completing MAF's pilot/mechanic requirements. The people involved in the organization are also great mentors to us through the process of praying about joining MAF. Because Servant Wings is a non-profit organization they raise all the funds required to keep this vital ministry going. As missionary candidates we also raise funds to be a part of this important ministry. We would like to invite you to prayerfully consider partnering with us in ministry with Servant Wings. More information about this is at the end of our letter, first we’d love to update you on what’s been going on this past month.

Oregon Coast Trip

April has been a busy month for us. We’ve been working hard to try to get more organized to be able to complete everything we need to get accomplished these next few months. With everything going on with work, training, schooling and fixing up the house, we decided to take a few days to rest and have some fun. Kristine had two weeks off in April for spring break so we took an extended weekend trip to the Oregon coast.

It was wonderful to get away from our responsibilities for a few days to just relax, be with each other and enjoy God’s creation. We camped out near the coast the first night and went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Kristine had never been to it so it was a fun time for both of us. We saw the new “Oddwater” exhibit and many interesting fish. Our favorite fish was the Longhorn Cowfish. We put a picture of it in the newsletter so you could see it too! It’s so amazing to see the many diverse fish that God’s made.

After the aquarium we traveled down the coast towards California stopping on various beaches to do hikes and see the Ocean. Our last major stop on our trip was to see the Redwood Forest in California. It was amazing to see how large these trees have become over the course of many years. Also amazing was the fact that many of these trees have been through different forest fires and have STILL survived. In a way it’s like the trials and tribulations we go through in life while believing in God. We may be scorched in the fire, but by the grace of God we can make it through still standing tall as a testament to His glory.

Back to Work...Eric update

After we came back from our trip it was back to reality for us and all the responsibilities that come with it. Eric continued to work on updating the instrument panel and creating an air filter system for his hiperbipe (his biplane) and completed it! Soon he hopes to get back flying in his own plane again to help sharpen his skills when he’s not working with the instructors at Servant Wings and using their planes. He is still working on completing his instrument rating for his pilot’s license. He hopes to be able to take the written test soon. After that he’ll do some more flight training and take the performance evaluation to get his flight rating. With all the bad winter weather it’s been hard to get up in the plane to train, but spring is here and with it longer daylight hours and better weather! Praise God!

Kristine’s job search update

Lately Kristine has been looking again for teaching jobs and finding that there aren’t many, if any, out there. Her main goal of trying to find a teaching job is to give us a good income with health benefits while Eric’s going to PCC full-time. On April 7^th she spent six hours at the Oregon Professional Educators fair talking with different districts and found out that they all have grim outlooks on the next year. It’s a bit disappointing, but we know that no matter what happens that God has a sovereign plan and will take care of our needs in the next year. Right now she is still working as an educational assistant for an early intervention autism program in Beaverton and thankful that she has a job, even if it isn’t in the field she got her degree in.

House Update

We are making some progress on the house. Kristine painted some molding and we’ve been working on landscaping the yard some more. Next we’ll finish the master bath floor and put up molding the main bath. Soon we hope to have some warmer weather to be able to finish painting the outside of the house. Slowly but surely we’re completing our tasks. After we’re finished we’ll list the house and pray to get it sold ASAP.

Class Update

We’re still working on completing our New Testament Survey class by June. Prayer for motivation to do the work for this class would be awesome. We get distracted a lot with everything we have to do and lately have been really working hard to get ourselves on an organized schedule to complete this class. After we’ve finished this class we’ll have to complete just a few more bible credits to fulfill the MAF bible requirements.

Prayer

We’d love it if you’d keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Right now motivation seems to be our biggest obstacle. We have so many things to do that sometimes it can seem overwhelming and hard to know where to start. So prayer for wisdom would be awesome during this time and for us to have a clear vision of where God is leading us in the future. Here are some things you can pray for us for these next few months:

1) Finish our New Testament Survey class by June

2) We spend more time in the word and with God

3) Complete the projects on the house to be able to sell it

4) Wisdom for us regarding Kristine’s job situation

5) Eric to finish is instrument rating by summer

6) For us to be able to raise $3800 a month as candidate members of Servant Wings (details are on the right if you are interested in partnering with us)

Contact Us!
God loves all of you and cares about you very much! We care about you too! Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about what we've written or what we feel called to do. We'd love to share our hearts with you and for you to join with us as partners in ministry. You can contact us by e-mail at ericandkristinereed@gmail.com .

With Love in Christ,
Eric and Kristine Reed

Job Searching again....

2009-03-24T16:58:00.000-07:00

It's that time again....time to look for teaching jobs! Kristine still holds out hope to get a teaching job somewhere in Washington or Oregon so that we'll have good income while Eric goes to school full-time in an AMT (Aviation Maintenance Technician) program. This time of year is typically when the school districts post their new jobs for next year. Unfortunately because of the economy and lack of funding in the districts, there are very very few job postings out there.

This has led Kristine to apply for teaching jobs near AMT schools in WA as well as Oregon. It's still our hope and goal that Kristine can get a job in Oregon so Eric can go to Portland Community College, but we have to be able to financially make it while he goes to school. Kristine is also looking into other types of employment as well just in case she doesn't get a teaching job again.

So prayers for us during this process would be much appreciated and are vital to help us make the best decision possible regarding where to live and work.

God Bless,
Eric and Kristine Reed

Networked Blogs and update

2009-03-13T11:04:00.000-07:00

Hello again! We've discovered an easy way for you to follow our blog. If you are on Facebook just click on Follow This Blog on the right side of the screen and you'll be following our blog! *You can also follow our blog on Google Reader or any number of other sites. If you want information on how to do that please let us know! This is new to us, so we're still discovering how it works...but it looks pretty cool.

Lately we've been praying for the weather to clear up so Eric can fly and we both can work on the house more. We've found that we both have more energy when the sun is shining and the weather is warmer. Well, maybe just when the weather is warmer!

We are still going back and forth on what is the best option for us as far as moving. We know that being closer to Vancouver and Hillsboro is a definite goal. Although financially we aren't sure whether we'll need to rent or whether we'll be able to get a house up there. So prayer for that would be much appreciated!

We thank all of you for your love and support. Thanks for continuing to read and respond to our letters. If you have any questions or are in need of prayer, please e-mail us and let us know at ericandkristinereed@gmail.com.

New opportunity to help!

2009-03-07T08:35:00.000-08:00

Dear Family and Friends,

As many of you know we are working towards finishing up the requirements to apply to join MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship). We are still a couple of years out, but right now we becoming more actively involved in an organization called Servant Wings.

Servant Wings

Servant Wings exists to help missionary pilot candidates get the training they need to join a missions organization. They are essentially a stepping stone on our path to joining MAF. Because of Servant Wings Eric is able to get valuable training and time in Servant Wings planes both through maintenance and flying to help him towards completing MAF's pilot/mechanic requirements. The people involved in the organization are also great mentors to us through the process of praying about joining MAF.

Because Servant Wings is a non-profit organization they raise all the funds required to keep this vital ministry going. As missionary candidates we also raise funds to be a part of this important ministry. We would like to invite you to prayerfully consider partnering with us in ministry with Servant Wings.

How can I help? I don't know how to fly a plane?!?!

Some of you may be thinking, " I don't know how to fly a plane much less repair one! How could God use me in Servant Wings?" Or you could be thinking, "I've never felt called to go overseas to be a missionary? How could I be involved in MAF?" It's a common misconception in the church that to be involved in missions you have to be the one out there on the field. What's amazing is that God has made us each uniquely gifted to be able to spread the gospel and to be a part of the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12 talks about how each part of the body of Christ is important, there is no separation of one part from another. In ministry this is the same. There would not be missionaries out on the field without people back home prayerfully and financially supporting them in their journey. By doing this in a sense, every day people and missions organizations back home are the "arm" reaching out to support the "hand" that is the missionaries. Without the arm to support the hand, and the body to support the arm, there would be no hand to do the physical work. It might sound silly, but it's the perfect example of how you can be involved in ministry even if you aren't the one called on the actual missions field.

How you can help now

Right now you can be involved in a vital part of the missions process by helping to support Servant Wings both financially and in your prayers. Your tax-deductible donations will help Servant Wings provide the necessary tools to help prospective missionary aviators reach the field. The money you donate will be used towards: maintaining the training planes, purchasing aviation fuel, eliminating student debt (This is often the #1 reason missionary pilot candidates never get to the field), flight hours (training time) for a missionary student, operation costs and in other areas to support missionary candidates. This is a HUGE help in being able to send missionary candidates onto the next step, applying to a mission aviation organization.

Every little bit counts!

We know that because of the economy that money is tight right now for many of you. That's why we're asking you to prayerfully consider donating just $10 a month to Servant Wings. Every little bit counts and gets spread out to help in all areas of ministry. If you'd like to become a ministry partner in this way please let us know. We'd love to talk with you personally about it and also encourage you to visit the website: http://www.servantwings.org/. There you can learn more about the ministry and because of the technological age we are in, you can now securely donate online. Servant Wings requires that we raise $3800/month. Would you join us in prayer and support to help us reach this goal?

If you are uncomfortable donating online you can send a check (written out to Servant Wings) to this address:

Servant Wings
118 NE 108th St
Vancouver, WA 98685

Prayer and Encouragement for YOU! :)

We want to be able to encourage you all as you have continued to encourage us. If you have prayer needs or requests we'd love to pray for you. Please feel free to e-mail your prayer requests to us at ericandkristinereed@gmail.com and we'll pray for you. Your requests will be kept confidential unless you tell us otherwise. We know it's a hard time for many out there. We encourage you all to continue to look to God for guidance in your daily lives too as we try to do.

Here's a verse that is good to remember:
Jeremiah 29:11-13
¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Many people quote this verse out of context, but to give you a little history, this was written as an encouragement by the prophet Jeremiah (speaking on the Lord's behalf) to the people exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. It was to encourage them through the hard times they would be facing in exile. Even though most of us are not living in exile in a sense, it's important to remember that the Lord does have a plan for our lives and that we need to continue to seek His guidance in what we do. Sometimes it is really hard depending on what happens, but that means we need to pray harder to have the right heart and mindset in the hard times to make it through.

Contact Us!
God loves all of you and cares about you very much! We care about you too! Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about what we've written or what we feel called to do. We'd love to share our hearts with you and for you to join with us as partners in ministry.

With Love in Christ,
Eric and Kristine Reed

All Over the World: Borneo

2009-03-07T08:22:00.000-08:00

This video is from a t.v. show called All over the World that documents lives of missionaries...all over the world. Our friend's the Harms posted this on their blog (In the Shadow of His Wings) . They are going to Haiti as missionaries with MAF. This video is not of Haiti, but is a clip of what MAF does in Indonesia/Borneo. It's a good representation of what we hope to do someday in service to our Lord, enjoy.

Here's another video of a final approach in Tiweano, Ecuador with MAF. We went to Tiweano on a separate MAF vision trip in 2007. This is the same air strip we landed at. Enjoy.

God's plans...

2009-02-05T10:12:00.001-08:00

Amazed by Grace
Amazing how God's plans are always the best for us. We just have to SLOW down to listen and learn from Him. Sometimes in this day in age it's hard to do that. I know for me (Kristine), I love to plan and it's hard sometimes to take a break from the planning to listen to the voice of God. Sometimes it's even harder to respond to the direction He leads because that means breaking plans my feeble mind made.

Our Meeting with Perry and LaNnae
Well now is one of those many times that I (and Eric) am doing that. I had this overwhelming need for Eric and I to talk with our local MAF recruiter/friend Perry Pust. I didn't understand it entirely other than I knew that it would be good to sit down and talk with him. Eric didn't understand the need, but I couldn't let it up and wanted to meet ASAP.

We met with him and his wife LaNnae and had a really good honest conversation with them about where we were at and where we wanted to be in ministry. They were very honest with us about areas they saw we are weak in and they told us of some opportunities to grow in our faith that would be available if we stayed in the area. We didn't know that these opportunities were available when we were planning on moving to Michigan. We were very grateful that God had us meet with them that day.

A Big Change of Direction..
On the way home from meeting with Perry and LaNnae we had a lot to think about. Should we still go to Michigan? Should we stay here and do the PCC program? What's best for us not only financially but for our walks with God and personal spiritual growth? It was a lot to think and pray about. After a long day or so of thinking about it and praying about it we decided that the best option for us would be to stay in Oregon/Washington. This way Eric can take his time to do the two year PCC A&P program and we both can get more involved in different programs in Vancouver that will help strengthen our faith, witness and walk with God.

This is a big change from what we've been telling you these past few months, but it's definitely a change for the better. We will be sad not to be able to explore the other part of the country, but we'll make efforts to still visit the few friends we had planned on visiting if we had lived in Michigan. Keeping friendships and relationships is important to us because we treasure the time we have with every one of you!

The Basics...
So what's the plan now? We are staying open to God's leading but here's the tentative plan for the basics:

House
We are still going to finish our house and sell it as soon as possible. With Eric going to school in Hillsboro, Kristine working in Beaverton and both of us possibly getting involved with programs in Vancouver, it just makes sense to move further north to Portland or Vancouver. We will rent for two years and after that see where God is leading!

School
Eric will go to Portland Community College's Rock Creek Campus in Hillsboro to do their two year AMT (Aviation Maintenence Technology) program.

Flight Training
Eric is working with Servant Wings to complete his instrument rating. After he completes this rating he will find a program to complete his CFI training. More on that later.

Kristine's Job
Right now Kristine is still working for the Early Intervention Autism program in Beaverton. She will continue to work at that job until at least this summer. Because we are staying in the area, she is now going to actively seek a teaching job in Oregon or Vancouver, WA. If she can get a teaching job starting next year then she will leave her current position then. If not, then she will continue to work for the NWRESD until she can get one. It's just such a blessing to be able to have a full-time job and health benefits. We are in a much better place than last year at this time. Praise God for that!

Prayer
We would love it if you would pray for us! Just for God's guidance and for us to be able to take time each day to sit and listen to His voice. Prayer for our motivation to complete tasks would be great as well. There will be more to come in the next few months.

Thank you so much for your support in this journey. We really appreciate each and every one of you. We'll have more updates to come!

Blessings,
Eric and Kristine Reed

Update :)

2009-01-30T08:32:00.000-08:00

We want to try to update you as much as possible about our journey and everyday life on this blog. So it's time for a bi-monthly update.

We are starting our New Testament Survey class in February. This class is a correspondence course through Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. In case you aren't sure what correspondence courses are then we'll explain. These courses are taken through the distance learning program. The materials are sent to us via the mail and we have six months to complete them. Usually these courses consist of two tests and two papers. When we complete them we send them in via postal mail.

So as you can see they are very different than online courses and allow us to have ample time to complete them. Hope that helps you in understanding our courses!

We are still working on the house and hope to be able to list it by the end of February or middle of March. Please keep us in prayer that our house can sell before we leave for Michigan. If not then we'll need to rent it while we are away. So prayer for guidance would be awesome.

Eric's still working on his instrument rating training and is making progress. He should be able to complete it by the time we move this summer.

Well that's it for now! We'll update more later. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!

Time Flies...

2009-01-25T22:15:00.000-08:00

It's amazing to think that January is almost over! We have a goal of getting everything we can on the house done by the end of February so we can list our house. Hopefully we'll be able to sell our home before we leave to Michigan. If we don't, we'll work on finding a renter for a year while we are gone. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers about this!

Kristine is feeling sick lately. She thinks it's a head cold but isn't sure. Everyone at her work seems to be getting something, it's that time of year! She is taking a sick day from work to help recoup her body before heading back into the germ factory. :)

Eric is working more on completing his airplane projects (on his biplane) as well as finishing up training for his instrument rating. He's still working at Garmin AT and will until we move this summer.

We both are starting a New Testament Survey class from Moody Bible Institute. We are each figuring out how best to complete this and everything else we have to do in a productive way. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers about this as well!

Change to Blog about donations

2009-01-24T07:53:00.000-08:00

(Mt. Rainier from Eric's plane)
Hello Friends!
We wanted to let you know that we've changed our blog layout regarding financial donations. If you are interested in supporting us financially, instead of a link to an impersonal website, we'd love to talk with you personally! If this is a desire of your heart, please e-mail us at: ericandkristinereed@gmail.com. We'd love to talk with you about where we are at in ministry, what our goals are and pray with you. :)

If you aren't interested in donations financially but would like to meet with us to hear more about where our hearts are at, let us know that too! We'd love to sit down and visit with you.

Love in Christ,
Eric and Kristine Reed

Firefox!

2009-01-20T18:51:00.000-08:00

Hello! If you are viewing this page on internet explorer, we strongly suggest that you download Firefox and use that browser to view out page. For some reason Firefox shows all of our additions and Internet Explorer doesn't.

You can download Firefox here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

Newsletter Part One

2009-01-18T11:28:00.000-08:00

Dear Family and Friends,
Sorry for the delay in the newsletter, we were waiting for a few things to happen before we wrote you again. We are still waiting on a couple of details, but figured sending out an edited newsletter is better than waiting another month or so for details to sort out. There are many new things to mention, so this letter/post will be a bit longer than our normal letters. We've separated sections with titles to help you be able to scan the letter. The next newsletter will be much shorter. If this is your first time receiving a newsletter or viewing our website welcome! We invite you to read and enjoy what has been going on in our lives.

MAF

Right now we are prayerfully moving forward with our preparation to join MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship); an organization that utilizes aviation, technology, learning technology, communications and other related services to help individuals, communities and nations be transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You can learn more about MAF by going to their website at: http://maf.org/about .

Servant Wings

In July we took a major step towards this goal by being involved in an organization called Servant Wings. (http://www.servantwings.org) Servant Wings helps missionary pilot candidates get the training they need to join mission aviation organizations. They are a stepping stone on our path to joining MAF. Eric is working with them to finish his flight ratings and earn flight hours using the Servant Wings planes. It's been a major blessing for us!

Because Servant Wings is a charitable non-profit organization, we raise full support to be a part of it. Our monthly support helps them to pay for the maintenance of airplanes, student training costs, purchasing aviation fuel, scholarship funds to help eliminate debt and other general costs. If you are interested in supporting us financially, information is located at the end of this newsletter. But first, we'd love to update you on our progress these past few months.

Eric

Huge news for Eric! He earned his commercial pilot rating! Praise God! He's also finished both his Moody Bible School correspondence classes (Elements of Bible Study and Old Testament Survey). He is now working with Servant Wings to complete his instrument rating and after that he'll begin working on his certified flight instructor rating.

Kristine

Big update! Kristine finished her Old Testament Survey class and got a job! It's not as a full-time elementary teacher but as a full-time teacher's assistant in an early intervention program for 3-5 year old autistic children. This program is year round, has a great schedule and more important full health care benefits. She really enjoys working with her co-workers and the students. She's learned a lot about autism and has had great opportunities to be trained in different methods of working with children. Most recently she had the opportunity to attend a Handwriting Without Tears conference in Seattle. She really enjoyed it!

Both of Us

We are now working hard to get our house ready to sell. This includes: painting and installing new molding throughout the house, to finish painting the outside of the house, finishing the main bathroom flooring and some light landscape work. With the help of family and friends we are getting these tasks accomplished in a timely manner. We are also looking to give away our cat Gibson. We would love for you to join with us in prayer for us to be able to finish these tasks and sell our house as soon as possible.

Soon we are starting a new bible correspondence course through Moody Bible Institute called New Testament survey. We are excited about this course because it will allow us to go more in-depth into the bible and to move closer to our goal of 12 college bible credits each, a requirement of MAF.

We also have had a setback financially that is causing us to re-evaluate our path to missions. After looking at options we feel the best school for Eric to attend is SMAT (School of Missionary Aviation Technology) in Ionia, Michigan. He has applied to the program and is accepted. He will start there in August 2009 (This year!). We are excited about this school because it has lower class sizes and is a one year course versus a two year course. It will be intense, but we feel having it be so intense will help Eric to learn it more effectively. It does mean that this summer we are also moving to Michigan! More on this to follow in other blogs and newsletters.

Website

Congrats! If you are reading this you are on our website/blog. We hope to have more frequent updates on here in-between our newsletter updates. This site will also have prayer and praise updates too. Please continue to visit this site to learn more about our journey towards missions.

Newsletter part two

2009-01-18T11:27:00.000-08:00

Starting Support

We are also in the beginning stages of raising support for our current training costs and future ministry needs. We would love for you to prayerfully consider becoming ministry partners with us! This will enable you to be actively involved in forwarding the message of Christ by helping send us out and supporting us in our ministry. The best way you can support us right now is in prayer.

Prayer
As we continue on this journey it's really important to have great prayer partners like you to join with us in praying for God's guidance and direction. If you'd like to get prayer updates you can e-mail us at: ericandkristinereed@gmail.com. We can update you via e-mail, postal mail or by phone, please let us know your preference

Newsletter part three (So you can read them in order on the page)

2009-01-18T10:33:00.001-08:00

Here are some things we would love for your to pray for this next quarter:

For us to be able to fix up and sell our house in Salem, Oregon.
To have a smooth move from Oregon to Michigan in August.
Eric to complete his instrument rating and to start on his instructor rating.
Kristine to have a safe commute from Salem to Beaverton for her job.
For us to give away our cat Gibson to a good home ASAP

Thank you again for partnering with us in prayer about our lives and future ministry. We really appreciate it! If you have any questions please feel free to e-mail us at: ericandkristinereed@gmail.com and we'd love to talk with you!

Love in Christ,
Eric and Kristine Reed

Website update before newsletter...

2009-01-12T06:32:00.000-08:00

Please bear with us...we're updating the layout of our website before we post the newsletter. :)

Soon very soon!

2008-12-19T16:21:00.000-08:00

Hello to those of you who are new to this blog! Soon...very soon... we hope to have the newsletter out. In fact, the very next post will be...The Newsletter. We've been working hard on finishing up some lose ends with ministry applications, which is why it's taken us so long to get it out to you. We apologize for that, and can pretty much promise that it hopefully will never be six plus months before a newsletter comes out again. :)

Lately we've been enjoying the snow/ice days. Kristine has had the full week off from work because of the weather. Which has totally been a blessing because it's allowed her to organize the house some more (She's been dying to do that!) and get some Christmas gifts made. Yes, she's decided to make some fun gifts with her sewing machine. She figures the more she can figure out on the sewing machine and with the knitting and crocheting, the easier it will be when we have kids and she wants to make something for them. (No we are not pregnant...just wanted you to know!)

Mr. Gibbs keeps waking us up in the morning with his meowing. We know he wants attention, but we just haven't the time to give it to him. Does anyone want a cat? He's free....seriously... he comes with all types of accessories and we'll even pitch in for a bag of cat food and litter. We can't take him with us when we go to Michigan and we'd hate to put him in a shelter.... He's gotta be the only kitty though cause he loves attention and man... having another cat there would take that way from him! Plus he's got a cat-only disease called FIV. It's non-transmittable to humans.. so no worries about that and we even doubt sometimes if he even has it because we haven't seen any signs of it at all. So yeah...tell your friends... there's a cat named Gibson who's up for grabs!

We hope to be able to visit some of you in the upcoming months before our move across the country. We know that God has a huge plan in store for us, we just need to continue to be faithful and to trust in His guidance in our life. It may not make sense to friends and family for us to sell our house, many of our possessions, and leave our jobs to follow the call Christ has placed on our lives but when God calls... you gotta answer!

2008-12-18T09:32:00.000-08:00

We went to Silver Falls to find snow....and we found it! We were so excited to frolic in it, although it was pretty cold! Eric took this photo candidly and we love it.

News...but no newsletter...yet!

2008-11-16T07:34:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!
The newsletter is now slated to come out in December. However, we do have some news! Eric has been accepted into SMAT (School of Missionary Aviation Technology) in Michigan. http://www.smat-aviation.org/ In August of 2009 he'll start his one year A&P program and maybe even work on a float plane rating! Exciting! We both know it's a big move across the country for us, but it'll be great especially since we were planning on downsizing anyway and the cost of living there is considerably cheaper than here. So we'll be just fine for a year! Hooray!

We'll probably move in late July or August and just drive across the country to Michigan. Right now we are both working at our jobs and getting the house ready to sell. We think having this letter will give us the motivation needed to get the house done. :) We know that often times it's hard to sell a house in winter, but we have until next summer to sell it. We trust in God's timing and that He'll provide the right buyer for our property and maybe someone who wants our cat! :)

I should add something....

2008-10-04T20:53:00.001-07:00

Some of you think that the Michigan thing is really "out there" and random for us to be thinking about but I wanted to share with you something kinda neat that we remembered.

A few years ago when Eric and I just met we were thinking about moving to Michigan separately, me to do the Teach for America thing and him to do the SMAT (Airplane Mechanic) school. This is the same school that we are now looking at. Amazing eh? At that time we were thinking of joining New Tribes Missions, but as the years have gone by, we now are seriously looking at applying to Missions Aviation Fellowship (MAF). I went back and read the old e-mails and I was really really excited about the possibility of Michigan and so was Eric.

Isn't it amazing how God brings things back full circle? We don't know if Michigan is where God wants us, He could easily bring something else into play that we never realized. But until then it's fun to dream, pray and plan.

New plans, same couple...maybe moving?

2008-10-04T20:12:00.000-07:00

They say the best laid plans often get changed, and thus it's the way for us. We'll soon have the newsletter out and then after that shorter updates will come more regularly. Right now there are a lot of changes happening, so we are prayerfully considering our options.

Because of the Stock Market and economy, we don't have as much money in our "savings" as we originally thought we were going to have for Eric to be able to quit work and do schooling in Portland. Because of this we've been thinking of other options and paths we could take towards missions.

One of those options is to move to Michigan. I know what some of you are thinking...how is moving to Michigan going to solve anything? Wouldn't that COST money? Well...yes and no. Ionia, Michigan has an A&P program that is only one year. It does cost more than the community college route, but with the affordable housing costs there, it would cost far less than renting in Oregon. This program is geared towards men who want to become missionaries so it would allow Eric to be in a supportive environment and to meet other guys who have the same calling as him.

It also would allow him to work another six months or so at Garmin, to be able to complete his flight ratings with Servant Wings and also to complete another course at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago because the Michigan A&P program wouldn't start until August 2009.

We'll see though, if the Lord blesses us financially to be able to have Eric quit work and go to school in Portland, we'll definitely do that route. If God has other plans, we want to keep being obediant to His calling for us to be missionaries and to not keep delaying it. Thus the Michigan option.

We'll see! Your prayers would be much appreciated as we seek God's guidance in our life!

Love in Christ,
Eric and Kristine Reed