Day One at MAF!

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

Blessings,

The Reeds

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

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

Here are some things to pray about:

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

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


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

Blessings,
The Reeds

Ten days...

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

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

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

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

It's not about me

by Kristine

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

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

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

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

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

We need your addresses!

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!