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

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 :)

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!

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

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