England, Here We Come

Karen's done a great job selecting, organizing, and packing our gear as I've been rather busy wrapping up projects and loose ends at MMS. I spent the last five hours of the workday today in meetings which generated four hours of additional work needing completion before I left the shop. No big deal. It just needed to be done. And it is done. On the home front I was able to mow the yard, whack the weeds, and spray the roses yesterday between rain storms.

So, ready or not, we leave on our three-week trip to England tomorrow afternoon! We'll be gone July 4th - 26th. When this trip was first discussed in May of '07 during a visit to MMS by representatives from MAF-United Kingdom and MAF-International, it seemed like a long way in the future. Well, the future has arrived.

This is primarily a business trip for relational development and increased communication between our three organizations. As part of that process, Karen and I will spend the first two weeks undergoing MAF-International's Africa Region Field Orientation Course. This will help us better understand how MAF prepares their people for service in the field as well as for service in our hangar (For the past six years, MMS has been the exclusive training provider for MAF-UK airplane mechanics who will ultimately serve around the world with MAF-International). The orientation course is held at Ashburnham Place, a Christian retreat center.

After the course is completed we'll move to Ashford, Kent, where we'll finish out our final week. We'll spend at least one day in meetings with the MAF-International headquarters staff in Ashford, and another day in meetings with the MAF-UK headquarters staff in Folkestone, Kent. During those meetings we'll spend time with our counterparts in both MAF organizations, renew acquaintances, and make presentations to explain the MMS ministry. Lord willing, we'll spend our final three days as tourists and get to experience some of the local culture and explore the countryside.

We would greatly appreciate your prayers for safety and good health. It'd be wonderful to be vertigo-free (me) and migraine free (Karen) for the entire trip! We'd appreciate your prayers also that this would be a solid time of relational development between MMS and our MAF partner organizations. Thank you for praying!

Our goal is to keep up with the blog posts so you'll feel very much a part of this trip, but that will be directly proportional to internet access and opportunity. Please be patient and STAY TUNED!

Are their any messages you'd like us to pass along to the Queen?