End of October: Saturday Update

Here At Home
We're enjoying a slow start to our Saturday. It's 31 degrees outside, the sky is clear and the sun's just rising over the hill to our east. Karen's in the basement exercising. The dogs are curled up and asleep in their bean-bag beds. I did my workout earlier, have had my devotions, and am enjoying a pot of fresh-ground, fresh-brewed coffee. For the first Saturday in quite a while, we don't have any expectations we need to meet or ministry to fulfill or house projects to attend to. It almost feels like a vacation day.

Tucker

Tanner

The biggest question we face right now is what to have for breakfast...that's kind of refreshing. I believe Karen's going to make blue-berry muffins.

One of Karen's homemade muffins...

At The Hangar
The Cessna 337 didn't fly on Thursday but it did make its first test flight on Friday. The flight went very well. I shot video but didn't end up having the time to edit the clips. Fridays at the mission have a way of getting very, very short very quickly for some reason. There' s still 8 hours in the work day, but time always runs out before the task list does. And on Fridays, everyone also has weekly clean-up responsibilities. I clean the administrative area. Lord willing I'll put that video together when I get up to the shop on Monday and will have it posted shortly thereafter.

I'm currently involved in the application process with a young couple, am still supervising five families raising support, am producing short videos for the mission and some of the families in the mission, am updating orientation materials in preparation for the Swanson family's arrival from England, sent the December GroundCrew off to our graphic artist, recently re-wrote our training agreement with MAF-UK, met with my candidate evaluation team to debrief the four evaluations we conducted in 2010, and am involved with our leadership team in discussions related to operations in 2011. Actually, I spent a good part of Friday (when not shooting 337 video) reviewing and updating my binder related to all the BHS, CIS, ICE, and SEVIS regulations regarding my responsibility for our international apprentices.

Karen worked her usual Thursday for me and her Friday handling the MMS receipting and mailing list. She also supervised the stuffing/mailing of the 2011 MMS pocket calendar mailing. Those of you who have donated to MMS over the past year will soon receive your 2011 pocket calendars. Thank you to Dana, Sherry, Rachel, and Laurie who helped label, stuff, and stamp the envelopes!

At Fresno Bible Church
Karen just rotated off worship team, I'm still playing the drums, and Karen and I are about to wrap up 12 months of leading the young adult Sunday school class. We have four more chapters to go in order to complete discussion of Abiding in Christ, by Andrew Murray. Prior to starting Murray's book, we went through Steve McVey's Grace Walk.

We both continue to disciple individuals from church.

Thank You!
Thanks for your prayers, your friendship, and your gifts. We're blessed to be here in Coshocton serving on your behalf. We look forward to finishing 2010 well and being prepared for what God will reveal in 2011. We greatly appreciate having you with us each step of the way. And don't be afraid to stop by for some homemade muffins!

Muffins!

Oh, those muffins...