Learning more about Angola every day!

It's been CRAZ-AY around here this past week! We've been busy getting everything together for our visas (think: passport photos, documents, meetings with our lawyer, vaccinations, doctor's appointments, etc.) and at the same time, getting opportunities to Skype with MAF staff in Angola! We had the opportunity to Skype with Tim Huebner, an MAF staff that has worked on and off in Angola for short term stints, and then Brent Mudde, the programme manager there. And we've learned a lot (and I'm sure it's just the tip of the iceberg!) about Angola, so we want to share some of the things we've learned!

Portuguese: As we've share before, the official working language in Angola is Portuguese. But we didn't realize how prevalent it would be--apparently there's very little English spoken at all in Angola! Even church will be in Portuguese!

Climate/Geography: There is a dry and a rainy season. There are many beautiful places to hike in Lubango (the city we'll be in) as it is surrounded by mountains/plateaus and looks BEAUTIFUL! The climate sounds relatively mild (by African standards), hot during the rainy season and cooler during the dry season.

Beautiful views near Lubango!

MAF Work: Marcel is going to be the main aircraft maintenance engineer when we get there! Woah! That's a big deal! Thankfully, he'll have an amazing national staff member helping him who has been there for over 25 years. The MAF Angola program flies a lot with Christian doctors, and they would like to expand the program to do more work around the country! I didn't realize this, but Angola is almost twice the size of Texas--so the airplane plays an important role in reaching isolated, poor, and needy people!

The caravan, at work in Angola! (Cool clouds!)

Lifestyle: It looks like we'll be living downtown, in an apartment, at least to start our time in MAF. Our apartment would be in the same fourplex as the MAF office, another MAF couple, and a doctor. It sounds like a lot of things are a bit more expensive in Angola--for example, a new car would be upwards of $40,000 and used cars are expensive and very hard to come by! Other things may be cheaper, like malaria medication! :) Such is the paradox of impoverished African countries--some things are dirt cheap, and others are so much more expensive!

Lubango, where we'll live!

Well, there's a brief update of some things we learned this week! Hope to keep you in the loop as we learn more ... and hopefully, one day you'll want to come and visit us! Tchau! (Portuguese for "Bye!")

August Blessings!

We just returned from a week away at WIRED Junior High Camp, and boy, do we have great news to share! August has been a month of great blessing!

First, we felt so blessed to be away at WIRED, a camp our church runs for the junior high kids of West London and Bolton. It was a blast--highlights included a colour run for the kids, jumping in the river, canoeing, night games, a hay ride, square dancing, and one of my favourite parts--an exotic animal show! But by far, the coolest thing for us was when we got to share with the junior highs about our future in the missions field. So many of them encouraged us, and I know they will be following our journey and praying for us when we're overseas! It's crazy to think that when we get back, some of them will be in high school ... and some of the senior high counsellors will be in university, college, or married!

When we got back from WIRED, we had a small family vacation to Toronto with my (Kelly's) side of the family. It was super fun and a great chance to hang out with the family on a dinner cruise of Toronto Islands and a visit to the aquarium.

Fun and games aside, it has also been a great month of blessing for our work! First, we have met a lovely couple from our church who is willing and excited to teach us some portuguese! This will be a huge help to us in preparation for Angola, since we may not get as much time as some couples in language school. And any practice helps ... especially conversational portuguese!

Marcel also got a pleasant surprise in the mail when we returned home from WIRED--he officially has his M1 maintenance license! This is a massive answer to prayer, as Marcel needs this license to work for MAF on their smaller aircraft (different from the large aircraft he worked on here in London). We are praising God for Marcel's license ... one of the biggest hurdles we had along this path to Angola.

Finally, we had the opportunity to present at Stoney Creek Baptist Church on Sunday. We were so nervous, as the congregation had to approve us as "non-member supported missionaries" in a vote. But it all went well, and we met many lovely people at the church with a real heart for missions!

Thanks to all of you who are praying through August with us! We are so thankful! Let's keep it going!

The family in Toronto! Note: it's hard to see in this pic, but we dressed 80s
because the theme was an 80s Dinner/Dance cruise. Apparently, we were the only ones!

Toronto is meant to be viewed from the water!

I believe I followed this pic with "We can move to Angola, because
I conquered my fear of this bird!"

Marcel makes friends wherever he goes!

Praying Through August with Us!

Today is the 8th of August. Literally, I don't know where the first 8 days of August went. Summer is passing too fast! (As it always does in Canada!)

We want to invite you to pray through August with us. Why?

1) August was originally the month we wanted to aim to have all of our MAF ministry funds raised by. This was a totally crazy goal, but I (Kelly) function better with these sorts of goals (Marcel on the other hand is the realist). Anyway ... since it seems unlikely we will have all the money raised by the end of the month, at least we can celebrate August in another way ... through daily prayer! And who knows ... maybe God will do something crazy still!

2) We desperately need prayer for a lot of pressing matters. Now that we know we are going to Angola, and we know that MAF would like us to leave for language training in Portugal in early JANUARY ... time suddenly seems of the essence. There are important things to get done, including visas, licensing, and preparations that have the potential to drive us nuts ... if we try to do it on our own without God's help!

3) It will help make August last longer! Hahaha ... in all seriousness, I actually kind of mean it. Slowing down each day to take some time in prayer does seem to help slow down the passing of time, allows one to count their blessings and find a brief moment of refuge with God. And ... if you get to the end of the month and find you literally cannot remember anything that happened in August ... at least you will have done one awesome and meaningful thing!

So whether you join us here and there, once a week, or every day, will you join us in praying through August ... #AugustPrayforAngola?

Thanks! We're eternally grateful!

Kelly & Marcel

MAF Angola

Back from the North and BLESSED!

Hello! We are back from Northern Ontario and we have so much to share about our adventures and our big news about our future location!!

First of all ... I guess we should share the good news ... we're going to Angola!!!!! (Lord-willing, barring any unusual circumstances!)

I say barring any unusual circumstances because we are only in the beginning process of applying for visas. This can take upwards of a year! And in that time, a lot could change, as is often the case with missions work and moving overseas!

But in the meantime, I'm going to get very excited about Angola and all the cool things we can look forward to ... especially all the cool work God is already doing in Angola! MAF serves some interesting and exciting ministries in Angola--including a flying doctor service, a de-mining organization (yes, as in de-mining active mine fields!), and other Christian and secular groups! I've done my fair share of scoping around the Internet about Angola, and it looks like such a beautiful country with incredibly beautiful people! However, after years (27 years to be exact) of civil war ... it is a country that is only just now beginning to rebuild and stand on it's own two feet. Check out this video below to learn a little more about Angola ... and maybe it will make you want to visit us while we're there!

So what does this mean for us over the next few months? It means working like crazy to get everything together to move by January. Yes ... January! Again, Lord-willing, we would move to Portugal in January for a few brief months of language school before we move to Angola in March/April ... because at that point, they'll be desperately needing an aircraft maintenance engineer!

Wow ... wait? Did we just say language school in Portugal? Yes, as Portuguese is the official language of Angola. We're saying goodbye to speaking English all the time and "Oi!" to Portuguese! 

Now ... I'm going to move on and share a little bit about our Northern road trip, but if you have tons of questions, don't worry, so do we! We'll be blogging now much more frequently on Angola specifically, so stay tuned for more updates on that front.

Revisiting the North

We returned from Northern Ontario a few days ago after a week travelling around. Time flew by! We had the opportunity to visit many relatives and friends ... including Marcel's aunts, uncles, and cousins in Grand Rapids, Massey, and Manitoulin Island. It was my first time to Grand Rapids, so Uncle Ted kindly took us sailing for the afternoon! Visiting with relatives, knowing that we may not see them again before we move, was SO special. Many of them have stood behind us in prayer and financial support, and it meant the world to hang out with them!

We also had the fantastic opportunity to go up and join the crew of St. Joseph Island for their Vacation Bible School week at All Tribes Camp! We were the "featured missionaries" for the week, meaning kids brought in coins each day for our MAF ministry! It was both humbling and encouraging to see such young kids wanting to learn about Jesus, share their money with our MAF ministry fund, and have a blast at camp. Our favourite part of the week was probably the "water fight of death"--an hour and a half of getting pelted with sponges and water guns on a not-so-warm day ... so we like to think we earned our coins on that day! :) Special thanks to the whole amazing staff (they were incredible!) and Marney and Jonathan for organizing everything!

No visit to St. Joseph Island is ever complete without seeing Pam and Joe Hawdon ... who were two before we left, and are now three as of Tuesday morning! It was a blessing to see them and Marsena Henderson (and family, and boyfriend, Scott), some of our favourite people in the world! 

Here are a few highlights of the trip:

Sailing with Uncle Ted.

Hours of entertainment by Carter ... but Ben doesn't seem impressed!

Red-necking it with Ben and Rick! 

Building a fort with Jordan and Joe.  

Exploring Kicking Mule Ranch and playing with the kittens.

Spending time with Aunt Willie and Uncle Rick, and attending Mindemoya Missionary Church.

A chilly trip back on the Chi-Cheemaun!

Prayer Requests

With the discovery that we are going to Angola, the craziness of summer and the upcoming busy fall season, we have lots of prayer requests! We hope you'll take some time and pray with us or for us! Thanks to so many of you who already do pray for us on a regular basis!

1. Pray for learning: MAF has decided that before we go, we must audit three courses with Prairie Bible College via online/distance learning. This is an awesome opportunity to learn more about what we believe, but it is also likely to be a source of stress and busyness along with other elements of our job.
2. Pray for funding: We are almost at 70% of our monthly ministry support, but we would still appreciate your prayers for the remaining 30% as we anticipate this may be the difficult to come by!
3. Pray for Marcel’s maintenance license: We are awaiting confirmation that Marcel has completed all the necessary logbook work to apply for his M1 maintenance license. Marcel already has an M2 license for larger aircraft, but in order to sign off the smaller aircraft of MAF, he must have an M1 license. Please pray for success in this venture, and God’s continued hand of mercy as we may run in to other difficulties associated with licensing in future months.
4. Pray for visas: The visa process for Angola can take upwards of a year, so please pray for smooth sailing as we apply for visas. Pray that the process will be quick and painless!