One year!

Wow! Today marks the one year anniversary of working for Mission Aviation Fellowship! So what are we doing to celebrate?

1. Thanking God... for every opportunity He's brought our way, for every stranger who has become a friend, for every friend that has become a partner in finances and prayer, and for every word of encouragement that's been spoken into our lives!

One year ago we got our MAF employee badges. Nov. 11 was our first, employed day of work!

2. Working hard. On what? Well, a typical MAF-focused day might involve practicing Portuguese for our weekly lessons with Maura, updating our activity tracker and spreadsheets, answering emails, writing and delivering thank you cards, taking a walk to get fresh air and pray, modifying PowerPoint slides for upcoming presentations, calling churches or individuals, writing a blog post, or preparing our upcoming newsletter. Sometimes, it might involve serving some of our dear friends and partners in a practical way--like helping them drywall their basement, meeting up for lunch and a chat, or helping them move. And sometimes, it might just involve getting our own life in order for the big move in May(ish) and the upcoming new addition to our family!

Sometimes, work isn't too hard. Like this amazing church potluck after one of our Sunday morning presentations!

3. Looking forward to the future. Seriously ... it is so exciting! And too easily, we get focused on the here and now, which quite frankly, is not exactly how I pictured my life one year ago. Honestly, I thought we'd be almost on our way by now! But God persistently reminds me to persistent, to be expectant, and to trust Him. To be happy with now, and be excited for the future. He is bringing us on the adventure of a lifetime, and He is faithful! We can't wait to meet our future MAF Angola coworkers in the flesh, and develop life long friendships. We can't wait to meet the people we are going to serve, and see how God will use our skills and abilities to love on our community! We can't wait to raise little baby Boersie to love God, love people, and speak both English and Portuguese! We can't wait to see the sights and hear the sounds of Angola! The future is always good in God's hands.

My heart longs to see what "good works" God has prepared for us in Angola, and what amazing people we will meet.

"Undiscovered beauty" (to the average world tourist/traveller)!

Yes, we will drive this road ...

Near Lubango, where we will be living, you better believe it will be one of the first places we visit!

4. Counting our blessings! We are almost done this journey of support-raising. In fact, we are 83% finished! That could mean as little as 20 more monthly or annual supporters ... how wonderful. And then we begin full-time language study! Muito bem!