Leaning on the Father ...

We are no different than little Ethan.

All that we have: health, skill, talents, possessions, love, joy, peace, opportunities, money, time, etc. comes from our Heavenly Father.

We too often forget that we are no stronger than a little newborn infant compared to our God. We build up kingdoms and claim them as our own. We pride ourselves in our accomplishments--when they are all His giving, His doing, His making.

All that we have comes from Him. Each new day is a gift, a mercy, a miracle from Him. We are dependent on His heavenly storehouses.

As we wait ... as we long for the day to join our MAF team in Angola, we trust in His perfect timing and His great knowledge. We bless His name for giving us a beautiful, healthy child--truly a gift from above!

"We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps." Prov. 16:9

"Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding." Prov. 3:5 (AMP)

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalm 139:14

Little Ethan Garnet, hanging out with Dad.
Born April 5, 2015 (Easter Sunday)!

Hey check it out!

Hey all!

Thought I would refer you to the new and improved MAF Angola website. This year, MAF Angola is celebrating 25 years in Angola ... wow! MAF staff have been in Angola during war and peace times, and the role of MAF has certainly changed over the years. Get a little taste (you know, some pictures, a few stats, meet some of the staff) of what our life in Angola will be like: http://www.mafangola.com.

Another great site to check out is the CEML hospital website. This hospital is run out of Lubango (where we will be living) and works in close conjunction with MAF. In fact, many of the missionaries in Lubango are either associated with MAF or with the hospital! MAF helps with medevacs and flying doctors and supplies to and from remote villages. Their site has a lot of interesting information about Angola, the healthcare needs in the country, and how God is working through doctors and nurses to make a big impact on the poor! Check it out: http://www.ceml.org.

Still no word yet on Baby Boers or visas ... so for now, we wait!

Baby, waiting, "on the job training" and scars

It's hard to believe but we're already into March! Not that I'm complaining ... we would love to think we'll have some nice spring or summer weather before we leave.

Baby Boersie ...

The baby countdown is on ... just 3 1/2 more weeks! We had a baby shower last week, and we feel so blessed by our church family and friends. Wow ... it was just so overwhelming to know that Baby Boersie has so many amazing people to look up to ... who will care for, pray for, and teach him/her! I was reminded of the truth that it takes a village to raise a child!

It's really a rather weird stage to be in right now: preparing for a baby, but also remembering that our time here is short and limited. It's a constant question of prioritizing things: do I really need this for baby? Will we be able to bring it with us?

"Getting' ready" ... the laundry starts now!

Visas ...

On the other hand, we are still waiting and praying on visas ... which makes the whole process a greater leap of faith, because we have no set departure date. Your prayers would be appreciated! We would love to stay in Canada as long as possible, but we also feel the pulling of Angola, as we have waiting many years now for our assignment with MAF to "come to fruition"!

Head lice ...

"Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus." (1 Thess. 5:18). A couple of weeks ago, we got what we like to call "on the job training"--in the form of head lice. And by we, I mean I got it (likely while teaching) and Marcel got LOTS of training on how to tackle lice. Although it was itchy and awkward (really, I got head lice at 26 years old?), we couldn't help but reflect on how this was very practical training for Africa. In all likelihood, we'll have to deal with much worse afflictions in Africa (have you heard of malaria?). And anyway ... we were so thankful that head lice doesn't hurt the baby! I like to think Marcel and I are much closer as a couple now, after that experience!

Scars, Blessings, and Jesus ...

On Saturday, Marcel and I had the opportunity to attend "Fluid 2015" young adults conference in Oakville at the Meeting House. It was an incredible day of teaching, worship, and fellowship with some amazing speakers and worship leaders. One of the speakers, Jefferson Bethke--who is famous for his YouTube viral video "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus"--was talking about how Jesus is in the business of taking wounds and healing them into scars. We are often proud of our scars, excited to tell the story of how we got them. He said that this is the definition of a "witness"--someone who says, "Look what Jesus did!" and shows the scars and tells the story of how Jesus healed the wounds!

That's what Marcel and I hope to be--"scar witnesses". We're not perfect people, and we are certainly not perfect witnesses. But in big ways and small, God has prepared us with our scars AND our blessings for this journey with MAF to Angola. In many ways, He has blessed us here in Canada with the resources, the skills, and the ability to move overseas--something that not everyone can do. But He has also orchestrated our past, healing big and little wounds to make us the people we are today. And what an incredible truth to know--that the things we've experienced shape us to be the witnesses God has called us to be! The times I've rebelled and God has called me back. The times I've messed up and He's forgiven me completely. The times I've felt lonely, scared, or ashamed--He will use those scars to help someone else heal their wounds!

Fluid Young Adults Conference with 1500 YAs!

Reaching our goals!

Despite the cold weather, our hearts are warm with thankfulness and God's merciful abundance! On Family Day, we were excited to share with our social media friends that we have finally reached 100% of our MAF monthly ministry support for our first term! This was thanks to many people who give monthly, yearly, or on a one-time basis. We shared it through an instalment of "Breakfast with the Boers":



So what does this all mean?

1) We are done full-time support raising, but we are never done support-raising. This is a scary and difficult concept to explain, but essentially, we know over even the first four years, some of our financial support will drop off. Why? Because some of it was one-time support or because circumstances change for people! So, we continue to occasionally meet and share with people, in the hopes that we can build a buffer zone of support, that will keep us fully supplied over our first term!

2) In the meantime, we wait and pray. We wait for little baby Boersie to arrive and we wait for Marcel's visa! And we pray that God will provide perfect timing and that we have the patience and humility to wait on his perfect timing! And of course ... we continue to study Portuguese!

Thank you to everyone who tracks with us and prays for us! We look forward to joining the team in Angola, in God's good timing!

As aulas de portugues!

Olá, amigos! Algumas pessoas têm nos perguntado, "Como estão as nossas aulas de português?" As vezes, nós respondemos, "Muito bem!", mas outras vezes, nós respondemos, "É muito difícil!" ou "Temos dor de cabeça!" Então ... nós vamos te passar um blog sobre nossas aventuras em aprender português ( ... mas em inglês)!

Okay, okay ... what did I just say?

Hello friends! Some people have asked us, "How are your portuguese lessons?" Sometimes, we answer, "Very well!", but other times, we respond, "It's so difficult!" or "We have a headache!" So .. we're going to give you a little blog about our adventures in learning Portuguese (and the rest will be in English).

Well, as you can imagine, learning a new language in your late twenties is somewhere between "EXTREMELY difficult" and "not-as-difficult-as-learning-a-new-language-when-you're-fifty"! Thankfully, we have a great tutor, who meets with us three times a week. God has gifted her with a lot of patience, endurance, and humour, as we are not always enthusiastic and willing students.

We do some textbook learning, some conversational practice, and once a week we seem to have some musical adventures in Portuguese. For example, we will listen to "Mighty to Save" by Hillsong, in Portuguese of course, or "Let it Go!" from Frozen. And .... as our tutor has a four year old daughter, my (Kelly's) most recent addiction is this catchy little chicken "Galinha Pintadinha" and her sing-a-long songs for children. Check out some of our "homework":

"Ja Passou"--the Portugal Portuguese version of "Let it Go" ... the Brazillian Portuguese version is different ... and we don't know about Angola!


Kelly's favourite song about an ant crawling up the body and trying to shake it off:


Learning Portuguese has allowed me, Kelly, to draw on a lot of that French that I learned way back in high school/elementary school. The two languages are quite similar grammatically, and this gives me a great boost in learning Portuguese. We also frequently use Duolingo, an AMAZING, FREE app for learning languages on your computer, iPad, or iPhone. Check it out, you may want to learn along with us: www.duolingo.com.

Please keep our language learning in your prayers, especially for patience and endurance both on our end and our tutor's end!! Hopefully, by the time baby comes, we'll be able to sing it some songs in Portuguese during the wee hours of the night! :)

MAF in Action! Two Stories from the Field

Story #1: 10 years since the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004

Many of us remember the tsunami of 2004--perhaps we remember where we were, or the staggering death toll that filled the news reports. But for many MAF staff, the event was an opportunity to respond and provide relief in Indonesia, where MAF has served since the 1950s. An article from the MAF-UK website highlights some of the ways MAF was able, by God's power, to serve the Indonesian people 10 years ago. If you would like to read the full article, it is here. I will highlight a few of the stories!

First Responders

MAF was able to mobilize aircraft from Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Australia and within days, was conducting survey flights and delivering aid using roads as landing strips! In the Aceh region, the tsunami made ground travel virtually impossible, but MAF was able to partner with organizations like Operation Blessing Indonesia to fly in food in boxes to families cut off by the disaster.

Long Term Commitment

After the tsunami, a lot of communications infrastructure was devastated, but MAF was able to set up "internet cafes" to allow aid workers in the region to communicate with others. MAF partnered with many organizations over the following year to help rebuild the area--providing transportation, communications, and logistical assistance. Other organizations and agencies helped dig wells, construct homes and schools, clear debris, or relaunch local small businesses. To this day, MAF still works in the Aceh region providing medical evacuation flights, safe, reliable air transportation, and some vocational training for students. Out of a terrible disaster that killed over 170, 000, MAF was able to be the hands and feet of Jesus, and help restore hope in the region!

Story #2: God Answers a Tribe's Prayer

A violent civil war in the 1980's forced a tribe in Mozambique, the Mwinika tribe, to relocate to another village. The tribe, which adhered to a mix of Islam and animism, cried out to God for help. They were uncertain who the God was they were praying to, but they asked God to help them know Him better.

Over ten years later, MAF flew New Tribes missionaries to this closed tribe, who had largely resisted the outside world. The missionaries began the work of translating the Bible, and getting to know the people and their culture. And God has been faithful in answering the Mwinika's prayers! Now, in 2014, Jesus has so captivated the tribe that they have begun to send out their own missionaries to neighbouring tribes! Praise God! To read the whole article, click here.

Happy New Year!

This will be just a brief post, but we wanted to say Happy New Year and fill you in on what's coming up this beautiful, blustery January!

Next week, we start full-time in our Portuguese studies. We have been extremely blessed by our tutor, Maura, and we are excited to continue this relationship! She is from Brazil, and she attends our church. We are so happy to have a tutor who loves the Lord, and lives so close to us.

That being said, "full-time" means I (Kelly) am still able to supply teach part-time, and both Marcel and I have a little more to do to reach full support! We were so excited on December 31st when a final monthly donation came in to help us reach 100% of our MAF ministry support! It was incredibly cool to see God work that out--it had been our prayer to reach full, monthly ministry support by the end of 2014. Thank you to everyone who joined our ministry support team in 2014!

But ... then we got news that the MAF target monthly ministry support was increased for all missionary families. Due to constant changes in the financial world, MAF has been forced react with these changes by increasing the amount of monthly support each family requires. Thankfully it's not a huge number, nor does this mean that this is an annual thing that happens going forward. It does mean that for now, we still require an additional 2% increase ($300/month), which is something that we are confident that God--who has been increasingly faithful this far--will provide right to the end. We see the little extra work now as an investment into our future success. If you would like to help us continue to reach our goal, please let us know!

Finally, little Baby Boersie is growing like crazy! April is sneaking up on us ... and I'll be honest, we can't wait to meet our new son or daughter! He or she is wiggling a lot, and makes sleeping ... somewhat ... difficult. But as some of the women in our life group reminded me ... it's preparation for life with a newborn! 

Hope your new year brings new joy and hope!
Kelly and Marcel