Family

Well, Tony has been nose the grindstone for quite some time. So much has happened since our last post, and there is much to write about regarding ministry work.

First, our son, Shane is now SIX! He is reading and writing and has begun thinking about the future. He has decided he is either going to be a police man … or a spy. Hehe.

Both the children pray nightly, both diligently and earnestly for a Sgt. Landon Jones who is serving in Afghanistan. (They heard about him through Becca’s teacher who had met his wife while at an event.) They also pray for Rabin and Sabin, a couple young men from Nepal who are going to school here locally and for the Haitian children. It is truly a blessing to watch them grow and to see a glimpse into their hearts as they pray, thinking of caring things to pray about that I would have never thought about. That the Haitian children would have things to play with, as an example.

Before Christmas Tony took a recorder into Shane’s room at bedtime and this is the un-edited, un-prompted result:

Sheea has had a long dental ordeal which resulted ultimately in a root canal (insert your sympathy shudders here). She is doing well now.

Missions Conference

Our church, Grace Bible Church, is going to be having a missions conference in March and as part of his work on the missions committee Tony is working on software for a missions kiosk which will sit in a common area of the church and allow for members to browse through information on missionaries, missions organizations, the countries that the missionaries are working in and will even allow members to send notes of encouragement through the kiosk to the missionaries!

The goal is to increase engagement of church members with what our missionaries are doing around the world and missions in general.

First Missions Flight!

Tony has been asked by Iglesia Cristo Viene (Christ is Coming Church) and the missions committee of Grace Bible Church (our church), to fly a joint delegation of church representatives (of which Tony is a part) to visit with Dr. Al Platt, who was the President of CAM International during the time Tony’s parents were missionaries in Central America.

The goal of the trip is to encourage Dr. Platt, who recently lost his wife who was battling cancer,. and show solidarity with him in his time of need. Dr. Plat was very involved with both churches before his retirement and subsequent move to Kansas.

Tony is very excited about the opportunity to use aviation to help others. While the exact schedule isn’t settled yet, the flight will take about 2.5 hours both ways and the delegation plans to spend 2-3 hours with Dr. Platt.

Finances

We are currently still carrying debt but a project Tony is wrapping up will all be allocated to the debt at which point instrument training can begin!

Prayer Request

Please pray that funds would continue to arrive so that the debt does not increase again as Tony returns to the skies.

We are considering trying to find a short term missions trip appropriate for our entire family as the children have never left the US before and haven’t seen first-hand the needs that exist. Please pray for wisdom and an appropriate opportunity.

Pray that as Tony resumes flight training he is able to absorb and retain everything he is learning and for continued safety in the air.