In Process

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Nick for the last month or so has had a few roles that are a little outside of his Pilot-y expertise. He told me he has been running around town feeling like a Used Cars Salesmen and a Relator. We had 2 families leave in the last year and 2 arrive which lends itself to a lot of moving and selling.

I also have been bugging Nick for the last few months that we needed a school bus for all of our kids to ride to school in. We currently have 6 MAF kids and 2 kids from another missions organization riding together to and from the Belgium school each day. We will also be adding on 2 more MAF kids in the next few weeks so that brings us up to 10 kids plus a driver! Thats more kids then what we can fit into a mini-van (or a Prado with extra seats in the back for our context).

But to do that he first needed to sell 2 cars that the program didn't need anymore. So those needed to get into good shape to sell and then place them in a location where people could see that they were for sale. Nick asked a worker of ours to head this up for a few months but when he realized that it wasn't happening very fast he started to take more of an active role. During this time Nick was keeping his eyes out for a good 15 passenger bus that could work for our school bus. He was able to find a few good solutions, one person was even willing to trade the cars we wanted to sell for a bus but the morning that the exchange was to happen the bus we were going to get wouldn't start.

So then Nick found another bus that looked to be in good shape but it didn't have any seat belts in the back. Thinking that he could find new seats for the van, he bought it. He found a lead for some seats with seat belts, so out he went out in crazy traffic one evening to meet the guy with the seats... but found out when we got there that the seats only had the buckles... and not the strap... so back home he came a little dejected and regretting his van purchase. But my lovely husband that he is, kept at it and worked it out for someone to buy and install seat belts in the van.

During this time he has also been in the process of renting, repairing, and preparing a house for our new MAF family the De Jonghs coming in just a few weeks. After looking at a few different houses one was decided upon not to far from us. The landlord was great and is excited for our new family to move in, but there have been a few small things that just take time and organization to get fixed and prepared. Our team took a day to move some things that the new family have bought already, and we will be providing them the basic necessities until all of their stuff comes in. When we have a new family arrive we also prepare their house with a 12 volt battery system. This is because we often have long power outages and a 12 volt system gives us lights, a few plug ins, fans, and internet. Nick was helping our IT guy set this up the other day and as they were up in the attic they have found a some holes in the roof that have been leaking... yikes. 1 step forward 2 steps back. But they got the internet and battery system all set up.

Nick has also been working with our National Staff doing evaluations and reflections. We have now
moved into our new office space above the Hangar, which means that there is also a great opportunity for reflection and reshuffling in how some of our systems work and defining job descriptions.  The hope is to be able to use the strengths of our team and not always just be working out of survival mode.

Nick has also been working on transitioning one of our other bases from a far, so over the phone and email he has sold 2 cars and rented out a hanger.

So all of that to say that nothing is quite finished and all of it is still in process. But Nick a good at juggling (literally and figuratively), but it is nice to move some things along to be able to move onto other stuff. Things take longer here and there are sometimes a few new problems that you discover along the way that also have to be addressed. In between all of that Nick still does like to fly and manages to get into the air everyone and a while. Sometimes life feels like your in panic mode with
so many balls flying around soon they are all going to go flying, but God keeps us going and our team here is a great help even with all of the balls that they are trying to keep going as well.
Happy are those who remain faithful under trials, because when they succeed in passing such a test, they will receive as their reward the life which God has promised to those who love him. James 1:12 

And we have kittens which are the highlight of the kids day every day!  

1 comments

  1. thanks for your faithfulness in service wearing so many different hats ... I smile because I remember visiting with you two for the first time and Nick saying something about ... maybe only doing one term :) he must have been messing with me - blessings on you guys

    ReplyDelete

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Managers / Pilots / Mechanics / Administrators are needed on the field. As a pilot and advisor, Nick plays a very important role of flying and advising on operations in the WDRC program. DRC is one of the most difficult places to do 'business' there are as many or more difficulties going into the office then flying over the jungles of Congo. However difficult his job is a necessary one; there are numerous isolated places and people in Congo that need MAF to be here.

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