The exciting flights and fun things that we do, make our facebook pages, but there are quite a few behind the scenes things that we have got involved in over the last year which are not quite exciting enough to make front page news. Here are a few things that we have been up to.

Since we arrived in Congo 6 1/2 years ago, we have had the privilege of welcoming 7 new MAF families, also during that time we have said goodbye to 8 families. There is some cross over there were the new families only stayed for one term and some left that had been here for many many years. Just this last week are have welcomed our newest family the De Jonghs!  Nicole, Jonathan and their 4 boys. We are very excited to have them and they are excited to be here (even though their house is still under going repairs). As the hospitality coordinator I help with organizing new families schedules for their first 2 weeks here, and organizing their 'check list' which is just a list of things that they have to make sure that they get done during their first few weeks here.
In talking about new families coming and going, over the past few months I have been a part of a MAF initiative called the 3R process which stands for, Recruitment, Retention and Retirement. I came into this group about a year after it started, which looked at... you guessed it Recruitment, Retention and Retirement in MAF. As you can tell from my paragraph above, MAF has a faster turnover rate then it would like, this is partly because of the mindset differences between my generation and the previous one. In my generation it is very normal to have several careers over ones lifetime where as the previous generation valued sticking to a career for many many years. This was just some of the things that we talked about when our team hosted 4 different video calls with MAF people all over the world, talking about our difficulties, what we would like to see better and how we could go about it.
The calls were amazing to be a part of, we had about 60 different people from all over the organization join in and it was a great time to let people have a voice into the conversation.
Being a part of this team was very live giving for me, because I was able to help give people a voice and those voices will hopefully bring about some positive change in an already good organization.
I have also been serving on the board of an international school over the last year, this has also been a great experience for me to learn more about how different organizations run, what its like to be on a board and just to help support a great school here in Kinshasa.
Nick also has joined the elder board of the church we attend. After several years of turning them down he finally said yes this year. It is a hard balance with all of the other things that he is doing work-wise, but it is a good group and he is starting to get into the swing of that. A part of serving on the elder board is that he also has been preaching at church every few months as well which has been fun for him to take off his pilot hat and really dig into the word.
Since Pascal started school this year I have also started back at school. I have worked on and off for many years to get my degree, I had hoped to be finished long before now, with having kids and living overseas our plans don't always go as we would like them to. I think I lost a few credits since I last went to school but I am excited to be working towards finishing this. I have also taken a coaching course and am working toward become a professional life coach, if anyone working towards something in their life and could use some encouragement through coaching, I am also looking for hours to work towards my certification and would love to coach you :-)
We also have kittens!! They are adorable, the kids love them! Its defiantly good motivation to get up in the morning when the perk is petting kittens. We started with 4 kittens and 2 died but these two seem to be doing very well and will be going to good homes soon.

Everyones lives are full of all sorts of little details these are ours. I hope and pray that all of your details are fruitful and live giving, and I ask you to pray for us as we pray for you that we would not become weary in well-doing.