I, Jocelyn am excited about my new role has Learning and Development Coordinator at MAFC. I had a great time being able to sit through our Candidate Orientation and see 4 new families accepted into the MAFC team. 

It was such an awesome time to spend with these new MAFers. Let me introduce you, from left to right we have Liz and Zak Stauffer, Jonathan and Melissa Neudorf, Whitney Schmidt, and Emma and Reuben Vermeulen. Click on their names to visit their missionary page and read a little bit about who they are. 

Practicing presentations

The purpose of the Candidate Orientation week is for the candidates to get to know MAFC better and for MAFC to get to know them. Joining MAF is a discernment process and we all want to make sure that we are following God's path in joining MAF. 

They also have the chance to get the know the support team here at Home office, learning names, knowing who to email, understanding policy etc. A big part of their learning  includes a intense course in ministry partnership. It is important when leaving to their field assignment that they have an amazing support group surrounding them prayerfully and financially. 

However, the main purpose of their time here is to really understand the heart of the mission and vision of MAF to use Aviation and Technology to reach the isolated, and how they are going to be a part of that. 

There is lots of hard things about becoming a missionary but if we truly understand the WHY of what we are doing then many of those things become much more bearable. 

The next Candidate Orientation class could be coming through as soon as next spring and coordinating that training will be my responsibility. Karen (who is the MP coordinator here at MAFC) has been responsible for the last 5 years for organizing the training, she has not only organized the week but also taught the ministry partnership training. 

Since we made the decision to end our time here in Congo and transition back to Canada we started thinking and planning on how to end our time in Kinshasa well. There were things on our list that included passing on of knowledge, doing things that we loved, finishing school for both the kids and Jocelyn and saying goodbye to our friends and colleagues. 

CoVid19 shook up some of our plans but over all we feel like we have been able to still accomplish everything we wanted to do, focusing on what is the most important and investing in that. 
In the fall Nick was able to travel to the eastern side of Congo and help out the MAF program there when they were low on pilots. The last few months, even though there hasn't been much flying, Nick has been able to concentrate on supporting and helping around the hanger as well as help oversee the completion of the MAF house construction and landscaping. 
I, Jocelyn, have been able officially finish my Bachelors of Science degree in Psychology all the while homeschooling Ruth and Pascal over the last 3 1/2 months. 
As a family we have lived in 3 different houses in the last 10 months, slowly purging and/or selling our things throughout the year. It has been a busy year, but it has also been restful in many ways being able to enjoy life here in Congo. It was awesome to have my sister come out before CoVid hit and be able to go camping with her at our favourite spot, Bombo Lumene.
We have had several get togethers over the last month to be able to say goodbye. These have been encouraging as well as sad. Serving with MAF has given us the opportunity to have friends from all over the world but that means that we have no idea when we will see them again. 
We had birthday parties for both Ruth and Pascal, a goodbye celebration with the National Staff at the hangar, a supper with the MAF expat staff and several small get togethers along the way. 
We had planned on doing one big celebration but with CoVid we did small events or get togethers instead. We are so thankful for the people here in Congo that we have known over the last 9 years and we are sad to leave them. 
Even though the goodbyes are sad we are looking ahead to the future with eager expectation. 
We are so excited to be able to continue as missionaries with MAF with Jocelyn working as the learning and development coordinator and Nick helping out with operations. Nick is still also looking forward to having a flying job and the details of that will be worked out over the next few months as the world recovers and returns to something stable. 
The last thing that we need to do is just to get back to Canada. Boarders are still not open, but because of our need to start our life in Canada, find a place to live, get the kids in school, start to work, and after discussed this with MAF Canada we have decided to take a repatriation flight back to Canada on July 5th. 
It feels good to finally have a date and be able to finish all of the last things that we need to do around the house before we leave. 
Once we land in Canada we have a place to quarantine for two weeks and during that time we will be looking for a place to rent starting in August. A few people have already asked me about things that we will need once we are in Canada, I will be able to better answer that question once we are there and when we know where we will be living. 
It has been a long time since we have lived in Canada and I know already that it is going to take time to adjust. Even though we have visited Canada during the last 9 years there are things about living there that we haven't had to deal with and that have probably changed during that time. 
Though we know it will be a challenge, we are very excited to be able to reconnect with friends and family in Canada as well as introduce many things to our kids about Canada they have not experienced. Since they have never experienced winter it should be an interesting time when the snow comes! 
Please be in prayer for us as we finish our last preparations to leave and for our travels back, we appreciate you so much and we are so thankful for your support.  

The plan was to have a “soft opening” in September, meaning they would move over the existing program and number of students (330) from the old building while finishing up landscaping and other small details.

The teachers were eager to settle in to the new environment with twice the number of classrooms, all of which are double the size of the old ones. They intended to wait until after the inaugural celebration in late November to advertise and begin adding to their numbers.

WDRC Team 2019

We have been back in Congo for 2 months now. We had the lovely opportunity to enjoy our WDRC conference. The conference was actually only the second WDRC conference that I have attended that I did not plan. It was fun just to be able to enjoy the activities and speaking with out having to worry about everything else. 
The speakers were the parents of our new program manager Stephen Hale. It was a lovely time to reflect and grow together as a team. We had a great time going to a new attraction in Kinshasa Nsele Safari.








Right before the conference ended Nick headed to the MAF base in the east to spend 3 weeks helping the EDRC program with flying. The east has had a hard time with rebel activity and Ebola outbreaks near their village prompting 2 evacuations. They also right now have just 2 pilots for 2 planes, 2 families are on home assignment. Its also been a dream of ours to be able to visit the Nyankunde base and now that has more time Nick not holding the responsibilities of program manager here he is able to travel to other places if they need help. 


Nick also had the opportunity of flying the Archbishop of Canterbury who was visiting an Ebola treatment centre. His flights were many and varied, flying missionaries, building supplies, a body repatriation, and everything in between. The program was so thankful for Nicks help during those few weeks and if they need it we hope he will be able to go again in months to come. 




We have enjoying living with Corrine, the kids are doing well in school and I just finished a class and started another this week. I am nearing the end of my degree so it is feeling very exciting. I also had the opportunity to teach during a youth conference last weekend which was a ton of fun. The MAF house that we were supposed to be moving into is not finished yet and does not look like it will be finished soon, so we are looking into some other housing options for January. But God has been so good, it has been such a blessing and encouragement to live with Corrine and help her to be able to settle into life here in Congo. 

I am still a year behind on sharing our 1SE videos here is Nov and Dec of 2018.