Two Week Notice

After many months of praying and seeking the Lord's direction for our family regarding missions, the time has finally come to take action! Today I turned in my two week notice at my airline that will be effective on September 25. It is hard to believe how fast the time has crept up on us! We have been praying and seeking counsel for many months and now it is here. I only have two more trips to fly before I turn in all my manuals, charts, and ID badges. I will no longer be an airline pilot. For those on the outside looking in, our decision to quit my airline pilot job to go overseas for missions is stupid. Why would I give up a job that could potentially earn an easy six figure salary with multiple days off a month? If you had told me two years ago that this is what I would be doing, I might even have said you were crazy! But, as I was walking into the chief pilot's office today, I had an extreme sense of affirmation. I know that God is bigger than the plans I had for myself. As I was at the airport I was watching all the FedEx planes that were flying overhead, I couldn't help but go back to the days when I was so sure I would be the one flying them. I mean, that's why I got into flying wasn't it? I wanted to move up the ladder of success, make more money, have a better quality of life with ease, comfort, and security. All these things were going through my head as I was waiting for the meeting with our chief pilot. But, there was one word that was pushing all of those things out of the way....RUBBISH! Paul speaks of losses we experience in life that are gains when it comes to His kingdom in Phil. 3:7-11. All of these things are good things. But, whatever could have been my gain, I count as LOSS for His sake.

Not only did I turn in my two week notice, but I also had orientation for mechanic school that will be starting in just two and a half weeks! The actual orientation just consisted of a lot of paperwork and general information. Not that exciting...but what did excite me was realizing that this is the start of a new chapter in our family's life and a new road to venture down. I am very excited to begin school and to learn a whole new aspect of aviation. I have learned the art of flying airplanes, but now comes the challenge of being able to repair and maintain the aircraft I will be flying. I am not really the handiest person around, but I do look forward to God using His abilities to equip me.

Jennifer and I also want to thank everyone who is currently taking part in supporting us in prayer and financially during this time. Global Ministries Foundation has been a huge blessing to us by sending out all of our support letters along with handling the money that has been donated to us. We are full swing in fund raising mode now that I will be unemployed and a full time student in just two weeks. We have been blessed by the gifts of a number of people and we are praying for more. Monthly commitments are still what we need the most of, but any gift of any amount is truly appreciated and desired! We hope that you have received our support letters. (if you have not or would like to, please post a comment on here or email me and we can work that out!) We are still pretty far under our monthly budget that we posted in our letter. Just for the sake of redundancy, our monthly budget is $4000/month. Right now in just monthly gifts we are only about 25% funded. We have received one time gifts that are very helpful as well for things such as school tuition, books, and tools. The one time gifts will be committed to items such as school costs and flight currency. Jennifer and I do want to ask you to partner with us financially if you are able. We also want to stress that we are not just out soliciting people for cash so we can ease by. We want people to invest what they can in what God is doing through our family. Also, the need will only become greater at this point. As I mentioned, our budget now is $4000/month. Once we are accepted into MAF as missionaries, that number will go up to $6500/month. So, the needs we have now are less than they will be. We know that raising support can be uncomfortable for people, heck, it is for us, but we know that it is necessary for us. We also want to be humble in the process too. We understand not all people can give and money is definitely tight for a lot of people now with job losses and economic climate.

Lastly, we want to be available to talk to you about our ministry. If you are the least bit interested or have question about what we are doing, we want to be at your disposal. We want to be gracious to those who give and those who don't or cannot. To be blunt though, we do need your support! Would you pray about becoming a financial partner with us? God has brought us to this point, and now we are confident that He will call others to take part in it as well. If you are willing and able to give, please contact us by email at: ajtaylor7@gmail.com or by phone: 901-497-1620. Thanks again to everyone who is praying for us and we look forward to updating you soon once school starts.

Grace and Peace,

Andrew