A Lot Has Happened!

I want to begin this post with an apology to those who actually might read our blog. I'm sorry it has been six months since I have posted something on here. I can blame it on a combination of extreme business, laziness, and forgetfulness! I promise I will try my best to post more often from here on out. So now that that's out of the way, I will attempt to begin to explain all that has happened since September. Ok, here's it goes...

As you all know I quit my job at Pinnacle Airlines back in September and have been attending Tenn. Technology Aviation School to certify for my A&P (Airframe and Powerplant) license. It has been quite the whirlwind since I flew my last trip at the end of September. Jennifer and I both went into this new phase of life with enthusiasm, excitement, and some apprehension. I can honestly say we have experienced each of those and more. I am now just finishing my second trimester of school, there are six total. So I am already 1/3 of the way through! It really has gone by fast, even though my days are filled with busyness and exhaustion. After starting school Jenn and I knew that we couldn't continue paying our COBRA, since it was over $1,000/month! After receiving some Godly council from our teaching pastor and others, I was encouraged to get a job and work part time for insurance. I was very much against this idea because I knew that I would be gone all day, everyday, and some on the weekends. I wanted to be able to concentrate on school and be involved with different ministries as my school schedule would allow. Well, God ended up providing in an amazing way! But, not quite the way I envisioned. I applied for several part time jobs that had benefits to no avail. Then one day I called up a former student of mine from when I was a flight instructor. He is an extremely wealthy business owner and I knew he might could hook me up with a job. Keep in mind, I haven't talked to him in almost 4 years, and wasn't quite sure how he would react with me calling him up and asking for a job. Well, he ended up offering me a job on the spot and asked me to start the next day! He told me they don't offer benefits for part time employees but told me he would make an exception since he knew me. After hearing all of this on one phone conversation, I knew that God has swung this door wide open!

Now that I was a full-time student and a part-time worker, my schedule was maxed out immediately. I'll just give you a rundown of a typical day in the life of Andrew (you should feel special!). I wake up at 5am each day, spend time in the Word, eat breakfast, make my lunch, and leave for school around 6:20. I attend school from 7am-2pm, and then I head straight to work from 2:30-7pm. Whew! I never knew what people meant by there not being enough hours in the day, until now!

I have had such a range of emotions with this schedule. I have felt overwhelmed, exhausted, irritable, frustrated, and even anger over my situation. I also must insert an important note here. Jenn and I found out she was pregnant back in late September! So, this has definitely added a new dynamic to our daily lives. Oh yeah, we also found out we are having our first SON!! We are so excited, and the girls are thrilled about having a baby brother! I added this pregnancy story here to say that Jenn has also had a lot of extra things to deal with. With me being gone from 6am-7:30pm almost everyday, she has really had to pick up the load at home. So I definitely want to make clear that it's not just me that has added pressure. Also, please pray for her because she is so nauseated! It's been this way with all three of her pregnancies, and it makes it very difficult for her to take care of two kids, clean the house, grocery shop, etc., while feeling like poop. So, needless this season of life is much more difficult than we ever though it would be. But, we both understand that God is teaching us things through our circumstances that we would not have learned if our lives were easy.

We find ourselves wishing for our previous lifestyle, when I was working 3-4 days, and then having 5-6 days off in a row! It just seemed so easy then! We had a good steady paycheck, time off to do things around the house, take the kids to the park, etc. Now, we can barely keep our heads above water and are just trying to survive each day! But, while things are crazy, hectic, and time are hard, we are still confident that this is the road God has us on. It seems like we would feel the opposite, but we have received so much encouragement from family and friends and God continues to give us grace. There are days when we both feel we can't go on. But, we are reminded that God's mercies are new every morning and we ask Him to give us our daily bread. For tomorrow holds worries of its own. Again, we are confident that God is teaching us things now we would not have learned if we weren't going through these trials. Scripture teaches us to find joy in all situations. My has this been a challenge!! But, we are joyful to be taking part in expanding God's kingdom and that He is teaching us new things daily. The Lord has given me great opportunities to disciple the guys in my class. God has already opened several doors with a couple of guys and I am daily praying for fruit! Please pray for my classmate, that God would reveal himself to them and give me grace to empty myself and serve these guys.

Lastly, I wanted to bring up something that many people don't like to talk about. Money. As many of you know, we have been raising financial support since I left my job in September. God has surely provided in so many ways and we are blessed to have people supporting us financially. We are still looking for monthly supporters, however. If you would like to give and partner with us as we prepare to go overseas, we would be grateful and humbled by your participation. If you look at my previous posts, I explain how you can go about giving.

Again, I do apologize for being so tardy with this post, but here it is. I promise I will do a better job in the future! But, as it stands now, it's 10:15pm and I need to get up in less than 7 hours to do it all over again tomorrow. Pray for us to have endurance and perseverance! We are so thankful for all of you and hope to post soon! (soon meaning less than 6 months from now!)

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

Letters are out!

I want to start this post with an apology for being so tardy in updating what's going on with us! Things have been quite busy around here with being out of town, work, and trying to assemble everything for GMF to get our support letters out. We are now in the beginning of our transition phase from a normal working class family to a family entering into full time ministry living off of raised support that God will provide. I have to be frank, it was a lot easier to think about this transition last year when it was still 9 months away. Well, now we are just shy of two months before I begin aircraft mechanic school! I guess it's time to put our money where our mouth is, as the phrase goes.

God is definitely still teaching us new things each and every day that encourages us in this journey that we are on. I recently met with a missionary from the MIddle East and he had some great advice. One thing he said that really struck me was the notion of being self sufficient. Throughout this process I have always thought of us as being self sufficient when it comes to income. You know, going to work, depositing paychecks, shopping for food, etc. He completely humbled me by saying that no one is really self sufficient in ANY way! If this economy has shown us anything, it is that no one is self sufficient and though you may have a job today, tomorrow you may be unemployed. I say all of this because God has made it known to us that we have never been self sufficient, and as we trust in Him to meet our needs, He will provide like He always has (even when I did have a job).

As the title of this post indicates, GMF has now sent out our ministry and support letters! This is a very exciting time for us! We are looking forward to seeing God raise up supporters who will join us in the Lord's mission of reconciling all peoples and nations to himself. The process has been challenging at times, but very rewarding as well. For those of you receiving the letter, there will be a brief introduction of GMF and the Missionary Aviation Outreach (MAO) that Richard Hamlet has put in place for our ministry. The letter that Jenn and I wrote is included as well. We have included a personal and a ministry budget that will enable us to continue in ministry. The personal budget is more of day to day expenses such as house payment, insurance, food, and other miscellaneous costs. The ministry budget is geared more to the expenses for school, tools I will need to buy, books, and flight currency. Some may wonder why I need flight currency while I'm in school. Well, since I will be a pilot/mechanic with MAF, I don't need to lose any flight skills that I have since I will be flying most days on the field. Flying about twice a month will keep me up to speed. Raising support is definitely not something that Jenn and are used to, but we hope and pray that you will consider partnering with us during this process. Some people might be more hesitant to give because we are not leaving for overseas immediately, but one thing we have to explain is that this type of missionary work takes much more technical training than most other ministries. Missionary aviation works together with other ministries and helps mobilize and facilitate missions, but the act of becoming a missionary pilot takes a lot of training and time to do it.

As people are getting the letters in the mail our main prayer is that God will stir their hearts for God's mission for His people. Of course we hope that people will give out of the thankfulness of their hearts, but more importantly that God will be glorified! Also, if you are reading this blog and have not received a letter and would like to then please email me your name and address at: ajtaylor7@gmail.com.

Know that Jenn and I are praying for you all and are humbled by your interest in what God is doing in our family! Please let us know if there is any way we can serve you as well.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us run with endurance the race that has been set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despised the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God" - Hebrews 12:1-2

Our MAF visit in Idaho

Just last week, Jennifer and I had the awesome opportunity to fly out to Nampa, Idaho and meet with some of the MAF staff at their headquarters. We figured that while we still have flight privileges we might as well use them. So we left last Monday morning EARLY and flew to Boise, connecting in Salt Lake City. The interesting part was that we had to fly standby, but God made it happen and we were able to get seats on all of our flights, even though it was pretty tight on several of them!

We arrived in Boise and were met by a sweet lady named Judy. She drove us to the headquarters in Nampa, about 30 minutes from Boise, and checked into our apartment on campus (which was incredibly nice!) and got ready for an afternoon of tours and meetings. We sat down with Ron Hilbrands, who is the director of recruiting for MAF, for several hours. He also gave us a tour of the MAF campus (which was state of the art in every way!) and airplane hangars. It was pretty neat seeing the MAF planes for the first time, knowing that this is what I will be flying in the future! He showed us where we will be doing a lot of our training once we are accepted for missionary service and was able to answer a lot of questions that we had. Jennifer also had the opportunity to meet with several former missionary wives at the end of the day. This was a very cool time for her because she was able to ask questions about what life was like overseas as a mother raising children. I think she was tired of hearing airplane talk all afternoon! She also was very encouraged by their stories, but also challenged with the reality of raising a family in another country. Overall it was a very productive afternoon and we felt affirmed that this is what God is calling us to do. We spent the night at the headquarters and got some dinner at the local Subway before crashing for the night. We were exhausted since we had been up since 4 that morning for the early flight out. The next morning we finished up some last minute items we had to get done before leaving and we were driven back to Boise by another sweet lady named Chrissy. She was a former missionary wife in Papua, Indonesia so it was neat to hear of all her stories.

Now the play time of the trip began...

We had planned on spending the day in Boise as a one day getaway for Jennifer and I. Neither of us had been to Boise before so we booked a hotel room in the middle of downtown and explored Boise for a day. We started off by walking to an amazing New York style pizza joint called Guido's. Very cheap and very good pizza! After a great lunch we decided to go see a movie, since it was still raining a little bit. In case you didn't know, Jenn and I haven't seen a movie in a theater in over a year, easily! So we jumped at the opportunity and saw Iron Man 2, which we both liked a lot! We even splurged on popcorn and a Coke! After the movie we noticed the rain had stopped and the sky was clearing so we decided to go on a bike ride! It's pretty neat because our hotel loans out bikes for free to guests, so we jumped all over that! I especially felt cool because the bike I rode looked like something from the 70's and I could tell many people were jealous of my sweet ride! We rode down to what's called the Greenbelt, which is a trail that borders the river near downtown with tons of parks. It was absolutely beautiful! (We took some pictures and had planned to post them on here, but while we were snapping photos we dropped the camera and broke it! Jenn was pretty upset about that since she loves pictures so much, but we will try to post some on here when we can) A cool part of the bike ride for me was being able to ride around the campus of Boise State University! For any football fans out there, Boise State has the blue football field. It looks weird on TV, but pretty cool in person. So of course I had to get some pictures of that! I will post those later as well! After our bike ride - which my butt still hurts from that stupid bike seat - we sat down and had an awesome dinner at our hotel restaurant and then called it a night. The next morning we flew back to Memphis and even got to ride first class on one of our flights, which was pretty sweet!

Overall, we had an amazing time in Idaho, and frankly can't wait to go back! Thanks for everyone's prayers for our trip. After having reflected on everything we learned out there and the people we met, we definitely felt a sense of affirmation from the Lord that this is what He wants us to do. Recently God has been working on my heart once again involving stepping out in faith. I am reading through Genesis right now and just finished the chapter where God calls Abram (Abraham) to go to a land that He has set out for him. Abraham had no clue where he was going...but he went. I'm sure Abraham was nervous, went outside of his comfort zone, and was grieved at having to leave everything he knew behind. But, he still went. Lately, God has been challenging me with this. I want to have faith like Abraham! My flesh cries against everything that God is telling us to do! I don't want to leave family. I like my comfortable house, my job that I'm comfortable with, my church, and the security I feel when I go to bed at night. I'm just being honest here! But...we must go. God may change these plans but for now, we feel that He is telling us to go.

Sorry for the long post again. We will try to post pictures from our trip soon. Please continue to keep us in your prayers and also pray about joining us soon financially. God is using people even now to be senders and goers. Ask God what role you can have in His mission and plan for the nations!

Grace and Peace,

Andrew

Global Ministries Fellowship

It's a blessing to be able to write another update on what God is doing in our family. The last month or so has been pretty hectic for me with Jennifer going to Africa, work, and the everyday battles of parenthood. Nevertheless, God is sovereign and He continues to amaze us as we pursue obedience to Him through foreign missions.

As I have mentioned previously, one of the scariest and hardest moves we will make in our journey comes in just a few months. I will be quitting my job at Pinnacle Airlines and pursuing school full-time to obtain my aviation maintenance certification for missionary flying. The thought of me quitting passes through our minds daily because neither Jenn, nor I have ever made such a bold step of faith. Well, I guess Jenn did when she married me, but whatever. Knowing we will not have a steady source of income is unnerving and doesn't make sense from a worldly standpoint. But, this is what God is calling us to do and we are "pressing on" as Paul says in Philippians. We are so excited to see how God will provide and how He will shape our relationship with Him and with each other.

One part of raising support that we are a little apprehensive about it whether people will give or not. We have come to the conclusion, however, that God will raise up supporters and He will be faithful regardless of how much money we have in our bank account. Through all the counsel we have received we have been told many times that it would be beneficial to join with a non-profit organization to aid in our support raising. Now, I have ZERO experience when it comes to non-profit groups and really don't know what I'm doing, so each day is a new learning experience. So, we just started asking around to see if anyone recommended any non-profit groups we could talk to. My parents and many others mentioned GMF, or Global Ministries Fellowship. They are based here in Memphis and aid in ministries all over the globe, including our church Living Hope when we were just starting out.

We contacted them a couple weeks ago by email explaining to them what we are doing and if they would be able to help us as we begin the life of full-time ministry. Within a week we heard back from Richard Hamlet, who is the president of GMF, asking us to come in for an interview. This got us pretty excited because we knew this could be a big step forward in helping us raise support. We met with Richard and his wife Ginger for about two hours last Thursday, and the meeting could not have gone better! Once we began explaining what we were doing and we listened to them tell us what GMF is about, it seemed that God had definitely planned this from the beginning. Jenn and I both came out of the meeting very encouraged, humbled, and mostly grateful to the Lord for opening this door for us. We still need to go through the application process, which should hopefully begin this week, and complete a budget and mission report. Please pray for us in this, because we want to be good stewards of what God has given us and what will be provided for us by our future financial partners.

Before I end, I want to quickly explain what the benefit is of joining a group such as GMF. Basically, they will aid us in everything that has to do with our ministry and financial support raising. So, let's say you want to partner with us (and we pray you do) and you go to write a check. Instead of just writing a check to: Andrew and Jennifer Taylor, you will now write a tax deductible check to GMF who will then pass it on to us. GMF ensures that all of our funds are managed properly, legally, and reputably. GMF will also send out all of our quarterly newsletters and any other updates that we need to get out to our supporters. When we draft our mission report, they will send it out in mass to all the people we want. That means, no spending $200 on stamps, ink, paper or worrying if we missed someone. GMF handles these tasks for missionaries all over the world and we are humbled to be able to be a part of a great ministry. If you are interested in GMF beyond what I have told you, then go to their website.

www.gmfonline.org

We want to thank everyone who is still keeping us in your prayers. We definitely need them on a daily basis! It has just amazed us how God is leading us through all the steps we need to take. Even this latest event with GMF has been one of the many wide open doors that God continues to lead us through. It gives us a sense that this truly is what He is calling us to do. Please pray about joining us in our ministry as we prepare to go and tell the nations about Christ! Though we still have a long journey ahead of us, it is not possible without your faithful support. We are confident the Lord will provide! We hope to get our mission report out to everyone by the middle of the summer. Until then, keep us in your prayers and we will continue to pray for you!

Grace and Peace,

Andrew

Back door

I did something stupid yesterday.

I must start by saying I am totally afraid of the girls falling in a pool when I am not watching. So usually I am extra alert when we are around pools and make sure to lock every lock and shut every door if we are in a house with a pool in the backyard. This weekend, the girls and I are staying at Andrew's parents house while they are out of town. And they have a pool in the backyard. I am sweating just typing about this now.

Yesterday, the girls were playing in the den (which has a door that leads outside to the backyard, and the pool). Lucy (their dog) needed to go outside, so I let her out and locked the door. But I didn't deadbolt it with the key. I just turned the lock on the door handle. I went to clean out the litter box in the laundry room but could still hear Hannah's voice and could quickly check and see the girls playing from where I was standing. I quickly swept up the litter on the floor and noticed that I could still hear Hannah's voice and she was saying something about water...and it sounded kinda far away. And I dropped the broom and ran. Faster than I have run in a long time.

I found the back door wide open. And Hannah standing over Caitlyn saying, "Don't touch the water, Cate!" And Caitlyn was on the side of the pool, squatting, and touching the water with her fingertips. I scooped her up and just couldn't stop saying, "Thank you, Lord, thank you Lord."

Later that afternoon, when the kids were napping, I was just standing by the back door looking outside. The storm had come and gone, and now the sky was a beautiful blue and the sun was out. And through tears, all I could say was "thank you, Lord for not taking Caitlyn at this time. You could have, but thank you." A beautiful black butterfly with shiny turquoise wings landed so close to me and stayed there for about 10 minutes slowly flapping his wings. And God reminded me (again) that He is sovereign. That even when I think I have everything under control, He is in control. And He's always watching over me. His timing and will are perfect.

So thank you, Lord. Thank you for another day with Cate, another gentle reminder that you are always at work and always watching over us. Thank you for everything.

Jennifer

"I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High." Psalm 7:17

Shoes

Shoes. Shoes. And more shoes!!! All these shoes pictured will be traveling with me and a team from Living Hope to Kenya this week! We will be leaving Thursday night and arriving on Saturday to love on the sweet children at The Haven and The Fresh Start Orphanages. This will be a time of encouraging the children and local pastors and reaching out to the surrounding families that live near the orphanage. But I have a feeling that we will be the most encouraged by these children who love the Lord and have so much love to give!

Just a few months ago, I was sitting in church when I saw a short video on upcoming mission opportunities. The one that pierced my heart was the opportunity to love and serve some Kenyan orphans. I could hear God whisper, "Go." But I thought, "No way! I can't leave the girls for 10 days. How would we pay for that? Could Andrew take off work for that long? If not, who would watch the girls? How would Andrew survive that long without me? :) And how would I survive that long without him and the girls? And again, how could we ever afford that?

But God whispered again, "Now is the time." And I couldn't stop thinking about those Kenyan children. So after a lot of prayer, I sent out letters for prayer and financial support. And God took care of everything beautifully. He reminded me that He is in control. Always. And that He cares for me. And once again, I was amazed at what He did. And God provided ALL the money through very generous donations from family and dear friends. And I am amazed and so excited that He would allow me to be a part of this.

So today the team from Living Hope packed suitcases full of coloring books, crayons, pens, Bibles, first aid kits, suits for the men, bubbles, and plenty of shoes! We will lovingly distribute these things among the kids and the adult workers at the orphanage. But most of all, I can't wait to hug and love these kids and remind them that they are loved so much by all of us here and by their Father in Heaven.

If you read this, please take a moment to pray for our trip: that we would have safe travels, that we would all stay healthy, that we would truly be an encouragement to the Kenyan pastors and all the children in the orphanage, that we would honor God in our thoughts and actions, that we would proclaim the Lord's name in everything we do there, and that we would reflect the Lord's love so these children would be refreshed and renewed in their relationships with Him. And that we might have a new understanding about being adopted by the King!

I am excited to go and can't wait to see how the Lord will be working in all of our lives over this trip. I'm looking forward to worshipping the Lord with our brothers and sisters in Kenya. And I am crying out to the Lord to continue to change me, to help me rest in Him, to help me adore Him over everything else in my life, and to continue this good work that He has started in me. Can't wait to love these kids...one shoe at a time!

Jennifer

"Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Psalm 73:25-26