Snow, sunshine, and I wish it were summer!

Snow upon snow upon snow upon snow! The weather here is quite white. We keep getting more and more snow (right now there is about 2.5 feet of snow that has accumulated over the last month or two) and the temperature never manages to get above freezing. On the other side of the world... it's nice and sunny and warm. Here's a picture, courtesy of Bryan from MAF Lesotho, of what flying looks like in the summer- I wish I were there! Also, here's a link to Justin Honaker's (another MAF Lesotho pilot) blog that he just recently updated about some of the surprising things that have been going on there.

Lesotho in the summer (Courtesy of Bryan)

Lesotho in the winter

 This week we worked more on our hydraulic and landing gear projects (taking pumps apart and putting them back together) as well as our sheet metal pieces which we are beginning to rivet together. My car also died this week and so it's spending the week parked at school. The battery was not being charged and we determined that it was the alternator that was bad. I took it out and found that one of the brushes was completely severed from it's connection and that's why it wasn't charging the battery. This week I'll clean it and put it all back together and hopefully my car will go again.

Some more headlines of this week:
I was able to go to my church on Monday for a Missions committee meeting. Most of it was business oriented but I was able to see how River Terrace Church supports and connects with their missionaries. It was great to see how they are very involved in what the missionaries are doing and how they can help them as well.
At school I am also involved in the SAT- Student Advisory Team. The group of 7-8 of us collaborate on how the school can improve and we plan events that purposely involve the community of Ionia.

Now on to the good stuff!

LORD’S DAY 4 Heidelberg Catechism
9 Q. But doesn’t God do us an injustice by requiring in his law what we are unable to do?

A. No, God created human beings with the ability to keep the law. They, however, provoked by the devil, in willful disobedience, robbed themselves and all their descendants of these gifts.

~We were created to keep the law but through sin we no longer can do that. 

Gen. 1:31; Eph. 4:24
Gen. 3:13; John 8:44
Gen. 3:6
Rom. 5:12, 18, 19

10 Q. Does God permit such disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished?
A. Certainly not. God is terribly angry with the sin we are born with as well as the sins we personally commit. As a just judge, God will punish them both now and in eternity, having declared: “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law.”

Ex. 34:7; Ps. 5:4-6; Nahum 1:2; Rom. 1:18; Eph. 5:6; Heb. 9:27
Gal. 3:10; Deut. 27:26

11 Q. But isn’t God also merciful?
A. God is certainly merciful, but also just. God’s justice demands that sin, committed against his supreme majesty, be punished with the supreme penalty— eternal punishment of body and soul.

Ex. 34:6-7; Ps. 103:8-9
Ex. 34:7; Deut. 7:9-11; Ps. 5:4-6; Heb. 10:30-31
Matt. 25:35-46


** For those of you who are reading my blog and following along with the Heidelberg Catechism, tell me what you think about the questions and answers or even thoughts that come to mind as you look up the verses and such. I would love to hear from you, even about the other things I write or that you might be interested in. Shoot me an email at hagg.helen@gmail.com and I'll get back to you! Thanks for reading! May God bless you.

Fly with Christ,
Helen

The Lord's Day 3

This week was long but semi fast. We are mostly working on hydraulic projects (taking pistons apart and putting them back together) and landing gear/ brakes (also taking them apart, cleaning them, and putting them together). We started a Bible study/ seminar after school on Wednesdays called the Truth Project. It's a good study and makes you think a lot. I had more questions than answers but I think those will get answered in the following seminars. We also got a new addition to the SMAT fleet- a Cessna 140 taildragger which could become a club plane that we could fly in.

Cessna 140A Taildragger SMAT club plane (photo courtesy of Matt Howieson)

Now that it's the beginning of the year, I need to start looking for jobs for after SMAT. I am trusting in God to show me the way and we do that through prayer. Here are a few prayer requests that you can just keep in your mind:
Pray for guidance on what my next step is during and after SMAT,
Pray for the gospel to go out to the nations
Pray for God's provision and great timing in everything- money, food, a husband, the mission field,
Pray for the courts to decide on our adoption,
Pray that our lives are dedicated to the LORD and the growing of His kingdom.


Heidelberg Catechism
LORD’S DAY 3
6 Q. Did God create people so wicked and perverse?
 
A. No.God created them good and in his own image, that is, in true righteousness and holiness, so that they might truly know God their creator, love him with all their heart,and live with God in eternal happiness, to praise and glorify him.

1 Gen. 1:31
2 Gen. 1:26-27
3 Eph. 4:24
4 Col. 3:10
5 Ps. 8

7 Q. Then where does this corrupt human nature come from?
A. The fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise. This fall has so poisoned our nature that we are all conceived and born in a sinful condition.

1 Gen. 3
2 Rom. 5:12, 18-19
3 Ps. 51:5

8 Q. But are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined toward all evil?

A. Yes,
Unless we are born again by the Spirit of God.

Gen. 6:5; 8:21; Job 14:4; Isa. 53:6
John 3:3-5

Painting, patience, and perfection.

This week was super busy but productive! On Monday we didn't have school due to snow so I used that day to do some studying for the tests we had this week and just relaxed and got some things done. Since Tuesday was the new Monday our whole week was kind of off. Everyday seemed like another day. Here's some snap shots of the week (ps click on the picture to get the larger version):

Rainbow sunrise- God's creation is AMAZING!

16" of snow and bitter cold (-10F)!

Painting the N numbers and cross and taking of the tape.

Finished N numbers and cross

Painting the other side!

Adding our touch to the fuselage

Inspection hole cover- the world!

Finished N numbers- ps this goes out to all the Missionary Kids (MK's)- Fly with Christ!

Finished product (Left to right: Me, Sun, Rachel, and Liesl)

Some of the other things I've been working on include troubleshooting the anticollision lights (strobe light) and navigation lights on a Piper 140 (Cherokee). We found out that the strobe light bulb was broken and replaced it and put it all back together and now it works! God definitely teaches us patience in our projects. Sometimes the screws just do not want to come out because they are rusted and stuck. Frustration is definitely bad when you are working on different projects. We finished Airframe Electrical and Painting/Fabric class. The subjects we have now are Landing Gear, Sheet Metal, and I think Hydraulics is next.


God has been teaching me a lot of things lately. Here's an article that my mom passed on to me on  how we should read our Bibles. It taught me a lot of good things: we should read our bibles as it is- a personal address to us and as a conversation with the living Lord our God then we can relaly understand what God is saying to us and we can listen.

Today is the Lord's Day 2 in our trek through the Heidelberg Catechism. Join me in diving into God's word and understanding what sin is and how we are  not perfect...

Part I: MiseryLORD’S DAY 2
3 Q. How do you come to know your misery?
A. The law of God tells me.
1 Rom. 3:20; 7:7-25

4 Q. What does God’s law require of us?
A. Christ teaches us this in summary in Matthew 22:37-40:

“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’This is the greatest and first commandment. “And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

1 Deut. 6:5
2 Lev. 19:18

5 Q. Can you live up to all this perfectly?
A. No. I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbor.

1 Rom. 3:9-20, 23; 1 John 1:8, 10
2 Gen. 6:5; Jer. 17:9; Rom. 7:23-24; 8:7; Eph. 2:1-3; Titus 3:3


BUT....... there is one who is perfect and who is sinless! Praise God for OUR Savior Jesus Christ!
If you have questions about any of this, feel free to ask me or someone at your church. Feel free to email me with anything (hagg.helen@gmail.com) even for prayer requests and such.


Fly with Christ,
Helen

Winter is HERE!

Well it's COLD and SNOWY here!
On Friday we reached -15F and for a good part of the day it was below 0F! Tomorrow the high is supposed to be 1F! It's also been snowing a ton here. We had about a foot to start off with and it snowed about 1-2 inches at night and then another 2-3 inches today and it's still going :D I wonder if we'll have school tomorrow?
However, God definitely plans things perfectly! Yesterday the weather was "warm" (20F) and it didn't snow which was perfect for the race I did. The race was the Yankee Springs Winter Challenge 10km, 25km, 50km, or 50 mi)- I did the 25km and it was THE HARDEST RACE/THING I HAVE EVER DONE!!!!

The race was a major test of my endurance- mentally and physically. The course was brutal and traversed over hills and valleys in about a foot of snow. We ran on a single track of packed snow but it was fluffy snow so you slipped every step or you stepped into the big banks on either side. I finished in 2:50:00 and was pretty much dead at the end. But it was an awesome race in terms of seeing what you're made of. It definitely made me a lot tougher! A lot of us from the BPRC (Beautiful People Running Club) said "you suck!" to each other because we all made each other sign up for the race and run it. But without this awesome running club who supports and challenges each other we, especially I would not be running and enjoying God's creation and the talent He as given us and the runners we were made to be!

Snow in Ionia, just outside my window.

Here's a little snapshot of what we've been doing in school. We get to paint our fuselage next so we're masking off the designs/ numbers we want.

Masking off an N Number and designs (ps that's Liesl smiling in the background and Jason walking past).

This year I started something different in an effort to read my Bible more and just dive into the Bible to know God more. I'm going to attempt to share every week on this blog the parts of the Heidelberg Catechism and I encourage you to follow along and join me as we study what God's purpose is for us. You can download the Heidelberg Catechism and follow along as well. The numbers behind the text correspond to verses that are given at the end- definitely look them up as you read.

So here we go!

LORD’S DAY 1:
1 Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death?

A. That I am not my own,1
but belong—
body and soul,
in life and in death—2
to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.3

He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,4
and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.5
He also watches over me in such a way6
that not a hair can fall from my head
without the will of my Father in heaven;7
in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.8

Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life9
and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.10

1 1 Cor. 6:19-20
2 Rom. 14:7-9
3 1 Cor. 3:23; Titus 2:14
4 1 Pet. 1:18-19; 1 John 1:7-9; 2:2
5 John 8:34-36; Heb. 2:14-15; 1 John 3:1-11
6 John 6:39-40; 10:27-30; 2 Thess. 3:3; 1 Pet. 1:5
7 Matt. 10:29-31; Luke 21:16-18
8 Rom. 8:28
9 Rom. 8:15-16; 2 Cor. 1:21-22; 5:5; Eph. 1:13-14
10 Rom. 8:1-17


2 Q. What must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort?A. Three things:
first, how great my sin and misery are;1
second, how I am set free from all my sins and misery;2
third, how I am to thank God for such deliverance.3

1 Rom. 3:9-10; 1 John 1:10
2 John 17:3; Acts 4:12; 10:43
3 Matt. 5:16; Rom. 6:13; Eph. 5:8-10; 2 Tim. 2:15; 1 Pet. 2:9-10

We belong wholly to Christ through hearing the word and believing we are saved and we become God's children whom He protects fully. And our job is then to live for Him shining our light on the top of the hill and sharing this gospel! Praise God for his blessing to us!

Fly with Christ,
Helen