Crunch Time

Well it's hard to believe that we have been here almost 3 months now.  And in a couple weeks from now we will have the General portion of the course complete and will be able to get the first of our three written exams done and out of the way.  I'm looking forward to finishing up the General as we move into the Air-frame course I believe we will find ourselves in the shop more doing hands on projects and less in the classroom working through theory related things.  Some of the different things we have been doing over the past couple weeks.  We have been weighting a lot of different types of airplanes and calculating their empty weights and where the centre of gravity is on each one.  Also just finished up a drawing class which is not a strong subject for me other than it was more of a old fashion drafting course so I didn't have to do any free hand drawing thankfully.  I ended up doing okay in the class as drawing straight lines with a ruler isn't so bad after all.  Thank you for all your prayers and support this couldn't be possible without you standing with us.

Getting the helicopter ready to weight.

Someone forgot to tell Phil that Empty Weights don't include the removable ballast.

Our drawing assignment.

A beautiful sun rise a couple mornings ago.

Blessings

October Highlights

Greetings
      It seems hard to believe that October has almost come and gone already.  It seem like it was just the other day that I started my course here at SMAT and today marks the 2 month mark.  Through this month our family has enjoyed some wonderful experiences and fun times!

Highlights

I've spotted the enemy!

- Franklin picked up a book the other day while we were traveling into town and read it to his brother and sister all on his own initiative which was a wonderful thing to hear.  After he had read it to them a couple of times he started to teach Jaclynn how to read the words.  We are seeing some good improvements with his school work and this was a wonderful highlight for us as parents.  Our family would also like to thank everyone who has been helping us with purchasing extra reading materail and for all your many prayers for Franklin.

- I got a check out in a Cessna 172 from the locate operator here at the airport.  It was nice getting back in the air.

Are we ready troops?

- I have also had the privilege of sharing about the work of MAF and working on my preaching skills at a couple churches this month.  At one of these churches Julie ran into an old school mate that she has not seen for many years. It was fun to reconnect with her and meet her family!

Taking time to smell the flowers

The Local Biker's Gang

- Franklin and I were invited on a Sunday afternoon bike ride a few weeks back with some of the families from Church.  Well, this nice bike ride turned into  three and a half hours of riding on some beautiful bike travels.  The trails were full of brightly colored trees and we even found a few snakes along the way that needed to be looked at!

Beautiful Fall Day

See dad this is were I spend my time at school

Sporting the symbol of Canada on my US Locker

- Isaac, Jaclynn, Franklin, and Julie joined all the students at Clarksville School on afternoon for a walk-a-hon to raise money.  It turned out to be a wonderful day and a great time of laughter as the children enjoyed getting out of classwork time. Actually they should of called in a run-a-hon because all the kids did was run and the parents tried to keep up by walking really fast!

Mmm Mmm Good

- Isaac and Jaclynn's school had a carnival this past weekend that we got attend as a family on Saturday. Even Grandpa and Grandma came up for the big event for the weekend.

Hands up Mister

-Julie has even been able to set up a daily schedule for the children which is starting to make life a little easier for her.  After a whole year of constant change and not having any kind of schedule it feels good to have one again!

I Got it!!

I Don't Got it!

The Dole Monkeys

Blessings

The Dole Family

September 2011

Isaac's First Day of School

Jaclynn Survives Her First Day of School

Isaac Survives as well

Jaclynn Cleaning Horse Stalls 

Jaclynn Enjoying Farm Life

Franklin Displaying His Lego Creation @ The Town Library 

Isaac's Lego Project For The Town Library Contest

Our New Bi-weekly Saturday Family Activity

Hit The Nails Princess Not My Fingers! 

Let's Getter Done

Local Wildlife That We Have Discovered a Couple Times Now.

Fire !!!

No Worries We Know How to Use a Fire Extinguisher Now

One of Our Group Projects Dismantling a Musketeer Wing

Learned How to Build and Test Aircraft Cables

Completed Multi-Meter Project, It Even Works

Aircraft Bolt Gauge Tool We Got to Build

Take a Risk

                Is life ever without risk?  I think sometimes we may think that we can live securely without any risk. Is that real or just a mirage that we chase after believing it to be true.  I’ve been working through a book by John Piper again.  He has, I think, become one of my favourite writers aside from the Bible.  The book is called “Don’t Waste Your Life” and it has been challenging my North American view on life, (“Living the American Dream”).  The portion I have been reading through most recently has been about Risk.  I going to start out by just listing the paragraph headings in chapter 5

“Risk Is Right – Better to Lose Your Life Than to Waste It

- What is Risk?

- Risk is Woven into the Fabric of Our Finite Lives

- Exploding the Myth of Safety

- “May the Lord Do What Seems Good to Him”

- “If I Perish, I Perish”

- “We Will Not Serve Your Gods”

- “I Am Ready to Die for the Name of the Lord Jesus”

- “In Every City … Afflictions Await Me”

- “If They Persecuted Me, They Will Also Persecute You”

- To Become a Christian Was to Risk Your Life

- How to Waste Forty Years and Thousands of Lives

- What About You?

- Risking for the Wrong Reasons

- The Power to Risk Is in the Promise of God

- Does God Really Supply All We Need?

- All You Need to Do His Will and Be Happy Forever

- I Can Do All Things Through Christ, Even Starve

- The Far Side of Every Risk, Triumphant Love

- How Can It Get Better Than Being Conquerors?

- The Only Road That Leads to Lasting Joy

Lots of food for thought in just the paragraph headings alone!  What does it look like to risk for Christ?  John Piper presented a few great examples from the Bible.  Paul, being warned of the impending danger, continued on his journey to Jerusalem where he was put in prison which would ultimately lead to his death.  Queen Esther approached the King without permission which was punishable by death to plead for her and her people.  And Joab in 2 Samuel 10:9-11 formulates his military plan and had over the results to God in verse 12. “Be strong, and let us show ourselves courageous for the sake of our people and for the cities of our God; and may the Lord do what is good in His sight.”  This verse fits well with one of my favourites from Prov 21:31 “The horse is prepared for the day of battle, But victory belongs to the Lord.”  God asks us to be a part of the preparing for battle, but the victory is in His hands alone.  His victory is not always what we would consider victory as well.  Looking at Paul’s death as and example, to us this is likely viewed as a failure or a bad thing but yet in God’s economy it was a victory.  Looking at John the Baptist life and death may seem to be a waste.  John takes a huge risk calling Herod out on his adultery and paid with his life.  Was John’s life wasted?  I don’t think so, as Jesus maintained a high regard for the work that John did including him losing his life over taking the risk of challenging King Herod.  These are just a few examples I found of people willing to risk it all. 

       

One of the great things of school this year is that at the beginning of every morning before class starts our teach asks for prayer request and prays.  And then in the afternoon before that class we read a portion of scripture, and we have been reading through the book of John.  And it was interesting as I was working through this blog post we happened to read John 11 and verse 16 stuck out to me as another example of someone will to take a risk.  16 “Therefore Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciple, “Let us go, so that we may die with Him.””  Thomas Loyalty very evident in this passage as he would rather be with Jesus and face the same peril than to carry on without Him.  Now we now that the story didn’t quite end that way but I think it is still a good example of the loyalty that we should desire to have in our own lives.

I could go on with countless other examples in scripture and in history of individuals that were willing to risk for the sake of God’s Glory regardless of the outcome.  One thing that I really want to learn through this current time of growth, is that it is not about me, or my family.  But rather it is about the Glory of Jesus Christ.  And I need to be so focused on this that I’m able to face whatever comes good or bad, and seek to bring Glory to His Name regardless of the circumstances and outcomes and take those risks.  Some may think that we are already taking those kinds of risks as we venture into the mission field and in a way maybe we are.  But I think that there will be much greater risks ahead of us only if we choose to place our complete trust in Christ.  And with these greater risks God’s Glory will shine brightly.  “All in” as some would put it.  What am I willing to risk? What are you willing to risk for the Glory of Jesus Christ?  It is so hard to risk it all isn’t, particularly when we have so much here in NA! 

Those that read through this and would like to be challenged with ideas like this I highly recommend John Piper’s writings.  Specifically “Don’t Waste Your Life”.  Not to over shadow or replace God’s Word.  John seems to be able to pull truths out of the scriptures that I tend to miss as I read through the scriptures on my own.  I would like to close this blog quoting from John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life; the last section of Chapter 5.

 The Only Road That Leads to Lasting Joy 

“This is the promise that empowers us to take risks for the sake of Christ.  It is not the impulse of heroism, or the lust for adventure, or the courage of self-reliance, or the need to earn God’s favour.  It is simple trust in Christ –that in him God will do everything necessary so that we can enjoy making much of him forever.  Every good poised to bless us, and every evil arrayed against us, will in the end help us to boast only in the cross, magnify Christ, and glorify our Creator.  Faith in these promises frees us to risk and to find in our own experience that it is better to lose our life than to waste it.

Therefore, it is right to risk for the cause of Christ.  It is right to engage the enemy and say, “May the LORD do what seems good to him.”  It is right to serve the people of God, and say, “If I perish, I perish!”  It is right to stand before the fiery furnace of affliction and refuse to bow down to the gods of this world.  This is the road that leads to fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.  At the end of every other road – secure and risk-free – we will put our face in our hands and say, “I’ve wasted it!”

Blessings

Greg Dole

Life so far in Michigan

I am happy to say that all the boxes are unpacked, the house in set up, and nothing was broken during our move.  However, there are still a few items that we can't locate so we hope that they are in our storage boxes in AB or MB. The children have adjusted well and love going to check out the towns around us and have discovered a new park, a lake with a little beach, and a new church with children all their own ages.  It seems like a wonderful area and we are enjoying the fact that my parents are only two hours away.  I will admit that I have already had my parents up last weekend to help me rediscover all the flower beds that are around the house and yard.  What an amazing blessing having this chance to reconnect with my family before we head across the world. Here is a closer look on how everyone is doing!

Franklin - Much to Franklin's happiness he is finally enjoying his own bedroom with a door that actually closes.  His room is large enough that we were able to set up his classroom in it and he is able to study and work without as many different distractions.  He has already had a few days of school and has been enjoying the new textbooks, reading material, and the fact that we are doing it in one place not on the road like last year.  Franklin is probably having the hardest time with living in the country as he misses having bike paths and a place to practice on his skate board.  Also, he has discovered that crickets can be very loud at night time!

Isaac - We are so happy to share with you that our little boy who doesn't not handle change has survived this change with flying colors.  Thank you to all who have been praying for him during this time of change.  Our biggest worry was how he would handle going to school and riding a bus.  I can happily say that the first two days of school this week were great for Isaac.  He has a nice size classroom with lots of boys and seems to love the fact that he has his own locker in the hallway.  For a boy who hates to leave his parents side he has been happily going on the bus with a smile everyday and looking forward to leaving us!

Jaclynn - Since we have moved we have all noticed how much she has been growing up.  She loves finding projects to help work on like when we finished painted the deck.  She helped Greg and I paint for hours out in the heat while her brothers lost interest within twenty minutes.  And this morning as we are at my parents place I went down to the barn to see what she was helping her aunt with and ended up laughing at what she was up to.  I found her with a pitch fork in her hand helping her aunt clean out the horse stalls (no wonder the boys lost interest with the barn if this is what they were doing do there).  Jaclynn found her first day of kindergarten really fun and she can't wait to go back again.

Myself (Julie) -  I have had fun setting up our new house and doing lots of yard work! After that was done it was time to hit the books and prepare for Franklin's school year.  Then I had to help Isaac and Jaclynn prepare for there first time in public school.  This was really fun as both of them were so excited and kept counting down the days until their first day. I have also really enjoyed being close to my younger brother and having him phone when he is bored at college to ask if he can come over for a visit.

Greg - Has been doing well at school as well.  He has also start meeting with a couple young men, with plans to work through a discipleship study.  Along with building those relationships he has also been able to make some new friends among his class mates.

Move & Settling in Pics

The following are some pictures from our last day in Steinbach to the first couple weeks in Clarksville MI.

Everything made it in one piece to MI Praise the Lord!

Enjoying our first night on the road in the hotel's pool.

Move in day (master bed room)

Kitchen (Julie's got it a lot cleaner now)

Living room (Which is also much cleaner now too)

Our wonderful view from our front deck

Our front deck

Jaclynn making a new friend at the Lake Odessa park

We discovered that Jaclynn loves to spin

Isaac still a little timid with being a monkey, but I'm afraid it won't be long before he's climbing like crazy like his older bother.

Julie even got in on the spinning action.

Family visit to SMAT were I'm studying the aircraft maintenance course.  Jaclynn was a bit concerned on the length of this airplanes wings, she may have a good point :)

I'm not sure what the Lord has in store for Isaac down the road.  He sure has an interest in fixing things.

Isaac just missing the rest of the van and maybe a drivers licence other than that he is ready to go.

This is one of our first projects we got to build in class.  This is the circuit board for the multi-meter kit that we were each given to.  Some assembly required and a lot of soldering.  It was a lot of fun and looking forward to the rest of the year as I continue to learn and develop my maintenance skills.