Post Tech Eval

   Where do I start and how should I express this past weeks experience?  With that in mind I'm sure there are a 101 different and possibly better ways to share the events of the week.

    So let's start with Monday.  Monday morning the evaluation started in our home with Steve coming to meet with Julie and I.  The discussion was for Steve to introduce himself better to Julie and I as well for him to get to know us better.  The other purpose was to give Julie and I an overview of the week to come which included a warning to Julie of possible behavioral change that may happen in me as a result of the evaluation.

   The evaluation consisted of written, oral and practical exercises.  As I navigated the different questions and assignments I experienced a wide range of emotions and thoughts.  Mostly thinking that I am failing miserably as I felt that I was giving out the hungry bird look way too often through out the questions and processes.  Also making several simple mistakes didn't boost the confidence much either.  At the low point this week "Wednesday evening", a good friend of mine here in Nampa observed and asked me how things were doing.  I shared with him how I thought things were going and he encouraged me which I appreciated.  Things however were different somehow Thursday.  I enjoyed the day and was able to be at peace and have fun doing the project that day.  I was even at peace that if I was not the at the skill level that MAF needed I was okay with a "no" if that was what was awaiting me that afternoon during the debrief.

   During the debrief I was pleasantly surprised with affirmation and a very positive report.  This was at times a difficult week and I'm very thankful for mostly the peace and joy I experienced Thursday before the debrief that either way our God is still Good regardless of the outcome.  Visiting this morning (Saturday) with my friend that I mentioned from Wednesday I was further encouraged as he had prayed for and had confidence that Thursday was going to be a special day.  When he shared that with me this morning it was cool to be able to share with him that yes God did grant a special peace to me that day.

   Not only was this particular friend praying for me but many others as well so let me say thank you from the bottom of my heart Thank You!!  Our family deeply cherishes our brothers and sisters that stand with us in their prayers for our family.

  After the completion of the eval.  Julie and I met with the candidate committee.  This meeting was a chance for the committee to get know us a bit and for us to get to know MAF better.  Placement was discussed and as they get to know us better and like wise for us the final decisions for our placement will be made with better accuracy as to where we (family, skill sets, personalities, etc) would best fit into MAF's ministry.

   So what is next?  Well I will continue to work in the hanger as a mechanic until December.  We will be making a 3 week trip to AB over Christmas.  We hope to visit and share with as many of our friends and family as we can during this time.  So please feel free to contact us as we would love to hear from you and see about setting up a time we could fellowship in person while in the area.  gregjuliefij@gmail.com  In January we will be returning here to Nampa for non-tech orientations aka "candidacy", as we have been officially been invited now.  After which there will be some further MAF specific training that will take place until early May.  We will give more detail on that as the time draws near.  We are still looking at heading to language training or directly to the field depending on the field requirements, this coming spring/early summer.  There will be more detail to come on that as well, after we have received our assignment more firmly in January.

  Here is our speaking schedule again for our time in AB and please do contact us if you are able.

Innisfail Baptist Church ---------- December 16th @ 10:30am

Bergen Missionary Church ----- December 23rd @ 10:45am

Cremona Country Fellowship -- December 30th @ 10:45am

Blessings from the Dole clan.

Tech Evaluation

Monday the October 29th - November 2nd, I have the privilege of navigating MAF's Maintenance Technical Evaluation or TE for short.  This TE will be used to evaluate my mechanical skills and knowledge which will help with the final decisions for our placement.  At the end of the week we will also be meeting with the candidate committee. Meeting with the candidate committee will allow them to start to formulate where we as a family would best fit as far as placement goes.  These past couple months of working here as an intern has been very helpful as I have gained experience and a familiarity which I think will help with the nerves if nothing else. 

Speaking of which these past couple weeks I have also had the privilege of moving over to the training hanger where the 3 training C206's are kept.  I've been involved in a couple routine inspections which has been a welcomed change of pace.  The first inspection went well, and the aircraft has flown a couple times and returned safely. Which brings a sigh of relief to this new mechanic.  The second inspection should be wrapped up tomorrow and it's return to service flight should be soon to follow.

Taken after surviving my first inspection of a live airplane

After the TE is complete I will return to working in the hanger most likely I will rejoin the crew that is working on the C172 restorations.  We will be remaining here in Nampa until December 14th ish.  We will be back in AB from December 15th through first week of Jan.  We will be sharing an update at the following Churches:

Innisfail Baptist Church ---------- December 16th @ 10:30am
Bergen Missionary Church ------ December 23rd @ 10:45am
Cremona Country Fellowship --- December 30th @ 10:45am

Please contact us if you are interested in a visit for we would like to see as many of our friends and family as possible during our time in AB.  This could possibly by the last time that we are in Alberta with time to visit with you our dear friends and family before we head oversea's!

Hanger Update

Horizontal stabilizer all cleaned and ready for fairing fitting.

Drilling out damaged rivets.

Here are a couple photos from the hanger today.  I continue for the most part detailing (clean) parts for the paint booth.  Inner mixed with the detailing I've done some rivet replacement, etching and alodining which is a process that helps prevent corrosion from forming in the future.  It's extra protection for the parts that get painted and the main protection for the areas which don't get painted.  Last week I fitted the fairings on the left side of the elevator and horizontal stabilizer as well the rudder.  Both of which were an enjoyable change of tasks   Tomorrow I will start on the right side of the elevator/horizontal.  

The projects in the hanger; C182 in the front of the hanger which is heading for Mexico once the annual is complete and the MAF modifications are complete.  C208B farthest away in the picture is nearing completion of it's MAF modifications and inspections and will soon be departing for Kenya.  The C172 in the middle is getting close to paint.  Some control surfaces and one wing are painted or in the process.  Hopefully in a couple weeks we will be able to start reassembly.  The C206 at the bottom of the picture is being used as a template for a stacking system that is in production in the welding shop.  They are hoping to stack 3 C206's over in our storage hanger as it is currently over crowed.  This would free up a lot of floor space as these aircraft wait their fate.  They most likely will be refurbished at some point but they are low priority as we are hoping that a diesel engine is soon available for them in which case they would be retro fitted with the new engine and the airframe would be reconditioned as they have been well used on the field and could use a little tlc before reentering into service.  After the Caravan rolls out I'm not sure which will take it's place as there are several aircraft waiting their turn across the tarmac.  So I don't think I or any of the other mechanics will be running short of work anytime soon.  

 

Overview of the hanger and the projects that are in progress.

That's life in the hanger for the time being.  I've been enjoying working along side a good group of guys here.

Blessings
Greg

Special Visitors

Indeed we had some very special visitors this past week.  My (Greg) parents were able to drive down from Alberta and spend a week with us.  We had some good times of visiting and seeing the sights.  

Gave them a tour of the MAF's hanger and office buildings when they arrived then that evening they helped us celebrate Julie's birthday, 33 years young now, she is looking prettier everyday.

Day two we tried our hands at mini golf. Grandpa coming out on top with the best score, he's still got it. The kids also got a hand at go-cart racing, which they had a blast doing, however their faces didn't show it until after and were begging to go again.

Trying to give Isaac a few pointers.  Which I think paid off. Our second round which was the last day my parents were with us, Isaac improve having the best score among the kids.

Round one, Franklin took best score for the kids on our first round and I think he even beat me.

 Grandpa showing us how it's done!

The Race is on!!! 

Franklin takes the lead and wins with almost a full lap lead.

Day 3 we spend a good portion of it at theWarhawk museum at Franklin's request.  We got a good history lesson from the different displays and articles around the museum.

Sunday after taking in a refreshing worship service we hit a local beach which was almost empty.  That way we didn't have to share :).  Then for supper dad and I prepared a meal of BBQ ribs, corn on the cob, bake potatoes, fried asparagus and mushrooms and some salad to make it look a little healthier.  It was quite the feast.

Monday mom and dad came to the airport and helped with counting inventory while I continued on my project for the morning.  In the afternoon we attempted to make a trek out to a historical almost ghost town town.  However 10 miles short of the town the road got pretty ruff dropping us down to 10-15mph and being late in the afternoon we turned back not knowing if the hotel would be open for supper. And good thing when we check after getting back home that night we would have been pretty hungry as they would have been closed by the time we arrived at our back breaking speed.  So we will have to make a visit to Silver City another time when we have more time to spare.

Tuesday our last day with mom and dad before they headed back to Alberta.  We spend again at the mini golf and this time we golfed our second round which was mentioned earlier.  The rest of the time was spent between the laser tag room and the arcade games.  It was an amazing week visiting with family and finding new things to do that are around here.

Front Yard

PS: Here are a couple of pictures of our new house that we are living in while in Nampa.  This was truly a blessing from God as it came fully furnished and in a great neighborhood. Isn't our God wonderful!!

Back Yard

Ride2Fly and Family Biking

Here are a couple pictures from the Ride2Fly fundraiser that MAF put on this past Saturday.  We joined in the doughnut eating and fellowship at the hanger before the bikes and the planes left for Garden Valley where lunch was served, and a flying demonstration.  

These next two pics are from our family bike trip we made Saturday afternoon in Boise.  We rode about 4ish miles before the kids had enough and we turned back for the truck.  It was a good time and hopefully we can do it again soon.

Unrelated to the pictures we think we have found a Church here that will fit our family pretty good for our time here in Idaho.

Work Pics

 This is a grand caravan that is heading for Africa once it is made bush ready.

C172 that will be heading to Asia for flight training.  

Another C172 that is being prepared for Asia as well.

Day three at the hanger it's been good.

I've done a few different things since starting work in the hanger.  The main project however that I have been involved with is the C172 that doesn't look like much of a plane yet.  It will be a matching pair once we get this one all back together with a new paint job and a few other items.  I've been enjoying working with the crew here.  There are a lot of projects waiting in the T hanger across the apron once these projects finish up and move out.  There is no shortage of work here that's for sure.

Tears, Stress and Blessings

Over the past four weeks my days have been filled with many different emotions all wrapped up inside of me.  I have expericed that wonderful emotion of stress as we packed up our house hoping that it would all fit back into the trailer again.  Which I am happy to report that it did all fit and every thing arrived safe and sound without breaking anything.  I will admit that for some reason this step was very stressful and I found myself torn between packing and wanting to sit down and play with the children. My Isaac shares the same view with me as I sat down to tuck him in last night and he shared with me that life would sure be a whole lot easier if we could just skip the packing and unpacking stage.  A huge thank you goes out to my parents as they took the children for those last few days so I could focus on packing without having to be a parent at the same time. And to our church in Michigan as they came and helped us load the trailer in the rain.  Along with the stress came many tears as we said good-bye to my family and our all wonderful new friends that we made in Michigan.  Even know as I sit and write this blog the tears have started to flow again when I think about our past year and how God just blessed us not only with physical things but with many spiritual blessings for both Greg and I.  As a wife I had the most amazing year of witnessing my husband open his heart and allow God to work in his life and lead him through a year of growth that has completely changed how he shares his faith, his passion for serving with MAF, and how he leads his family.  Man can our God work when we are willing to let Him move within us!! For myself God blessed me with really teaching me that this is truly His work we are doing and that I am just His hands and feet.  This is another part where I shed many tears over as I would become so overwhelmed with this whole process (especially during VBS) as I had to just come to the point that I would tell God that I could not possible do this and then watch as He would step in and truly begin His work and I was only a bystander.  Now we have arrived here in Nampa and of course more stress with unpacking but first came the tears as God provided a place for our family to live in.  Just picture me walking through a house that was completely furnished (remember we came with no furniture) with everything that we could have asked for.  Like desk for all the children as we are home schooling the children, to a kitchen completely setup already, and all the beds were made ready for a family to use them.  Now to a woman who has just packed up, said goodbye to friends and family, traveled to Canada for a week of intense visiting, and had be trying to entertain the children through many hours in a truck I was just unprepared for how God provided within two days!!  Then to top it all off I started Franklin's first day of school (we are waiting for Isaac's and Jaclynn's books to arrive) today as we are having him repeat grade four because of how far behind he still is with his reading and writing.  This year we want Franklin to be able to do most of the reading by himself as I did most of the reading for him last year.  Today I sat down with him and he was able to do most of the reading by himself with me as we took turns reading paragraphs!! Yes, I am still crying but they are still tears of joy as most parents will agree it is very hard watch one of your children struggle with something for so long and to finally see answers to prayers begin to happen before you is amazing.  Thank you for all of your prayers for Franklin concerning this and please keep praying that he will not become overwhelmed with how hard he has to work at his schooling.  And thank you for all your prayers throughout out this very busy month.

Julie