Every morning at 4:00 am my alarm rings. I roll over, barely able to see the snooze button that I'm so tempted to hit, and turn it off. I drag out of bed, take a shower, brush my teeth, and get dressed in all my winter layers. By now its 4:05.......just joking.......its about 4:45. I sit down and read my Bible, text my wife grab my lunch and head to the truck. We hook up the helicopter most mornings and drive it to our new job sight for the day. We open the trailer, preflight the helicopter just as it is getting light and make sure its safe for another long day of work. I take the pilot door off and hop in. Run through the checklist and fire up the helicopter. I spend the rest of the day flying to a guy in the christmas tree field that hooks up a bundle of christmas trees to a hook that is flying 25 feet below my helicopter. I pick up my load and fly it back to an open area where I drop it off. This goes on and on all day! I have been logging about 8 hours of flight time a day and love this kind of work. Trying to precisely swing a hook that is dangling below me 25 feet right to the hands of the "hooker" is a fun challenge.
I needed to get 500 hours of flight time for Helimission and before tree season started I was at 360 hours. That leaves me needing 140 hours by the end of this tree season! Wow that seemed huge and almost impossible. But, I am 62% of the way to meeting that goal! Thats right in just 10 days I have flown 75 hours! My body totally felt it! I spend most of the day hanging out the door so I can get a good visual of what my load is doing. I'm not used to wearing a helmet on my big melon, so have 9 hrs of holding that up, while hanging out the door left me with some very sore muscles. Also, learning a new type of flying I found my self gripping the controls way to tight, so all my muscles were catty wampus and tense. Thankfully, I am getting much more relaxed and my pilot muscles are building!
A week ago I put my toolbox on a pallet that I made and officially locked my box. That was quite a moment. I was ending a chapter of my life that has been 5 years long. It is crazy to think that that toolbox will not be there when I get back to the shop at the end of tree season. It is a good feeling knowing that our goals are being met and that God is leading us into a new chapter of life!
While I've been flying down here in Oregon, Amanda and I both got an email from Elim Bible Institute. The good news is that we are accepted and will be joining their classes in early January! It is finally official and very real that these plans are going forward! We are trusting God to open doors and He is opening them for us!
We also got our October financial support update from Helimission. We have been praying to be fully funded by Thanksgiving which is only days away now, but we are only 32% of the way to achieving that goal! We need people like you to send us! Our plans are coming together and the end of a paycheck for Matt is weeks away. No matter what, on December 31 Matt will quit his job and trust God to provide for our family as we go where God is calling us! That time is coming fast, and we begin living off of our support in January! We still need to raise $2800 a month to reach full support! That is 280 people giving $10 a month or 112 people giving $25 a month for example! We need you to take action and join our support team! Please take the time now to visit our support page! There are instructions there on how to set up a monthly withdrawal if that is best for you. That is the easiest way for us to keep track of how we are doing too, but if you would rather give a yearly gift, or send a check monthly those are both fine! Whatever way you choose, please send your pledged amount to helibladesoflove@gmail.com so we can track our progress and create our budget. We really appreciate those of you that have joined our support team and have given generously and faithfully!
Please continue to pray for us as we have only 4 weeks until we need to be moved out of our duplex. I'm flying out of town and that leaves Amanda to pack up the home until I can get back to help. We really appreciate all the friends and family that are stepping in to lend a helping hand while I'm out of town! We feel very loved! Please pray for continued safety for Matt as I continue flying! Also, pray for us to be fully funded!
As this year ends and closes a chapter on our lives, we look forward to the new adventure God is taking us on! It's exciting to see these long awaited goals coming to fruition! This is an exciting season in our lives and it's such an encouragement to be able to share it with you!
Love you All,
The Meeuwse's
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