Saturday, December 31, 2011

A Look Back at 2011

 2011 has been another big year for us as a family. 


At the beginning of the year we prepared for and welcomed the littlest member of the family, Naomi Grace. She made it a good, Good Friday (April 22nd) for us and has been lots of fun ever since. Naomi was dedicated here in Coshocton in June and has two very crazy American 'fairy' godmothers to keep her a little bit American, seeing as she was born here!





At the end of October we said goodbye to another special member of the family. Jenny's Nan got 'promoted' ... to Heaven. We were really luck to be able to see her one last time before she died when we arrived in the UK for our home leave and she got to meet Naomi too.


Here in Coshocton we've experienced all kinds of extreme weather this year that we're not used to back in England. From the long snowy winter (which as you can see below Abigail loved!), including ice storms, to flooding, severe thunderstorms, tornado warnings ... to the hot and humid summer with a heat index of 110+ degrees a lot of the time. It certainly kept us on our toes!


At home we had lots of family visiting us this year which was really helpful while we adjusted to our newest member. We were also able welcome three baby birds into the hanging basket on our front porch. It was a big excitement for most of June to check it every day and see new eggs, watch them hatch and see the  little robins grow. We wonder whether they will revisit in 2012!


Another event that happened this year that we won't forget in a hurry was our first pumpkin patch adventure when Mark lost his wedding ring ... and the successful return trip several days later when amazingly we found it again, just lying on the ground!



In the hangar at MMS Aviation, we welcomed several new families and said good bye to a couple of others. Paul Jones and Andy Porter both qualified and got their A&P licences making Mark the senior apprentice and the next in line to take his exams next year.


Mark was also able to see one of the planes he worked on a lot during his first year here, a Cessna 206 now on floats, return to service with Asas de Socorro in Brazil just last month. This year here, amongst other things, he has spent a lot of time working on a Cessna 402 which has been in the hangar for a couple of years and is now very close to completion. It belongs to the pastor of a baptist church in Maine.


These are just a few of the many things we've got up to. As we look forward to 2012 ... we can already foresee quite a few more adventures just around the corner. Including a rapid response trip for Mark to Papua New Guinea in the New Year, Mark's final exams in the early summer and then us preparing to leave Ohio and move again to another continent to an MAF project (probably somewhere in Africa) later on in the year.


As this year comes to a close we just wanted to say thank you to all those of you have been supporting and encouraging us on this adventure ... making it possible for us to be here and for Mark to be able to work on these aircraft enabling missions around the world to serve the people where they are based more effectively.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

A Snapshot of our Christmas!

We haven't posted much this month as there hasn't been too much for us to share. We've spent a lot of our time just catching up with ourselves and getting healthy ... which is exactly what we were, finally after a month and a half, in the few days before Christmas. The perfect Christmas present in itself!

On Christmas Eve we chilled out a bit, had some lunch out, did some last minute preparations and Mark and Abigail decorated our alternative 'Chocolate Christmas Tree' Christmas Cake ... which as we've had one for the last 3 years has become one of our family traditions now!



Another tradition we have started the last two years is opening one present on Christmas Eve which is one special ornament each for the Christmas tree. Ornaments are BIG in America, so I guess we picked that idea up while we've been here!

On Christmas morning, we started off with stockings in bed. Abigail came running in to our room and completely missed the stocking by her bed. When we sent her back in to see if Father Christmas has been, she was so excited she came back with without the stockings the first time!! After that we enjoyed a first breakfast and then read The Very First Christmas together ... a sticker storybook that we had been working on throughout December (see The Christmas Fairy).

Then the BIG present opening session began!! As you can see Abigail took the lead and showed Naomi how it was done ... after all it was her first Christmas. It didn't take long for her to pick it up though.


The first Christmas we were in America, Abigail was spotted crawling under the tree hunting for pressies ... as you can see, this year was no different!


Naomi really enjoyed the paper and the colourful presents ... we're pretty sure she had no idea what was going on ... but enjoying every minute of it!!


Abigail loved every minute of it and for the first year really has understood every aspect of the build up and the Christmas weekend. She really enjoyed her Chef's outfit ... and Naomi's ball popper ... and everything else that anyone received!


After the present madness we enjoyed a second bigger breakfast of bacon, eggs, sausage and hash browns. There were then a few hours of getting showered and dressed, playing with toys and getting ready for our good friends the Gettles, another MMS family, who joined us for a delicious Christmas feast and some fun and games.


Today, Boxing Day, something the Americans don't recognise when you mention it to them, we have been really chilled. Playing with pressies we got yesterday, building pink foam castles and pink lego houses, playing hungry hippos and snakes and ladders, painting, colouring ... and other silliness. Naomi has been on her feet more and more and today has been no exception.


This afternoon, the sky was blue and beautiful and although a little fresh we decided to bundle up go out for a walk around the neighbourhood. It was nice and peaceful and we ended up at a nearby playground which Abigail loved!


We have really enjoyed our long weekend and are looking forward to having the rest of the weekend together as Mark won't be in the hangar until January 2nd!! We hope you all had a good Christmas too.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Senior Apprentice

You may remember a lot earlier in 2011, we wrote that Andy Porter, another MAF UK apprentice here at MMS Aviation, became the Senior Apprentice. A handover happens when the current longest serving apprentice finishes their required number of hours in the hangar before sitting their final written and then oral and practical exams to be FAA qualified. He 'hands over' to the apprentice who will complete next.

In the hangar they have a handover 'ceremony' ... there is a 'Senior Apprentice Wrench' which gets handed from one apprentice to the next as they finish the programme. When it got passed to Andy it was renamed the 'Senior Apprentice Spanner' ... if a Brit has it, calling it a wrench isn't quite right!!


Recently Andy completed his own required hours and so the 'Spanner' needed to find a new home in the toolbox of the next apprentice. Mark, Paul Gettle and Ben Fisher are all due to complete their training at MMS around the same time next year, however as Mark started first (not by much!) he got the title and the Spanner!


Last week while he was home looking after his girls who were still recovering from illness, Mark disappeared up to the hangar with Abigail for the latest handover ... when he received this honour! He is a bit skeptical about the 'joys' of being the senior apprentice as the implications are that he is next in line to sit for his exams, not such an exciting prospect!

The 'ceremony' also consists of cake and ice-cream which Abigail enjoyed as much as all the guys in the hangar. While everyone was tucking in to the goodies, Monkey ceased a photo opportunity to claim the Senior Apprentice Spanner for himself.


Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Christmas Already?!

Believe it or not when we were in the UK we missed Coshocton's Christmas parade ... yes really!! It was on Saturday November 19th ... for some reason always the Saturday before Thanksgiving, nowhere near Christmas.

Over the last two years we have learnt that the majority of people seem to put their Christmas decorations up over the Thanksgiving weekend or shortly afterwards. As we were all feeling groggy and still getting back into the groove after our trip to the UK, we embraced this 'tradition' and last Saturday got out all of our Christmas decorations and got busy in the house.


We had great fun and for the first year Abigail was really involved in it all ... in fact every day since, she has spent time rearranging the ornaments. Naomi, for whom all things Christmassy is a completely new experience, looked on with a smile on her face!


Here are the finished decorations, at least for the next 5 minutes until Abigail moves something else around! There's a real cosy feel in our house now ... even if it's not even December 1st until tomorrow!


Having done inside the house on Saturday, we put some decorations up on the front porch on Sunday .. another very American thing which we thought we'd do while we're here! As it was a cold and miserable day, Jenny and Abigail embraced yet another cultural tradition that afternoon, one which Abigail had enjoyed with Amy last year, decorating a gingerbread house.


So while it may seem a little early ... Christmas has well and truly arrived in our home and we're loving every minute of it!

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

An Eventful Time in the UK

As organised as you can try and be, nothing ever works out quite as planned. We spent almost a month back in the UK with a very full schedule in the diary ... but 24 hours after we arrived in the country we knew it wasn't going to work out as we had expected.


Jenny's nan passed away the morning after we landed in England. She had been really ill the previous couple of weeks and we were able to visit her the morning we arrived. It was great we were able to see her and felt the timing was perfect in many ways as we were able to help Jenny's mum with all the details of funerals and other things. 

We made the decision early on that although we would keep our main speaking engagements our priority would be to help out and we're really grateful to those of you we were supposed to be seeing for being so understanding when we had to change or cancel plans.


We did manage to see some (but not all) of our family and close friends ... met Popeye's gorgeous little puppies and Abigail had fun colouring with Auntie Betty (who turned 95 last week ... Happy Birthday Betty!).


We also made it to see friends in Oxford and a little All Nations reunion in Birmingham ... with a few extra little people in our midst since we were all last together! Thanks to the Lynch's for hosting us all!


Abigail made herself some new friends ... all of whom she continues to tell us are 'her favourite' ... everything is 'her favourite' at the moment. She also continued to love and be extremely goofy with her little sister while we we away!



We did take Nana to the seaside one day ... and had fun even though it was cold and wet and also took her to help at the paint your own pottery morning we did.



In our final week we planned to catch up with some of our missed appointments as well as fulfilling the plans we'd made before heading back home to the States. Those plans were also thwarted when one-by-one we all managed to pick up a variety of virsuses, chest infections, gastric flu, ear infections ... etc etc etc ... almost to the point that we wondered if we would be fit to fly home last week.

As a result of all this we didn't take too many photos or have lots of exciting stories to tell. We do know each other a bit better than we did before and what we can cope with ... so that is definitely something positive that has come out of a trip that was completely different from what we had envisaged.

We made it home to small town Ohio last Tuesday and although we're still not recovered from the sickness almost 3 weeks later, we're really happy to be back with our own home comforts. We're all thriving a bit more being back into a 'normal' routine ... just need to get 100% healthy now.

To those of you we did see ... we really enjoyed it ... for those we didn't, we hope that next year goes slightly more to plan!!

Saturday, November 26, 2011

REAL Bacon!

Usually our blog entries are aimed mainly at our UK and overseas friends and family about our time in the States. This one however is for the benefit of our US friends in an attempt to educate them a little on the delicacy of REAL bacon!!

We've just had a trip back to England and each time we return we have a 'wish list' of food to eat while we're back, things that we've missed and can't get hold of while living overseas. Both times we've arrived in the UK from living in the States, our first 'meal' has been a morning bacon sandwich ... each to their own, but for us this is a priority!

Here in the States bacon is a whole different thing to what we think of in the UK. We think 80% (or more!) meat with a bit of fat too, in the US it's more like 80% fat, with a little bit of meat if you're lucky!


The photo above is bacon of the typical US variety ... really fatty and unhealthy and the reason we want real bacon when get to England. Below is the stuff only in our dreams while living here in small town America. YUM!


Just to get the taste buds completely watering ... and knowing that we now can't eat this for another year ... here is the bacon cooking ...


And below, the bacon ready for the tomato ketchup and the top slice of bread ... delicious and something not to be missed!


It's really difficult to convey to our American friends the true experience of REAL bacon without having the ability to 'scratch and sniff' the computer screen or have a sample to taste. All we will say is WOW .... we had several while we were home and they were all delicious. Now back in the States we have one more year and counting until we can have them again!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Mission Aviation

How many aviation missions do you think are out there at the moment? How many could you actually name? (I hope at least two ... the two that we are involved with ... you know ... it's there somewhere!!) 

Well, there are over 120 aviation missions around the world that include training schools, maintenance facilities, flying missions that transport people/equipment for other missions and missions that fly themselves. Mark will fill you in on some of the finer details ...

I hope that you remembered MMS Aviation and MAF UK (Mission Aviation Fellowship). MMS Aviation is a training school and a repair station here in Coshocton, Ohio where I have been training for the past two years. Then in a years time, when the training is over and hopefully I will have an A&P License in my name, I will be serving with MAF UK for a minimum of eight more years somewhere in the developing world.

Whilst at MMS Aviation, I have been exposed to numerous different missions, some that I had heard of before but many that I had not. At the moment I am working on a Cessna 402 belonging to Wings with The Word. Also in the hangar right now we have Air Calvery's Cessna 207 from Gabon and Asas de Socorro's Cessna 206 which are both about to be returned to service. Then there is a Cessna 172 from GCI (Gospel Carrier International). They have two others aircraft that come in periodically for servicing. They are a Beechcraft King Air and a Cessna 310. The final aircraft here at the moment that represents another mission is a Cessna 206 from MAG (Missionary Air Group).

So, there are seven missions represented at the moment in the hangar but I have worked on many more from other missions. These include a Douglas DC-3 from MFI (Missionary Flights International), a Piper Aztec from Pfeifer Evangelical Association, Brigade Air's Cessna 172 and a MAF Cessna 206. There are also many other missions that we at MMS have contact with: JAARS, CMML (Christian Missions in Many Lands), AIM Air (Africa Inland Mission), SAM Air (South American Mission), Moody Aviation, Arctic Barnabas and Agape Flights.

Lastly, there are two other Missions that are very important to what we do. There is IAMA (International Association of Missionary Aviation) and MSI (Mission Safety International). Although they do not fly, repair or train, they are very important in keeping Mission Aviation groups alive and able to operate.


Since 1975, when MMS Aviation first came about, they have been able to serve 96 mission aviation organisations by either repairing/servicing their aircraft, sending a Rapid Response team to help them in the field, or a newly licensed A&P mechanic has joined them to serve. Just in 2010, MMS engineers and apprentices worked on 31 missionary aircraft from 15 ministries and invested over 11,000 maintenance hours saving mission aviation approximately $450,000 (approx £300,000) in labour expenses alone. It's great to play a part in this.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Our Pumpkin Patch Adventure

On Friday night we joined the MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) annual hayride and pumpkin patch evening at Schumaker Farms. It seems that most people we know do one or the other (or both!!) at this time of the year ... very cultural!!



The tractor pulled three trailers full of MOPS families up to the pumpkin patch ... all sitting on hay bales. It was so much fun and all the kids, including Abigail really loved the whole experience!






Once we arrived at the pumpkin patch we all jumped off and went hunting for the orange 'globes' to take home with us. It was the first time any of the Beckwith family had been in a pumpkin patch before! We picked up two, one for each of the girls and even though the ones we'd chosen weren't huge, Abigail had trouble carrying them!



We finished the evening off roasting hot dogs and marshmallows round a campfire ... that's when all the MOPS dads finally came into their own! It was a great evening ... but ...


... when we got home, Mark realised that he was no longer wearing his wedding ring ... and the last time he remembered wearing it was at the beginning of the evening :o( He returned to the farm the following morning but had no luck. As you can imagine we were gutted.

Jenny flicked through the photos we had taken while we were there in the slim possibility that we would find some clues ... amazingly we did!! Check out the photos below ... at the beginning of the hay ride Mark was wearing his ring and after picking pumpkins he wasn't ... basically he lost it during the most difficult part of the evening to track!


Using the wonders of Facebook we were able to borrow a metal detector from some friends at church. On Sunday lunchtime almost 48 hours after Mark lost his ring, we headed back to the pumpkin patch ... with little hope of actually finding it but the determination to at least try!

We remembered that when we had stopped on the hayride we had noticed a squashed pumpkin with the name Emily on it ... we thought it was a bit sad at the time that her pumpkin was splatted ... but on Sunday used it to locate the spot where our search would begin.


With lots of prayers from us and loads of friends and family, here and back home, we started to look. Amazingly less than 2 feet from the Emily pumpkin, without even needing to use the metal detector we found Mark's ring ... in the end it really was that 'easy'!!


Lots of smiles and celebrations occurred in that pumpkin patch on Sunday lunchtime! ;o)



As you can see, while it was a family occasion, some of us were more captivated by the whole experience than others!



We want to say a BIG thank you to 'Emily', whoever you are. While you may never get to enjoy your pumpkin, you certainly helped make our first pumpkin patch adventure one we will always remember ... for the right reasons!