Happy New year!

We hope you all had a great Christmas and your start to 2014 has been a good one!

We have been enjoying the chance to spend some quality time with all our family after being away from home for the last 3 Christmases. We had Christmas with my family up in Gardenstown on the north-east coast,  and then saw in New Year down in Glasgow with Heather’s family.

Although my parents now live in Dunoon, my mum is originally from Gardenstown, and we were able to spend Christmas in the old family home, which having been in the family for generations is now a holiday let. It was a nice relaxing time, with no mobile phone signal, no internet and weather that stayed dry enough (if a bit cold and windy!) for us to get some walks along the shore and around the village. My mum had been brought up in that house, and for the first couple of years of married life mum and dad stayed there with my Granda and my Great grandmother. Myself, Heather and Eilidh even slept in the same room that I had shared with my parents for the first 10 months of my life! Below is a picture (left) of 3 of the 4 generations who lived there 36 years ago, with my Granda missing as he was behind the camera! The picture on the right is from this Christmas!! I really enjoyed the chance to reflect while we stayed there.

Now that we are back in Scotland for a while, I have been speaking at various churches about the work we are now involved in. One of the pictures I often use in presentations is of a particular DC-3 that Missionary Flights International used right up until very recently. It was a feature in the hangar in Fort Pierce, Florida when I was working there during my apprenticeship, and was a real encouragement to me when I realised that Les Brown had piloted this same plane across to the States back in the 80’s to start it’s missionary ‘career’ at MFI. (Les stays in Pitlochry, and was one of the people whose influence led us to joining MAF.) Even though Les might have looked at flying the plane to Florida as routine work for an experienced pilot, the legacy of that work and Les’s obedience to God, was being felt for decades after by people in Haiti and around the Caribbean who benefited from the support that MFI brought them.

All this reflection, and the fact that we have just finished 2013 has me thinking about the year just gone, and all that has happened. Here are a few of the highs and lows of 2013:

January: Unfortunately last Christmas came with more than its fair share of bugs, and I spent the whole of the Christmas break in bed. January was mostly spent recovering and getting back into a work routine.

February: This month’s highlight was a trip to Dryden Ontario to work with Northern Youth Programmes. My facebook status at the end of the trip said: Our last night in Canada, eh. Looking forward to seeing H and the kids again, but going to miss Dryden. In the last fortnight I have been to an ice hockey match, ridden snowmobiles, dug snowmobiles out of waist deep powder, driven on an ice-road, eaten walleye, deer and moose (all shot or caught on the property here), helped bore holes on the lake for ice fishing, milked a cow and re-skinned a 206 wing! My kind of fortnight!!

March: March in Ohio is generally still a bit on the cool side, so Heather especially was glad of the chance we had at the end of the month to pack the family into the car, lock the house up for a month, and set off south to Florida. As part of MMS’s training, apprentices spend a month or so working in an operational hangar with MFI before they finish the programme. Being gone for so long meant it was a good opportunity for the whole family to go and enjoy the experience!

April: Most of April was spent in Florida. It was great to work with MFI and be involved in everything they do down in that corner of the world. Working on the “flight line” is very different to working on the longer term projects that are normal at MMS, so it was good experience to get. As the whole family came with me this time, we were able to spend some time on holiday down there as well, checking off the usual tourist destinations!

May: At the beginning of May, Heather and I did a little sketch at a church family night (apparently we were the best fit for two Scottish rappers…) After 2 ½ years in America I finally had an excuse to wear my kilt!

June: The kids are on their summer holidays, and in Ohio, that means summer camps! Abi went to  Camp “Invention” where she learned all about how things work, and Matthew had a football (that’s soccer!!) camp which he enjoyed! Both kids enjoyed some swimming lessons, and we tried to squeeze in some family time too!

July: The 4^th of July saw Eilidh celebrate her 1^st birthday (and the rest of America celebrated along with her, if all the fireworks were anything to go by!!).  My weeks were filled with steadily building hours in the hangar and studying (a bit!!) for exams. At the end of July, we had a weekend away in Cincinnati, partly as a treat for our 10^th wedding anniversary, partly as a nice family weekend away before Heather and the kids went back to Scotland for a while, and partly just because we needed a wee break! We didn’t see a huge amount of Cincinnati, but we enjoyed a good look around the Creation Museum!

August: Heather and the kids made the trip back to Scotland for 2 weeks to spend a bit of time with her family. It was a great break for them filled with special memories, which became even more precious later in the year. My time in Ohio was spent on finishing up in the hangar and preparing for my exams. I also managed to make a trip with some of the other MMS staff over to Smoketown, Pennsylvania to take part in their annual Missions festival at the airport. MMS were a featured organisation at this year’s show, and it was a great opportunity to speak to so many people about mission aviation, as well as to meet and catch up with lots of other people from across the mission aviation world.

September: The first half of September saw me completely immersed in exams and study, but thankfully I passed the last of them on 16^th Sept and qualified as an FAA Airframe and Powerplant mechanic. A satisfying end to my 3 years as an apprentice at MMS, but tinged a bit by the thought that my time in the hangar there had come to a close. I really enjoyed working in Ohio, with some incredible guys - we made some lifelong friends there who were hard to say good bye to. The end of September was focused on preparing for Heather’s trip to Uganda. While she was gone, my mum took a trip over to help with looking after the kids, so we were able to enjoy some time with Granny about! We made a few day trips while she was there, and spent a bit of time exploring Amish country for one last time.

MAF-Uganda's hangar

October: This month started with Heather in Uganda for her look-see visit, looking at schools and housing in preparation for us moving over in 2014. It was a good trip with lots of confirmations that God is in charge of the plans! Heather came home certain that we would settle well there and excited about what our future holds. October also brought our last Coshocton County Fair, and with it the opportunity to say farewell to my very tired Toyota van which had been a faithful run-about for the last year. In true Dukes of Hazzard style, I entered it into the rough truck race, complete with custom Scotland flag paint job, finished high enough to win my entry fee back with a little more on top, and then run it until November when it made its last trip to the scrap yard! Win, Win!!

November: The most stressful month we have had in quite a while! Packing up to move house is stressful no matter what. The stress is multiplied when you move to a different continent. We tried to get rid of a lot of stuff before we left America, but there was quite a lot of stuff that we wanted to take with us to Uganda that is much easier to get in Ohio - trying to find the balance wasn’t easy, especially as we were saying emotional good byes to all our friends in the States at the same time!

The end of our time in America came with the sad news that Heather’s dad had passed away. Although he had been ill for some time, his death came as a shock to everyone. Thank you so much to everyone who prayed for us, and Heather especially, at this difficult time.

December: We're back in Scotland and enjoying catching up with friends and family. We are busy speaking at a number of new churches, although we have tried to keep December relatively free so that we can settle the family, and check off a few items on our list of optician, dentist and doctor appointments.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support during this last year! We are indebted to everyone who supports us in whatever way, and we appreciate you very much.

Watch this space to see what excitement the next 12 months brings!