Busy Summer!

  Here is the latest update on our family:
 We finished our 1st semester (of 2 semesters) at the Mission Training Center in Missouri the end of May. We have one more school semester and then we are being sent to AZ for 6-9 months of more training before we are sent to the field where we are needed!! We are so excited that our goal to get overseas to help the missionaries who are reaching the lost is getting closer!!! Pray for us as we work our way through the process of paperwork, school work and training. The Lord is definitely bending, stretching and molding us during this time.

Jon's modes of transportation:

Spraying Crops

Working for Air Care

Flying to get to family events

Giving Flight Instruction

Jon flew up to his parent's farm to get started with aerial spraying right away. I drove to St. Louis, MO on my way home from school and picked up my brother Matt, 17, at the airport.  We hired my Matt to help with the aerial spray business. Jon's Dad and brother usually help out, but this year they are busy with work on their farm and were not able to lend a hand. So Matt came to the rescue!! He graduated high school, hopped on a plane to join us for the Summer and gets back in time to go to college.He is a Godsend!

Between spraying crops in Minot and the surrounding areas and spraying for his Dad and Brother Jon has been filling in at his Air Care job (He flies an Air Medical Helicopter for a hospital based out of Minneapolis). If any of you know Jon, he can't sit still for a minute, always on the go!

The boys and I have traveled up to Minot a few times to be the "crew" for the guys. We fix meals, send out lunches for the guys and make parts runs. We borrowed Jon's parent's camper and parked in the shop of one of our customers. What a treat to be able to plug everything in and stay cool in the shady shop. This particular customer is a father of little boys, and we were welcome to use their boy toys, sand box and trampoline. Jaeden, Levi and Jace LOVED it up there!

 Jaeden just turned 6 this Summer. Within a week of his birthday he lost his first tooth. (He lost another one last year after he had a run in with the back end of our jeep in the driveway! But a dentist pulled that one, so technically it doesn't count!) Jaeden LOVES Legos, Star Wars and helping his little brothers. He is my soft-hearted boy who makes sure to give his Mom little gifts and flowers. :)

Levi just turned 4 this Summer. He is FULL of energy and noise. He is on the go, busy and is very easily known as our trouble maker. Whether he intends it or not, he manages to bother his brothers. Both Jaeden and Jace love Levi but sometimes they are just not sure what to do with his "enthusiasm!" ;) Levi is my little hugger. Always needs a hug from his Mom. ;)

Jace is almost 2 and tries to keep up with his brothers. I imagine him joining a football team or wrestling team. He jumps into whatever his brothers are doing whether he can keep up or not. His newest words are: Cute, Levi and Kitty. His question on a daily basis, multiple times a day: "Where's Daddy?" Even when Jon is standing right there.

Praising God for His safety so far this Summer. Jaeden, Jace and I were involved in a car accident last week after returning from MI from a family reunion. An old lady was at fault. She pulled in front of another car and me in a intersection as she turned left. Her car was totaled and the guy who hit me had pretty bad damage but our car came out of it with minor nicks. We were hit so hard we were spun 180 into oncoming traffic. What a scary feeling!! But thanking God no one was injured!

School starts August 20th back at the Mission Training Center in MO. The boys and I will be dropping Matt off at the airport August 14th and picking up my sister Rachael, 19. Rachael has come out to help us in the past with the kids. She will be our nanny/school teacher this school semester. Since I have to be at the classes with Jon we thought it would be great to have her along to help watch the kids for us. And the boys just LOVE Rachael!! :)   

 

Lastly, I am SO excited to announce, that I got the approval from our Student Life Director to start a Moms group for our student Moms at the Mission Training Center. Our group will meet twice a month , it will be similar to a Mom's Of Preschooler's group where we have a special speaker and small group discussions. Moms need a place to unwind, be encouraged and to know they are NOT ALONE! Pray for all of the details to come together! Our theme this year:

Prayer Requests:
1. Continued safety with all of our travels
2. Safety and wisdom for Jon as he wrangles all of his work
3. For the Lord to bless the Moms group starting at our school.

For those interested in joining our mailing list please send an email to: Jleedahl@gmail.com
And for those who are curious, I have not sent out an newsletter via snail mail yet.
Our blog will be our updated information for now. :)

Trying New Things!

 We had our first game night with our class this past month. What a fun time of food and fellowship!! The kids just loved trying out new games (making more of a mess than anything...but had fun in the meantime!) and playing with all of the kids. Jace made the rounds that night sitting on anyone's lap and hamming it up for the ladies. I think I am going to need to watch that boy! ;)

 Levi requested (begged me daily-more like it!!) to eat Pickled Pigs Feet. He saw it in the school Food Pantry and he just had to try it! Why? I am not exactly sure why. It looked appealing to him I guess. He loved them very much! Once again, why?  Because it tasted like two of his favorite things: pork and pickles. Mmmmm yum! According to Jon, they have a nice pickley, rubbery soft taste and consistency. Yes, just makes you want to dig right in and eat yourself a foot, eh? No thanks. I am so glad Levi didn't ask me to try one. It's hard to say no to that face!

 Look at this face? Who could even try to resist him? Levi is going to be a heart breaker, I tell you what!

 Jaeden tried out the game of checkers for the first time. He loved the game and asked to play it several times in a row. I think he and Jon will definitely be the competitive game players of the family. Jaeden loves to be precise, competitive and  thinks very deeply about things, this is where he takes after his daddy. So we could have some interesting game playing "intensity" ahead with those two!

Lastly, we have a ministry class that we are taking here at school and part of the class is to get involved in an outreach of some kind. We are learning how to minister to those in our communities before we go overseas. So for our outreach we chose the nursing home. We wanted something that we could do as a family. The boys were used to going to the nursing home after visiting their Great Grandparent's often before they died. The boys just love to interact with the elderly and they help everyone feel comfortable and people are a little more willing to open up and  to share a little bit more about themselves when there are little ones.

The Director of Activities asked if some ladies from our class would be interested in starting a cheer leading team that we could practice with and eventually take to a local high school game in the Fall to do some cheers. Thank God we have a college cheerleader in our class and asked her to get us started. Thanks to Mandy who came up with cheers that we could all do that wouldn't throw out anyone's hips or be too much for the uncoordinated (and that is just talking about me!). At the end of our first practice run with the ladies, our kids sang some songs for the ladies. This really ministered to these women. One woman shared with a fellow classmate that her family did not ever come to visit her and she just enjoyed having us there. She even hugged and kissed everyone as they left that night.

Amazing that God can use the smallest of efforts to make a big impact on someone else!

Please keep us in your prayers as we try to make sure we keep our school, family life, outreach and get togethers nicely balanced so that we don't burn out before the semester is even over.
We are ENJOYING every moment that we have here!! Our fellow classmates and staff/teachers are just a great group of people!

Thank you all for your wonderful love, support, prayers and encouragement during the exciting time in our lives!!

Campus life

I wanted to share a little bit about what we are studying here at the Mission Training Center (MTC). Each topic is well thought out, and put together by missionaries that have come back from the field and realized that other missionaries need to learn this stuff. It's SO GOOD!

One class we take is called Learning Styles based off the book by Cynthia Tobias called, "The Way They Learn." A great introduction to people's learning styles and dealing with different personality types. Realizing that people learn things/understand things in different ways and that graciously accepting people's differences will be and should be a way of life in ministry.

We have a Worldview Analysis class about understanding our worldview and learning to defend it. Very fascinating. Even if someone says they don't have a worldview, that is their  worldview!

We have a Ministry Practicum class where we learn how to be an outreach to everyone in our community. We are missionaries at home not just overseas.

We have chapel 2 days a week, with worship and a small teaching from a staff member or missionary guest. Very encouraging!

We have a Culture and Language Acquisition class.We are learning about understanding cultures around us and overseas to be a better about not offending people while trying to "minister" to them. To jump into a situation to try to "teach" someone or share with someone about the Lord without understanding the full circumstances can be more of a hindrance then a help.

And lastly we meet twice a week with a small group for discussion, prayer, encouragement and accountability. It's a neat way to be able to get more connected with people here on campus.

Inbetween classes and homework, since everyone lives so close to each other here on campus we've been having get togethers almost everynight and having such a great time!

Thank you for your prayers! We can definitely praise God for helping us get settled in here in MO and get adjusted to life here on campus. Keep up the prayers!!
Our love to you guys,
Adie
PS So sorry about no recent pictures. Internet is a little harder to work with down here. So pictures will slowly trickle in. 

The craziness continues!

Hi All,
We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season spent with family and friends! We had a crazy one this year, packing up our house and driving to Jon's parent's Christmas Eve. Certainly a Christmas we will never forget! We celebrated with his family Christmas Day and then Dec 26th drove back to MN to pick up our trailer and  do a last minute clean up of our house. From there, we have been traveling around and visiting with family for the past few weeks. Such a fun and great time to see family and enjoy a little down time.

We were at Adie's parent's house in VA this past weekend and drove from VA to MO overnight on Sunday, January 15th. We arrived on campus at the Mission Training Center, Camdenton, Missouri Monday afternoon and hit the ground running. The campus provided all of the new student families with a host who provided us with a meal/dessert and help unloading our boat/trailer the moment we arrived. What a huge blessing! The weather that day was 68 degrees! Another huge blessing to have gorgeous weather to unpack. Yesterday MO was hit with a cold snap with temps in the teens at night and 30s during the day.

We moved into a fairly new lower level 3 bedroom/1 bathroom 4-plex. Very bright and open and just the perfect size for us! Our furniture fits very nicely in our new place.
Our first night here we had a TORNADO warning complete with the tornado siren going off at 11pm at night. So strange to have not only a tornado at that time of day but in the middle of January!?! We thankfully have a nice staircase right outside of our door that we hid under until the alarm went off. My first thought when I heard the alarm was, "Wow, they throw the tests at you right away, don't they?" Not until Jon pulled up the weather radar did we realize that this was not just a test, there was a tornado spotted within 4-10 minutes of our campus! Crazy times and I hear this is just the beginning of these sirens. Oh dear.

Our first day of orientation/classes began today. The rest of this week is all orientations, meet and greets, get togethers and chapel. Today we had a speaker who was from PNG, a language translator sharing her stories of what she experienced before and after she got into the field. Her story was an encouragement to us that we may have "our" plans but in the end God has THE plan for us. But our we willing to accept His plan and His will for our lives. Are we open to his guidance along the way? Good thoughts to ponder as we begin this journey into the "unknown."

We were excited to see that there are 2 other aviation families here going to school and they have little ones. We got together last night and we all hit it off. Looks like there will be many get togethers that include great food, fellowship and some good competitive game playing. (They are Settlers of Catan fans, too! :)

The boys are adjusting very well for having gone through a lot of changes. They are most excited about the community playground right outside our patio door. I am just as excited as they are because I can see it from our dining room and living room! The Lord is so good to us!

I am hoping to post pictures soon on our blog and Facebook, but need to figure out the internet around here. Please keep checking our blog or Facebook for details
Please feel free to friend us on Facebook at: Jon N Adie Leedahl if you would like to have the most updated information and pictures. We tend to upload cell phone pictures more than my regular camera.

Thank you for your prayers, encouragement and support! We appreciate you all very much!
Love in Christ,
Adie, Jon, Jaeden, Levi and Jace Leedahl

Newspaper article

We were recently interviewed by our local newspaper about our mission goal. You can read the story here:

http://www.redwoodfallsgazette.com/lifestyle/family/x550233978/The-gospel-with-wings

We are gearing up to start school on January 18th! We are excited to learn more about what we'll be doing with NTM and how the Lord will be using us wherever He sends us.

Thank you for your prayers! So far all has been going well. Pray for the boys as they go through many transitions with moving and daycare. Pray for us as we get settled in that everything goes smoothly.

The Lord is so good to us!

Happy New Year!

Here is our New Year's Letter:
Dear Family and Friends,

We pray that you all had a great Christmas with your families! As most of you know, we have now begun the process of becoming full time missionaries with New Tribes Mission Aviation (www.ntm.org/aviation)! We begin our training in Camdenton, MO on January 18th. We will complete two semesters there graduating in December 2012. We will then move to McNeal, AZ to begin my flight and aircraft maintenance training/internship. This will last about 9 months. The plan is to be serving overseas before 2014, Lord willing.

December has been a very busy month. I was finishing up my last month at my job with North Memorial Air Care as an EMS helicopter pilot. Adie (and I when I could) was home cleaning, packing and getting the house ready for our move. We drove up to my parent's farm near Leonard, ND on Christmas Eve with a trailer load of stuff to put in storage there. After enjoying Christmas with my family, we drove down to Missouri with a trailer full of our belongings to move into our three-bedroom apartment provided for us on campus. Since it's winter break we can't move in until January, we just left the Jeep and trailer by our apartment and drove out to Adie's family in  King George, VA.

Our three boys are growing like weeds and keeping us busy! Jaeden is 5 and loves to draw, paint, work on his school,  if he can find time between building with his Lego's. Levi is 3 and likes to do whatever his older brother is up too. He is always full of smiles and mischief. Jace is almost 15 months old and definitely keeps us on our toes! He is on the move all the time, trying very hard to keep up with his brothers. He is a tough little guy and I think he will grow to give them a run for their money!

We ask for your prayers as we begin this new phase in our lives. We've been working towards the mission field for so long, it's exciting to finally see that we are almost there, Lord-willing! We are grateful for all of our family and friends who have been praying for and encouraging us along the way. We pray that we glorify God and seek daily for His will to be done.

We pray that the New Year will find you blessed by God and growing in your faith!

Jon, Adie, Jaeden, Levi and Jace Leedahl
jleedahl@gmail.com
adieleedahl@gmail.com

www.wingstothegospelntm.blogspot.com

Financial support can be sent to:

New Tribes Mission
1000 East First St.
Sanford, FL 32771
Designate the gift to the ministry of Jon & Adie Leedahl

Boxes, boys and blessings

Jon and I had the chance to share our NTM plans with our church last Sunday. It was a bitter sweet service. It was fun to share as a couple about our future plans (Lord-willing!) But it was sad to have to say goodbye to all of our friends at church.We have been blessed with an awesome church family full of friendly, sweet and encouraging people. Here is Jon and I (& a friend's little girl) answering questions.

 After the service and the worship team singing the tear-jerker song, "Friends are Friends Forever" the Pastor and the elders prayed for us. Such a nice send off!

 This whole week has been packed full of well...PACKING! Once our furniture started moving out (thanks to all of you sweeties that took our furniture for "safe keeping." LOL ;) The reality of us moving really set in.

 Then once my mom-in-law who I am lovingly calling the, "Queen of Organization" came to help me pack up most of the downstairs. She did the work of 5 people getting things boxed up and labeled. I am SO appreciative for her help!

How are the kiddos doing with these changes? The kids have been having a great time playing in all of the boxes. It's like having an indoor playground. Jace is crabbier than normal, he possibly has an ear infection.
Levi and Jaeden have both said they are really going to miss this house. I know how they feel. Jon and I both will miss our Home Sweet Home. But I am excited about "starting all over again" as far as the decor goes. It'll be fun to turn a blank canvas into a home.

Also hugs all around and often have seemed to help a lot around here!

With all of these changes and our chaotic state, I just want to say a big, THANK YOU to all of you family and friends who have been praying for us, calling us and encouraging us along the way. We could not do this without out your love and support!!!

One such dear friend wrote a sweet message on her blog right here, http://www.farmergalsmarket.com/ramblings/thirty-one-days-of-thankful-friends.html  Farmer Gal you are a blessing in my life!

Only a week away from our moving date....the countdown starts today!