First Week

Today marks the end of my first week on my internship.

For the last week I have had the privilege of working alongside MFI pilots and mechanics, observing and helping with their day to day tasks in the hangar. While working as a mechanic has not historically been my favorite part of my training, I have been pleasantly surprised at how much I have enjoyed working in this capacity. This is the first time I have been able to use these skills outside of my schooling! Seeing the fruit of all of the hard training over the past 6 years has been a huge satisfaction, and all of you that support me get to share in it too!

I'm staying with a generous couple that both serve with MFI in differing capacities. I have been very challenged and encouraged by the different stories they have shared with me about their experiences as missionaries. I am very thankful to them for all that they have shared with me in just a week!

Although I have been busy at MFI, I also had the chance to visit the beach, eat some Chick fil a (we don't have them in Spokane), and even visit with my Dad who was in FL on a business trip! It has been a long time since we have had some one on one quality time, so it was an immense blessing to get to spend time with him. 

For the next 3 weeks I will continue to work in the hangar as a mechanic with MFI. Please pray that I will be useful to them and that I will learn new skills!

Following that stretch of time Katie and I both will be traveling to Haiti with MAF(Mission Aviation Fellowship) on what they call their vision trip. MAF has been the main mission organization that we have been considering serving with, so we are excited to see what their operation looks like. It will also be our first cross-cultural trip together, and we are excited to serve as a team and to learn more about what supporting one another in ministry looks like. 

Pray With us Please!

We are eager to share our hearts with you and to ask for prayer in a few different areas. 

Firstly, this has been the longest that Katie and I have been apart. Please pray against discouragement and for good communication while we are at such a far distance for the first time in our marriage. 

Secondly, please pray for us as we are considering so many different options for our future. We feel needy for wisdom and clarity as we are trying to evaluate the different options that sit before us. As we are trying to choose a path, we are filtering them through our list of needs: a healthy family, stewarding our gifts and our finances, and with that aiming to serve God by meeting the needs of others. We want to ask for prayer for not only clarity and direction, but also for humility and faith to trust that God is leading and guiding us even though not much is clear at this point. 

Lastly, we have not quite reached %100 support for this internship/trip to Haiti. We have about $1500 to raise in the next 3 weeks before we leave. 

If you are praying for us- we would love to know and to hear from you! We truly desire to partner with supporters- we need and long for fellowship with you!

If you are interested in supporting us through financial giving, you can send a check to PO Box 11741 Spokane Valley, WA 99211 Thank you and blessings to you all.  

junior year beginnings

As of this week I am a junior in college!  Where has the time gone?  I am now in my 3rd year of the Missionary Aviation training program at Moody and my 2nd year in Aviation Maintenance Technology (AMT) training.  Our semesters and scheduling is nontraditional so it is slightly confusing.

I wanted to take some time to update on some of the little things that are going on.  Right now our class in the Airframe Welding section.  I have spent the last two days looking through goggles moving a molten puddle of metal at 4,000 degrees F.  It is tedious and difficult because welding is an art and takes much practice. I went into this section with the idea that it would be more technical...not at all.  See with something like Aircraft Electrical Systems power goes in through one wire and then travels according to the wiring diagrams, not much room for creativity or deviation.  However, with welding it is about using all of your senses to know when the weld is just right.  I have revamped my approach.  When I am sitting at my welding station with the green tank of oxygen and red acetylene tank I have to imagine that I am sitting at a piano.  When I go into this mindset (mostly an attitude of patience and allowance of mistakes) I find it much less tedious and upsetting when I don't get things right.  You know I love playing the piano and creating music for people and God to hear, I think I will start welding with that same idea...it does sound weird though.

We have a two week break coming up here very soon.  Our class is most ready and eagerly waiting in anticipation, we have been going nonstop since February and we are ready to take a breather even if it is only for two weeks.   Before that break though I and some buddies from my class will venture to Portland for a little weekend getaway. My friend Travis' family has 300 acres in that area so we will have some R & R on his ranch.  Then the weekend after that I will head to San Diego for a mini family vacation. Hopefully we can go sailing and do fun things like that.  We will be celebrating early Camille's 16th birthday in style under the Cali sun!  It will be good to see Philip and Emily (I have not seen them in a while).  Then the next weekend is the start of break, so these next few weeks will be packed but I am excited to see friends and family.  I am not sure if I am coming back to Liberty over that two weeks because I am in a wedding here on Aug. 11th. We shall see.

I will do better this upcoming semester with updating the blog.  I hope you enjoy it and I pray that the Lord continues to bless you; He is good and faithful to care for His children.  

the path to becoming a missionary aviator

This update is to give you a clear knowledge of what the near future will look like in regards to the actual Moody Aviation Program.  This is my last semester of biblical studies.  The next three semesters are going to be devoted to aircraft maintenance (Airframe & Powerplant certifications).  The last two years will be devoted to actual flight!  I will leave with private and commercial licenses and also visual and instrument ratings.  I do have the opportunity to become a flight instructor at the end of my studies as well.

Moody Aviation used to be partnered with Spokane Community College (SCC) for the mechanic side of the training   However, due to the growth we are experiencing at Moody Aviation, the limited space at SCC and the raise in their tuition prices, Moody has opted to start their own aircraft maintenance program (Moody A&P)!  This not new for Moody.  For a long time Moody had their own A&P program but when they moved from Tennessee to Spokane around 2001 they partnered with SCC for simplicity in the program.  Now they are bringing it back their own program and my class is the guinea pig.

Our semester starts on January 30th with a 3 week modular course of Survey of Theology II.  This is going to taxing, but amazing at the same time.  Our actual A&P training does not start until March 5th and we go until August 3rd.  So we have no summer break and I will not get to see anyone this summer.  It is definitely a sacrifice, but a worthy one.

This program is rigorous and I ask that you keep praying and keep praying.  God is the only thing that will sustain me.  If you ever have any questions or ever want to talk please give me a call or email.  I truly desire to maintain the relationships I have back in Liberty and elsewhere.  You all are an immense blessing to me and I thank you that you are willing to walk alongside me in this adventure.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Andrew Meeks

jameeks1@gmail.com
816.645.1376

encouraged and blessed beyond measure

When one travels 1700 miles across the country alone, 36 hours of driving, this person naturally has some time on their hands to ponder about life.

For the past month I have earnestly asked God to provide supporters for my schooling at Moody Bible Institute in Spokane, WA.  Not necessarily financial supporters, but a group of people that would commit to encourage and bless me through prayer and also in advocacy for the pursuit of my specific calling to missionary aviation. And God is always faithful...

The main source of support I received from these people was prayer.  It is a surreal experience when you can actually feel the power of prayer.  Not like a palpable sensation, but in my spirit I knew that I was being covered, more smothered, in prayer by people back at home.  I had an overwhelming sense of peace leaving Liberty and heading to Spokane.  I knew that there were angels ministering to me as I traveled (mainly keeping me awake and alert).  I am so thankful for these faithful brothers and sisters of God's family that have committed to pray for me in my travels.  Not only that but their continued prayer as I begin my second year here.

The second form of support was monetary.  I am grateful for the generosity that God has enabled in these specific people.  It was not only assisting me in getting out here to school and providing essentials, but it reaffirmed God's faithful commitment to provide for my needs through his servants.  God continues to shower His providence on me and my prayer for those who have given to me in one or both of these forms is that they would be repaid much greater than what they gave.

If you are reading this it is most likely that you are one of these wonderful people that I have described above.  You know very little of the impact your partnership in my journey has on me and the Kingdom.  Your investment into my life has one purpose: to see that the gospel is spread through my life.  Wow is that a weighty call!  I know your support is not just so I can live comfortably at school or even have food in my stomach. Your contribution is to support me in that I may be more able to faithfully administer the gospel to the people that I come in contact with, here and now and later on in my life!  You are investing in God's work to build His Kingdom on this earth.  I am just a man.  God is God using you and me to see that His perfect will is achieved here on earth.  Be encouraged and blessed beyond all measure knowing that you are faithfully acting in God's work.  I hope and pray that through giving of yourselves you continue to be assured of your faith and salvation in Christ.  You are a member of the royal priesthood building on the cornerstone that is Christ.

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:4-5 (ESV)

Continue to build on the foundation of Christ by offering yourselves and your God-given possessions as sacrifices so that you may worship God all the more.  We serve a God who is so worthy of ALL and MORE praise than we could ever offer!  Continue to worship Him as he deserves.   And again thank you for all that you have done to bless me thus far.

Soli Deo Gloria (Glory to God Alone)