I'm going to be updating you guys soon again with a heavy prayer request. For over the past month we have had zero rain. It being the rainy season here, it's currently on the verge of drought and it's going to be a very bad scene if it hasn't already become one. The next year most of this country it seems won't have food.
After our first week of rain, as I laid awake one night listening to the witch doctors in all the communities screaming and banging their drums I thought to myself "I want to walk over there, and have an Elijah showdown with these men. Show them who has the real authority. Not their dead ancestors, but the risen Christ."
A week later Keren, another short termer here from Alberta, said the same thing to me, that she thought we should have an Elijah showdown with them. Because we need rain, and we want God, not the curandeiro's to have the glory.
A week later Jeff came over and said that he had just had this idea as well. This week I overheard one of the missionaries here, Rick, saying the same thing to some of the local pastors who work on the farm here.
I honestly believe that we need to gather the forces, and do some battle in the heavenly realms. To show these people that our God is real, and that He is almighty. For Him to receive the glory and honour and praise. And for the rains He sends to revive the crops and save Mozambique from this impending famine.
I would love to have my brothers and sisters back home join us in this battle. That the armies of Heaven would descend and that we would witness the power of our LORD as we engage in combat.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Eph 6:12
Amen.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
A little bit on the future..
I'm pretty pumped right now.
Yeah, just like that.
So to catch everyone up on some of my thought processes the past month. And mostly just to write it all down :P
Well I'm still in Mozambique, it's a hot Sunday afternoon as I write this and we've been relaxing most of the day.
Going back a little farther now..
During our first week in Moz, Jeff and I were amazed at the vast and varied nature of projects that ASAM is a part of. We're still amazed at it btw haha. But the thing that we both saw instantly is potential. Sure they have SO many huge things going on, but 'what if..'?
What if they had MORE specialized teams come out here?
What if I had the skills to lead this project? To build this bridge?
What if they had a corporate sponsor for the cattle program?
What if more people could see what we see?
I think that a lot would happen if we were able to expand the vision of this all back in Canada.
So while we're hoping to spread the word, and promote all this amazing work that's going on here, we're also taking this personally.
I for one really hope to be able to come back to Africa in a few years, and eventually be able to move here more permanently.
But not without first getting training, schooling, and skills. If I come here to live I want to be able to contribute to things and then have the ability to expand, adapt, and drive new endeavours.
So I decided that I should start looking into school programs of things that I would enjoy doing, and looking for work to pay for things that I would enjoy doing. I came across a whole schwack of options for all of the above.
Architecture, construction, business, marketing, culinary arts, and most recently a bevy of choices tailored to International Development, Peacebuilding, Disaster Relief, and Human Security. I'm not sure what all those latest ones entail, but I'm going to be doing more research into them over the next week. They just sounded like very interesting and applicable things to have a working knowledge about.
I've also been looking into flight school, because I figure having the ability to fly is like having a superpower, but just more expensive and less effective. There are a few kicking around Edmonton, and I'm sure I'll hear about more as the time comes closer. Cooking Lake would be cool because I think it's not as busy, Centennial Flying Club I just read about yesterday at random and I think it's in Edmonton, and a few others. There's always Prairie Bible college too, but I would want to have most of my hours done for the commercial already over time, so that I wasn't sitting on a whole buttload of money to go there and try to fly a ton all at once. But their mission aviation certificate thingy would be something to look into. I don't know if it actually means anything to the rest of the world haha.
So then my question was "Well now how do I pay for schooling?" Because if I'm going to try and fly, that's very expensive, and taking any sort of education also requires money to do.
This lead to me looking into several different career paths including, Insurance Sales (probably commercial), Air Traffic Control, Costco (haha it would take me a long time to get through school and flying), or working as a lab tech at Legrand NW.
I think they would all be pretty cool jobs. I mean I love working at Costco, it's facepaced and a lot of fun. Insurance is something that I think that I would enjoy, simply because I like interacting with people. ATC is REALLY cool looking, and I like the idea of it being challenging to get into it as well. And being a Lab Tech at Legrand would be so much fun, and I know that I would learn a lot there.
But in connection with my last post and the stuff that never made it on there, I have felt as if I should pursue Air Traffic Control. I'm not sure what all that means, or if I'll actually get on with NAV Canada, or what I might learn there (knowledge-wise) that I would be able to bring to Africa, but I feel a great deal of joy and peace when I think about it. I'm really excited for the possibility to go to their school, learn fulltime all the time, run stuff on training simulators, be the best I can be. I think I'd love the job! I'm not sure if i'll make it in or not, as I mentioned they are quite competitive. They are trying to draw more people in, and I was reading that while 2008/9 were slower years because of the economy (no money, no vacations, no flights, no need to manage flights, no job, no money, no vacations for you either..) they are thinking that 2010 will start coming back to more [normal] hiring. But it sounds like they might just be trying to get a larger pool of people to choose the very few from to train and give jobs to. I think it's in the neighbourhood of 30 people in each flight region that are taken in for training (10 as each FSS, IFR, VFR), which is small, but still gives me lots of opportunity to be one of them (Lord willing!).
My thoughts are that God will do what He wants with my life. I have submitted myself to His plans and desires, I want what He wants! So since I've felt like I should (or at least am allowed to) pursue this, I have started my application. If He doesn't want it to happen, there will be numerous chances throughout the phases of testing for me to fail miserably. And if He does? Then that's what I'll do. I'm not worried about it either way. There are enough opportunities that He's presented me with, and more keep coming up. I want to serve Him. Whether I do that through being a pilot, or a lab tech, an ATC, a pasta chef, or something else, I will do it with all that I am. His plans are greater. I do feel like I need to come back to Africa, but it's up to Him whether that's three years from now, or 8 years. I'll get the training and life experience that I need to in that time, and He will bring me back in perfect harmony if I am listening.
Why worry about tomorrow? Today has enough troubles of its own.
Allllll of that said. I started my application to NAV Canada.
You have to fill out this whole online resume essentially, and then there is a short essay, followed by two online exams.
I spent a couple of days staring at the essay question wondering what to write, and then finally got down to business. Over the course of two days I wrote and reworked the essay, I wanted it to be perfect, or at least get me through to the next step. No sense in doing a shoddy 10 minute essay if that is the end of your application, right?
So yesterday I finished my essay and sent it off to NAV Canada. Right after I did that the Genny shut off 5 minutes early, so I was lucky to have it all saved and sent :)
Then I finished up the survey at the end of the initial application, but had to come sit beside the battery powered modem in the office to complete that (no power except the car batteries here). After I was done the first two steps in Phase 1, Registration and Application, I was looking curiously at the two exams. Personality & Cognitive. The personality test stated that it was NOT timed, and just to go through and take the 15-30 minutes, answer the questions with Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree, and to answer honestly, because they'll catch you cheating. Hahaha well, something like that. Basically they have a redundancy built into the questions, so it asks "Do you like to keep routine in your job?" and then 30 questions later (there were #158) they'd say "Do you like variety in your work?" and then "Do you dislike having routine?" hahaha. So I just tried to be consistent, and based on how it was worded, answer honestly. There were a few that I thought could be taken several ways, but I just answered it the first way that had come to mind, and left it at that.
So I passed the personality test! Apparently this initial tip of the iceberg assessment says that I have the personality type that would work with this job.
Then I was looking long and hard at the instructions for the cognitive exam, which sounded pretty much just like an IQ test. You have 8 minutes, 30 questions, progressively harder.
"It is very unlikely that you will finish all of the questions in the given time, simply answer them to the best of your ability and move on. Do not spend too much time on a single question."
I was pretty nervous to take it, because what if the internet died or something, but at the bottom of the page they say "If you suffer a power loss or loss of connection please call *-***-***-**** to arrange a re-exam" or something that extent.
So again, just like as I was submitting the essay wrote the personality test, I prayed and gave it all over to God. My success, my failure, this whole process. That His hand would be in it and that I would see His hand at work in it.
And I clicked 'Begin'. Super tense, me all giddily jumping in my chair.
False start. There's another page of instructions. Okay, now is the time. FREEEDOOO- oh. Nope. They have a practice test first, okay, three questions, lets rock this joint.
Ten seconds later (literally) I had correctly answered all three questions. Fair enough... Lets get this done with!!
Nope. Another page of instructions... Gosh, I thought they were just going to throw me into it!
Oh shoot, I need a pen and paper *scours the office*, darn, nothing. So I ran to Francois & Alta's place to borrow a pen. And then came running back in to begin!
Okay. Begin Test. Finally. Oh. Nope, one more page saying "After this the test will start".
At least they give fair warning!!
So then i started. :D
Which of the following is the opposite of Cold.
Chilly
Frigid
Tepid
Glacial
Frosty
-> Tepid, fair enough.
In the first 26 seconds I had completed the initial 4 questions. Each question is on a separate page, and once you submit your chosen answer the timer stops, saves your answer, and loads the next page. So I decided to keep track of my time, to see how far I would get. The thing that seemed to slow me down the most was not having my Logitech G15 mouse in my hand, I was craving the accuracy of that little guy to click the radio button and then down to the bottom of the page to click submit.
1:58, 11 Questions
2:33, 14 Questions
3:05, 17 Questions
4:02, 23 Questions
5:14, 29 Questions
6:05, 30 Questions.
Fin.
Then a review page popped up, and I was looking down at my scrap paper working out the last problem again and didn't realize the clock was still going. Crap.
6:17, Exit exam.
So I felt pretty good about myself at the end. I'm not sure if it's actually 'very unlikely' to finish that exam in 8 minutes, or if I'm just super speedy?
All I can say is that God's given me a brain, and IQ test scores from back in the day said its pretty well okay :)
So now I need to wait 'up to three business days' to get my results back on that one. I have to say I'd be pretty thrilled if they came within two days (January 12), but it's out of my control!
And now we play the waiting game...
Well we would, but I didn't post this last night.
This morning I already had gotten the message on the NAV Canada Applicant page saying that I was now moving onto the next phase! I have been given the greenlight on that exam. Haha I would love to see my score on it, I know I got the last question wrong but other than that I felt really good about it.
So now again... we play the waiting game. The next step is they email me to invite me to a 3 hour assessment session where I do a whole bevy of exams. But this portion of it takes place at my local Area Control Centre, so back in Edmonton. My part for now in this adventure is done! Let's hope and pray that the assessment isn't before I'm back in Mid-March! But Jesus has my back, so I know it will be okay.
Anyways, I'm starving. We're supposed to be painting the preschool after lunch with Francois, but it looks like the sun broke through the clouds (PS, please PRAY for rain!! We're so so desperate, and all of the crops will die if it doesn't rain lots.) and so it's going to be hot. Maybe too hot to be outside painting, but we'll see!!
Here are a few photos of our time in Africa. Just a few.
Huts in the community right near here.
Tendai & the good Sir Jeff
An unwelcome visitor! Bah.
The work team shovelling sand.
Cheers guys.
Lotsa love
Yeah, just like that.
So to catch everyone up on some of my thought processes the past month. And mostly just to write it all down :P
Well I'm still in Mozambique, it's a hot Sunday afternoon as I write this and we've been relaxing most of the day.
Going back a little farther now..
During our first week in Moz, Jeff and I were amazed at the vast and varied nature of projects that ASAM is a part of. We're still amazed at it btw haha. But the thing that we both saw instantly is potential. Sure they have SO many huge things going on, but 'what if..'?
What if they had MORE specialized teams come out here?
What if I had the skills to lead this project? To build this bridge?
What if they had a corporate sponsor for the cattle program?
What if more people could see what we see?
I think that a lot would happen if we were able to expand the vision of this all back in Canada.
So while we're hoping to spread the word, and promote all this amazing work that's going on here, we're also taking this personally.
I for one really hope to be able to come back to Africa in a few years, and eventually be able to move here more permanently.
But not without first getting training, schooling, and skills. If I come here to live I want to be able to contribute to things and then have the ability to expand, adapt, and drive new endeavours.
So I decided that I should start looking into school programs of things that I would enjoy doing, and looking for work to pay for things that I would enjoy doing. I came across a whole schwack of options for all of the above.
Architecture, construction, business, marketing, culinary arts, and most recently a bevy of choices tailored to International Development, Peacebuilding, Disaster Relief, and Human Security. I'm not sure what all those latest ones entail, but I'm going to be doing more research into them over the next week. They just sounded like very interesting and applicable things to have a working knowledge about.
I've also been looking into flight school, because I figure having the ability to fly is like having a superpower, but just more expensive and less effective. There are a few kicking around Edmonton, and I'm sure I'll hear about more as the time comes closer. Cooking Lake would be cool because I think it's not as busy, Centennial Flying Club I just read about yesterday at random and I think it's in Edmonton, and a few others. There's always Prairie Bible college too, but I would want to have most of my hours done for the commercial already over time, so that I wasn't sitting on a whole buttload of money to go there and try to fly a ton all at once. But their mission aviation certificate thingy would be something to look into. I don't know if it actually means anything to the rest of the world haha.
So then my question was "Well now how do I pay for schooling?" Because if I'm going to try and fly, that's very expensive, and taking any sort of education also requires money to do.
This lead to me looking into several different career paths including, Insurance Sales (probably commercial), Air Traffic Control, Costco (haha it would take me a long time to get through school and flying), or working as a lab tech at Legrand NW.
I think they would all be pretty cool jobs. I mean I love working at Costco, it's facepaced and a lot of fun. Insurance is something that I think that I would enjoy, simply because I like interacting with people. ATC is REALLY cool looking, and I like the idea of it being challenging to get into it as well. And being a Lab Tech at Legrand would be so much fun, and I know that I would learn a lot there.
But in connection with my last post and the stuff that never made it on there, I have felt as if I should pursue Air Traffic Control. I'm not sure what all that means, or if I'll actually get on with NAV Canada, or what I might learn there (knowledge-wise) that I would be able to bring to Africa, but I feel a great deal of joy and peace when I think about it. I'm really excited for the possibility to go to their school, learn fulltime all the time, run stuff on training simulators, be the best I can be. I think I'd love the job! I'm not sure if i'll make it in or not, as I mentioned they are quite competitive. They are trying to draw more people in, and I was reading that while 2008/9 were slower years because of the economy (no money, no vacations, no flights, no need to manage flights, no job, no money, no vacations for you either..) they are thinking that 2010 will start coming back to more [normal] hiring. But it sounds like they might just be trying to get a larger pool of people to choose the very few from to train and give jobs to. I think it's in the neighbourhood of 30 people in each flight region that are taken in for training (10 as each FSS, IFR, VFR), which is small, but still gives me lots of opportunity to be one of them (Lord willing!).
My thoughts are that God will do what He wants with my life. I have submitted myself to His plans and desires, I want what He wants! So since I've felt like I should (or at least am allowed to) pursue this, I have started my application. If He doesn't want it to happen, there will be numerous chances throughout the phases of testing for me to fail miserably. And if He does? Then that's what I'll do. I'm not worried about it either way. There are enough opportunities that He's presented me with, and more keep coming up. I want to serve Him. Whether I do that through being a pilot, or a lab tech, an ATC, a pasta chef, or something else, I will do it with all that I am. His plans are greater. I do feel like I need to come back to Africa, but it's up to Him whether that's three years from now, or 8 years. I'll get the training and life experience that I need to in that time, and He will bring me back in perfect harmony if I am listening.
Why worry about tomorrow? Today has enough troubles of its own.
Allllll of that said. I started my application to NAV Canada.
You have to fill out this whole online resume essentially, and then there is a short essay, followed by two online exams.
I spent a couple of days staring at the essay question wondering what to write, and then finally got down to business. Over the course of two days I wrote and reworked the essay, I wanted it to be perfect, or at least get me through to the next step. No sense in doing a shoddy 10 minute essay if that is the end of your application, right?
So yesterday I finished my essay and sent it off to NAV Canada. Right after I did that the Genny shut off 5 minutes early, so I was lucky to have it all saved and sent :)
Then I finished up the survey at the end of the initial application, but had to come sit beside the battery powered modem in the office to complete that (no power except the car batteries here). After I was done the first two steps in Phase 1, Registration and Application, I was looking curiously at the two exams. Personality & Cognitive. The personality test stated that it was NOT timed, and just to go through and take the 15-30 minutes, answer the questions with Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree, and to answer honestly, because they'll catch you cheating. Hahaha well, something like that. Basically they have a redundancy built into the questions, so it asks "Do you like to keep routine in your job?" and then 30 questions later (there were #158) they'd say "Do you like variety in your work?" and then "Do you dislike having routine?" hahaha. So I just tried to be consistent, and based on how it was worded, answer honestly. There were a few that I thought could be taken several ways, but I just answered it the first way that had come to mind, and left it at that.
So I passed the personality test! Apparently this initial tip of the iceberg assessment says that I have the personality type that would work with this job.
Then I was looking long and hard at the instructions for the cognitive exam, which sounded pretty much just like an IQ test. You have 8 minutes, 30 questions, progressively harder.
"It is very unlikely that you will finish all of the questions in the given time, simply answer them to the best of your ability and move on. Do not spend too much time on a single question."
I was pretty nervous to take it, because what if the internet died or something, but at the bottom of the page they say "If you suffer a power loss or loss of connection please call *-***-***-**** to arrange a re-exam" or something that extent.
So again, just like as I was submitting the essay wrote the personality test, I prayed and gave it all over to God. My success, my failure, this whole process. That His hand would be in it and that I would see His hand at work in it.
And I clicked 'Begin'. Super tense, me all giddily jumping in my chair.
False start. There's another page of instructions. Okay, now is the time. FREEEDOOO- oh. Nope. They have a practice test first, okay, three questions, lets rock this joint.
Ten seconds later (literally) I had correctly answered all three questions. Fair enough... Lets get this done with!!
Nope. Another page of instructions... Gosh, I thought they were just going to throw me into it!
Oh shoot, I need a pen and paper *scours the office*, darn, nothing. So I ran to Francois & Alta's place to borrow a pen. And then came running back in to begin!
Okay. Begin Test. Finally. Oh. Nope, one more page saying "After this the test will start".
At least they give fair warning!!
So then i started. :D
Which of the following is the opposite of Cold.
Chilly
Frigid
Tepid
Glacial
Frosty
-> Tepid, fair enough.
In the first 26 seconds I had completed the initial 4 questions. Each question is on a separate page, and once you submit your chosen answer the timer stops, saves your answer, and loads the next page. So I decided to keep track of my time, to see how far I would get. The thing that seemed to slow me down the most was not having my Logitech G15 mouse in my hand, I was craving the accuracy of that little guy to click the radio button and then down to the bottom of the page to click submit.
1:58, 11 Questions
2:33, 14 Questions
3:05, 17 Questions
4:02, 23 Questions
5:14, 29 Questions
6:05, 30 Questions.
Fin.
Then a review page popped up, and I was looking down at my scrap paper working out the last problem again and didn't realize the clock was still going. Crap.
6:17, Exit exam.
So I felt pretty good about myself at the end. I'm not sure if it's actually 'very unlikely' to finish that exam in 8 minutes, or if I'm just super speedy?
All I can say is that God's given me a brain, and IQ test scores from back in the day said its pretty well okay :)
So now I need to wait 'up to three business days' to get my results back on that one. I have to say I'd be pretty thrilled if they came within two days (January 12), but it's out of my control!
And now we play the waiting game...
Well we would, but I didn't post this last night.
This morning I already had gotten the message on the NAV Canada Applicant page saying that I was now moving onto the next phase! I have been given the greenlight on that exam. Haha I would love to see my score on it, I know I got the last question wrong but other than that I felt really good about it.
So now again... we play the waiting game. The next step is they email me to invite me to a 3 hour assessment session where I do a whole bevy of exams. But this portion of it takes place at my local Area Control Centre, so back in Edmonton. My part for now in this adventure is done! Let's hope and pray that the assessment isn't before I'm back in Mid-March! But Jesus has my back, so I know it will be okay.
Anyways, I'm starving. We're supposed to be painting the preschool after lunch with Francois, but it looks like the sun broke through the clouds (PS, please PRAY for rain!! We're so so desperate, and all of the crops will die if it doesn't rain lots.) and so it's going to be hot. Maybe too hot to be outside painting, but we'll see!!
Here are a few photos of our time in Africa. Just a few.
Huts in the community right near here.
Tendai & the good Sir Jeff
An unwelcome visitor! Bah.
The work team shovelling sand.
Cheers guys.
Lotsa love
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