On thursday, August 9, I took my last written test and received my aviation mechanic’s license–Yea! Friday was graduation and “good bye” to the class and instructors. Sunday was a farewell picnic put on by our wonderful church family that we’ve come to love over the last year.

I have been helping at the local airport after school to gain experience — here we are preparing and painting an airplane:

While we were waiting for the painter, my flight instructor (again, one of the great Christ-followers that I’ve met here in Michigan) and I took his plane up to keep my flying skills sharp:

Super Decathlon – aerobatic airplane

Right now we are praying fervently for our visa process.

Short story (I’m sure my wife will give the long version): A Brazilian religious visa requires formal bible training. To meet this requirement, we took the class; Perspectives on the World Christian movement. The certificate of completion needs to be “legalized” by the Houston consulate. We have sent these in, and been rejected, twice. Each process took 3 weeks so we feel like we’ve wasted about a month and a half in this process. We are waiting on one more seal and then we will re-submit sometime next week. Our God is amazing and can get this to go through.  After that is legalized, then we will apply for the actual visas– which we need to have before we can leave on October 25!