Centerville Christian Fellowship - A God Story!

One of the many amazing God stories in our mission journey includes Centerville Christian Fellowship (CCF), which is now our sending church.  As most of you know, Lana and I have transitioned into the Air Force Reserves.  When looking for a Reserve job, I had a phone interview with a Lt Colonel in Hawaii this past December.  Soon after the interview started he asked why we were looking at Hawaii, and I shared briefly about how God had called us to serve in aviation with PMA.  He responded with, "That's great, I have a Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) calendar hanging on my office wall and think that's great what you are going to do."  The "interview" was essentially a conversation about missionary aviation!

Part of the conversation also involved him telling me he had an Air Force Academy classmate who is a grandson of Nate Saint, one of the five MAF pilots killed by the Wadani Indians in Ecuador back in the 1950s.  He is currently stationed at Nellis Air Force Base, and I was going to a conference at Nellis in January.  So, I found him on the Air Force global email list and we were having dinner a few weeks later.  During the conversation about our missions journey, I was asked if Lana and I had a home sending church.  I said no because we've been moving all over the world the last 12 years in the Air Force.  I wrote a prayer request down in my journal on 23 Jan 15 God would allow us to find a sending church.

Six weeks later I received a Facebook message from a guy I went to high school with, Erik Spohr.  He had seen something we posted on Facebook about missions and wanted to let us know he was praying for us and thought there might be something he and his church to support us with.  I had NO idea he was a pastor of a church about 20 minutes from where two of my brothers live!  I shared how amazing that was because we had been praying for a sending church since January.  He responded that since January he and the elders of the church had been praying God would raise up a family within the church for missions or that God would send them a missionary couple to partner with!!!!  Instant goosebumps and tears filled our eyes as we messaged back and forth - only Jesus Christ could write a story like that!

On 24 May, Lana and I had the privilege of sharing our story with CCF with many of my family in the audience.  The service was closed by another prayerful sendoff by our new sending church and we're very excited to move into missions with the CCF community by our side!  

SOLI GLORIA DEO!

Liam Time!

One of the best things about my Air Force transition is more family time, especially with Liam.  He and I have had some great times together from his first time fishing, first baseball game, flying in a small airplane to St. Louis, and playing around on the farm.  He even gives me a kiss without having the threaten him with the "tickle monster" and returns a "I love you too" every now and then.  Proud to be Liam's Dad (Lilli's and Luis' too of course)!

The Ferguson Flyer - Fasten Your Seatbelts!

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THE FERGUSON FLYER
MAY 2015

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Click here (English) or here (Deutsch) to read our May newsletter.

Pressing Forward,

Lance, Lana, Liam, Lilli, & Luis

PMA Presentation @ The Hangar

After three weeks in Bavaria, we drove back to the base to wrap up some final things before departing for Michigan on May 1st.  On one particular Sunday evening, Ed and Joy Bissonnette gave us the opportunity to share our story again with The Hangar community. The Hangar is a Wednesday night Bible study run by Ed and Joy who are Cadence International missionaries to the military at Spangdahlem.

The evening was a blessing to all involved and each time we share we're encouraged by those who tell us they were encouraged to hear what God has been doing in our lives. We ended the evening with a prayerful and teary eyed send off - what better way to depart Germany!

Terminal Leave In Bavaria

A few days after my last flight in the F-16, we were started what the Air Force calls terminal leave.  We had about six weeks of holiday time left over that we hadn't used and chose the option of using it the rather than "selling" it back for money.

We spent the first week in Munich with Lana's mom and had the privilege to share our PMA story with Lana's former church.  We were completely surprised by the 60 or so people who came out on a Friday for our presentation.  It was a great mutual encouragement.

After a week, we drove to Chieming where Lana's grandparents are from.  No matter how many times  we visit this are of Bavaria it is just breath taking and you can help but stand in awe of God's creation.  On one particular day, we drove about an hour south down near Berchtesgaden in the southeastern part of Germany and went for an amazing hike.  The pictures below of the mountains were the view we had - amazing!  Having so much family time has been amazing and we're enjoying every minute of it.

After some sad goodbyes with Lana's family, we were on the road back to Spangdahlem to tie up some last things before our flight to the USA on May 1st.