To a New Year

Firstly, Happy New Year!

Or not, if you're reading this later. In which case, happy day!

It's been a good year, but I'm not going to wax poetic about that. I want to talk about this month instead.

I officially started with MAF on December first, and God has been going ahead of me throughout the support raising process. It had been only a month, and I'm already past 25% of my support!

Thank-you to everyone who is supporting my ministry. Seeing this response has been a huge encouragement for me!

Last week I flew back to BC to spend the Holidays with my family. I conveniently "forgot" to tell my parents that I was coming, so they were very happy to see me on Christmas Eve. We then spent a few days in a cabin near Wells Gray Park, where we had no reception or internet (sorry if you tried to get a hold of me). We spent the day snowshoeing, reading, and playing cards.

Our little cabin in the woods

This weekend I will be heading down to the MAFUS base in Nampa for candidacy. I will be there for two weeks learning more about MAF, and about working cross-culturally.

I will then be returning to Kamloops, where I will be speaking briefly at Sahali Fellowship Church on January 18th (feel free to come if you're in the area), and meeting with friends and supporters. If you're in the area and want to have coffee, let me know!

Thank-you (again) to everyone who is supporting my ministry, thank-you to everyone who has been praying for me, and thank-you to you, for reading this.

As always, if you want to hear more, you can check out my webpage here, or my Facebook page here. Or you can e-mail me at dvilleneuve@maf.org.

Thank-you everyone, may the Lord bless you through 2020.

The Beginning

Saturday was my last day at my job here in Red Lake. I am now full-time with Mission Aviation Fellowship, preparing to serve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

As I said in my last post, my first ministry assignment is to build up a ministry partnership team that will pray for me and contribute to the financial needs of my ministry. And so, that is what I have started doing today.

From one of my last flights

I am excited to start this new season, though I am sad to leave the job I have had for the past two and a half years. Looking back, I can see how the Lord has been preparing me for this ministry, and I praise Him for His faithfulness.

From my last day

I am excited to see what God will do in and through me in this next season. Though I am nervous, I have faith that everything will work out for His glory.

Please prayerfully consider whether the Lord is calling you to invest in this MAF ministry; your support can impact so many lives for Christ.

Wherever the Lord leads you, please pray for me as I build my team and share about the calling that God has placed on my life.

You can learn more about my ministry at my webpage by clicking here, or through my Facebook page by clicking here.

Thank-you for reading, thank-you for your support, and God bless!

Dominic

On The Next Chapter

When I left off on my last post, I was getting ready for candidate orientation with Mission Aviation Fellowship in Guelph.

Well, that was last week, and now I'm back in Red Lake. It was a great week, the folks at the home office are great, and I learnt so much! It was also a blessing to go through this orientation with the Stutzmans, who were friends of mine when I was at Prairie.

A big chunk of the week was spent learning about ministry partnership, the art of sharing God's calling on my life, and inviting others to partner with me, both in prayer and financially. I also learnt a lot about how MAF works, and what the next year will look like for me.

Myself and the Stutzmans at the MAF headquarters

What do I mean by "the next year"?

Well, while I was in Guelph, I found out that I will be serving in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a french speaking country in central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa, and the largest french speaking country in the world.

MAF has been in DR Congo since 1961. Today, they have three bases, ten aircraft, and employ seventy nationals. MAF is committed to supporting the Congolese church with aviation and communication technology.

DRC is in central Africa, right on the equator

In the past 20 years there has been widespread violence, particularly in the east of the country. At the moment there are over 100 armed groups, making everyday life very difficult for the Congolese church. Add to this an Ebola outbreak that has claimed thousands of lives, and the need for a service like MAF is critical. If you want to learn more about MAF's work in the DRC, click here

Keeping pilots and passengers safe from Ebola

But before I can go to the DRC, I need to build up a team of prayer warriors and financial supporters. So that's what I will be doing over the next little while. It usually takes about a year to raise all the support needed, though I have heard of people getting there in substantially less time. The raw numbers are simple enough, I need to raise 6000$ in monthly support, and 30,000$ in one time support.

If you want to hear more about what I am doing, there is a ton of ways to do that. Of course if you see me on the streets, say hi! You can also leave a comment on this post, e-mail me, follow me on Facebook, or you can check out my MAF page!

I'll have prayer cards soon, so if you want one, let me know! If you want to sign up to receive my newsletter, let me know! If you have any questions, let me know! I you want to get together for coffee and chat, let me know! Basically, if you want to touch base with me, let me know!

 If the Lord is leading you to support my ministry, let me know, or just go to my MAF page and follow the links there. You can also call or email them (their contact info is on the website).

Please pray for me as I begin this new chapter and start sharing God's calling on my life, and building a support team.

Blessings to everyone,

Dominic

Completely unrelated to MAF, but we had a nice sunrise the other day

Onwards and Forwards

Well, fall has come and, in my neck of the woods, almost gone. We are falling back into our cold weather routines and, in a way, I love it.

SO

MAF has invited me to join them for their orientation class in Guelph the week of November 4th. I will be learning about ministry partnership (the part where I go around asking for prayer and money), as well as the nuts and bolts of MAF. Shortly after that week is done, I will  be heading out to raise support and ministry partnership full-time. There is still a lot of unknowns about exactly when I will do this, and where exactly I'll go, and what exactly I will be doing. Most of that should be sorted out while I'm there, or shortly thereafter.

I'm looking forward to it, but I'm also a feeling quite a bit of trepidation about starting out on this new journey. I know I've had almost a year of preparation to get ready, but the rubber is about to hit the road, and I'm going to have to take a very real leap of faith as I get ready to leave my work to raise this support.

Please pray for me as I go ahead with this that I would find peace in the knowledge that I am following in the Father's calling.

The snow started coming down this week. It looks cool with the fall colours

















 

 

I got to go on a fly-out moose hunt this fall

We were way out in the bush

And the weather was brutal!

We didn't get a thing.

Back Home

Well, I'm about a week late posting this, but hey, better late than never!

Last week I was in Nampa, Idaho doing my technical evaluation with MAF. I'll cut to the chase now; I got a positive recommend. Thank-you all for praying for me!

It was a lot of fun, but also very stressful. It all started when my flight out of Winnipeg got cancelled. Unfortunately the soonest they could get me to Idaho would be the evening the next day, but I had to be starting my evaluation in the morning! Thankfully the folks at MAF are super flexible and understanding, and we were able to fit everything we needed to do in four days instead of five.

But the Lord has a hand in everything, and as a result of that flight cancellation I had a chance encounter with a missionary working in Winnipeg, and was greatly encouraged. And to then, as if that wasn't enough, I was able to have lunch with an good friend of mine from my Thompson days!

Well, finally I made it down to Idaho and began my evaluation. The TE consists of three flights in a 206, and a flight (broken into two parts) in a flight simulator. They not only want to see that I have skill as a pilot, but also that I am a teachable pilot.

The flights were a lot of fun, but also very stressful. They intentionally don't give any feed-back after each flight, so you have to put mistakes behind you and keep pushing on.

Finally, Friday came, and I went in to debrief and find out what they thought. It was scary walking up those stairs to talk to them, all I could think about was all the mistakes I made! But thankfully they saw more positives than I did, and so I walked out of that office greatly relieved.

Now I have the next step in my application process. MAF has sent me a mountain of questionnaires asking about my mental, physical, and spiritual health that I need to answer. It's gonna be a bit of work.

Thank-you all for your prayers, please continue to pray for me as I continue to work towards ministry.

Blessings,

Dominic

The Cessna 206 that I flew while in Idaho. MAF has added extra fuel tanks to the wing, allowing it to take off on very short strips. On the left is a picture of that 206 next to a caravan; the kind of plane that I fly here in Red Lake.

Time For My Next Test

Hello all,

Things have been progressing with my MAF candidacy. In March, I did my GPSS (Global Pilot Selection System) assessment. It was a pretty intense all-day assessment of my mental capacity as a pilot. The ten page report that I received once it was all said and done is designed to be pretty honest about me and point out my weaknesses with no real flattery. It certainly took me down a couple pegs, and forced me to take a good, long, and humbling, look at myself.

Fortunately, MAF chose to continue with my candidacy, and now I am preparing for the next step in all this.

And so, I will be traveling down to Boise, Idaho to do my technical evaluation from August 12th to 16th. This evaluation will practically test my skill as a pilot, and how I face challenges throughout my work day.

Please pray with me as I go down for this; that I would demonstrate my skills without letting the nerves of an evaluation get in the way.

Meanwhile, I have not been idle here in Red Lake. Unsurprisingly, most of my time has been taken up with work. Summer is our busy season as the only way to access any of our destinations becomes an airplane. The past month or so in particular has been difficult as the fire situation here became very intense with several immense fires burning out of control near a few communities.

Believe it or not, There is not a cloud in the sky in that top-right picture. That is all smoke from the fires.

I still managed to get some personal time though: My sister came to visit me for a few weeks, and then I was able to go to BC for a few days for her graduation.

 I picked my sister up in Winnipeg in one of the company planes and flew her back to Red Lake. I didn't get a picture of it, but they actually rolled out the red carpet when I parked in Winnipeg!
One of the fun, exciting things that happen every year here is the Sucker run. These fish come up the creeks to spawn in such large numbers that you can just reach into the water and pluck them out with your hands. My sister was in town at just the right time, so of course we went to see it.



Please pray that the Lord would guide my steps as I look forward to MAF, and that I would be focused on Him as I serve here in Red Lake.

One Step At A Time

This isn't a long post, I just want to update about MAF and life.

When I last posted in November I had just sent in my application to MAF. Well, a couple weeks ago I did an interview with them via Skype. Last week I got an e-mail saying that the selection committee is happy with my application up to this point, and that we are going to continue with the process. So that's exciting.

Up next, I have to do some assessments and evaluations as well as deal with some paperwork.

Please pray that all of this would go smoothly, both as I travel for these assessments and during the assessments themselves.

Of course, I haven't been sitting around doing nothing since November, Christmas happened, which was fun, of course. And during the new year I was able to go to England to visit my extended family and attend a wedding. Now here in Red Lake, the weather is finally starting to warm up (we'll see how long that lasts), so I've been trying to get out every now and then.



Please pray with me as I go into this next chapter, one step at a time.

Dominic

  The beauty that I see every day is a wonderful reminder of God's divine nature.

 My philosophy living in a cold part of the country is that if you're stuck with it, you might as well enjoy it. Skiing and snowshoeing are common pass-times for me, and a few weeks ago I got to ride in a dog sled for the first time. Also, a good ice-
 beard is something to appreciate.

 England was cool. We spent some time in London, and also visited the seven sisters, on the south coast.