Glory to God !!!! We are on our Way

Wow!  It's hard to believe but we are on our way to Soldotna for Candidacy.

The last 4 months have been an amazing time of learning more about our faith in Jesus Christ and learning to rely on Him for our strength.

Nothing has happened as we have planned but all has been perfect!  As we drove away from our house and Greenville we cannot help but reflect on the prayers, love and support you all have given us as we have travelled on this journey to this point.

Please continue to pray for us continuously.  We are currently in Minneapolis waiting for our connection to Anchorage.  The kids have been awesome and so far this has been a really good experience.  I know this can only happen with the continuous hedge of prayers lifted up by you all.

In Christ

The Bodos

Candidacy is Coming into View

We leave in 3 weeks for Candidacy!  It is just on the horizon now and we are very excited!

It is amazing to look back over the last 5 months to see all God has done to prepare our family for this moment.

A few weeks ago I traveled to Alaska with the military.  We landed in Kenai, Alaska and I had the opportunity to see the Director of M.A.R.C. for a few minutes.  It was all very brief but I was able to be in Alaska, refresh the vision and bring that home to our family.  What a blessing! God's perfect timing!

The last 2 months have been the busiest months of our lives but the most rewarding as well.  We have been living with a purpose and moving towards a common goal.

Our house is almost ready to be placed on the market.  There are some projects to finish but our objective is to have it listed by the time we leave for Candidacy.

Our funds are coming together.  Our budget is $11400 and we have about 40% of that.  If you are still interested in helping with Candidacy you can send a check to:

     Taylors First Baptist Church
     200 West Main Street
     Taylors, SC 29687-2342

PLEASE MARK THE Memo Section of the check with the following:
     BODOLOSKY M.A.R.C. CANDIDACY

This journey has been an amazing journey of faith.  We never know what is over the horizon.  God has been bringing one step at a time into our view.  Now Candidacy is coming into view.  Please keep our family in your prayers as we prepare to leave for Candidacy.  We will be in Alaska from March 16th until April 7th, and when we return in April we will believe we will know the next steps God has planned for us.

Additions & Renovations





RENOVATIONS

ADDITIONS





                      &

God has been very good to us as we prepare for Candidacy and our family's transition to Alaska.  From the arrival of our healthy baby boy last week to all of the support from our friends and family.  We have had people in our home priming, painting, packing, moving and fellowshiping.  We have had really great meals every night since Caleb arrived.  The coordination of all has been the mighty work of the Holy Spirit.  There is no schedule for work and support - people just seem to call and volunteer at just the right time for just what the need is. 

ADDITIONS ...
Caleb James Bodolosky arrived in our lives on January 10th, 2011.  He is very sweet and his siblings love him dearly.
   

MOST OF THE FAMILY
(little kids are still with their other families)

FIRST BATH

GOING HOME



Everyone is loving on Caleb and adjusting to having a new baby brother in our house.  Caleb has been eating well, gaining weight and is a happy baby. The older children have been an amazing blessing with the care they have been giving to Caleb.  They help with everything and so far have a lot of joy to do so.  

 RENOVATIONS ...

The picture of our bedroom above was where we were a week and a half ago.  Thanks to the help of many great friends and family here is where the bedroom is today:

Our bathroom is still a work in progress but we are close to putting the finishing touches on it

MASTER BATH BEFORE

MASTER BATH NOW

The girl's room was a lot of fun.  I wish I had taken a before picture of their bedroom before we started painting.  The room was a hard to look at fushia color with light blue polka dots.  I took a picture of the light switch that still had some of the fushia color on it:

THE COLOR - HARD TO LOOK AT!

After a lot of paint and primer applied by our good friends from Charlotte this is where the room is today.  Hopefully the girls will sleep in their room tonight and get off of the couch.

THE GIRL'S ROOM TODAY

God is good all the time!  That is all I can say.  Sometimes there seems to be so many things happening at once we cannot keep it all straight but it all works out perfectly.
TO GOD BE THE GLORY!

COUNTDOWN TO CANDIDACY

We are excitedly preparing for Candidacy!!!!

Selling our House ...
We are moving forward in faith and putting our house on the market before we leave for Candidacy.  We have never cared to update our home and now that we are placing it on the market we are doing several projects to make our home more desirable.  Our crew has been working around the clock.  We have moved out of the master bedroom and moved our king bed into our girl's room.  Now we have a bunk bed and a king bed in this room.  On any given night there can be anywhere from 5 to 7 people sleeping in this room.  It sounds crazy but it's actually been a very fun and peaceful time.  Here are some pictures of the master bedroom:

Sarah Sanding Away on Bathroom Walls

We had a good friend and realtor tell us that if we were going to spend any time and money we would get the most return from improving the master bath and kitchen - we decided to start in the bath.



The Crew Working Hard and Having Fun



We could not exactly change the master bath without making the master bedroom somewhat similar.  The kids had fun ripping down wallpaper, repairing and sanding walls and playing tic-tac-toe on the walls.  I hope they don't continue to play games on the walls once we get them painted.

We are out of town this weekend for Air National Guard training and Jen's mom & dad and a great christian brother are at the house trying to get the walls primed and painted.  The goal is to get mom and baby in the room as soon as possible. 

Next - the living room and kitchen.

Funds... 

We are leaving for Candidacy on March 16th.  We have to pay for the airline tickets and van rental ahead of time so we need to raise our funds by February 15th.  Our budget for Candidacy is $11,000 and our church has set up an account from which they will manage the funds for us. Checks can be sent to the church office at the following address:

     Taylors First Baptist Church
     200 West Main Street
     Taylors, SC 29687-2342
PLEASE MARK THE Memo Section with the following:
     BODOLOSKY M.A.R.C. CANDIDACY

Please continue to keep our family in your prayers.  We are about 2 months from Candidacy.  At the end of Candidacy we will know if we are invited to join the M.A.R.C. staff.  Our new baby is due any day and we cannot wait to meet him.  Our house is coming along and we are praying God has a buyer ready.

Preparing the House for Market

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. 

Our house was filled with joy and excitement as we celebrated the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

As you can imagine there is also a lot of excitement and anticipation of the New Year and Candidacy.

We continue to declutter, give away, throw away and pack.  It's an amazing process of renewal in and of itself.

Prior to Christmas we sent an email with details about Candidacy.  Many have asked where they can help us prepare physically for our departure on March 16th and we promised we would provide more details prior to the New Year.

The Crew in Action Demolishing our Master Bedroom

Jennifer and I have created a list of projects and set priorities.  We are starting the projects immediately and we can always use any helping hands offered.  Our plan is to work on the following weekends (keeping in mind that at some point Caleb will arrive and we will take a small break :-)  :
    Dec 31 - Jan 2
    Jan 15 - Jan 16
    Jan 22 - Jan 23
    Jan 29 - Jan 30
    Feb 12 - Feb 13
    FEb 19 - Feb 20

The primary tasks we need help with are preparing to paint and painting.  As other tasks arise we will make those needs known.  If you have a period of time you would like to help please let us know and we will coordinate with you.

Please continue to lift our family in prayer as we move toward Candidacy.  We are very excited and drawing closer to the Lord daily.

CANDIDACY Details

Jennifer and I would like to thank each of you for supporting us through prayer during 2010 as we have explored God's call for our family to serve Him in Alaska.

We wish you and your families a very Merry Jesus filled Christmas!

We have not updated our blog since we added our full testimony a few weeks ago.  The blog and this prayer team were not our ideas - they were the input of some people we love and respect dearly.  It has been a joy to communicate through the blog and know that many of you are continually taking us to the throne of our heavenly Father through prayer.  We are grateful to be among a body of believers in Christ that take prayer this seriously and see it as the awesome privilege it is. 

Candidacy will be the final period of evaluation for Jennifer and I and our family.  We will all fly to Alaska on March 16 and we will be there for 3 weeks.  During these three weeks we will be evaluated as a family and I will be evaluated as a pilot.  It will be an exciting time of relying on God in an Abrahamic way.

Some of you have asked how you might help with Candidacy.  Some have offered financial support and some have offered physical support as we prepare our home for the market.

If God is leading you to partner with us in Candidacy through finances here is the information you will need.  Our budget is $11,040.41 and it breaks down as follows:
Airline ...................................   $5444.01
Flight Insurance .....................     $330.00
Van Rental (15 pass) ..............  $1817.20
Gas .......................................     $421.20
Lodging Anchorage (2 nights) ..     $78.00
Lodging Soldotna (3 weeks) ...   $1000.00
Food ....................................     $1050.00
Flight Evaluation ....................     $900.00

We have asked the church to receive and distribute the funds to provide accountability.  Checks can be sent to the church office at the following address:
     Taylors First Baptist Church
     200 West Main Street
     Taylors, SC 29687-2342

PLEASE MARK THE Memo Section with the following:
     BODOLOSKY M.A.R.C. CANDIDACY

If God is leading you to partner with us in Candidacy through physical support here is our plan.  Jennifer and I had a dear friend come and look at our home to give us advice on how best to prepare for the market.  We are executing step one of her advice - declutter our home.  We are also preparing a list of critical projects based on her input and will have that ready by Jan 1st.  We will post the list on the blog.  Anyone interested in helping can contact us and we will coordinate individually.

We cannot emphasize enough what you have meant to us.  You have been partnering with us from day one through your prayer and we ask that you continue this as your primary support.  If God is leading you to partner in these other ways we are humbled and appreciate it. 

It is our prayer that even through this process God will be glorified and His amazing name will be exalted!

In Christ

James & Jennifer Bodolosky

TESTIMONY OF GOD'S DIRECTION

God continues to reveal Himself in amazing ways!!!

This blog is now public and Jennifer and I realize that we are not going to have the opportunity to sit face to face with each person that reads this blog and share the testimony of God's direction in our lives.  It is our desire that God receives the praise and glory for this journey!  Therefore, we have written out our testimony and posted it below.

After reading this you may want to follow the journey from the beginning.  To do so, go to the bottom of this blog and choose OLDER POSTS.  You may have to do this more than once to get to the very bottom.  Now read your way up and you will see where God has taken us on this journey.

OUR TESTIMONY
Our family has been called by God to serve as missionaries in Alaska with Missionary Aviation Repair Center (MARC) - an aviation organization that works in close cooperation with Samaritan's Purse to bring the Hope of Jesus Christ to lost people in villages all over Alaska that are not able to be reached by road.

Jennifer was saved as a teenager when a friend invited her to church and she met Jesus for the first time.  I was saved 8 years ago when God got my attention by performing a miracle in our family.  Our first born son was two years old and suffering from untreatable epilepsy.  During a moment in time - after much prayer from Jennifer

James Jr and Jacob in dad's lap

the weekend God healed James Jr

and others - God reached down from heaven and did what the doctors said was “impossible” - He healed our son.  During this time, God put a desire in our hearts to serve Him and spread the Gospel.  We wanted to be obedient and began to pray for God to show us where He might use us to spread the Good News that there is Hope in Christ Jesus.  We have continued to grow, draw closer to the Lord, serve in various ministries and become bolder in sharing our faith.  For 8 years we have been praying and asking God for guidance for our family.  We pray at night, in the morning, at the kitchen table, in our bedroom and at the altar.  Along this journey God has blessed Jennifer and I with 8 beautiful children so we now have 8 little ones that we are training up in the ways of the Lord and they share this journey with us.  This past May (2010) God revealed very clearly to me that we are going to serve Him in Alaska.  I rebelled - of all of the possible ways we had considered serving God - Alaska was not one of them.  In my mind Alaska was a cold barren wasteland and I did not want to go there.  For the next few days I prayed about this and eventually my heart humbled and I told God that we would go anywhere if He led us.  I told Him that I would not search out Alaska but if He brings it we will be obedient.  I also did not share this with Jennifer at this time.  I decided that because she was pregnant and had a lot on her mind, that I would pray and wait for God’s direction.

I have a skill set that I never considered would be useful to God - I am an Air Force pilot.  When I was 10 years old God put a desire in my heart to fly airplanes.  For the next 8 years of my life He fanned the flames of this desire in many ways.  When I graduated from High School I enlisted in the Air National Guard as a sheet metal mechanic and at the same time I began to work on my Mechanical Engineering degree at NC State.  My plan was to apply for pilot training once I completed my degree.  In 1993 I did complete my degree and was given a slot to attend U.S. Air Force undergraduate pilot training.  During pilot training God brought Jennifer into my life.  After we married I returned to my civilian employment and continued to fly C-130s part-time in the Air Guard.  I have flown C130s for the last 15 years and I am continually humbled that God granted me the desires of my boyhood heart - to fly airplanes.  I did not realize, however, that God was preparing me for a role in which I would be able to reach those He loves in the most unreachable places of Alaska - the bush country. 

There is an amazing sequence of God's events that brought us to MARC in September 2010.  It started with God's call in May.  Then in September, at the last minute, I was asked to fly a mission to Alaska for the Air Guard because the pilots originally scheduled on the flight had to come off of the trip.  I was overwhelmed at my civilian job and really did not have time to do this but I could not resist the opportunity to see what it was that God wanted us to see.  Flying to Alaska in the C130 with a crew of 6 people and 8 passengers we had an engine problem over Canada and had to shutdown our #3 engine.  As a crew we made the decision to continue on to Anchorage and we were assured that the mechanics at the Air National Guard base in Anchorage would be able to fix the engine the following day so that we could fly our mission over the weekend.  We continued to Anchorage, landed uneventfully, coordinated the maintenance of our engine for the following day and went to our rooms at Elmendorf Air Force Base.  The next day there was an unforecast wind storm with gusts up to 45 mph and the mechanics could not climb on the big engine stands required to fix the airplane.  This meant that our airplane would not be fixed until Monday and we would be “stuck” in Anchorage for the weekend.  Because we were in Alaska and now had nothing to do for the weekend, the crew decided we needed to go fishing.  They planned the trip and I said I would go.  Now I had some unusual free time on my hands and I decided to do some research about ministry in Alaska - this is when I discovered MARC.  Initially, I did not realize this is where God wanted us to be, but He continued to put MARC in front me.  On Sunday morning I was watching our churches’ worship service on the internet and our pastor was preaching on using the skills and talents that God has created us with.  At that moment the connection was made between our desire to serve God, the piloting skills He had given me and why He had called us to Alaska.  Finally God's plan for our family was being revealed.  I decided I could not go on the fishing trip with the crew because I had to find out where MARC was, rent a car and do a little investigating so I would be prepared when I went home to tell my pregnant wife that God was calling us to frigid ice cold Alaska.  I looked on the internet to find the location of MARC and found it was 2 1/2 hours away from Anchorage.  The awesome thing is that the town MARC is located in is exactly the town where my crew planned for us to go on the fishing trip.  God had a plan and I was only starting to realize that as He opens each door we have to step through before He opens the next door.  God is amazing!

When I returned home from the trip I shared all of this with Jennifer.  With tears in her eyes she said, "I knew God would call us to something I just did not know where."  We decided to pray and wait for God to direct our steps.  About a week and half later we were both impressed by the Holy Spirit to call MARC – to call THAT DAY, October 1^st, 2010.  I did not feel prepared but since we both knew God was directing us separately to do the same thing we obeyed and called.  I contacted the Director of MARC and after a phone interview he asked us to submit our testimonies,  applications and referrals.  In addition, he encouraged Jennifer and I to plan a visit to MARC as soon as possible, so that we could get a good feel for the environment and the ministry.  In November, Jennifer and I visited MARC in Soldotna.  We had the opportunity to meet with the director, tour the facilities, share meals we many of the staff families and explore Soldotna.  In addition I had the opportunity to go on a mission with one of the crews to a village where Samaritan’s Purse is rebuilding a fishing camp for the village kids and “Wounded Warriors” returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.  It was a very short trip (out and back) but it was well worth it to see some of the people “in the field”.  During our time in Soldotna, Jennifer and I fell in love with the ministry, the people and the environment. 

We left Soldotna and waited for word from MARC to see if they would invite us to move from the Application Phase to what the call the Candidacy Phase.  We did not have to wait long.  They did invite us back for a three week Candidacy and this time they would like for the entire family to come.  During this phase they are going to evaluate us as a family, Jennifer and I as a couple and me as a pilot.  Their objective is to bring in missionaries that have a vibrant Christian testimony and a strong desire to reach lost people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jennifer and I and our kids love the ministry at MARC.  They are reaching out to people living in the most pitiful and inhumane conditions in some of these villages.  Depression, alcoholism, drug abuse, sexual abuse and even incest are prevalent in these environments.  All people have NO HOPE without JESUS!!!!  The people in these villages are not an exception. We get this and are very passionate to be part of reaching them.  We know that God is calling our family to Alaska.  We are planning to return to Soldotna as a family during the second half of March and remain there until the beginning of April.  We continue to pray for God’s direction and have asked everyone with whom we have had the opportunity to share our testimony to pray for us. 

Now we have shared our testimony with you here today and ask that you join us in this ministry by joining our prayer team …