So, you want to know more about us....
Well, here it goes.
Joel was born and raised in Brazil. His parents and his grandparents were missionaries here. From a very early age, he wanted to be involved in missionary aviation. At the age of 17, he left Brazil and went to the United States to finish up high school and go to college. He attended LeTourneau University in Longview, TX. His plan was to fly, but ended up getting a degree in aviation technology/electrical technology instead.
I (Michawn) grew up in a very small town in Louisiana in a Christian home. I never wanted to be a missionary. : ) I went to college and became a registered nurse.
After college, I stayed in East Texas, but moved to Longview, TX. I started attending Church on the Rock there.
In 1999, Joel also started going to Church on the Rock and we were both very active in the college/career ministry there, Life Challenge. I enjoyed going on the yearly mission trips with Life Challenge. In the spring of 2000, Joel and I both went on a mission trip with them to Panama; Joel was a co-leader on the trip.
After that trip, two things began to happen: 1) God completely changed my heart about missions and I knew that I was supposed to be in missions full-time, 2) God began to put Joel and I together. By September 2000, we knew that we were to be married. We started dating, were engaged a month later on October 28, 2000, and were married February 17, 2001.
We then moved to Phoenix, AZ where Joel had begun working for Honeywell. During his time at Honeywell, he was able to get his pilot's license and all of his ratings required to go into full-time missions as a pilot. He worked for Honeywell for 4 ½ years. In the summer of 2005, we moved back to Longview, TX and Joel began working as an airplane mechanic at a shop where he had worked during college so that he could brush up on his mechanic skills.
At the beginning of 2006, we started the process of preparing for going full-time as missionaries. Joel stopped working as a mechanic, he got his flight instructor's license, he worked as a flight instructor for a while, we sold our house, and we visited Brazil and were accepted with the organization Asas de Socorro. We moved here to Brazil in June 2007 and began the training/assimilation process here in Anapolis, Goias (central Brazil, where the headquarters is located). When we are done with our training, we will be transferred to one of the 5 flight bases in the Amazon region. Exciting, right? LOTS of transition, for years on end. But, what a great adventure we are on...it is so worth it.
We are extremely excited about where God is taking us, doing in us and what He has planned for us. We have four children (so far) who are coming along for the ride: Grady, born January 3, 2004; Hadley, born February 20, 2005; Eissa, born October 10, 2006; and Cass, born March 25, 2008.
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