Jones Family Newsletter
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be
given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow
will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Mathew 6:33-34
Happy New Year, everyone!!!
Winter is beginning to settle in for us here in East Texas. It has been relatively cold and very rainy
recently, but now the sun is out and shining brilliantly. Hopefully, that is a good sign for what is to come in this
new year, 2012. Lori and I wanted to share with you our experiences we had this past year. Since we will soon
be missionaries, we thought we would try our hand at writing a newsletter. We’ll try to make it interesting for
you and will even throw in a few pictures for those who just read picture books.
First of all, this has been a wonderful year. Lori and I survived our first
year of marriage, and Lori made me sleep on the couch only 6 times! (Actually
zero times but probably should have been at least six.) We are still learning the
full meaning of husband and wife, but we are enjoying the growth we see in our
love and the journey we are taking in life together. One area of growth we
experienced was completing a program called Financial Peace University by
Dave Ramsey. If you haven’t heard of FPU before, we highly recommend it.
FPU is designed to teach basic skills in mastering your finances in areas such as
getting out of debt, building wealth, investments, insurance, and preparing for retirement. Our church held
classes every week, showed the Dave Ramsey video, and then we divided into small groups to discuss various
issues. With the program, we received a packet with a copy of all the videos, a book, a workbook to complete
each week, and access to the FPU website with lots of additional resources. This class has helped us
tremendously, and we recommend it for everyone at any stage in life. Debt truly makes you a slave to the
lender, but we are beginning to experience the great freedom there is in having no debt. We’re not quite there
yet, but all the hard work sure is paying off.
In the spring, Lori was able to substitute teach just about every day. We weren’t sure how reliable
substituting would be, but it turned out to be a steady source of income. Lori was able to regularly teach at 3
different schools, and all the teachers grew to love and appreciate her. In fact, she made it to a couple of
teacher’s fav-5 list! Then, after teaching all day, Lori headed over to a day care that is just down the street from
where we live and worked there for a couple of hours. As summer drew closer, Lori wasn’t sure what she
would do as far as working throughout the summer. Just about
that time, the day care offered her a full-time position and gave
her the 2-year old class. Then again, in the fall, they were
pleading for her to stay, and so they offered her a raise and the
3-year old class! Currently, she has 12 to 14 three-year old
kids all by herself all day. Suffice it to say, it is a very
challenging job, and she comes home very tired every day.
There are good days and bad days, great days and horrible days,
joyful days and miserable days, messy days and…messy days,
but overall, she enjoys the kids and working at the day care.
Last Christmas break, I started working in the LeTourneau University hangar and am still working there
now. I love this job, and I am gaining invaluable experience working on airplanes. We have 7 Cessna 172R
Skyhawks, 3 American Champion Citabrias, 2 Diamond Twin Stars,
1 Piper Lance, and now a Cessna U206F Stationair. In the hangar I
am greatly involved in the inspection process of each aircraft,
regularly change the oil, help out with major projects, and practice
other things from time to time such as welding. I’ve done just about
everything I’ve been learning about in school. The guys I work with
in the hangar are great teachers and are setting me up for success.
Two of them served as missionary mechanics with JAARS—one
serving in the Philippines and Papua, Indonesia, and the other in
Cameroon and Papua New Guinea.
School went very well last year as I continued my quest for my airframe and powerplant certificate.
Last spring, I learned everything there is to know about propellers, propeller systems, and avionics systems.
The summer was very grueling but fun as I learned about assembling and rigging the aircraft and engine
troubleshooting. This past fall, I only had 1 maintenance class which I enjoyed very much—advanced gas
turbine engines. Now I only have 1 semester to go before I graduate in May. This is a crucial semester as I take
my oral & practical test followed by 3 intense written tests to earn my A&P. All 4 years come down to this
moment. Please pray that I study well and am prepared to perform well on these important tests.
Lori and I had a fabulous summer. In July, we decided to travel the country to go visit JAARS in
Waxhaw, NC. We had a great time touring the hangar there, and were excited to see the hangar full of
airplanes—including the brand new Quest Kodiak that was getting
prepped to head overseas to Papua I believe. JAARS primarily
supports Wycliffe Bible Translators, and they have a very interesting
museum there as well that walks you through the origins of each
language of the world. We also took a tour of the rest of the campus
that showed various tools, mechanisms, and challenges that occur in
translating the Bible into various languages. Our favorite part of the
visit was meeting Neil and Becky DuBois. We stayed with them for
one night, and they welcomed us as one of their own. We heard about their experiences overseas and were
greatly encouraged by them. I pray we’re able to visit with them again.
After visiting JAARS, we headed down to Cape Canaveral, FL to catch the
very last space shuttle launch—the Atlantis, STS-135. The weather made us
worry, but it cleared up at the last minute and the shuttle launched! It was quite a
sight to see, and we were thrilled to be able to be a part of history.
For our 1 year anniversary in October, we celebrated by going camping in
Arkansas. It was so beautiful with all the trees changing colors. When we returned
home, we ate yummy 1 year old cake, looked at wedding pictures, and reminisced
on the past year and all of God’s blessings.
We were able to experience quite a bit in 2011, and we can’t wait to see
what God has in store for us in 2012. We are unsure of our plans upon graduation,
but we are looking in the Tulsa area at a couple of job opportunities. We ask that
you pray with us for God to reveal the next plan of action to us soon, that we
continue to trust and submit to Him, and that we lay our worries of the unknown
into God’s hands. We are nervous about this next year, but we are just as much
excited, too. Thank you for being a part of our lives, and we wish you the very best
and many blessings to you and your family in 2012!!!
For His Glory,
Bryan and Lori Jones
Bryan & Lori Jones