The Exams Are Over

On August 10th, Mark finished his required 4,800 hours in the hangar. (Check out the link to see what those hours entailed.) Here's the moment captured ... at the end of the 4,800th hour!

To mark the end of each guy's hours, the out-going apprentice hands over the Senior Apprentice Wrench/Spanner to the apprentice who is following after him. Mark handed over to another MAF UK apprentice, Andy Swanson. All the staff in the hangar also celebrate the completion of each persons hours with cake and ice cream ... and Mark took all three of his girlies up with him to enjoy the occasion!

Then began the hardest part ... the FAA Airframe and Power plant (A&P) exams. Three written exams, with a combined total of 260 questions, taken in a little test center in Zanesville, see the photos below. The oral (with 176 questions) and practical exam taken in the MMS hangar, both covering 46 different subjects. Mark studied intensely and then once he felt ready, over the space of about 4 weeks took all the elements of the exams.

The hours in the hangar Mark completed, under the supervision of MMS staff members like Mike Dunkley and Jim Newman (below), the experience he gained working on all different aircraft both in the MMS hangar and when he worked for JAARS in Papua New Guinea and MFI in Florida and all the additional study that has gone alongside that definitely paid off.

Last Wednesday (September 19th), Mark finished the final part of the practical exam and officially qualified as an A&P mechanic. Dwight Jarboe, the President and CEO of MMS, was his examiner for the oral and practical elements. On Wednesday afternoon he presented Mark with his temporary license.

Three years ago, we moved here as a family for Mark to train and qualify so that he can be of use to MAF on the mission field. In the process he has been able to assist other missions by repairing their aircraft too. Now that he has successfully completed his training we are beginning to look ahead and prepare for what's next.

Birthday Week!

Not one but two people in our family celebrated their birthday's last week! We kicked off the week (and to celebrate Mark passing his written exams) with a trip to the zoo in Columbus. Here are the two birthday beauties on the boat ride at the zoo!

Mark's birthday came first on the Monday ... with pressies, a lunch out and then ice-cream cake in the afternoon. Yes, a cake made entirely of ice-cream. Something we'd never heard of before coming here and this was the first time we'd tried one too! Yum!

Abigail and Jenny made chocolate and sparkle covered bake-pops for Abigail to share at her pre-school mid-week.

The Thursday, Abigail celebrated her 4th birthday, starting off with a mass present opening session, with different things from friends and family back in the UK, as well as here ... which Naomi seemed to enjoy too!!

Two of her favourite presents were her Rapunzel dress, which she wore all morning and her new bike which she got to ride in the afternoon.

So that the bike got a proper outing we took a trip to the park for a family bike ride and attached the new pink bike with a rod to Mark's so that she could 'help' him pedal. With Naomi on the front, Mark definitely had the hardest job on the ride that afternoon!! Of course, no trip to the park would have been complete without stopping at the playground too!

Saturday morning, we braced ourselves for a couple of hours of craziness. Abigail had asked for a princess party months ago. Then she refined her request to a Rapunzel party ... and shortly afterwards she decided she wanted a pyjama party. So we celebrated her birthday with a Rapunzel Pyjama Party, 8 kiddos, in their PJ's with pillows on a big princess fleecy blanket! That morning, she was SO excited as you can see ... and was really pleased with her Rapunzel cake which she helped put the finishing touches to!

First we played a few games, pass the parcel (very British) not something our American friends were familiar with, musical statues, musical pillows and stick the magnet on the Rapunzel poster. Then came some yummy food!

After some snacks came the cake ... which everybody loved. Every time we had tried to sing Happy Birthday to Abigail before then, she had told us we weren't allowed to because we had to wait for her cake and friends to be there!! Finally, we had pressie time and goodbye's!

It was a fun morning and a fun week. Once the party goers had left, we flopped as family in front of a movie of the birthday girls choice to recover!! Can you guess what it was? Tangled, the Disney Rapunzel movie of course! ;o)