Sunday, October 27, 2013

September 2013

Tim investigates an oil leak on the Cessna 150.

What's happening at Trinity Aviation Academy?


One of our students, Jessica, flew by herself (soloed) for the first time several weeks ago and has been moving swiftly though her training. We expect her to be a licensed pilot in the next couple of months. Another student, Tim, is preparing for his practical test to get his pilot license.
 
We continue to perform maintenance and inspections on the airplanes. Our primary training aircraft, the Cessna 150, has been working hard and serving well. Praise God! Our other training aircraft, the Piper Cherokee, suffered some damage a few months ago and is in the process of being repaired. We hope to have it flying again next month.
 
Lord willing, we will have a couple of new students joining us next month. With our expanding student body the facility construction is becoming critical. Please pray that all of the building inspections will go well so that the construction may continue.

Update on the Swinefords:

The house we are buying was delayed in closing, but we finally closed. Now that the closing is complete there is work we are doing on our new place. The well water system needs to be repaired, and the kitchen ceiling will need to be reinsulated and dry-walled, and new flooring will need to be installed.
 
We are still in the process of selling our current home. There are a lot of houses for sale in our area. Many of these are short sales and foreclosures. We just finished some extensive landscaping in front of our house to make it more attractive. Please be praying that we will find a buyer soon!

Answered prayers!

A few months ago I had to take Ruthy in to the ER for an extremely painful kidney stone. The cost for the ER visit was exorbitant. We applied to the hospital for financial aid. They decided to forgive 100% of the amount we owed and the physician service matched this for us, so that the amount we paid for the visit was about $180 (for the CT scan) instead of the estimated $14,700 (not a typo). God is so good! Thank all of you for your prayers and generous financial support!
 

MAF Intership

We have applied to MAF for an internship which will likely happen in the first part of next year. We don’t know where they will send us, but we have asked to go to the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa. We will keep you updated on this in future prayer letters.
Academy director Dan and prospective student David prepare the engine to be installed on the Piper Cherokee.

Prayer requests:

  • Direction for the school as we continue to make important desicions.
  • Diligence for me as I seek to get my Instrument Instructor rating.
  • God's continued provisions and additional partners for us and the other missionaries at Trinity.
  • That I would be able to work full time at Trinity Aviation Academy.
  • We have applied to MAF for an internship (2-3 months long) early next year. Please pray for us to discern God's will in this matter.
  • The second job continues to be a challenge-- continue to pray that I will have the wisdom to deal with this.
  • That we will be good stewards of ALL that we have.
Our children, Esther and Isaac, having fun.
Jessica has rebuilt the nose wheel for the Piper Cherokee and prepares to install it.
To Support the Swinefords please send a check to:

Original Design Ministries
P.O. Box 367
Eatonville, WA 98328

Write my name in the memo line.

To contact the Swinefords:

253-951-4118
andrew_swineford@hotmail.com
andyruthy.blogspot.com

Thursday, May 23, 2013

May 2013



May 2013
Greetings and blessings to our partners in God’s work,
Great things are happening at Trinity Aviation Academy.  I love working there and helping students to get ready for the mission field. I love that the school wants to get them there as soon as possible and for as little cost as possible. We want them to be on fire for God and not just pilots. I want to be a missionary pilot myself and I have had a long road.
I started schooling back in 1994 at Prairie Bible College, but the costs were causing me to go into more debt than I wanted to. I worked as a mechanic for a few years, and then got laid off in 2001.  So, next I joined the military and had 6.5 years of active duty. Next, I went back to school for my advanced flight ratings, which I finished last year.  It has been 19 years and counting.  These years have made me very passionate about helping those who God has called be able to answer that call.
What’s happening at Trinity?:
            We are still doing lots of maintenance at Trinity.  We are doing an annual inspection on one airplane, and repairing the carburetor on another.  We had some landing gear damage to another of the airplanes, which we’ll be repairing soon.  On top of all that we still need to get our advanced training airplane put back together.  There is a never-ending series of projects going on at Trinity Aviation Academy.  This is in addition to the facilities construction which is still on-going.
Update on the Swinefords:
             We made an offer on a home in Eatonville in April, but they took another offer. God has provided something else for us. We are in the process of purchasing a house in South Graham which should ultimately eliminate our mortgage payment. We hope to list our house in the next few days. Ruthy had to go to the ER for kidney stones. It was a very expensive visit and the care we got was far from ideal. We are trying to be lights in the midst of this trial.
Answered prayers!:
            We are SO thankful for all the gifts we are receiving. I don’t make enough to pay our bills every month. Yet God has been providing for us and our needs. It’s amazing because the numbers don’t add up. We have not missed any payments thanks to supporters and God’s interventions!

Prayer requests: All those involved with Trinity try to pray (wherever they are) on Mondays at 9pm

  • Direction for the school as we continue to make important decisions.
  •   Diligence for me as I seek to get my Instrument Instructor rating.
  • God’s continued provisions and additional partners for us and the other missionaries at Trinity.
  • That I would be able to work full-time at Trinity Aviation Academy. 
  •  We are considering doing short-term missions (2-3 months long) later this year. Please pray for us to discern God’s will in this matter.
  •  The second job is not quite what I expected.  It is a lot of responsibility for not very much pay—pray I will have wisdom in how to deal with this.
  •   That we will be good stewards of ALL we have.
  • Prayers concerning Ruth’s ER bill

We still hope to send out prayer cards with our support letters in the future. If people would like to meet with us in person we would love to do so. Feel free to call or email me if you would like to chat more about our ministry. More information is available on my internet blog at http://andyruthy.blogspot.com/.  You can e-mail me at andrew_swineford@hotmail.com or call me at 253-951-4118. If you can support us financially please sends checks to: Original Design Ministries P.O. box 367 Eatonville, WA 98328 with my name in the memo line.
Thank you and May God bless you,

            Andy, Ruthy, Esther, and Isaac

Monday, March 18, 2013

March 2013



March 2013
Greetings and blessings to our partners in God’s work,
What’s happening at Trinity?:
            Lots of maintenance is happening at Trinity. We are working to rebuild an airplane that sat in a barn for a long time and we are working to assemble an engine that will go into our Cessna 177RG. The weather finally cooperated so that we were able to bring home the Cessna 182 that God had provided for the school.  It was stuck in northern Idaho for three months.
Update on the Swinefords:
            I started a job at Safety In Motion Flight Center. I am their mechanic and they plan to allow me to be a flight instructor as well. It is full time, but will be good experience. They are willing to work with me so that I can still help at Trinity and also complete my instrument instructor rating. We are waiting, at least a few months, to list our house. We decided that it was a bit much to try to sell our house with a new baby, my two jobs, and my class.
Answered prayers!:
            My new job will definitely help us as we gain more support partners. It decreases the financial stress and we are very appreciative of it, but it is the same amount I was making eleven years ago—so there is still a gap. In December we received $250 in support. Thank you! In February we received $330! And praise God as of March 15th we have already received $355!! We know that God will provide for all our needs. And God has blessed us and helped provide for us with a large income tax refund. We will use this pay off medical expenses. It is a great deal more than we expected to get back and we are very excited to see God work in this way!
Prayer requests:
V  Direction for the school as we continue to make important decisions.
V  Diligence for me as I seek to get my Instrument Instructor rating.
V  God’s continued provisions and additional partners for us and the other missionaries at Trinity.
V  That I would be able to work full-time at Trinity Aviation Academy.  I feel a strong call to this ministry and my heart is in it.
We still hope to send out prayer cards with our support letters in the future. If people would like to meet with us in person we would love to do so. Feel free to call or email me if you would like to chat more about our ministry. More information is available on my internet blog at http://andyruthy.blogspot.com/.  You can e-mail me at andrew_swineford@hotmail.com or call me at 253-951-4118. If you can support us financially please sends checks to: Original Design Ministries P.O. box 367 Eatonville, WA 98328 with my name in the memo line.
Thank you and May God bless you,
            Andy, Ruthy, Esther, and Isaac

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

January 2013 Newsletter



Greetings and blessings to our partners in God’s work,

What’s happening at Trinity?:

            Trinity made the decision to temporarily suspend training students in order to finish construction and administrative tasks. We believe completing these tasks will help training go faster. We plan to restart maintenance and flight training the beginning of next month.

What am I doing during this time?:

            I have been helping my wife, Ruth, with our new son Isaac who was born December 2nd and our 21 month old daughter Esther. Right now at Trinity I am primarily doing maintenance. I am studying for my Instrument Instructor rating. This will allow me to expand who I can teach. I will be able to use my VA benefits to pay for it.  I am looking for a part time job in addition to my work at Trinity to supplement our income. This will help us while we wait for God to grant us more support partners.  I also used this time to complete the little projects that needed to be done on our house. I am keeping very busy.

Answered prayers!:

            Ruth’s labor at home went extremely well and fast. This was especially an answered prayer for Ruth’s mom who was concerned about the baby being born out of the hospital. The last bit of the pregnancy migraine went away within an hour of Ruth giving birth.

We have made great progress on our house thanks to the help of our immediate and church family. We don’t know whether we will be selling or renting it, but it is ready.

Since we sent out our first prayer letter in September we have raised just under $500 per month in support.  Some of this was from one-time gifts, and some have committed to supporting us monthly.  We are very grateful to those of you who are supporting us both with finances and prayer. This is a great start! We still have a ways to go.  Our current living expenses are $3500 per month and we are actively looking for ways to reduce this!  This is a little less than half of the amount we will need to raise when we go overseas.

Prayer requests:

  • Direction for the school as we continue to make important decisions. 
  • Guidance in finding a part time job that will give me experience that is applicable for the mission field.
  • Diligence for me as I seek to get my Instrument Instructor rating. 
  • God’s continued provisions and additional partners for us and the other missionaries at Trinity.


We hope to send out prayer cards with our support letters next month. More information is available on my internet blog at http://andyruthy.blogspot.com/.  You can e-mail me at andrew_swineford@hotmail.com or call me at 253-951-4118. If you can support us financially please sends checks to: Original Design Ministries P.O. box 367 Eatonville, WA 98328 with my name in the memo line.

Thank you and May God bless you,
            
          Andy, Ruthy, Esther, and Isaac