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