Performing Surgery on MAG's 206

It's always exciting to be visited by pilots and other representatives from the organizations that MMS serves. It's encouraging to hear stories from the field, and to gain a better understanding of how our work at MMS impacts missionary work around the world. For two weeks, Sean Donnely from Missionary Air Group has been at MMS. We had the opportunity to hear about the work that MAG is doing in Honduras and Guatemala, and Dale and I had the opportunity to show him the work we have been doing on MAG's Cessna 206.

Cowling after modification and repair.

Lately, I have been removing corrosion from the cowling of the airplane, repairing the affected areas, and making some other modifications. The first photo shows the half of the cowling I completed last week. After cleaning it and stripping the paint, I moved the oil check door (to prepare for an engine conversion), which involved cutting a hole for the new door, fabricating some shims, riveting the door in place, then patching the hole where the door was previously located. I also cut out an area of corrosion in the skin and installed a flush patch, and made a reinforcement for another area that had been damaged.

The other half of the cowling had significant corrosion, as shown in the pictures below. At times I've felt like a surgeon, carefully cutting out this "cancer" that will continue to spread if it's not removed, trying not to damage the parts that are still in good condition. When I'm done, it will bear some scars (patches), but will be in a condition to fly for many more years. I'm investing significant time and effort in this project, and it has been a great learning experience for me. More importantly, my repairs will allow the airplane to return to service as an air ambulance in Guatemala, in an airworthy condition.

You may wonder why, with such extensive damage, we don't just buy new cowlings instead of investing weeks of our time to repair them. Well, it turns out that each cowling is priced at over $5,000! Even in good used condition, the two pieces would cost several thousand dollars each.

One of the things I love about MMS is that even in the course of my apprenticeship, I am making a meaningful contribution to the missionary aviation community. In the process of learning how to do this sheet metal project, I am not just developing my skills as a mechanic; I am helping to save potentially thousands of dollars for missions organizations like MAG, and to get their airplanes back on the mission field.

I look forward to finishing my repairs soon, and I'll share pictures of the finished product when that time comes!

My Rights as a Christian

In the United States, we love our rights. Many of our foundational values revolve around liberty, individual rights, equality, fairness, and justice. And these are all good principles upon which to base a society. But what do we do when the exercise of our rights comes into conflict with the rights of others?

As I thought about my rights as a Christian, here are some things that came to mind. Without referencing any particular Scripture, these are some things I thought of based on my knowledge of the New Testament, and particularly the words of Jesus and the writings of Paul. Here are some of my rights as a disciple of Christ:

• to consider others better than myself, and put their needs above my own
• to put myself in the place of least importance
• to suffer for the name of Christ
• to lay aside all my "important" accomplishments, degrees, titles, and accolades for the sake of Christ
• to be wronged so that the name of Jesus is held in high regard
• to crucify my pride and live a life of humility
• to boast in Christ rather than brag about myself

These are in stark contrast to the typical American mindset. We often hear things like:

• look out for Number One
• above all else, pursue personal happiness
• take pride in your accomplishments; you've earned them!
• make sure you get what's coming to you
• we need to be self-confident and self-esteeming
• it doesn't matter what anyone says about you; you are amazing!

Without realizing it, we have let many of these attitudes creep into the church. Now, certainly, there are great blessings that come with being a child of God! We have been adopted into His family (Ephesians 1:3-6) and have received an inheritance that will never perish, spoil or fade (1 Peter 1:3-9). We have an eternal hope to look forward to (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). Jesus told his disciples that they were friends of God (John 15:15). But I fear that we have become confused, believing that the rights of sonship, and these spiritual blessings, are somehow supposed to be fully realized here on earth, and exercised in our relationships here.

But if you read the context of the verses I cited from 1 Peter, the gospel of John, and 2 Corinthians, you will see that they all refer to the trouble that Christians will face on earth. Indeed, Jesus even promised his disciples that they would be hated on account of him! When it comes to our relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ, Paul says that we should rather be wronged and cheated rather than exercising our legal rights to bring charges against them (1 Corinthians 6:7-8). For further reading about our Christian "rights", consider James 4:6-10, Philippians 3:7-11, Philippians 1:27-39, Matthew 10:21-22, and Galatians 6:14.

As an American, my first reaction when I am wronged is sometimes to seek immediate justice. But as a Christian, my first response should be to lay down my rights, and my very life, for Christ and for those He has called me to serve. As I think ahead to the time we will serve in cross-cultural ministry, I can only imagine the ways in which our "rights" will be violated, and we will need to follow the example of Christ in the way we react to these situations. Lord, strengthen me by your Spirit as I seek to follow your example of humility, service, and self-sacrifice!

First Week in the Hangar

Last Monday I started working in the hangar at MMS! I had been looking forward to that day for quite some time, and was glad to finally get to work! As expected, however, they don't set new apprentices loose on aircraft right away. The first couple days involved a safety briefing, introduction to the shop equipment, and a "pre-service" orientation. After that, I began my "basic training", which will give me a foundational understanding of the tools and methods used in aircraft maintenance and repair. I was also assigned the responsibility of opening the hangar for the next few months, which will help me to be intimately familiar with the facility.

This week's basic training involved an overview of the tools used in aircraft maintenance, and the processes used for ordering and receiving parts at MMS. I learned about aircraft hardware, as well as safety wiring techniques used on airplanes. I practiced fabricating rigid and flexible fluid lines, and learned about the different types of lines that are used in the aircraft I'll be working on at MMS. Finally, I began working on my first sheet metal project, which involves cutting, drilling, and riveting aluminum sheets. 

My basic training is expected to last about a month, and after that I will begin working on aircraft under the supervision of licensed mechanics. I still need to learn additional metal forming techniques, control cable fabrication, welding, and more. There are also aircraft-specific regulations that I will need to be familiar with. There is a lot to learn, and I'm looking forward to putting my new skills into practice as I help to prepare airplanes for worldwide mission service!

Below is a picture of my new "desk", and some of the airplanes in the hangar. I plan to post some more photos (and hopefully a video) soon, so stay tuned!

The red toolbox is my new "desk". It sure beats sitting in a cubicle! In the background is MAG's Cessna 206, which will be heading to Guatemala when it is complete. On the left is a Cessna 182 belonging to Moody Bible Institute.

A few of the airplanes being stored in Hangar C. On the left is a Cessna 172 that belongs to Brigade Air. It had previously been restored by MMS (video here).

The Month in Review

Seeing as how we haven't posted since Christmas Eve, we are overdue for an update! If you follow us on Twitter or Facebook, you know that we moved to Coshocton at the beginning of this month and are about ready to start full time with MMS Aviation. Rather than try to catch up with a detailed post, we'll just go with a bullet list of highlights from the last month.

• We spent most of Christmas break cleaning and packing the house in preparation for our move. We wish we could have just enjoyed our time off, but the bright side is that the kids got some extra time with their grandparents.
• My last day at Dana was January 3. I worked with some great people there, but I'm very happy to be getting out from behind my desk and into missionary aviation!
• With the help of many family members and friends, we got packed up and moved the first weekend of January. We were blessed tremendously by all of the people who helped us!
• We spent a couple weeks unpacking, getting settled, and taking care of all the details involved with moving.
• Our family took a mini-vacation so we could get some quality family time, after having been so busy packing and moving.
• We enrolled the kids at Coshocton Christian School. It is very small—so much so that second and third grade are combined. It's been interesting having both kids in the same class despite being a grade apart!
• The weather in Ohio has been much colder than usual, meaning lots of school delays and cancellations! 
• We also had the kids out of school a few extra days around the time of our move. Between these and the "calamity days" (due to snow and sub-zero temperatures) I think we will remember December 2013 and January 2014 as the winter our kids didn't go to school. In fact, the kids have only had two full days of school in the past month!
• I started studying some of the written material for my Airframe and Powerplant Certificate, and will start working in the hangar at MMS on February 10. I can't wait!

Now that we are almost settled into a routine, we'll hopefully be posting updates on a more regular basis. And starting next month I'll be able to share about the projects I'm working on in the hangar. I hope you'll enjoy getting a glimpse into our life and work with MMS!

Merry Christmas!

The last few weeks have been busy with packing, house hunting, wrapping up things at work, and saying goodbye to friends. We are still planning to move the first or second week of January, and have all-but-decided on a rental property. But the details will have to wait for another blog post!

I also want to write about some other things I've been thinking about recently: generosity, extravagance, and the "foolishness" of following Christ. But a post on that will have to wait too! For now, I'll just touch on the last one. Not only does it seem foolish in the eyes of the world to give everything to follow Jesus, but the very message of the cross of Christ is foolishness.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is God’s power to us who are being saved. For it is written: 

      I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
      and I will set aside the understanding of the experts. 

Where is the philosopher? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn't God made the world’s wisdom foolish? For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the message preached. For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom, because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
(1 Corinthians 1:18-25)

This time of year, we celebrate another story that seems ridiculous to those who do not believe: the story of God himself coming to earth in human form, born of a virgin as a baby boy. But for those who believe and who have been born again (John 3:3-7, 16-18), it is the perfect life of this God-man, along with His eventual death and resurrection, that brings us life and hope!

Whether you are spending the day with friends and family, or find yourself in a lonely or difficult situation, I pray that you will find hope in knowing Christ. May you know the joy and blessings of Jesus this Christmas!

House Hunting and More

Over the past several weeks we have been on the hunt for one of the elusive rental properties of Coshocton County. An influx of temporary workers has led to a decline in the number of properties on the market, and quality rentals are few and far between. We've had our sights set on a few possibilities, but have yet to pull the trigger.

Seriously, though, we are about three weeks away from our anticipated move date, and we still haven't located a place to live in Coshocton. We aren't being that choosy; there's just not much available! We haven't found a single rental property in our desired school district. In fact, we don't know of any viable options around Coshocton at all, that are currently available for rent. We went down to look at a few places, but so far haven't found anything suitable for our family. There are a few properties that may be available by January, but nothing seems certain.

It's obviously important that we have a place to move into, just for the sake of having a roof over our heads. We would like to avoid living in a van down by the Tuscarawas River! But we also need to enroll the kids in school, and we can't do that until we know where we will be living. Would you pray with us that God would provide a home to rent, and that we would have wisdom about which school to choose for our kids? Besides sending them to school in the district where we live, there is the possibility of open enrollment in another district, or sending our children to Coshocton Christian School (which would involve expenses we have not planned for).

We can hardly believe we are so close to moving. Tara has already worked her last day at the YMCA, and I only have eight working days left at Dana! We've started packing items we won't need for the next several weeks and purging those that we don't need at all. There's a lot more that needs to happen over the next few weeks, and we appreciate your prayers as this hardly seems humanly possible. Then again, if everything was humanly possible it would be too easy to rely on our own efforts! 

Although we are making all the preparations to move by the first week in January, we are still a little short of our financial support quota. We are trusting that the rest of the funds that have been verbally committed will come in soon, and that we will be able to start serving with MMS in January.

Thank you for your encouragement, prayer, and support as we prepare to serve with MMS Aviation. You are an incredible blessing to us, and we're privileged to be sent out by the Church to be the hands and feet of Jesus to a world in need!

Getting Closer to Coshocton!

Well, we may not physically be getting closer to Coshocton quite yet, but our move date is certainly coming quickly. Aaron has only 18 working days left at Dana, and we've started packing up some things that we won't be needing for the next month or so. We've managed to accumulate a lot of belongings over the years, and this is a perfect opportunity to give away, sell, or dispose of things we no longer need.

As we prepare for our move to Coshocton, we have started looking for a place to rent. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of rentals available in the Coshocton area right now. Would you pray with us that God would provide a suitable rental property for us, and give us the wisdom to recognize it when it comes along? We may need to adjust our expectations, but we trust that God knows what we need better than we do!

As far as our funding goes, we are currently at 84%. However, because of some special gifts and the faithful support we've received over the last year, we may be able to start serving with MMS when we reach 90% of our quota. In this case we will need to raise the remaining 10% over the course of our apprenticeship. If we go this route, we only need an additional $300 per month for Aaron to start serving in the hangar! That said, we are still praying for the $800/month that we need to reach full funding.

We appreciate your prayers and support as we prepare to serve with MMS Aviation and MAG. We couldn't go to serve in this way if not for those of you who are sending us out to help reach isolated people with physical help, and the hope of the Gospel!

This was a short update, but feel free to contact us if you would like to hear more about our ministry, or if you have any other questions!