Feeling Fine, FBC's Worship Team

Thanks again for your prayers that this latest round of vertigo would pass quickly. This one only lasted 36 yours. Praise the Lord I was able to play the drums for worship and teach men's Sunday School yesterday! By the time we left for church I was pretty much feeling myself, but I was fully back to normal by the time we finished worship. We're working our way through Acts in men's Sunday School. I led the discussion on Chapter 17 where Paul preaches in Thessalonica, Berea, and then Athens. In church, Pastor Chris is preaching and teaching through the Gospel of Luke.

In earlier blogs you've seen pictures of me on the drums and of Karen singing but you haven't seen the assembled Fresno Bible Church worship team. Here we are!
From left to right: Ben, guitar and vocals; Helen, keyboard/piano; Josh, worship leader, lead vocal, guitar, and congas; Melissa, vocals; Scott, harmonica and vocals; Karen, vocals; me, drums and egg; and Ben, our faithful sound and PowerPoint technician. We have a lot of fun making a joyful noise!

This Morning
I'll hop on my bicycle here in about 30 minutes to ride up to the hangar. This morning I'm leading a three hour seminar for the group on support development and blogging. This afternoon and tomorrow we have the pleasure of meeting with supporters of ours who've flown in from the Pacific Northwest.

And Friday we leave for England. I still need to blog about our upcoming trip!

Thanks for Praying

Thanks for praying about my vertigo. It's much better today. I woke up this morning and it's nearly all gone. I spent most of yesterday curled up in bed or lying on the couch. I'm about 80% right now and as long as I don't move too fast I feel okay.

At this point I'm planning to head to church in a few minutes for worship team practice. Riding in the car and playing the drums will be indicators of how good I really feel. Lord willing, I'll be able to ride, play, and teach this morning.

Thanks for praying.

Vertigo

Well, I'm down with another session of vertigo. Came on late last night. Please pray that it's a short session and that I'll be able to teach Sunday school and play the drums for worship tomorrow morning.

Thanks.

David & Gertjan Install Flaps on the Chad 206

Over the last two days I've shared video clips of some of the missionary airplanes currently at our facility for maintenance, modification, and/or repair. Today's clip is of David & Gertjan installing one of the flaps on the Cessna 206 project for Mission Aviation Fellowship-Chad, Africa. This has been an extensive restoration project as reflected in the April 2008 GroundCrew, and the nearby slide show. I know "Team Coates" will appreciate your prayers as they work to return this airplane to mission service.

David is from Peru, Gertjan is from The Netherlands. Dale Coates, their Team Leader, is a naturalized US citizen originally from Zimbabwe. It may be hard to believe, but MMS Aviation is something of an international crossroads located in rural, east central Ohio.

Here's the video clip!

A Look Inside Hangar B

Here's my attempt to load video directly from YouTube in to the blog. This clip complements yesterday's clip of Hangar A and features the airplane projects inside Hangar B.

I'm amazed at how much time it takes to figure all this technology stuff out. (Thanks for the tip, Tanya.)

I hope you enjoy this glimpse into the mission environment at MMS!

I have a couple clips ready to go showing the guys working on the Chad 206 and the Asas 206.

A Video Link?

I'm trying out something new which is always a scary venture with me and technology. I shot some video of Hangar A today, uploaded it to YouTube and am now trying to link to it. If you want to take a chance, and have a high speed connection click, here for a quick look at the aircraft projects in the front Hangar.

If you have a dial-up connection the file size, even though it's short clip, is around 12 mb.

Let me know how it works for you and what you think about it.

Project Update: Chad 206 & Moody 182

Chad 206
The 206 engine installation on the Chad 206 is just about complete. There are a myriad of details to check and double-check beyond slinging the engine onto its mounts. Control cables must be rigged; hydraulic hoses fitted and attached; fuel lines secured; tubing inspected and clamped; electrical components connected; and various nuts, bolts, and clamps require being "safety-wired" in place. The photo is of Gertjan on the left and David on the right of the engine taking care of just such details.

Moody 182
The Cessna 182 we're working on for Moody Aviation has made substantial progress with the final installation of a major repair first referred to in the June 2 posting. In this photo Shawn Bupp is driving the first of over 100 rivets to secure the fabricated structure in place and to make the belly of the aircraft complete up to the firewall. ScottGrote is inside the fuselage bucking the rivets for Shawn.

Contest Winner!

Ladies and gentlemen, we already have a winner in the contest!

Faithful blog reader Lynette from California was the first to correctly identify the state insect of Ohio as the Ladybug! Congratulations, Lynette. A selection of candy "buckeyes" will soon be winging their way west.

To all you other faithful blog readers...keep watch for more contests. You never know when you'll have another opportunity to win your own batch of buckeyes.

Ohio State Flag and Contest With A Prize

Ohio State Flag
I've been living in Ohio for nearly eleven and a half years but just recently learned about the symbolism of the state flag. Let me share what I learned with you from Wikipedia and the Ohio Public Library Information System.

The flag is sometimes referred to as the "Ohio burgee." Burgee is the proper term for a swallow-tail flag. It is the only non-rectangular American state flag and was adopted in 1902. Ohio entered the union in 1803.

The blue triangle represents Ohio's hills and valleys. The stripes represent roads and waterways. There are seventeen stars to symbolize that Ohio was the 17th state admitted to the union. The stars are clustered around a circle representing the Northwest Territory. The white circle with with the red center is dual purpose both representing the "O" of Ohio and also symbolizing the nut from from the Buckeye Tree, Ohio's state tree. Ohio is also known as the Buckeye State.

Pretty nifty, eh?

So...here's the contest.

Ohio State Symbol Contest
We'll send candy buckeyes to the first reader able to correctly identify Ohio's official state insect.

Saturdays & Saddlebags

Saturdays are special because Keith always takes me for my walk. During the week, Karen walks me and Tucker at the same time. That's okay...but there's nothing like Saturday morning when "the guys" get out together to explore the neighborhood without the girls.

Saturdays usually start when Tucker and I sit at the bottom of the stairs and cry and whine until Keith & Karen finally get the clue to get out of bed and get with the program. Today was no different. We usually don't get fed until we've had our exercise so when morning rolls around we're ready to exercise but today, today was a special day as Keith came down, sat with me and explained that from now on, I had a job to do on our walk! Yes! Finally, a job with responsibility beyond sleeping and eating and barking. It's what I've always dreamed of...to be a WORKING dog and to earn my keep like farm dogs, sheep dogs, and ranch dogs. It's the least I can do to give back a little for all Keith & Karen give me.

Keith finished talking with me and, with great ceremony, presented me with my very own set of saddlebags! Saddlebags...is that too cool or what? I was to become a Cocker Cargo Carrier in the finest sense of the word! From now on I would carry cargo throughout the neighborhood. This morning we started out with empty saddlebags so I could get used to the straps and how the saddlebags rode on my back. But Keith assured me that before long he'd start weighing me down so I'd get more exercise while covering the same amount of ground. Bring it on...

He strapped those nifty saddlebags on and off we went. The bags even match the color Keith's walking shirt. His walking shirt is specially made to protect his skin from the sun. That's why he also wears that stylish hat and the gloves. The skin on his face, neck, and arms is damaged from all those years years surfing at Huntington Beach, CA.

Once Keith was organized, my leash clipped to my collar and the saddlebags secured, we hit the street and I walked with my head held high and a new bounce in my step.

Look at me! Look at me! I'm a working dog!

A Good Start And A Strong Finish

This was a big week at MMS as one apprentice completed his 4,800 hours of service with MMS and another was accepted to begin service.

The Strong Finish: Shawn Bupp
Shawn Bupp received his completion certificate from Dwight Jarboe, MMS Aviation President & CEO on Wednesday. Way to go Shawn! It's always exciting when apprentices finish our program and are ready to serve mission aviation beyond our hangar doors. A typical apprenticeship lasts thirty months, but Shawn's been part of MMS longer than any other apprentice because he was called-up to for various stateside deployments as well as three tours overseas in support of the Iraq War. We appreciate the sacrifices he, his wife Donna, and their three girls have made to our country as well as their perseverance in continuing to pursuing God's call to service. This has been a very challenging five years for the "Buppsters".

The Bupps have been accepted by Harvest Aviation and will begin service at Harvest headquarters in Wachula, Florida as soon as Shawn passes his FAA exams and they raise the additional financial support necessary for effective ministry down south. The Bupps will join previous MMS graduates: Mike & Jamee Burch, Ronny & Denise Erekson, and Dan & Stephanie Leaky already in service with Harvest.

The Good Start: Andy Porter
As mentioned in the previous post, this past week I supervised the candidate evaluation of Andy Porter, a young man from England who came over as part of our training partnership with Mission Aviation Fellowship-United Kingdom. Thank you for your prayers for me, MMS, and Andy during this time. The Lord's will was clear in this and Andy was accepted for service with MMS this afternoon! Andy did very well during the evaluation and we look forward to having him back in our hangar very soon to begin his apprenticeship. He'll return to the UK on Monday to complete his orientation and support development with MAF-UK prior to coming back to MMS. Lord willing, all this will be completed in short fashion so he can return sometime this Fall.

Upcoming Trip rip
Actually, Karen and I will be back with Andy very soon, but this time we'll be over there in England. We'll be in England for three weeks. More on that in future posts!

Candidate Evaluation Dinner

I'm currently overseeing the evaluation of an MMS candidate from the United Kingdom. His name is Andy and he's now halfway through evaluation week. As part of the evaluation process, each candidate works in the hangar all day and then eats dinner with a different staff member, or staff members, each evening. Tonight was our night to host Andy.Karen whipped up a couple of her famous Home Made Pizzas and then slammed us with her Special Strawberry Shortcake (home made shortcake resting on a generous slab of vanilla ice cream, slathered with fresh strawberries, topped with whipped cream. Oh man...you know I'll be back on my bike tomorrow morning.

We had an enjoyable evening with Andy and picked up a few new words from our English brother: "a bring and share" = a pot luck or covered dish dinner, "joint" = a roast of meat with the bone still in, "joined together writing" = cursive writing, and always use the word "trousers" because in England "pants" means what you wear underneath your trousers. You don't want to be walking around England telling everyone how nice their pants look.

Should the remainder of this week go well, it may be possible that Andy would return to MMS to start apprenticeship later this Fall. We'll see what God has planned.

Thank you for your prayers for me, for MMS, and for Andy as we seek the Lord's will in this candidacy.

Setting the Chad 206 Engine

Another big step forward was taken yesterday by Team Coates (Dale, Gertjan, and David) as they set the overhauled engine in the Cessna 206 from Chad, Africa. They'll spend the next several days making all the connections, attaching hoses, closing clamps, adjusting controls, etc. to complete the installation.

Team Coates is our "international team" as Dale Coates, the team leader, though now an American citizen, is originally from Zimbabwe, Africa; Gertjan is from The Netherlands, and David (pronounced Da-veed') is from Peru.

First 2008 Bike Ride to MMS
I made my first 2008 bike ride to the hangar this morning. Yeehaw. I made it to the top of the hill without my knees blowing out or my heart quitting (both pluses as far as I'm concerned). After a nice flat 4.5 mile ride the journey finishes with a half mile hill that climbs 250 feet. MMS is on top of that hill. It takes me 18 minutes to ride the first part and 12 minutes to climb the hill. I've been passed by crawling bugs on my climb, but so far I've made it every time (barring a couple flat tires last year).

I'll ride again on Thursday and then go into a Monday, Wednesday, Friday routine (Lord willing). This ride was a bit overdue, but the weather in May was unusually cold and wet. I admit it, I'm a fair weather bike rider.

Karen and I
Karen and I are doing well, learning about middle age, learning more about each other, learning more about faith, and are enjoying (or at least helping each other to try to enjoy) the many challenges of ministry.

Thank you for your faithful prayers, gifts, and encouragement which enable us to serve!

A Saturday Evening In Coshocton

Karen and I just returned from a big night out in the local Coshocton culture with our friends, Tim & Michele, who serve with us at MMS. It turned out to be something of a progressive dinner though it wasn't planned that way. As each culture around the world has its own sights, smells, and flavors, we chose to leave the safety of our homes to mingle with the natives; take in those sights, smells, and flavors unique to Coshocton; and view a first-run film at the two screen theater where it's $2 for matinee and $4 for evening shows.

We started the evening at Coshocton's one Mexican restaurant, Yucatan, (two blocks from our house) on Walnut where we enjoyed world class (testified to by many visiting missionaries) Mexican food. I had the #30. Karen had the #10. From there we went to Wayne's which is a well-known family run ice cream/soft serve stand on the corner of Chestnut and 15th. It's a single story cinderblock building that used to be barn red, but now it's painted blue. You can't miss it on the corner across from the BP mini-mart and Papa John's Pizza.

After enjoying a blueberry twist soft cone we headed over to Tim Horton's on Chestnut and 2nd for drive-thru coffees and made our way down 2nd past Kentucky Fried Chicken, Wendys, Hardees, Arbeys, Auto Zone and pulled into a marketplace the locals call "Downtowner Plaza." As we arrived fifteen minutes before the film was scheduled to start, we sat quietly in the car, rolled down the windows and watched the natives arrive and gather into groups before they entered the theater. As the evening seemed calm, we left our locked car and bought our tickets too. We joined about thirty-five Coshoctonians in Theater One to watch Kung Fu Panda.

We enjoyed the movie. It had laugh-out-loud fun, was totally clean, had some really great lines, and of course a happy ending. If there were serious overtones of a political or societal nature hidden within subplots...I missed them because I was laughing so hard.

As we departed the theater the wind was blowing the paper mill's aroma away from town and the brown haze from the coal-fired power plant was flowing a bit to the east of our little river valley. A great night to be sure.

Volunteers at MMS

While volunteers in the MMS hangar aren't unusual, this summer is a bit different in that we have a young lady completing a two month internship with us. Emily is in the Aeronautical Science program at LeTourneau University. Her long-term goal is to serve in mission aviation.

In January, Emily volunteered at MMS as part of a LeTourneau missions team. During her work that week she designed and laid out cardboard patterns to assist with repairs on some amphibious floats for a missionary airplane in Canada.

She enjoyed her visit so much she contacted me shortly after to see what other service opportunities there might be for her this summer. Consequently we developed an internship program for her that will last through June and July. A real bonus for her was to return to see the fruits of her labor and to actually use the jig she had designed.

The photo is of Emily as she received instruction from Josh Adelsberger on how to shoot primer on the second float.

Little Drummer Boy

I'm not exactly Ginger Baker, Charlie Watts or even Doug Clifford but I certainly give my all for Jesus every Sunday morning on the electronic drums at church. Does it look like I have fun? Way too much fun! Just ask Josh, our worship leader.

We just returned home from tonight's practice. I pound the drums, Karen (as in Karen my wife) sings, Josh sings, Helen plays the keyboards and Ben plays the guitar. Karen snapped this photo as Josh was turning out the lights and cutting power to the drums so I'd go home. Ha.

I'm afraid my "style"( if you'd call it that) does reflect more of a 1970's Rock component than a typical church cadence...I think I need more cymbals. Doesn't a drummer always need more cymbals?

Great knees, don't ya think?

A New Aircraft Project Arrives

Our latest missionary aircraft project arrived yesterday morning. The Cessna 206 pictured at right was recently purchased in Alaska by Asas de Socorro, an aviation ministry in Brazil. The Chief Mechanic for Asas is Ryan Joy, a graduate of MMS.

We recently had a team up in Alaska for three weeks providing maintenance assistance to Mission Aviation Repair Center in Soldatna, AK. From Brazil, Ryan coordinated with our team to handle the shipping of the aircraft back to MMS so we can prepare it for mission service. Our guys loaded it on the back of the 18-wheeler and off it went. The truck driver mentioned that gasoline was $7.50 per gallon in Canada.

Josh Adelsberger, a mechanic still serving with MMS, will soon move to Brazil with his family to join Asas and serve alongside Ryan to maintain this and several other missionary aircraft down there.

The 206's wings and control surfaces were unloaded by hand but we needed a little help from our friends at Shaffer Sports Events to lift the fuselage down to the ground. They have a facility very close to us at Coshocton County Airport and are very generous in assisting us with their big lift truck.

Enjoy the photos and the links. It's fun to have you stop by our blog for a visit. If you have any questions you'd like answered, or have ideas for subjects you'd like to read about in our blog, just leave a comment and I'll be glad to get back with you.

MMS Family Photo: Annual Conference 2008

I thought you might enjoy seeing a photo of the MMS Family taken during our Annual Conference. Yes, Karen and I are in the photo. Can you find us?

MMS Annual Conference and Hot Air Ballons

MMS Annual Conference
Well the conference finished strong! Thank you so much for praying for us, for MMS, and for Duane Elmer as he presented the information. Duane brings a lifetime of information, research, and experience related to communication and cross-cultural relations. Some exciting relational discoveries were made and wonderful new cross-cultural perspectives were gained.

I just returned from driving Duane to Columbus to catch his flight home. Bob Schwartz, MMS Training Manager, accompanied us on the drive. Bob discussed deep concepts with Duane while I focused on watching the road and observing the speed limits. I look forward to seeing how God is going to use this new information to change us individually and corporately for His glory!

As we arrived home we realized the sky was filled with hot air balloons.

Hot Air Balloons
Coshocton hosts a hot air balloon festival every year in June. While it's nothing in size compared to that big one down in New Mexico(?) fifteen to twenty balloons arrive each year and, weather permitting, launch four times between Friday evening and Sunday afternoon. It's fun to watch.

The balloons either start at the fairgrounds or fly over the fairgrounds. And, as we live very close to the fairgrounds we're usually blessed to enjoy the balloons from our own front yard. Here are a couple shots of some of the balloons Karen captured as they flew right over our house.

Annual Conference Update

Wow. I can't even begin to tell you the power, challenge, and Biblical reality in Duane Elmer's teaching about communication, forgiveness, reconciliation, and cross-cultural awareness. Instead, I'll just copy his bio on the back of his books: "Duane Elmer is director of the Ph.D program in educational studies and the G. W. Aldeen Chair of International Studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, in Deerfield, Illinois. In addition to traveling and teaching in over seventy-five countries, he has provided cross-cultural training to people from Fortune 500 companies, relief and development agencies, mission organizations, churches and educational institutions. He has also conducted peace and reconciliation efforts in several countries. He is author of Cross-Cultural Conflict: Building Relationships for Effective Ministry, Cross-Cultural Connections: Stepping Out and Fitting In Around The World, and Cross-Cultural Servanthood: Serving the World in Christlike Humility.

We are excited and blessed by God's provision of such a resource to an organization of our small size. Please pray for us, and Duane, as we wrap up our sessions tomorrow! Pray that we'll hear what God desires us to hear, apply personally and organizational what God desires us to apply, and grow in Christlikeness as enabled by The Spirit for His glory and the greater expansion of His Kingdom.

Pearl Valley Cheese Link/Annual Conference

Pearl Valley Cheese
I've temporarily removed the link to Pearl Valley Cheese Company (based right here in Fresno, Ohio) because their web site is having some problems right now. As soon as they get their site up and running again, I'll return their link to the blog.

I'll blog more about PVC in the future. PVC is a family owned cheese company that make some of best cheese in the world...and they have the competition ribbons to prove it!

Annual Conference
On a completely different note, Karen and I are off to annual conference in 25 minutes. Duane Elmer is leading our sessions. He's an internationally renowned speaker in both the Christian and corporate worlds on communication and cross cultural relationships. He currently oversees the doctoral program at Trinity School of Divinity.

Please pray that his two days with us will result in MMS gaining communication skills that will benefit not only our own hangar relationships but will ultimately have a positive impact on Kingdom efforts around the world!

I Enjoy Fridays

I enjoy Fridays. Because it's the end of the week? Maybe. But more so because it's that special day of the week when Karen and I work together in the MMS administrative offices. She receipts donations, processes information, inputs data, prepares receipts for mailing, readies the deposit and manages the organizational mailing list while I go about the Human Resource tasks in my office nearby.

But not only do we work together, we get to eat lunch together. And that my friends, is a special blessing because she makes the best sandwiches in the world--and the only day I get her sandwiches are the days she works in the office. Fridays. It's not that I starve the other days of the week (as you'd know if you looked over my shoulder the last time I climbed on the scales in the Dr's office) but one of these days I'll have to blog about her sandwiches. However, this isn't that blog.

Also you may have noticed this isn't a Friday on the calendar, but it was a Friday in practice as Karen came in to do Friday's work on Thursday because the MMS Annual Conference starts tonight and runs through Saturday afternoon. Consequently tomorrow's post may be a bit later than normal as it will only be up after conference activities are completed. Anyway...all that to say this...

Here we are working on a combined HR/Hospitality project over lunch today! We're in the MMS lunch room and Karen's clueing me in to all the things I should have thought of and didn't.If you follow the blog, you'll know we just wrapped up a candidate evaluation last week. That week of activity illustrated some opportunities to improve organizational communication and coordination related to evaluations. As that's an HR function, I spent a good portion of last week outlining and defining some roles, responsibilities, and expectations related to future candidate evals and Karen discussed them with me over lunch. She's one smart missionary and I greatly value her input. Not only that, she has the greatest dimples, don't you think?

Yep, she's easy to work with and not hard to look at.

Thanks for making it possible for us to serve!

We Never Know What's Going To Fly In

This morning we had a helicopter land outside our hangar. The weather's been so stormy lately that the helicopter pilot needed a place out of the rain, thunder, and lightning to have some maintenance done. Actually, he and his mechanic are down in the hangar swapping out the helicopter's engine as I type this blog. While we don't work on helicopters, we were very happy to offer space for them to make their repairs.

But this just isn't any helicopter. It is a Hughes 500 used by a company to keep the trees trimmed back from their high-tension power lines. I bet you've never thought about how all those tree-lined power lines stay tree-free. Well this little helicopter (and others like it) are one of the reasons. So does the pilot trim trees with one hand while flying with the other? Nope.

They hang a giant, and I mean giant chainsaw on a long steel cable beneath the helicopter and fly right along the trees chopping as they go. Pretty wild eh?

A word of advice: when you're hiking in the woods and come to a clearing with high-tension power lines...listen for helicopters and look both ways before crossing!

Karen's Home And The Roses Are Blooming

Karen Is Home
Karen made it home safely from PA last night! It's wonderful to be together again after five days apart. She had a good trip, enjoyed Ryan and Audra's wedding, visited with friends and family, and enjoyed light traffic and good weather while on the road. And praise the Lord her Honda's trunk was just big enough for the two foot lockers containing the engine case halves for the missionary airplane engine from Africa.

Roses Bloom in June
It seems I'm on a before/after photo kick right now. Here are two shots of our rose trellis: the first was taken in April after I pruned the roses for spring. I took the second shot yesterday after returning home from the hangar.

In Ohio, April IS NOT spring. In California, Spring starts in January. Of course if you ask me, spring doesn't start around here (Ohio) until June. Summer is July and August. Fall is September-November and winter lasts from December 1-May 31. But there may be some that disagree with me. That's just one man's opinion.

Our front porch holds the aroma of the flowers like a bank vault. It's wonderful to walk out there and just sit and enjoy the natural perfume. The yellow roses (center) have that strong, traditional rose smell we all recognize. The "4th of July" roses (left) have a strong hint of...APPLES! Really, they smell like fresh apples. It's wonderful.

You're all invited to come on out, stop on in, sit on down, and smell the roses!

Progress on the Cessna 182

Before & After
I thought I'd throw "before & after" photos at you to help you share in the exciting progress being made on the Cessna 182 repair project for Moody Aviation. This first photo originally appeared in our May 19 posting "Projects in the Hangar: Moody 182". This is the "before" picture of the gaping hole in the belly of the of the fuselage forward to the firewall.

Scott G. has been fabricating the complex set of components necessary to bridge the gap for several weeks. We hope you're as excited to see the progress as we are to be able to show you the progress. This second photo is the "after" shot where the structural components that Scott has assembled are held in place prior to being riveted permanently in position. Yes, there's still a ways to go (and you can expect to see a few more "after" shots before this project is completed) but all this is happening because of your gifts and prayers to us.

Have You Caught the Excitement?
I hope you're as excited as we are about the progress on the Cessna 182 as well as the successful evaluation and orientation of Ben & Caroline.

These are the things your gifts and prayers are making possible: 1) preparing new workers for the harvest field, and 2) repairing the airplanes that missionaries need to reap the harvest. Our prayer is that you feel very much a part of the daily activities that go on here at MMS Aviation because YOU ARE very much a part of it!