Bat-Enkh Update

The past few days have been rather busy. We did have some nice weather on Saturday which allowed me to prune the roses and also to get out and golf for the first time in five months. Of course Sunday then began with rain and finished with a wintery mix of sleet and sloppy snow flurries. In Ohio...you pay for nice weather.

It was cold this morning, 36, but finished out clear and warm with temps in the low 60's.

We had fun with Bat-Enkh this evening. We wore our traditional Mongolian hats from Bat-Enkh's visit in 2004, Karen whipped up a "Mongolia beef" stir-fry dinner, and we finished with traditional Mongolian New Year bread and tea.

Here we are on our back deck wearing our Mongolian hats.

We snapped a picture of Bat-Enkh holding a bag of "Mongolian Beef Sauce" we found at a local clearance store. He said he'd never heard of "Mongolian Beef Sauce" before but judged the sauce to be very delicious and gave it his Mongolian seal-of-approval. It made the beef and veggie stir-fry very tasty indeed.

Bat-Enkh with the Mongolian Beef Sauce bought here in Coshocton.

Bat-Enkh then brought out a "loaf" of bread they traditionally make to celebrate the Mongolian New Year. He brought several loaves to take with him to Philadelphia on Wednesday. He has a Mongolian friend he's going to visit in Philadelphia who greatly misses the bread. He'll stay with his friend for a week before returning to Mongolia.

Karen and I with the bread before breaking it up to eat it.

It's a very hard bread made with flour, water, oil, and maybe a little sugar and salt. The bread can be steamed to soften it. Bat-Enkh said he remembers making them as a child with his parents. They stack these things up in a circle and build a little structure on the dinner table which they then cover with milk products or candy as the family tradition requires. To see a picture of what the whole thing would look like, click here.

Tomorrow we're off to Cleveland as Bat-Enkh has asked to do some site-seeing up there. Then on Wednesday we'll leave Coshocton about 3:30 AM to get Bat-Enkh to Columbus in time to catch his 6 AM flight to Philly.

Having Bat with us again has been wonderful. We're going to greatly miss having him as part of our daily life and routine at home, at MMS, and at church. We would love to go visit him in Mongolia one of these days. We'll see what the Lord has planned!

Bat-Enkh Passed the IA Exam Today!

It was a great day today as Bat-Enkh passed the FAA exam to receive his Inspection Authorization! Bat arrived from Mongolia, March 2, has been living with us since, and had been studying all month for the exam.

We left about 8:30 this morning to drive to Columbus to visit the FAA district office. We were treated very well by the FAA representatives and they found Bat-Enkh's papers to be in order, verified his experience, and authorized him to test. One of the inspectors had been to the Coshocton Air Show and the Balloon Fest in his official FAA capacity so we had plenty to talk about while they reviewed paperwork and procedures.

With the test authorization in Bat-Enkh's hand, we left the FAA office and drove straight to the OSU Airport, registered Bat-Enkh for the exam, and two hours later...Bat had passed the test!

The last time Bat-Enkh was out in 2004, he lived with us for six months as he gained additional mechanical experience, prepared, and tested for his FAA Airframe & Powerplant mechanic's certificate. We celebrated then by stopping at BD's Mongolian Barbecue which is just up the street from the testing center. We continued that tradition today.

We're so glad to be able to play a part in Bat-Enkh's continued growth as a missionary airplane mechanic. Now he can sign-off aircraft as being ready to return to service. This will be a great help to their aviation program in Mongolia.

Thank you for supporting us and praying for us and making it possible for us to serve God's Kingdom through hospitality. Bat-Enkh's success is your success too!

Bite-sized Newsbits

• Tomorrow morning, Karen and I are driving Bat-Enkh to the FAA's District Office in Columbus to have his documentation and qualifications reviewed. From there we'll head over to the Ohio State University Flight Education Center where Bat will take the exam to receive his Inspection Authorization.

• Our house is rewired! What a joy to have light where we need it, plugs where we can access them, new switches where we can reach them, and everything grounded and up to code! Thank you Ben and Kathy for such wonderful and consciencious service over these past weeks! Ben found several areas of concern with the 80 year old wiring as he methodically worked through our house.

• I've spent the past two days focused on pulling the April issue of the MMS GroundCrew newsletter together. There's at least another day of work yet to go. I've selected and organized the photos, now I need to write the copy. This will be an exciting issue covering a wide range of events and project updates. Once I get this wrapped-up and off to our graphic designer, I hope to work on the next issue of our own newsletter, Coshocton Flyer.
  

• Work continues in the hangar as the guys push ahead with the GCI 172, the Moody 182, and the Honduran 206. The Cessna 337 project (overhaul both engines, annual inspection) for LAMP has been funded so that's going to work it's way into the production schedule once we get a 206 or two finished!

Scott uses a cutting wheel to trim aluminum sheet he's fabricating to make a leading edge repair on one of the wings for the Honduran 206.

Projects and Rapid Response Trips

With the GCI King Air back in the air and the LeTourneau University missions team back in Texas, the normal maintenance routine is settling back over the hangar: drill a rivet, drive a rivet; measure aluminum, cut aluminum; remove a cover plate, inspect behind the cover plate. It may not always be exciting but, at one level or another, it's always rewarding to contribute to the expansion of God's kingdom

Projects Underway
GCI's Cessna 172 is new in Hangar A for several squawks to be checked out, work continues on the avionics installation in the Moody 182, Williams dropped by in GCI's 310 for a short visit, and two Rapid Response trips are in the works.

Ian oversees, Bat-Enkh, Gertjan, and Paul as they work on the avionics installation of the Moody 172.

Josh tests the vacuum system on the GCI 172.

The GCI 310 departs our facility.

Rapid Response Trips
Tim is currently organizing two Rapid Response trips requested by ministries in Florida and Zambia.

One of our mechanics will head to Wauchula, Florida this weekend and spend two weeks helping Harvest Aviation finish a couple projects before they move into their new hangar facility.

Another mechanic is scheduled to depart for Zambia, Africa next month to spend about five weeks helping CMML modify their newly purchased Cessna 182 for mission service.

Thanks for being part of our ministry through your time, your gifts, and your prayers. It's through your partnership that we're able to expand God's Kingdom one rivet at a time.

GCI's King Air Returns to Service

We enjoyed a very spring-like day today. We also enjoyed watching Gospel Carrier International's King Air return to service after completion of scheduled maintenance.

The King Air leaves the back ramp,

turns onto the taxiway,

and returns to service.

Planting Blueberries and Expanding the Salsa Garden

After the morning chill from the light frost lifted, Karen, Bat-Enkh and I headed outside to double the size of our side street garde. Our purpose was two-fold: 1) Karen had bought four blueberry bush starts we needed to get in the ground, and 2) we needed more room to maximize the potential of the 2009 salsa garden.

Karen was totally excited about planting blueberry bushes but we didn't have the garden space in which to put them. Well, we have the room now. We also had to test our soil as bluberries like an acidic environment. Naturally our soil is alkaline, so we needed to work some acidifier into the ground. It didn't take the three of us all that long to get it done. It actually went a bit faster than we thought it would. Karen was in charge of planting the blueberry starts.

Regarding the salsa garden, last year the tomato plants kind of overshadowed the peppers which created some challenges. Consequently we doubled the garden space in anticipate of this year's salsa crop. Karen also plans to add our own onions this year. Tomatoes, jalepeno peppers, banana peppers, bell peppers, and now onions will all be home grown this year. We also worked 120 pounds of humus into the salsa side.

Here are some snapshots from our garden expansion:

Bat-Enkh and I bust up the clods and remove the grass after turning the soil with shovels.

Karen and Bat-Enkh continue the expansion.

Tucker and Tanner are overwhelmed by all the activity.

The finished garden expansion.

Golf Hopes, Hangar Happenings, and Kentucky Fried Chicken

Well, just as temperatures were rising, the skies were clearing, the sun was shining and my thoughts were beginning to drift toward golf--winter returned. After twelve years in Ohio you'd think I'd have learned not to expect any consistency with "warm" or "spring" or "sun" until late May or early June. Oh well...I guess there's more to life than getting in that first round of golf of the new year.

2009 LeTourneau University Missions Team
Kneeling: Julia, Rachel, Ben
Standing: Eli, Pete, Kevin, Matt, Dwight (MMS CEO), and Ken

It was great having the LeTourneau team in our hangar and in our homes last week. Rachel, Pete, Kevin, Eli, Julia, Ben, and Ken are a great bunch of young men and women with a wonderful heart for the Lord. Their faculty adviser, Matt, was a blessing and an encouragement to us as well. Lord willing we'll have another LeTourneau team travel our way next March. We may actually see a couple members of the team back in our hangar this summer. That would be fun.

We had some fun last night. We were talking about dinner and discovered that Bat-Enkh had never eaten Kentucky Fried Chicken before. I guess the "Colonel" hasn't made it into Mongolia yet or, if he has, it's not in a very big way. Having grown up eating KFC, Karen and I were excited to head out and buy a bucket of "finger licking good" chicken with mashed potatoes, gravy, coleslaw, and biscuits.

Bat-Enkh gave the chicken and side dishes two thumbs up.

Tucker thought the chicken smelled "jowl-drooling" good!

King Air Engine Nacelle Fuel Probe Inspection

One of the projects going on today was the removal and inspection of the engine nacelle fuel probes in Gospel Carrier International's Super King Air 200. Each of the engine nacelles has their own fuel probe.

GCI's King Air has been in the hangar for a couple weeks for scheduled maintenance and to have its propellers sent out for overhaul. As the scheduled maintenance draws to a close, we expect the overhauled propellers to be delivered tomorrow.

Gospel Carrier International's King Air.

Bob accesses the cover plate for the left engine nacelle's fuel probe.

Bob removes the fuel probe.

Mike confirms Bob's inspection that this probe is in great shape.

Beautiful Weather and General Updates

We are having absolutely beautiful weather today. 68 degrees, blue sky, warm sun, the grass is turning green, the roses are starting to have buds on them, and all the bulbs that Karen planted last fall are well up and some have even flowered.

It's supposed to be 70 with rain tomorrow.

• We're hoping to have nice weather this weekend so we can prune the bushes along the alley, the bushes on the north side of our porch, and the roses on the trellis. I also need to finish painting the framing on our garage door so the weather seal strip can be applied.

• As the weather continues to improve, golfing becomes more of a desire and a priority. From the MMS parking lot I can see one of the fairways over at Hilltop Golf Course and there were golf carts and people moving around over there this afternoon. That's a good sign. I'm really ready for golf season and excited to go out and get back into the swing of things. Reading "Golf Isn't A Game of Perfect," "Every Shot Must Have A Purpose," and "The Greatest Game Ever Played," has mentally prepared me for a different type of golf season. I look forward to seeing how all the reading will affect my game.

• Our house re-wiring project continues. The upstairs is done, the ground floor is done, and I'm thinking the basement is next in line. It is SO NICE to have lights and switches and outlets where we've needed them for six years but haven't had them. Ben & Kathy are doing a great job for us.

• I've taught men's Sunday school for the past two weeks and will probably lead the class for three more weeks. I've excerpted the first three chapters of Grace Walk, by Steve McVey as our study guide and am facilitating discussion on Steve's main thoughts and observations. Grace Walk has been a very challenging and helpful book for me.

• Lord willing, I'll be back on my bicycle and riding to the hangar again in April.

• We're still very much enjoying having Bat-Enkh living with us for the month!!!!

• Karen, Melissa, and Rashelle are going to sing a special song for worship this Sunday and I'll accompany them on drums.

• Karen's getting ready to disciple another lady from church.

• The dogs are enjoying the warmer weather, too and are scheduled to get their fur cut this Friday.
  

• I'm scheduled to get my hair cut tonight by Karen! I always look forward to that.
  

Having LeTourneau for Dinner

No, Le Tourneau isn't some fancy dish, it's a Christian university in Texas that has one of the top aviation programs in the nation. MMS is privileged to have an ongoing relationship with their aviation department that manifests itself every year with a team of aviation students coming up to spend a week in our hangar. MMS is blessed by having all the extra man and woman power for the week and the students gain nearly 40 hours of practical experience toward their 60 hour practical experience graduation requirement. It's win-win for everyone.

This year, eight students and a faculty advisor made the trip and tonight we were honored to host the advisor and four students in our home for dinner...hence, having "Letourneau" for dinner.

At the dinner table with half of the LeTourneau team.

Karen whipped up two 9x13 dishes of "taco bake" and a big green salad for dinner and then followed that with a monster pan of home made "snickers ice cream cake" which tastes as amazing as it sounds (vanilla ice cream, caramel, peanuts, whipped cream, crushed Oreo cookies, and fudge sauce). Oh my...

But as if that weren't enough...we finished the evening with a rousing game of Dutch Blitz. One of the students has sorted eggs on her father's farm ever since she was a little girl. She said she could sort 7,000 eggs in two hours. Her egg sorting skills came in might handy playing Dutch Blitz. Oh my. She was fast and serious and she soundly outscored the rest of us on nearly every hand. She was beating us so badly she eventually started playing with her left hand. We were considering making her play with one eye closed as well, but she was so far ahead it wouldn't have made any meaningful difference. It was a lot of fun. After the game we chatted about mission aviation for a while and just enjoyed each other's company.

Nobody sits for Dutch Blitz

It was a real encouragement to spend the evening with this group of young men and women pursuing education toward Christian service on the mission field. Thank you for being part of it too, through your prayers and gifts. We couldn't host them here if it weren't for you making our ministry possible from out there. In the most real sense, you were part of the evening...you just didn't get the caloric benefit of the snickers ice cream cake!

Saturday's Highlights

We had a great day yesterday. Bat-Enkh and I made a trip into Zanesville to stop at Lowe's Home Improvement Center to look for some soil acidifier to prepare our dirt for the four blueberry bushes Karen purchased for our garden. If we successfully get them in the ground and nurture them through the year we should have our first crop of blueberries in 2010! Salsa & blueberries...maybe blueberry salsa?!

We found the soil acidifier without too much trouble and then toured and browsed the super-store. That's always a good man-thing to do. I ended up spotting some adjustable clamps at a decent price and Bat enjoyed looking at all the various products under one roof.

From Lowe's we were off to the Sears tool department. Ah, the Sears tool department. It was full of men walking around enjoying themsleves waiting to be picked up by their wives. The tool department in Sears is kind of like day care for adult men. Wives drop them off, knowing they'll be watched and taken care of, while they spend hours in other parts of the mall. Then they return and just call over the PA: "Bob, your wife is here to pick you up." Ted, your wife is here to pick you up." It's a wonderful thing.

Bat and I browsed for a while. I identified a couple nifty gadgets to add to my 2009 Christmas list (available to all who ask). Bat found a flashlight and inspection mirror he needed for the hangar. We then walked the mall to look at all the race cars that were on display.

After Sears we stopped at Auto Zone so Bat could pick up some spark plugs for his brother's car in Mongolia. Autolite spark plugs are cheaper in America than they are in Mongolia!

Lowe's, Sear's tool department, race cars, Auto Zone...could it possibly get any better than that?

Yes...how about topping it all off (no pun intended) with a stop at Tom's Ice Cream Bowl!

Here we are at Tom's Ice Cream Bowl.

A typical sundae at Tom's.

Wow. We really did have a great day. And so did Karen. She bathed the dogs while we were gone.

Tanner in the tub, Karen washing, Tucker air drying...

Tanner LOVES getting a bath. Ha.

Questions or Comments?

As we look forward to this weekend, we thought you'd enjoy seeing a picture from last weekend.

Here we are with Abi on Main Street last Saturday.

Holes & Wires & Bears Oh My!

There's lots happening around our house the past week or two! Sorry we haven't been able to catch up with blogging. I'll try and tell you a little about what's happening and also catch up on a loose end we left hanging.

Rewiring gets pretty dirty in the dining room!

The wiring project I told you about the last time I blogged (March 2) is moving right along thanks to the diligence and hard work of Ben and Kathy and sometimes they bring along their son Miles. The upstairs is completely done now. No more long orange extension cords running around the perimeter of every bedroom! Yeah! We will soon be ready to have an auction of all the extension cords and 3 prong "cheater" plug adapters. There is quite a pile. We are thankful to not have use for them anymore.

Now comes the first floor wiring. The biggest challenge is the dining room ceiling light. Since the ceiling joists run front to back rather than side to side, getting the wire fished up there got pretty dirty. But, Ben didn't even bat an eyelash. Four holes later he had it conquered. He is a very patient man. Now you can look at the picture again and realize that we really are NOT going to have 3 dining room lights! The forth hole was over by the wall.

Today as I left for MMS, Ben began patching those holes and Kathy and Miles started in on the front porch light. When I got home I found a lovely light at our back door! We've never had a light at the back door and it gets rather dark so we are soooo pleased that we will be able to see back there when it's dark! Ben will get the electric turned on to it next week. Doesn't it look great?

A back door light at last!

Now, for the unfinished bear business......uhm. That may not be what you think! Ha! While we were on vacation we blogged about a puzzle that we were working on. We've been reminded that we never did show you the finished puzzle. Well, here it is. A BEAR of a puzzle! And that it was.

The Bear Puzzle from Vacation

It truly was a bear of a puzzle. One of the harder ones that we've put together. Any guesses what part got finished last????

A Short Message to our Faithful Blog Followers

We haven't forgotten about you, our faithful blog followers! Lately the energy and creativity have been running a little low in the evenings causing some gaps between posts. There's just a lot going on right now and the "extracurricular" communication activity (blogging/facebook) has taken the hit.

Lord willing we'll be back into more of a routine soon and I'll be back on top of the blog.

Stay with us, don't give up on us!

England and Mongolia Arrive

England
We've had quite a busy week. It started last Saturday evening when we drove to Columbus Airport to pick-up Mark & Jenny Beckwith arriving from England. We first met Mark & Jenny last July during our three week trip to the United Kingdom to participate in MAF's two week cross-cultural training seminar, Facts 'N Friction. (If you'd like to re-live our trip to England click here and then click on "newer post" when you're ready to move on.)

Arriving at the airport it was fun to see Mark and Jenny again, and meet their six month old daughter Abi. The Beckwith's made the trip to MMS to be evaluated for apprenticeship as the final stages of application for service with MAF-United Kingdom.

Part of my responsibilities at MMS is to coordinate, facilitate, and oversee the candidate evaluation process through in-hangar evaluation week. For the Beckwiths, that process just wrapped up as we approved them for apprenticeship. Mark & Jenny did very well in the evaluation. Karen and I were able to give them a tour of Coshocton this afternoon and are taking them into Amish country for the day tomorrow. We take them back to the Columbus Airport Sunday afternoon. Lord willing, they'll be back in Coshocton for Mark to start apprenticeship this September or October.

Mark, Jenny and Abigail Beckwith.

Mongolia
After making the airport trip Saturday evening we made a second trip to Columbus Airport Monday night to pick-up Bat-Enkh Lkhamsuren, arriving from Mongolia. This trip was a bit later in the evening as we left home at 11:30 PM Monday night and arrived home at 3:30 AM Tuesday morning.

We were privileged to have Bat-Enkh live with us for six months back in 2004 as he prepared for, and passed, his Airframe & Powerplant exams. Bat-Enkh is a mechanic with an aviation program in Mongolia and has also served two years with a flight program in Tanzania. We grew very close to Bat-Enkh during his visit in 2004 and, when he returned to Mongolia, we weren't sure we'd see him again in this life as it's not often we have the opportunity or the need to travel to Mongolia!

What a blessing to receive an email from Bat-Enkh in December inquiring if he could return to the US and MMS to prepare and test for his FAA Inspection Authorization! He is a talented mechanic has many friends at MMS and we share many friends around the world. We are thrilled to have him back in our home and back in the MMS hangar for the duration of this month. Tucker and Tanner made good friends with Bat-Enkh during his visit in 2004.

Here's Bat in the MMS conference room studying for his exams.

From 2004: Bat with Tucker & Tanner

With the Beckwith's evaluation completed, I'll be focused on putting the April GroundCrew newsletter together next week. As a weather update...it's currently 62 degrees at 9:30 at night and it's supposed to hit 67 degrees tomorrow! We can deal with warmth. Of course next week it's cooling back down, but we'll take the "heat" while we have it.

Thanks for being patient with our posting. I hope to be back to a more regular cycle next week!

Major Progress on the Moody 182

The restoration of the Cessna 182 for Moody Aviation continues to move ahead.

Monday the freshly painted fuselage was moved to Hangar B.

Tuesday, the wings were attached.

And this afternoon, Wednesday, the engine is being installed.

It's exciting for everyone when airplanes start to come back together!

God Answers Prayer In His Time

Have you ever had one of those moments of realization when the only right response is, "God is soooo good!"? We are in the midst of one of those right now. Let me tell you about it.

Ever since we bought our house we have been aware that the wiring would need to be replaced at some point. It's the original knob and tube wiring that was put in the house when it was built in 1924. We had mentioned the need to several people years ago and a friend sent us a substantial gift to help with the cost. That was in 2005. Since then we have tried to raise the funds we needed to complete the project but it has not been forthcoming. Although other folks tried to help, things just didn't work out.

Last year Keith and I both had a dream within a week about a major house fire (this was right before we left to be in California for 5 weeks!). That brought thoughts of the old wiring in our house but, not having the funds yet, we prayed, put our faith into high gear and left for California. It did make us think that perhaps God was nudging us to move in that direction but still nothing seemed to work out. The gift we had received for the rewiring project was less than half of the quote we were given to complete the work.

This year we decided to reevaluate all of our insurance coverage to see if there were some lower priced but comparable coverages out there. As we completed an application for new house insurance it asked if we had knob and tube wiring. Beside the "yes" answer it noted that this was a disqualifier which our agent confirmed. We felt this was God's way of letting us know it was time to get serious about replacing the wiring regardless of what it was going to cost.

Last week we asked an electrician friend if he could suggest someone to help us. He recommended Ben. Before the week was over Ben came, saw our house, talked with us about the project and said he could start Tuesday of this week! And the quote he gave us....are you ready for this? The quote he gave us is exactly the amount of the gift that was given to us in 2005 for the rewiring project. Ha! Isn't God good?

Ben and his wife Kathy work together to get the first wires from the basement to the attic.

Ben and Kathy have been here two days this week already and have two rooms completed. They are truly a joy to have in our house! Thankfully they love dogs and clearly they love working together too. I look forward to each day they come here to work. By the way, after they finished the bathroom wiring yesterday I went in to get everything back in order. I tried to plug the night light in and couldn't for the life of me get it in the holes! It finally dawned on me that it was upside down. You see, the sockets that were in there before were put in upside down so our night light has always faced down! Ha! A new kind of normal. :o) Now our airplane night light can fly right side up!

We knew we had a need to rewire in 2002 when we bought the house. In 2005 the Lord provided for the need. And in 2009 the timing was perfect for the need to be met. The moral of this story? Wait on the Lord's timing. He has such good things planned for us!