Having Some Fun

Right now I'm having some fun. One of the responsibilities I really enjoy is working with folks seeking God's will who are wondering if MMS might be part of His plan for them. The past day and a half has been a wonderful blend of emails, phone calls, and official documentation related to doing just that.

• Yesterday I spent the afternoon reviewing applications and then sending reference forms related to a couple in candidacy out on the West Coast.
  

• This morning I emailed with a young lady out in the Pacific Northwest who shared she was called to mission service as a 4th grader and recently realized it's to serve as a pilot/mechanic. She's just out of high school, is learning to fly, is learning about missions, and is excited to better understand how MMS might be able to help.
  

• Then there's another young lady, also out west, who is already a pilot and working as an airplane mechanic's helper, who is interested in coming out for an internship of a month or two in duration. Her first contact with MMS was back in the Summer of 2005. Her calling is to serve on the mission field.
  

• In a few short months, the Gettle family will arrive to begin apprenticeship. I worked with them as inquirers back in 2003 and then as approved candidates since 2006. It's exciting to have them so very close to having their financial support raised.

I'm also working and communicating with nineteen other families and individuals in various stages of seeking God's will--from the couple coming in June for final evaluation to yesterday's latest "initial contact" from a gentleman in Kentucky. And who knows what the next phone call or email will bring?

And not only that, it's Thursday which means Karen is serving by my side today and tomorrow. She's currently assembling and mailing MMS information packets to three other "initial contacts" seeking the Lord's will for their lives.

I enjoy Thursdays and Fridays. Thank you Lord, and thank YOU our faithful blog readers, for allowing and providing for our service with MMS. Your gifts and prayers helping us serve, means you're helping everyone mentioned above to draw closer to their own missionary service! Is that cool, or what!

In my office reviewing candidate files.

Plugging Away and Flying Away

Plugging Away
There is a lot going on down in the hangar right now. The guys are down there faithfully plugging away at project after project.

• Gospel Carrier International's Cessna 310 is opened up for inspection, the oil drained from the engines, and the oil filters inspected.

One of the Cessna 310's engines.

• The horizontal stabilizer has been re-covered with fabric and reinstalled on the locally owned Taylorcraft.

Andy fabricates a bushing for the Taylorcraft horizontal stabilizer.

• The leading edge repair is nearly completed on the one wing of the Honduran 206.

Paul and Scott finish riveting the repair in place.

Flying Away
The the evangelistic team (from mainland China) traveling in Gospel Carrier International's King Air arrived last night from Texas and left this afternoon to continue their outreach to Chinese speakers in America. While we're working on their 310, the King Air continues to serve.

The evangelistic team departs Coshocton in GCI's King Air.

Successful Eval and Perfect Weather

Candidate Evaluation
Jeremiah's and Briana's candidate evaluations went very well last week. After overseeing three days of evaluation, I began orientation with them Thursday morning. Normally, Karen would have helped but she instead had the pleasure of babysitting for Holger and Maria, missionary friends of ours in town on furlough from South Africa. Holger and Maria went through MMS back in 1998-1999.

With the babysitting done, Karen joined us Friday morning for the second day of orientation. Her presence and insight really helps blend and improve the tone and presentation of the immense amount of information we have to share in such a very short time. And it provides someone else for the approved candidates to look at and listen too instead of 16 straight hours of just me.

Jeremiah and Briana took it all in stride, asked good questions, and headed back to Colorado yesterday evening totally overloaded with the reality of full-time missionary service and the responsibilities of support raising. But that's where we all start out!

Briana, Jeremiah, Me, and Karen in the MMS Conference Room.

Everyone at MMS enjoyed getting to know them over the past week and looks forward to their return after they raise the required financial support. We have another young couple scheduled for eval in June. But then, the older we get, the younger EVERY couple seems to become! Ha!

Perfect Weather and The First Day of 2009
Oh man...as far as I'm concerned TODAY is the first day of 2009. Yesterday was nice I guess, but after spending the entire day and into the early evening inside the MMS conference room, I missed it. But I'm not missing today.

Clear sky and 77 degrees at 9 AM headed to 85 degrees, pancakes on the griddle, bacon sizzling in the pan, Caroline's Coffee in my cup, I'm wearing short pants and my Bruce Jones Surfboards t-shirt, and with no major responsibilities for the day...it would seem that maybe the Winter of 2008 is FINALLY over and for me, the new year doesn't start until last year's winter ENDS. So, like I said, this is the first day of 2009 and what a great day it is!

Happy New Year's Day, April 25th, 2009!

Don't get me wrong, there's still plenty to do today (track support, mow the yard, trim bushes, buy and mount new tires on my bicycle, move the porch swing from the garage back to the front porch, move wood so we can get to the porch swing, and so on)...but there's no pressure associated with the tasks. And that's nice.

Happy New Year!

Coshocton Flyer Newsletter: April 2009

We hope you enjoy our latest newsletter!

Over For Dinner

Jeremiah and Briana's candidate evaluation continues through tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning Bob, Dwight and I will discuss all the evaluation observations gathered over the past three days, review related paperwork, collect the recommendations, and then have a final interview with Jeremiah & Briana. After the interview we'll decide whether or not to approve them to join the apprenticeship program. Should approval be given, I'll immediately begin the two day orientation process with them.

Jeremiah & Mike perform maintenance on a tire and wheel assembly from Moody's 182.

The evaluation process isn't all work however. While Jeremiah has served in the hangar during the day, Briana and Asher have interacted with the MMS ladies and children. In the evenings they've been hosted for meals at the homes of various staff members. But some staff member homes are more fun than others as Dennis & Mary have horses to enjoy!

Briana, Asher, and Jeremiah enjoy a few moments with "Spirit," Dennis & Mary's young colt last evening.

We're blessed to have Jeremiah, Briana, and Asher over for dinner tonight. Last night they could enjoy horses after the meal. Tonight they'll just have to settle for two hard-headed, energetic barking Cocker Spaniels and a retired Labrador/Great Dane mix. Tim and Michele will be joining us as well. Who knows...maybe we'll get the Dutch Blitz cards out...

Candidate Evaluation Week

Part of my responsibility as Director of Human Resources is to oversee the application and evaluation process for those interested in serving with MMS. The final step of that process is inviting the candidate and family to MMS to spend a week serving in our hangar and interacting socially with our staff.

This is our second candidate evaluation of the year. You may remember our first evaluation last month with Mark & Jenny. This month Jeremiah & Briana are here from Colorado. Jeremiah just wrapped up his first day serving in the hangar.

We try to schedule things so everyone in the organization has the opportunity to interact with the candidates and to provide input. It really is an organizational effort to do the best we can in gathering as much observational information as we're able in order to make the best decisions possible regarding candidacy.

The in-hangar evaluation pretty much consumes my week, especially the two days of orientation Thursday and Friday should the candidate be accepted for service. We'd appreciate your prayers as we work to determine Jeremiah & Briana's suitability for service with MMS. Thanks.

Jeremiah works under Ian's supervision.

A Day At MMS

I thought I'd try something a bit different and provide a snapshot into a "real day at MMS" as the day unfolds and, as hard to believe as it is, the day has already unfolded to 10:40 AM!

10:45 AM
We started this morning (as normal) around the lunchroom table at 7:30 AM with prayer, tech talk, and announcements. From there everyone split off to their various assignments and projects. I had a short meeting in my office with Scott and Dave to discuss some visioning for a project and then jumped into answering emails. It was a light email morning. For some reason the past few days have been very light as far as typical email traffic.

Since then, I've been pounding the keyboard editing/updating existing pages of our orientation manual and writing new pages to reflect changes that have occurred, and decisions that have been made, since our last evaluation of a US candidate couple in May of last year.

Karen's in to work for me today and to manage the MMS mailing list. She's already edited several draft pages for me and provided two great ideas for additional information to cover. It won't be too long before I have her start photocopying/assembling the updated orientation handbook for the candidate evaluation that starts first thing Monday morning.

Outside the sky is blue and clear which is a nice change after two days of rain and one day of constant drizzle. Air temp currently 46 with a predicted high of 63. I'll probably post again before we break for lunch.

12:20 PM
Karen's wrapping up a mailing for one of our graduate families as a final step of their transition to service with JAARS.

Karen at the postage machine.

I've just drafted another couple pages for the orientation manual. We'll break for lunch as soon as I get this post up.

My desk with the manual and some of the new pages I've written today.

While it's quiet up here in the administrative area, the sounds coming through the wall of my office that is also the hangar wall, I would say the guys have put the Cessna 210 back on the floor jacks and are testing its retractable landing gear system. I can hear the gear drop and lock into place and I can hear the motor whine as the gear is retracted back into the fuselage with a thump. They hope to return the airplane to its owner this afternoon.

1:45 PM
Karen and I finished lunch about an 45 minutes ago. We enjoyed a turkey sandwich with cheese and pickles, plain-wrap corn chips, and grapes. Karen had water to drink, I had a plain-wrap "Dr. Pepper."

It looks like I'll finish my day working on the orientation manual...wait...

I just heard the guys open the main hangar doors. It could be they're pushing the 210 outside for the owner to fly. I'll go check. Maybe I'll be able to post a photo of the airplane departing the airport later today!

3:40 PM

The Cessna 210 just made its return to service flight!

It's always exciting to see airplanes return to the sky.

4:55 PM
Well, that's about it for me. After shooting the 210's departure, finishing the edits on the orientation manual, discussing the upcoming eval with one of our staff, burning a CD of phots for another staff member, and posting over on the MMS blog, I think I'll call it a day. Karen left about 4:00 to drop off the mailing she completed, send a box of 300 return envelopes to one of the families currently raising support, and to go home to see what Tanner's torn up after being home alone all day.

Tanner's been on a destructive tear lately. We've had him on steroids for his allergies...but we've learned that steroids, while making his allergies better, increases his desire to chew, rip, and tear things up. At this point, walking in the door after having him "home alone" is always an adventure.

Thanks for following our day. Let me know if you enjoyed this type of post. If so, I'll do it more often.

Meeting with David & Amy & Asher

Karen and I had the fun task of meeting with David and Amy Mozombite today. David recently completed apprenticeship with MMS, is preparing to take his FAA exams for his mechanic's certificate, and is in application to serve in Bolivia with South America Mission (SAM).

David and Amy also just returned from Ethiopia completing the adoption of Asher, an orphaned two year old. If you'd like to see a great video slideshow of Asher on David & Amy's blog, click here. You'll enjoy it. Asher was part of the meeting today as well and he was so much fun. As we talked about the Mozombite's transitional plans toward service with SAM, Asher just made himself at home in the conference room, played with toys, laughed and loved on his new parents. The adoption was a two year process which meant that they were starting to pray for a son about the time Asher was conceived in Africa. Seeing them together confirms God's hand in this wonderful situation.

Our meeting with David, Amy, and Asher was a very pleasant break from the week long preparations I've been making for the candidate evaluation we're conducting next week. This will be our second candidate eval this year with our third eval already scheduled for June. Applications with another candidate couple are in the works.

Most of my energy today went into updating the orientation material for the eval. Lord willing, I'll be able to finish the updating tomorrow, assemble the orientation handbooks, pick up the raw materials to make new display boards, and tie up the final loose ends.

Tonight, Karen's at MMS Ladies' Prayer. Me? I'm here with the dogs getting ready to watch the first episode of the new season of Deadliest Catch.

Tucker Is a Big Help in the Kitchen

Tucker is a big help in the kitchen. She's a big help where ever there is food. Sometimes she gets to be such a BIG help when there's food around that we have to throw her outside for a while. Tucker is all about food. In the fridge, on the counter, on the table, on our plate, in our hand, on the floor, in the corner, under the oven, dog food, people food, bird food, food food...it doesn't matter. If it's food it belongs to her and if she can't have it, no other dog in the house is going to have it either. I think we need to send her out to Cesar Milan's Dog Psychology Center out in Los Angeles for a while...

Here's a shot of Tucker helping Karen clean under the oven.
That's Tucker's stubby little tail sticking out.
Not only does she clean up any old food crumbs, but she
also collects the dust underneath as she crawls around!

Actually Karen does need to do a little touch up after Tucker finishes but it's important for Tucker to feel part of the team. And when it comes to food...Tucker IS the team...

"Eat. Spit. Be Happy."

It really feels like spring is here today. Blue sky, puffy clouds, warm sun, cool breeze, fresh-cut lawn, Robins are eating worms, Cardinals are calling to each other, all after a day of rain. Very spring-ish indeed. But there are a few other signs that winter is losing its grip on Coshocton County...Karen's baking for Easter, the garden bulbs are in bloom, and the sunflower seeds are flying.

We'll be with friends tomorrow for Easter and to watch The Master's Tournament. Karen's in charge of the baking. She just made her first "peanut butter pie" which is a dessert mainstay of the local cultural cuisine, she baked a fresh loaf of bread with flour she ground herself, and she just finished a raspberry cream pie.

Karen adds the raspberry filling to the cream base on graham cracker crust. Notice the loaf of bread.

Karen planted a bunch of bulbs last fall and they've come up very nicely. While I don't have a shot of every variety of tulip, daffodil, or purple plant, I did snap one that brings out some nice color representative of the other flowers.

Flowers in our garden

However, the hallmark of spring for me is when I break out the sunflower seeds. That means I'm mowing. Which means the grass is growing. Which means the sun is out and temps are climbing. As the lawn mower needs gasoline to run, I need sunflower seeds to mow. I load up my cheek, keep the bag of seeds in my back pocket, split the seeds between my teeth and then spit the shells into the grass as I walk behind the mower.

I eat David brand seeds and prefer Jalapeno flavor but you can't get them in Coshocton. The best I can do here is BBQ, or Cool Ranch, or Original. I settle for BBQ. While as I believer in Jesus Christ I do have a theology on which my life is based, the David brand philosophy of life, as printed on their sunflower packs, is rather deep and multi-dimensional:: "Eat. Spit. Be Happy."

David brand BBQ sunflower seeds

Indeed. I'm all about that.

Just So You Now We Do Have Moments Of Good Weather

Here are two snapshots I took today to prove that, even in April, we do have moments of nice weather sandwiched between the days of clouds, rain, and snow...

Gospel Carrier International's Cessna 310
on the ramp between Hangar B & C.

Gospel Carrier International's Cessna 172
returns to service.

Karen Repairs An Airplane In Bolivia

While I spent most of my day in a meeting, Karen was repairing airplanes in Africa, South America, and Asia.

An integral part of our administrative area is a wall-sized map of the world. We use the map to help folks understand the worldwide impact of MMS Aviation. The map has wrenches on it to represent Rapid Response trips, photos and prayer cards on it of graduate families, and airplanes representing ministries we've served and where their aircraft came from to be repaired here in Coshocton, Ohio.

One of Karen's responsibilities is to manage, update, and maintain the wall map. It wasn't too long ago that she upgraded and standardized all the photos. Today was her opportunity to repair the airplanes.

The airplanes that are located lower on the map find themselves in the range of little fingers attached to hands controlled by childishly inquisitive minds. After multiple tours of visitors and families, it's not uncommon to find airplanes on the map that are pulled, bent, stretched, wrinkled and otherwise damaged.

Karen repairs an airplane in Bolivia, South America.

After receipting MMS donations, Karen shifted into her map-mechanic mode and made repairs to several airplanes on several different continents.

Not everyone can say they did that in one day! Thanks for helping make it possible, and being part of it through your friendship, gifts, and prayers.

PODCAST! PODCAST! Hear All About It in the MMS Podcast!

If you've never listened to a "podcast" before, now is your opportunity! Yesterday afternoon, I had the pleasure of having Sandy Toomer conduct a phone interview with me. Sandy is a former MAF pilot/mechanic now doing website design and website management on behalf of the International Association of Missionary Aviation (IAMA). Sandy gave me a call and we chatted for a few minutes about MMS and mission aviation. The result of the interview is now a podcast posted on the IAMA website. You can access and listen to the podcast by clicking HERE.

I hope you enjoy the podcast. Lord willing, I'll have other opportunities to do podcasts about MMS for the IAMA website in the future.

_______________________________________

As my podcasting "career" was launching, there were still plenty of other things to be doing in the HR Department. With MMS' April GroundCrew newsletter to write, preparing for candidate evaluations this month and in June, with three families raising support to start apprenticeship and one staff family working to increase their support, opening application with a couple from California yesterday, and having an interested family coming in from Michigan on Monday for a site visit and to talk about possible service, I've been staying rather close to my desk.

I've also had to write several new "cover letters" for different aspects of the application/evaluation process to reflect changes in the procedure. Karen's a great help to me in this area as an editor. She always gives me good counsel on content and tone. She helped me with letters yesterday and today.

Me and Karen in my office after discussing one of the letter drafts.

I also met with Dale today to discuss their support development efforts. Dale and Deborah have been with MMS for over 15 years and are working to strengthen their support team. Dale is one of our team leaders. Dale and Deborah are originally from Zimbabwe, Africa. Part of my responsibility is to provide assistance and oversight to all our families in the area of financial support. Dale and Deborah are such important parts of the MMS ministry. It's a privilege to be able to work with them as they develop and nurture ministry relationships.

Here I am with Dale discussing support development.

And thank YOU, for making Karen's and my ministry possible through your gifts and prayers. You are literally reaching around the world and enabling Jesus Christ to change lives for enternity. May God's richest blessings be upon you and may we all give Him the glory for it!

Spring Weather=Winter to Summer in 8 Hours

You know it's spring in Ohio when you have frost on the ground and temps in the low thirties on your way into the mission, and have 72 degrees and hail shortly after you get home from the mission. It's like going from winter to summer in 8 hours with beautiful blue sky right up until the clouds drifted over and unloaded...it's so weird.

Some of the hail by our back door.

Tanner decided to eat the hail out of my hand as I was trying to take another picture.

Cleveland?

Yesterday's sight-seeing trip to Cleveland turned out to be a lot of trip with little seeing...I'd prepped Bat-Enkh to take the tour of the WW II submarine USS Cod (a great self-guided tour), to explore the William G. Mather, a Great Lakes ore ship (another cool self-guided tour); and tour either the Indians' or the Browns' stadium as proved most convenient.

After the 2 1/2 hour drive we pulled up to the USS Cod and right next to the "Open All Day Every Day 10-5" sign was the "Closed Today, Come Back Tomorrow" sign. Strike One.

Here's Bat-Enkh outside the USS Cod compound--closed for tours.

I drove around the corner were the William G. Mather used to be moored and it had been moved to the next landing. Driving over to the landing, the parking attendant informed us that the ship wouldn't be open for tours until late May early June when the weather finally warms up and tourists come out. Strike two.

The William G. Mather--closed for tours.

Well, how about Browns Stadium (in whose shadow we parked). Closed until late April. Strike three. One out.

Bat-Enkh outside Browns Stadium--closed for tours.

How about the Indians' ballpark? Closed until late April. Strike one. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is right there, but they wanted $22 EACH to walk in and look around. Karen and I paid less to go inside the Cathedral in Canterbury, England...Strike two.

We decided to head up from the lakefront to find a Cleveland-esque restaurant to eat in but after walking for what seemed to be a long time covering several city blocks, the only food we found was inside the food court inside the Galleria. Strike three. Two outs.

At that point we were getting tired and hungry. As a final back-up plan, I'd researched what sounded like an interesting food/flea market to check-out across town. So we hoofed back to the car and drove a few miles of Cleveland streets. When we arrived where the market was supposed to be, it was really hard to determine if we'd arrived anywhere. I did see a building that may have housed a market but it seemed too small based on the information I'd read. I didn't notice any parking, the area seemed more run down than "artistic" or pleasantly "bohemian," nothing appeared to be marked, and neither one of us noticed a street flow of excited shoppers anywhere to be seen. With traffic moving right along, we kept moving right along, too, deciding not to stop. Strike one.

We worked our way back to the lakefront several miles west and found a restaurant within sight of the lake. Finally, a quaint eatery near water's edge...the day was not a total loss. We parked, walked in and the waitress informed us they'd just lost their power so they could serve us soup but couldn't cook anything else. Bat and I just looked at each other and started laughing. Strike two. We gave up trying to find anything quaint and ended up eating at a BBQ place just off US 90. The menu was the best part of the meal. Strike three. Three outs.

With our side retired (nine strikes in row), we figured it best to just make the 2 1/2 hour drive back to Coshocton and call it a day. Besides, we knew we needed to be on the road by 3:15 AM this morning in order to get Bat-Enkh to the Columbus airport to catch his flight out. But today is another story. Maybe I'll tell it to you tomorrow.

By for now...