Saturday Good Morning

It's fifteen degrees and overcast this morning. The streets and most walkways are clear, though the grassy areas in town and around the county still have some snow cover.

Karen's in the kitchen making blueberry muffins and already has laundry going down in the basement. I'm working at my desk, drinking coffee and preparing our next young adult Sunday School lesson: Chapter 10 of Steve McVey's, Grace Walk.

Karen and I are currently leading the young adults through discussion of chapter 9 (and will probably spend a couple more weeks doing so) but as we're creating our own curriculum, I run each lesson by our pastor for his approval before moving ahead. Lord willing, I'll be able to put Chapter 10 on his desk tomorrow.

Grace Walk is a challenging book that lends itself to dynamic discussion about God's word, law vs. grace, and Steve's perceptions of them. We're really enjoying leading the young adults through this book and are growing in our own faith and understanding through the process. It's win-win with Jesus Christ.

Tucker and Tanner are resting quiet and content in their beds. Little do they know that it's Cocker Spaniel Bath Day today...

Thanks for checking in. We're thankful you're interested and involved in our lives!

Video: Hey Paul, What Are You Doing Today?

Continuing my foray into the field of video, here's another clip from a recent quick trip through the hangar. This features apprentice mechanic Paul J. (as opposed to Paul G.) as he works on the Aztec annual inspection.



If you'd like to see additional video of Paul explaining various aspects of his aviation maintenance experiences in our hangar, visit his blog: http://hishangar.blogspot.com/2009/12/brazil-206-fuel-tank-repair.html. Paul understands video AND airplanes!

The "What Are You Doing Today" Video Series

As a new feature of our blog, I'll occasionally include video clips from my trips through the hangar where I'll stop and ask one of our mechanics, "What are you doing today?" I'm naturally more oriented toward still photography so I greatly appreciate your patience as I dabble in video.

Here's the first clip in the "What Are You Doing Today" series. It features Mark, one of our apprentice mechanics as he makes a repair to one of the missionary airplanes we regularly maintain.

Video of Current Projects

Here's a quick walk-through tour of the projects currently being worked on in Hangars A&B. Activity is a bit lower than usual due to Ian, Josh and Chuck being on Rapid Response to Florida in support of Missionary Flights International's Haiti relief efforts, but we're still plugging away in our own little corner of God's Kingdom.

Hangar Update

Now that I'm back in the hangar, here's a quick update on our four major projects:

Brazilian 206
While the guys are waiting on paint to finish of the repaired wings, the instrument panel upgrade continues. With the basic nav/com stack wired up, Mike's shifted over to fabricating a metal instrument panel to replace the standard plastic style panel.

Here's a shot of the new nav/com wiring harness that Mike made.

Mike cuts aluminum away from the 206's old instrument panel.

Pfeifer Aztec
The annual inspection of the Aztec is well underway. The airframe has been opened up and both engines are currently undergoing inspection. Dale is overseeing this project.

Tim replaces safety wire on the Aztec's right propeller.
The Canadian 337 is in the background.

Paul J. inspects the Aztec's left engine.

Canadian 337
Paul G. is repairing the cargo pod, Chuck is making repairs to the horizontal stabilizer, and Scott and Dale soon hope to have the front engine mounted on the run-up stand in the test cell.

Honduran 206
Completion of this project is now on hold awaiting return of a radio sent out for repair.

So Much For Photos in Friday's Post

Friday was a lot like Thursday which was a lot like...the rest of the previous days of the week in that I was working at home, pounding the computer keyboard, updating and upgrading support raising materials for our use this year. I know I hinted at actually having photos in yesterday's post, but since I didn't blog on Friday...no photos. And, no photos today because Saturday was a lot like Friday which was a lot like Thursday...and I pretty much spent the entire day on the computer again.

With the eternal overcast contentedly settled back over Coshocton, the gray haze under the gray clouds above the muddy, soft grass and dirt, bare trees, and damp streets and paths there isn't much to take photos of.

Tucker did make it out for a walk with Karen and I took Tanner out for our regular loop. At dinner this evening (Karen made taco salad) we realized the dogs are going to be 7 years old this year. It doesn't seem possible that they're already middle-aged. But then again, it doesn't seem possible that Karen and I are middle-aged.

I'll be back at the mission on Monday.

Have a great Sunday!

Sun In The Morning, Rain In The Evening

It's amazing how much time it takes to update ministry presentation materials. I've been working at that for the past four days and there's still quite a bit more to do as I have yet to even start working with PowerPoint. I've pretty much spent all day today into this evening working on the computer updating our ministry portfolio. And now that I finally have our updated portfolios printing out, I thought I'd take some time to blog.

It was 23 and sunny this morning. Frosty. Not bad. 23's not all that cold when the sun's out. I made it out for my three mile walk with Tanner between 3:30 and 4:30 this afternoon which was good because the sun was gone and the rain had started by 5:00. It's supposed to rain through tomorrow. It's odd, but 41 degrees and rain can sometimes feel colder than 23 degrees and sun.

I also planned and scheduled our trip to Colorado next month to meet with one of the couples raising support to join MMS. We oriented them for service with MMS last April. It'll be good to see them again. Didn't do too bad on the air fare into Denver but we have to connect through Milwaukee. Rental cars in Denver are a lot more expensive than they are out of Orange County, California.

Karen cleaned the house today (and did a heck of a job I might add!). She then spent part of this evening working on contacts related to our not too distant trip to Pennsylvania, March 20-21, for the missions conference at Grace Church Willow Valley.

Karen's currently in her living room chair, covered in her fleece blanket, relaxing with a magazine with the kerosene heater about three feet from her elevated feet. She's earned a little down time.

As a praise, we already have two new monthly supporters! Wahoo!

We'll try to come up with some photos for tomorrow's post.

Home on a Wednesday Night

We just walked in the door from prayer meeting and worship team practice a few minutes ago (10 PM).

Karen spent the day working at MMS handling the receipting duties and working on a data base project for HR.

I went up to MMS with her and selected photos from my shop computer so I can work at home again tomorrow developing a new PowerPoint presentation for us. I also handled some MMS things that needed attention while I was up there.

We actually had some sun today. High clouds to be sure, but the sun was out for most of the day.

The post office was so busy yesterday that I tried twice to get in the parking lot and couldn't. Yep, it's big things like that that are the talk of the town around here...

Working From Home and An Open Invitation

Why am I working at home? Our ministry costs have substantially increased over the past two years so we'll be traveling in Pennsylvania several times over the course of this year to share about MMS Aviation and invite people to join in ministry with us. I've taken this week to focus on several tasks related to organizing that process: updating contact information, updating our ministry portfolio, contacting people on our mailing list, writing notes and letters, and coming up with a new PowerPoint presentation.

Really, part of our ministry is serving at MMS, part of our ministry is serving at Fresno Bible Church (Ohio), and part of our ministry is working to stay in ministry by maintaining the financial and prayer support required to meet our daily physical and spiritual needs. The latter part of our three-fold ministry is what's happening this week.

So if you're in the process of shopping around for a nice, middle-aged, missionary couple to support...we're available.

If you're interested in learning more about how how to partner with us, just send us an email (click on my name in the "Contributors" box in our profile) or leave a comment, letting us know of your interest and we'll get back with you to answer all of your questions.

Thanks for thinking and praying about it.

Cabin Fever Relief

Today was a fun day of being with some of the ladies from MMS. We don't have a lot of occasions to get together but it's really fun when we can spend some time chatting, getting to know each other better and learning from each other. Today the ladies left the kids home with the men and got a day out of the house to work on some projects at the Dunkley's home. With all the cold winter weather and snow lately, we were all happy to get some "cabin fever" relief!

Getting to know each other is a constant event at MMS. Since our apprentice families are constantly coming and then going to serve elsewhere after their preparation at MMS, there are always new faces from new places. Those of us who stay and serve here in Coshocton enjoy helping the new ladies get acclimated and teaching them anything we can that might help them as they move on from here. On the other hand, new ladies always come with skills and knowledge from other parts of the country (or world) that we can learn from. Put all that together with projects to work on and food to share and it always adds up to fun!

Above, Stephanie is working on hand-making greeting cards while she talks to Isobel. Stephanie also likes to scrapbook which both use similar skills. Like she said, cards gets "done", the scrapbooking of all the family photos NEVER gets done! Stephanie and her husband graduated from MMS, served in Africa and are back living in the area with their two boys. We enjoy having her with us again!

Left to right above are Jenny, a friend of Isobel, Dana and Mary. Jenny was working on a beautiful quilted table runner far beyond my current skill level. She knows all the tricks of the trade! Dana was learning how to crochet dishcloths with an array of cotton colors. Mary painted her nails and just enjoyed some R&R while she visited with us all.

Dana and her husband are grads and staff of MMS. Chris went home to be with the Lord a couple of years ago and Dana continues to serve a meaningful role in the MMS office in between raising and homeschooling her three children. Mary is working to acclimate to the Coshocton area, and the U.S. in general, after having served many years in Bolivia with her husband and three children. Their change in service was unexpected and has been difficult though God-ordained. Her husband fills a much needed role in the MMS hangar as a mechanic. I am enjoying getting to know Mary. She is an RN too and we like swapping stories and keeping up with nursing while not actually practicing it.


We had 4 sewing machines all lined up doing different projects. Isobel's home is perfect with its open design for hosting all of us and our projects! There's plenty of room to spread out. Isobel is in the pink shirt getting some mending and hemming done that she says has been waiting for years. I think Mike was glad we came! They were HIS pants! Kristy is at the back sewing machine.


Kristy was working on an apron and learning some new sewing skills from Isobel, Jenny and me that will serve her well as a missionary wife and mom. She and her husband and 3 children thought the Lord was sending them to Brazil only to find out that He wanted them to stay on at MMS as staff. We were as disappointed as they were to see Brazil become a closed door but, as we all know, when God closes a door, He opens a window and we are blessed we get to keep them here!

"Sparky", one of the Dunkley's dogs thought my layout plan for a quilt was pretty comfy. He didn't see any reason to take them up to sew seams!

Well, you know me. I can't resist a cute dog!

In this photo is Kristin on the left and Jenny on the right. Kristin and her family started the apprenticeship program recently and are already fitting in quite well. Kristin home schools and is looking for new recipes to feed their 3 growing boys....4 if you count her husband Paul! Jenny is working on a lovely afghan which she is embroidering with Winnie the Pooh and friends alphabet. Really cute! Jenny and her husband Mark came just recently to start the apprenticeship at MMS as well. They are from England. Their little Abigail, one year old, does not leave much time or energy for embroidery at home! Both of these ladies have adjusted amazingly quickly to the local culture and set up homes that allow their husbands the much needed time and focus to succeed as an apprentice at MMS.

Isobel, originally from Zimbabwe, Africa, loves to cook and we love it when she does! She made us a lovely lunch of freshly baked rolls, vegetable soup and and some type of African mystery meal. The ladies who cook African for us never seem to have a name for what is served. It's just, "African"! It's always delicious but I'm really not sure whether any of these African dishes could ever be replicated! I think they just use what ever they have "in the village" that day and put it all in a pot. Today, whatever it was, was served over rice. Yum!

In the photo above, Staci is back there talking to Stephanie. Staci and her husband have been with MMS for seven years. God has recently called Staci and her husband to return to service with Missionary Flights International (MFI) in Florida and we will be sad to see them go this summer. But, it is with glad hearts we send them where God has called them to serve Him best. MFI is currently on the front line of flying relief supplies into Haiti. The mission supports 700 missionaries on the island.

There are times for all of us when we feel very far from our families and close friends as we serve here in Coshocton. Creating bonds between us is a very important part of surviving on the mission field, even here in the U.S. God puts us all here for a reason. Each one has special gifts to offer and to help others learn. Some of that is fun. Some of that is very hard but God uses it all for our good and His glory.

Hangar Snapshots on Thursday Afternoon

Here are four snapshots I just took while walking through our hangar facility this afternoon.

As part of a "while-the-missionary-waits, fly-in & fly-out" maintenance service, Mike torques the oil filter in place after changing the oil in the right (and left) engine of GCI's Cessna 310.

Ian installs an engine mount on the Brazilian 206.

Mark installs vacuum tubing behind the panel of the Brazilian 206.

Paul G. repairs control cables inside the Canadian 337.

Brazilian 206 Project Update

While Ian's running wires into the tail cone, Josh is installing seat rails, Mark is installing door windows, and Paul is tracking down fuel tank leaks, Mike and Jim are working on the avionics installation for the 206 being restored for ministry in Brazil.

Jim fabricates a bracket to mount avionics.

Mike builds the wiring harness for the nav/com stack.

There's a high level of activity all over and around this airplane as the guys work to complete this project by the end of March.

Me? I spent a good portion of today in another meeting and then invested quite a bit of time responding to emails. Karen worked real hard on organizing and cleaning our home and went out to buy and then bring home the bacon in the most literal sense.

It looks like we're headed into some warmer weather with temps heading up into the upper 30's and we may even have some sun to deal with on Thursday. That'd be nice.

Thanks for your gifts and prayers!

Four Meetings...Full Day...Continued Tomorrow

Today was a day of meetings for me at MMS.

The morning started with a 90 minute group meeting featuring a presentation on missionary aviation brought by a researcher. It was an expert presentation and included information that will, I'm sure, lead to some additional discussions within MMS as it already is across the wider spectrum of mission aviation.

After that meeting I did have a few minutes to check and respond to some emails before my next meeting began with one of our staff who is focused on expanding their ministry team. We spent an enjoyable hour or so talking support raising concepts, related theology, personal convictions and comfort zones, presentation purpose and content, and nuance in increasing Christian community awareness of what God is doing at MMS.

The presentation ended at noon. That gave me time to eat lunch and prepare for our department head meeting at 1:00.

Bob, Tim, and I meet every Monday to coordinate departmental operations, problem solve, and brainstorm. This afternoon's meeting ran until 4:00 and we adjourned with the agreement to reconvene tomorrow morning as soon as it's appropriate. There's lots to talk about right now and it's exciting...but it's amazing how much energy and emotion is involved in the process.

Thanks for your prayers. I know Bob, Tim, and I can sure use them tomorrow as our meeting continues.

And, if you're curious, yes it's still cold out here...we've had a dusting of new snow today.

Karen Makes Bluberry Muffins, Keith Shovels Snow

Karen's Blueberry Muffins
We've already had quite a bit of comment on Facebook about the muffin situation here this morning so I thought I'd post some pictures of Karen making the previously mentioned muffins.

I am like totally blessed by a wife who loves to bake. When the temps drop below 30 degrees, Karen has this innate and nearly uncontrollable urge to bake. Cookies, muffins, bread, biscuits, coffee cake, pies, raspberry bars, lemon bars, it doesn't really matter as long as she's baking. Whch means it doesn't really matter as long as I'm eating what she's baking. We make a good team that way.

Thank you, God.

So this morning it was scratch-made blueberry muffins (25 degrees outside, five inches of snow, snow flurries in the air) and a tall cup of coffee for breakfast. Oh yeah.

Karen with the muffins ready to load into the oven.

Muffin perfection.

Keith Shovels Snow
After breakfast I went outside and shoveled snow for about an hour to clear our curb so we could park the car on asphalt instead of on snow and ice. The pictures aren't as exciting as the snapshots of the muffins but they do prove I do things around here other than just eat everything Karen bakes.

Finishing off on our mini-driveways.

This is just 1/4 of the curb I cleared.
Living on a corner has blessed us with a lot of curb.

So it's left over muffins for breakfast before church tomorrow and I shouldn't have to shovel any more snow until Monday! Have a great Sunday and thanks for checking in to our blog!

Another Wild Friday Night in Coshocton

Yes, it's another wild Friday night in Coshocton! There's five inches of snow on the ground, the air temp outside is 18 degrees but feels like 10, and another long winter's night is already upon us. So what do middle-aged missionaries serving in the Midwest do on a night like this? Put on a sweatshirt, pull-over, or heavy shirt; grab a good book; grab a warm fleece blanket (sewn by Karen of course), find a soft place to sit, and top it all off with a warm dog.

Many of you with older house may relate to "flow through" window cases. While our 70 year old house does have storm windows which help keep winter from coming in through the single pane window frames, winter freely flows in and around the window cases instead. Consequently there's always winter-fresh air circulating inside near our windows. So even though the furnace does work, on nights we don't use the fireplace, we need to dress a bit warmer even inside. It's just part of the over all plan and picture. Speaking of pictures, here we are hunkered down for the evening.

Tucker and Karen

Keith and Tanner
(This is one of the rare shots where I'm inside the house not wearing
the blue beanie my mom knitted for me!)

Yep, the excitement is nearly too much to take.

Have a great weekend!

Replacing & Rewiring An Instrument Panel

The Brazilian 206 project is the second consecutive aircraft restoration where we've been asked to completely redesign and rewire the airplane's instrument panel. The recently completed Moody 182 project being the prior request. It's quite an intricate, labor intensive, and painstaking process. Along with all the new wiring and new nav/com stack, the plastic instrument panel will be replaced with one fabricated from steel.

Andy removes all the wiring and hardware behind the 206's plastic instrument panel.

The "gutted" panel area.

Some of the guts.

Andy and Mike organize the tools, components, and wires necessary to replace, restore, and upgrade what was removed.

While this is a relatively routine level of maintenance for us as an organization, it provides quite an in-depth level of maintenance experience for the apprentices involved. Learning how to rewire a panel through actually rewiring the panel of a missionary airplane adds a different level of realty to the training situation.

It's a blessing to serve the mission aviation community by preparing people to serve as missionary aircraft mechanics while preparing missionary airplanes for service around the world. Thanks for being part of it through your gifts, prayers, and encouragement.

A Quick Post on Wednesday Evening

Just time for a quick post between arriving home from the mission, dinner being served, and heading off to prayer meeting and worship team practice...

I spent most of my day completing the two PowerPoint presentations I was working on for one of the mission families. Karen was in working on receipting and took care of some HR tasks for me. It's still cloudy and cold (25 degrees as I type)...we had some "freezing drizzle" today. Freezing drizzle? Now THAT'S Coshocton for you...winter storm warning in effect starting tomorrow afternoon.

Karen's in the kitchen making fresh scratch biscuits to go with the vegetable soup she made yesterday. There are definite advantages to being married!

Scratch biscuits!

Wonderful biscuits!

Well, with the biscuits done we're ready to get dinner underway...I wish you could smell those biscuits!

Computer Keyboard at the Office, Snow Shovel at Home

I've spent the past two days at MMS pretty much trapped in my office. There were plenty of emails to catch up on after the break, I'm helping one of our staff families organize their support development efforts for 2010, developing a new Powerpoint presentation for another staff family scheduled for a church presentation this weekend, following up on contact with multiple prospective candidates, reviewing paperwork related to another candidacy from MAF-United Kingdom, receiving and reviewing the latest monthly goals/reports from the apprentice families raising support to start the program, generating my own end-of-month report for the board, etc.

At home, Karen began putting Christmas away today and drove a friend from West Lafayette to Coshocton and back for a dental appointment. Karen worked at the shop yesterday sorting end-of-year donations and will spend tomorrow back at MMS receipting those donations and managing the MMS mailing list.

We continue to have light, lake effect snow flurries. I came home this afternoon and shoveled our front sidewalk and the walk way along the side of the house.

We're back to the gray day existence in Coshocton County.

House

Dogs on deck.

Wrapping Up 2009 And Welcome to 2010!

Here it is already the evening of January 4, 2010. Unbelievable. With Christmas and New Year's over and with getting back into the swing of things at MMS, I hope to renew posting new blog entries on a more regular basis.

I'll begin 2010 by wrapping up 2009 with some snapshots.

Tucker and Tanner enjoy Christmas morning. They really are like little kids when all the presents are put under the tree. While they enjoy Christmas morning, Tanner takes the Christmas presents themselves very, very seriously.

So serious, that whenever there's a break in the action, he protects the remaining presents from Tucker with stares and snarls to the point where she actually leaves the living room. Then and only then can Tanner relax. It's the craziest thing to watch.

Tanner protects the Christmas presents from Tucker.

Tanner relaxes with "his" presents after he'd banished Tucker from the living room.

The day after Christmas, Karen's sister, brother-in-law, and niece drove in from Virgina for a three day visit. It was a lot of fun. We talked a lot, snacked a lot, watched some 3 Stooges DVD's, made a run into Amish country, worked on a puzzle, and played several rounds of Sequence.

Here's Brenda, Ralph, Karen, and Rebecca, during one of the rounds of Sequence.

After New Year's we did actually have a couple of sunny days here. The catch was the temps were in the teens and the windchill factors hovered near 0 degrees. Karen and I did get Tanner and Tucker out for a short walk. Tucker found a treasure on her walk.

Here's Tucker with the Christmas treasure found she found on her walk.

She was just so pleased to walk around with that bone in her mouth! Of course, since it was a turkey bone, we took it away from her after the photo. Tucker's wearing the Charlie Brown "jacket" that Karen made.

So yes, we did have a couple days where the sun was visible in the sky. Well, THAT'S over...it's been snowing since early this morning and there's about 4 inches of fresh snow on the ground right now.

Today was everyone's first day back at MMS after the holiday. It was good to be together again and re-focus on preparing people and planes for worldwide mission service. Everyone has a feeling that 2010 is going to be a great year for the mission. Thanks for your continued interest and involvement which makes our ministry possible.

MMS Aviation
(the little red car is mine)