Preparing People for Worldwide Mission Service

As HR Director for MMS, I focus on the "preparing people" side of MMS' purpose statement: "MMS Aviation prepares people and planes for worldwide mission service. " Karen works closely with me through each evaluation and orientation.

In July, Karen and I oversaw a candidate evaluation of a family from South Carolina.

August 22-25 we oversaw the candidate evaluation of Geoff & Celia Linkleter. The Linketer's have a 3 year old daughter, Miriam. They're from England and are coming over as part of our training partnership with Mission Aviation Fellowship, United Kingdom. They did well through the evaluation and we accepted them for service.

Celia, Jeff, and Miram Linkleter.

Here's Karen keeping Miram company in the MMS conference room while Geoff and Celia underwent their final interview with the MMS Selection Committee (of which I'm part).

Once we finished with the Linkleters, the next week we rolled right into a special candidate orientation for a family entering service with Harvest Aviation down in Wachula, Florida. Seth, Lizzy, and Levi Canady came up to MMS from North Carolina. Harvest is a small mission (staffed with several MMS graduates!) and asked if we'd be willing to help them by taking the Canadys through our three-day support development seminar. We were glad to do so. Karen and I have done this for several smaller missions over the past few years.

This also provided Karen with some "infant time" as Levi Canady was only five weeks old! With Karen's background as an RN in obstetrics, this was right down her alley.

Karen and Levi in the receipting room at MMS.

During orientation: Lizzy, Seth, and Laurie (seated), Karen w/Levi, and me standing.

Laurie is a new addition to our orientation team. She's married to one of our staff and has a background in public speaking, story telling, and making presentations. She and I are working together to expand our orientation and help our candidates better learn the skills they need to effectively share the story of how God is working in their lives.

Now we're preparing for another candidate evaluation this month! The Wissmann family arrives for evaluation September 13-18. It looks like Karen might get some more infant time during orientation!

The Wissmann Family

Thanks for your prayers and gifts as we work with these young families to: 1) discern whether MMS is where they are to serve, and 2) to then orient them to begin raising their financial support.