Annual Inspection of GCI's 310 is Completed

Tim has spent the past two weeks performing the annual inspection on Gospel Carrier International's Cessna 310. Assisted by Gary, one of our regular MMS volunteers, the annual inspection went smoothly and quickly. It's always encouraging to have a missionary aircraft fly in for maintenance and to return it to service in rapid fashion.

Tim inspects the right engine of the Cessna 310.

Tim inspects the main landing gear.

This afternoon, Gary and Tim washed the airplane as the finishing touch.

We're blessed to have Gary's mechanical assistance for several weeks in the spring of each year. Gary is a certificated A&P. Gary and his wife, Arlene, are retired and spend their time traveling between mission aviation agencies such as JAARS in North Carolina; MFI and Harvest Aviation in Florida, and MMS where they lend a hand as needed and as able.

Karen and I were blessed to host Gary and Arlene, and Tim and Michele for dinner earlier in the week.

Interior Design--Moody 182 Style

Interior design is a bit different when considered in the general aviation context. While standard interior components and interior "kits" can be ordered "stock" for each aircraft type, each aircraft is a bit different so none of the "stock" components fit fresh out of the box.

"Fitting" all the plastic interior panels is a painstaking process of measuring, cutting, filing, abrading, drilling, shaping, heating, molding, sometimes gluing, and always praying. In the Cessna 182, Ian is currently fitting twenty different plastic interior pieces of all shapes and sizes.

But getting it to fit is only part of the process. Once everything fits, then it all has to be removed again and then prepped and painted to match the airplane's color scheme. Once it's painted, THEN it may finally be ready for installation...IF all the measuring, cutting, filing, abrading, drilling, shaping, heating, molding, and gluing has been done right...in answer to fervent missionary prayer!

Ian uses a Dremel tool to modify one of the interior pieces.

While Ian is on his knees fitting the interior, Mike is on the floor panels finalizing the installation of the landing gear.

Some days it can be cramped and uncomfortable working on missionary airplanes, but cramped or not, uncomfortable as it may be, it's still Kingdom work! Thank you for making our Kingdom work possible through your gifts and prayers.

An Art Linkletter Moment

On Friday while I was at the hangar working on receipting I was happy to take part in the celebration with the guys as David passed the senior apprentice wrench to Gertjan. David's wife, Amy, came with their 3 children to celebrate as well. While all the excitement of cake and ice cream was happening around us I had a little chat with David's two oldest children Isaiah and Lily.

Johan, Isaiah, Lily & Marielle

I was telling Lily how pretty her shirt was. She had painted a pretty pink flower on it. It really was a nice accomplishment for a 5 year old. As she shared with me about the shirt, her little mind wandered to further conversation. She told me how much she liked those little flowers with the things that stick out all over them and you can blow on them and they go all over (I'm paraphrasing as best I can without hand motions, facial expressions and additional sounds!).

When I acknowledged her statement by saying "ah, yes, aren't dandelions pretty!" She gave me that look that made me realize that in her mind dandelions were little yellow flowers and not at all what she was talking about. So, I quickly turned the conversation back to the 'little flowers with the things that stick out all over them and you can blow on them and they go all over the place'.

I said, "Isn't it fun to blow on them and then watch the seeds fly all over!" Again her look said more than words and I could tell that "seeds" seemed wrong to her. By this time Isaiah (8 years old) had perked up his ears and had gained interest in the conversation. I thought this would be a fun teaching moment so I proceeded to explain that all those little things that fly off are seeds and that God made them that way so we could have lots and lots of pretty yellow flowers (keep your adult thoughts of those "pretty yellow flowers" to yourself now!).

I don't think I've recently had two children that were so focused on what I was saying. They asked a couple of questions to make sure they had understood me properly and that I wasn't pulling their leg. Here is where the story gets funny. Let me try and reconstruct it:

Isaiah and Lily: "You mean those are seeds?"
Me: "Yes!"
Isaiah: "I've never known that. How did you learn that?"
Me: "I learned it so long ago that I don't remember where I learned it."
Lily: "When you were a girl?"
Me: "Yes ."
Isaiah: "Maybe on Google?"
Me, laughing a bit: "No, not on Google. Probably my Mother told me or something."
Isaiah: "Oh, they probably didn't have Google then."
Me: "No, they didn't."
Lily: "You mean way back when you were just a LITTLE girl?"
Me: "Yep."
Isaiah: "So, you mean a really long, LONG time ago."
Me (wishing every adult in the room was listening to this conversation just now): Yes, a really, REALLY long time ago." ;o)

The conversation ended on that note. They had learned something new about God's creation and I had gotten really, REALLY old!

Now come on. Could Art Linkletter really have done any better than that??? The only thing better would have been a video but I hope my memory has served me well enough to give you a smile as big as mine was at that special moment.

By the way, you may remember us talking about David and Amy coming home recently with their newly adopted Ethiopian son, Asher. Here is a photo of the rest of the family.

Amy, Asher & David

He's a delightful little boy and is adjusting so well to his new home. I don't know where he could have found a more loving family.

The other two children in the first photo are Gertjan and Glenda's children. As a note of interest,the members of these two MMS families represent the countries of Holland, Philippines, Peru, USA and Ethiopia! How's that for international!

Cake & Ice Cream!

One of the fun hangar traditions at MMS is that we have cake and ice cream to celebrate an apprentice finishing their time of service. The event is also marked by the passing of the Senior Apprentice "baton" or wrench, to the next apprentice to finish the program.

Today we were blessed to celebrate David's completion of service and witnessed the passing of the wrench, and Senior Apprentice title, to Gertjan.

David is originally from Peru, is married to Amy, and they have three children. The most recent is two year old Asher, whom they brought home from Ethiopia last month! David plans to take the written exams for his A&P certificate next week and then take the oral and practical exams May 12th. David and Amy have been accepted for service with South America Mission's Bolivian flight program. To learn more about them you can visit their blog by clicking here.

Gertjan, MMS' new Senior Apprentice, will only hold the title for a short while as he too just completed service! Gertjan will take his written exams for his A&P certificate later this month and his oral and practical in June. Gertjan, Glenda, Johan, and Mariella, are preparing for technical evaluation with Mission Aviation Fellowship this summer. You can visit their blog here.

Here are some photos from the celebration:

David (and Asher) pass the wrench, and title of Senior Apprentice, to Gertjan.

Karen assists David (and Asher) with cutting the cake.

Bob and Ian assist as primary ice cream scoopers.
Lilly, David's daughter, looks on.

Some of the group as assembled in the lunch room
enjoying the cake and ice cream

Thanks for helping us prepare David for missionary service in Bolivia through your gifts and prayers. It was a fun afternoon. We hope the photos have helped you enjoy this special missionary event in a very personal way. MMS is helping expand God's kingdom. It's great to have you as part of the vision!