Visitors and Prayer

Dwight enjoys showing visitors around our MMS Aviation facilities and sharing what God is doing through this ministry. Visitors come individually, family groups, church groups or special interest groups. We expect a bus load of 55 next week!

One of the highlights is stopping to look at the map mural which shows the pictures of many who have received training here and where they went to serve. The map also indicates the locations where aircraft that we have worked on, are now serving. A third feature of the map are locations indicated where MMS has sent Rapid Response Teams to do work on aircraft in mission field locations. This particular guest is Jim Lewis who is the Executive Director of Harvest Aviation a ministry where some of our MMS "graduates" are now serving.

Tuesday evening our MMS ladies met for our monthly "Prayer Fellowship". I enjoy these times of getting together and being able to share in a time of worship and prayer for MMS and the MMS families with these wonderful ladies. Some that attended Tuesday are pictured below. Various staff wives have taken leadership of the Ladies Prayer Fellowship and our current leader is Lisa Schwartz.

Me, Dana Abernethy, Glenda Kamphorst, Donna Bupp, Amy Mozombite, Staci Hengst, Lisa Schwartz and Karen Dodson (Deborah Coates was there but taking the picture for me!) Others were there but left before I thought to have the picture taken!

Kodiak takeoff

Can you stand one more posting about the Kodiak, this impressive airplane built with missions in mind? One more detail is its amazing short take off and landing capabilities. This is ideal for many third world country airstrips which are either cut out of the jungle or on mountain tops. Here is a video of it taking off at MMS last week. It only needs 700 ft for takeoff.

Javin's Birthday

Javin celebrated his 5th Birthday on Sunday afternoon. It was fun to able to celebrate with him.

A Day in the 18th Century

Saturday, August 30th, Rena, Jen, Javin, Scott, Stephanie and I attended the Fair at New Boston. People who reenact various late 18th Century and early 19th Century events gathered near Springfield, Ohio for a country fair and recreated battle. The fair was typical of an early 1800s gathering with various vendors selling wares and a number of entertainments including fire-eaters, clowns, contortionists, etc. No doubt you've heard of tightrope walkers; this fair had a slackrope walker.

The primary reason we went was to see my brother, Frank, and his wife, Carol, who participate in quite a few events such as this one throughout the year. Frank is known as Parson John and, at many events, presents a church service of the appropriate period. (The Parson's wearing the three cornered hat.)

Carol portrays the Parson's indentured servant, Maggie; a reminder of the harsh reality of being widowed by the death of a husband with debt. (A widow could be sold into servitude for up to 39 years or until the debt was paid. If she married a man who paid the debt, she would be freed.) Maggie wears a leather collar that signifies she had run away.

I didn't ask what Nation the Native American man standing by Maggie is. I know the Parson and Maggie have friends who are Delaware. The battle that was reenacted was in August, 1780.

Javin, my five year old grandson didn't mind the explosions of the musket fire, but the cannons were just too loud.

After a lunch of 18th Century "fair food" we attended another show in which a young lady did sword walking--the first time I'd even heard of it.

We stopped by a few vendors' tents, including one of a French lace merchant. Because he didn't have any of his lace makers with him, he had to show us how lace was made. (Normally, he would only sell lace, not make it, and thereby maintain the natural order of the cosmos.)

There were many more sights, sounds and smells to remember. It was really convenient to carry our 21st Century gadget called a digital camera to an event such as this. "Bytes" has meaning to us of which folks in the 18th and 19th Centuries had no idea.

One parting shot: What a fun way to learn history!

Airplane Engines 101

Spokane Turbine Center's Kodiak airplane that visited MMS Aviation July 24th and 25th is back. This time a scheduled inspection (called a phase inspection) is being performed. Because the plane is still on its nationwide tour, it wasn't feasible to take the plane back to its home base in Spokane, Washington. Three MMS mechanics are assisting STC personnel with the inspection.

Mike, an MMS Team Leader, inspects the accessory section of the Kodiak's Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-34 turboprop engine. It is essentially a small jet engine geared to a propeller. It produces 750 shaft horsepower and burns jet fuel. This engine whines.

Scott, an MMS Production Mechanic, helps install this Pratt & Whitney R-1830-75 engine on a Douglas DC-3 a couple years ago in Missionary Flights International's hangar in Ft. Pierce, Florida. This is a 14 cylinder reciprocating engine that burns aviation gasoline (av-gas) and produces 1350 horsepower. Pratt & Whitney hasn't built recip engines for many years. This engine rumbles.

When Rena and I were missionaries in Bolivia, I maintained a DC-3. I tell people that my Pratt & Whitneys rumble instead of whine.

Footnote to an earlier post: My brother-in-law asked why planes with turboprop engines are the future of missionary aviation. In much of the world there is very little commercial demand for av-gas. Consequently, in some places av-gas is not available and where it is available it is usually much more expensive than jet fuel. Turbo-prop engines are extremely reliable, so the safety factor is valuable to the mission aviation community as well.

Pratt & Whitney and Pratt & Whitney Canada are United Technologies companies.

34 Years Ago

Today is our Wedding Anniversary. We were married 34 years ago today. How time flies when you are having fun! The wedding was in Rock Hill, SC.