Milestone Birthdays

Bill Tarter and Dwight

Today is Dwight's 60th Birthday. Two days ago was my Dad's 85th Birthday - so who can blame us for celebrating big this past weekend! My folks drove over from eastern PA so that we could celebrate together.

We had a small family celebration time together on Saturday; and on Sunday afternoon invited our MMS Aviation family over to help us celebrate. We had a good time and feel so blessed to have a loving family (also a wonderful MMS family).

All work and no play . . .

Last Saturday John, a friend of ours, had a fly-in and hog roast at his private airstrip. John has pipeline patrol contracts for which he uses a small airplane, but much of the aviation at Graham Field is fun flying.

Mark arrived in (or on) his Breezy. It is a home built airplane that only has the bare essentials for flight.

A couple weeks before the fly-in, Mark sent a magneto from another plane he has to MMS Aviation for repair. Mark, a mechanic friend of his and I were discussing the installation of that magneto and I used the Breezy for an easy explanation about the magneto timing.

Rena and I had another event to attend, so I told Mark we had to be going. His response was, "Well, you have time for a ride don't you?" I immediately said, "Sure."

So we strapped ourselves in (or on) the Breezy and went for a ten minute flight over the corn fields, just above the tree tops. It was a gorgeous day, not chilly at all, but it was a really cool ride!

The Bupps move on

Shawn and Donna Bupp, with (l-r) Rachel, Sarah and Katie

It is always a joy when new apprentices arrive at MMS. We feel their enthusiasm as they dive into the training in the hangar. They and their families become part of the MMS family and we love to see how God uses them in our group as well as the community. The hard part is when the training is done and it is time for them leave and join the ministry God has called them into. Please pray for the Bupp family as they plug into the ministry of Harvest Aviation. We will miss them. We had a time of fellowship to send them off on Saturday evening, hosted at the home of one of our MMS Aviation staff families.

What We Do

The other day I walked through the MMS Aviation hangars with my camera. (I'm always looking for things to show you.) I took several snapshots of the work being done on the planes and downloaded them to the computer. Tonight as I looked through them again, it hit me that this one illustrates quite well the work we do.

Ian, an MMS Team Leader, heads up the crew performing a scheduled inspection of Gospel Carrier International's Beechcraft King Air. Ian is in the blue shirt and is listening to David explain what the maintenance manual requires about measuring the brake disk slots in a wheel. David, an apprentice mechanic, clearly understood the procedure so Ian cleared him to measure the wheels and note any discrepancies on the appropriate form.

Gospel Carrier's plane will, barring something unforeseen, be put back into service this next week. David and our other mechanics will gain experience, learn more theory, and increase their maintenance skill. For me, this is pretty close to having your cake and eating it too. I find it exciting.

A number of churches and individuals make it possible for Rena and I to be at MMS Aviation through prayer and financial giving. We are so grateful they partner with us.

KZX continued

Here are pictures from the KZX Reunion. About 30 men and most of the wives attended. It was great fun exchanging stories and catching up on the past 40 years. LeTourneau University still has mandatory chapel services, so our final event together was a Sunday morning chapel service. Dr. David Lunsford, current LeTourneau president was our speaker.

Tim and I were roommates our first year at LeTourneau

A lot of laughter, fellowship and a special time of worship were the highlights. It was agreed that we will have to do this again in five years. Hopefully some of us will be able to get together sooner than that! One thing is for sure; we can't wait another 40 years before we get together again.

Jim and I shared a room my final year at school.

KZX

Thursday afternoon found us on the road, traveling toward St Louis, MO to the LeTourneau KZX reunion. KZX was the fraternity-like society that Dwight was a member of while attending LeTourneau College in Longview, TX. This reunion is limited to a span from 1963-73 and it has been 40 years since most of these men have seen each other.

We stopped Thursday evening in North Vernon, IN and overnighted with Dwight's brother and sister-in-law, Eric and Sue before arriving in St Louis Friday afternoon. Our first sight of St. Louis included the big arch looming up in the sky - the "Gateway to the West". Wow, we couldn't resist the urge to stop and take a look before continuing on to our hotel in St Charles. We were very impressed and were totally surprised to discover the underground museum, theatre, gift shop etc. underground beneath the arch.