One Step at a Time

Then He said to them all, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." - Luke 9:23

Am I a follower of Christ? How does it practically look each day to deny myself, take up my cross and follow? One thing is certain: it doesn't mean taking the easy way out. A cross could easily weigh as much as 300 pounds according to some historians. That's going to necessitate a focused determination; a singular purpose and drive. It's going to mean looking straight ahead, not allowing the slightest distraction to the left or right from the task at hand. It's going to mean relying on strength beyond my own, human capability. It's going to mean, as the Apostle Paul said, throwing off the sin that so easily entangles, and continuing with perseverance on the course marked out for us. It's going to mean a continual, conscious, daily decision. But only in making that decision is there fulfillment, peace, and purpose in this life. And only then do I discover that, in His strength, His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

Life here in Spokane continues to rush by at an increasingly alarming rate. It seems the more there is to do, the less time there is to accomplish it. That said, it's exciting to be a part of the work here, and I know it's exactly where I'm supposed to be.

This past week has revealed the fall colors of Spokane in full regalia. They don't call it fall for nothing. It seems that between the leaves and the recent incessant rain, something is always falling from the sky of late. It's a beautiful season, though; the autumn colors glowing through the fog in the crisp, morning air, sparking an even deeper appreciation for that steaming cup of coffee on my way to work.

My position as Associate Instructor (new title as of last week) at Spokane Turbine Center has continued to be increasingly exciting and challenging. This past training cycle has marked the first cycle where I found myself completely responsible for the instruction of the Garmin G1000 pilot/mechanic course. It was exciting and intimidating at the same time. I don't know that I'll ever get over the fact that our students are already professional, experienced missionary aviators and I am for all practical purposes fresh out of school. It provides some good incentive to spend a lot of time in the technical publications, but I still find myself feeling very small standing behind the lecturn in class. I suppose a certain amount of that is healthy. I have to admit, the more formal instructing I do, the more I enjoy it. It's a thrill to see a student really latch on to a concept that had been completely foreign before that class. I can see how people make a career out of this.

It's hard to believe I've been working full-time at Spokane Turbine Center for closing on a year now. It's been an incredible experience and invaluable as preparation for serving overseas in missionary aviation. I've learned so much and it seems the more I learn the more there is to know. One step at a time, I guess. That's all we can do. And, I have to remind myself, that's all that Christ expects: that we follow as He leads and as He gives us strength, one day at a time. We must only be faithful to take up our cross daily and follow...

A Crazy Summer

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ - to the glory and praise of God." Philippians 1:9-11

What a thought-provoking synopsis of the Spirit-empowered life of the believer. May Paul's prayer for the Philippian church also be our prayer for each other and for ourselves - to the glory and praise of God.

It's been a crazy, amazing summer. I am so blessed to have had the opportunities afforded these past couple of months since my last blog update, and to continually have the opportunity to serve our great God each and every day. As is often said, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life;" a new beginning; a new opportunity to glorify our Creator and Redeemer at every opportunity!

And now a brief recap:

I managed to get about a week and a half of vacation this summer, traveling around the northwest spending some very valuable time with my girlfriend, my family, and some good friends. Then I spent time traveling across the country, visiting family, close friends and church family, and found my way to Lancaster, PA. I stayed with my brother and his wife and caught up with my co-workers from Spokane Turbine Center, who had flown the Kodiak from Spokane for a missionary aviation event just outside of Lancaster. The event went very well. We gave rides in the Kodiak and shared with over 3,000 people about the Kodiak and Spokane Turbine Center's role in serving the church and reaching the lost through missionary aviation.

The last part of August and on into September found my boss and I flying the Kodiak across the country and into Canada. We visited Christian flight schools in VA, MI, TX, CA, WA and Alberta, raising awareness of the acute needs, including people and equipment, in missionary aviation. We also shared our passion for equipping missionary aviators and discussed partnership opportunities to provide turbine training for the schools' graduates. Altogether, we flew 94.3 hours, 9,329.4 miles and gave a taste of modern missionary aviation technology to 936 passengers/supporters/future missionary aviators. We give thanks that the most significant mechanical problem we had was a burned out light bulb.

Now we're back in Spokane, into full swing on the training schedule. A class of 7 pilots and maintenance specialists from Haiti, Brazil, Central Asia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea just completed the course last week. Another class begins the week after next. I greatly appreciate your prayers, encouragement and support. This is a team effort, and it's a privilege to be serving our great God along with you - to His glory and praise!

One More Step... CFII

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3:23-24)

What a privilege we have, as redeemed followers of our Lord, to serve Him and bring glory to His name! We never could have done that before our redemption; nothing we could have done could have honored Him. We now have the opportunity to glorify Him in everything we do. May we make the most of it!

In serving as an instructor at Spokane Turbine Center, I had the opportunity to gain CFII (Certified Flight Instructor with Instrument rating) certification. I passed my oral exam and checkride last week and now have the opportunity to serve in a couple new ways. Primarily, for the time being, I may begin the training process to serve as an instructor in our full-cockpit, full-motion Kodiak flight simulator for the missionary pilots coming through our facility for turbine training. This will relieve part of the training load from our two primary instructors. It will also allow me to eventually serve in the role of Instructor Pilot with the mission I join overseas, which is often times a huge need.

It's so exciting to see details like this come together as I take one more step closer to serving as a missionary pilot. Thank-you all for your prayers, encouragement and support, without which this would be impossible. This is a team effort, as together we serve with all our hearts, for the glory of our Lord who enables us to do so.

Pics from Papua New Guinea

I've uploaded some pictures taken by SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics) pilots illustrating how they are putting the Kodiak to work serving Bible translation in Papua New Guinea. The Kodiak pilots in this SIL program have all gone through our training program at Spokane Turbine Center within the last six months. It's wonderful to see this cutting-edge technology combined with the skillset to properly utilize it serving the Body of Christ.

A Day in my Life @ STC

5:15. The alarm goes off and I roll over to extinguish the aural assault. The dull glow of dawn is just beginning to creep over the horizon. In an hour I’ll leave to pick up the Moody Aviation student I carpool with and we’ll head for Felts Field airport for daily chapel at the Moody Aviation hangar at 6:45.

7:20. Chapel is over so I make the drive to the other end of the airport to Spokane Turbine Center (STC). I have a little less than an hour to make sure everything is ready for classes to begin at 8:15. The students, missionary pilots and mechanics from varying organizations around the world, will begin showing up around eight, about the time we have our morning staff briefing. I fill up a coffee cup and make my way to the Garmin G1000 classroom. (pictured below)

8:15. It's class time. I've been teaching a couple of sections of the G1000 (see January 30th, 2010 post) avionics class which has been a great experience, forcing me to really dig in and know the material. When I've finished the first couple of sections, another instructor takes over and I retreat to the back of the classroom with my computer, taking notes to further my own understanding of the system, as well as noting anything needing to be modified or improved in the course presentation.

12:00. Lunch break is from 12 to 1. It gives me a chance to catch up on e-mails, chat with the students who always have interesting insights and experiences from all over the world, and, oh yeah, eat some lunch.

1:00. I usually head to my office at this point and work on any number of tasks from G1000 courseware development to various customer service needs to studying technical publications relating to course material for my own furthering education. Sometimes my afternoon is consumed with maintenance on our Kodiak 100 training aircraft (pictured below) of which I was recently appointed crew chief. Other days my afternoons are consumed with working on various projects around the facility that will improve our operational efficiency and/or effectivity. If we happen to be teaching a Pratt & Whitney PT6 turboprop class that week, my entire afternoon may be spent teaching starts, runs and shut-downs on our live engine to students who have never operated a turboprop engine before.

5:00. Technically, this is go-home time, though this rarely happens until 5:30 or later. There's always a thousand details to attend to before tomorrow. In some cases, they may not even be small details. For example, one afternoon the plane came back from a training flight with an inoperative alternator. Not an emergency (particularly on the Kodiak), but something that definitely should be fixed. I spent some time diagnosing the problem, determined what parts were needed, and then flew a Moody Aviation Cessna up to the Quest factory in Sandpoint, ID to pick up the parts. Thankfully, it was a clear, beautiful night for the 40 minute flight to this small town nestled next to Lake Pend Orielle in north Idaho's Selkirk Mountains. So peaceful.

Sometime in the evening I head back over to the Moody hangar to pick up my car-pooling buddy (who works at the hangar after school) and eventually get home, relax a little, eat some dinner and head for bed. Who knows what will happen tomorrow?

Last Friday marked the final day of another three-week training cycle; the day we present the students with their certificates of completion and send them back to their respective locations of operation around the globe. As they are now equipped with the knowledge and hands-on experience gained from the course here at Spokane Turbine Center (STC), we are excited at the prospect of safer and more efficient operations in missionary aviation worldwide. This past course, a maintenance specialist course, consisted of six students from Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) in Indonesia, Missionary Aviation Repair Center (MARC) in Alaska, as well as maintenance instructors from Moody Bible Institute's missionary aviation program right here in Spokane. It was a blessing to spend the last three weeks with these guys, and we had a great time together. This cycle proved to be a memorable one for me, as it marked my first opportunity to do some of the instructing. The fact that a couple of the students had been my maintenance instructors at Moody not a year earlier made my instructing debut a little ironic, if not intimidating :) It's been such a blessing to work here and continue my preparation for service overseas (as God leads...). I am learning so much and simultaneously I am privileged to meet and get to know colleagues from around the world, some of whom I may end up working with in the future.

Kodiak in Haiti

Pictured above are two Quest Kodiaks at work in Haiti relief efforts, the one on the left belonging to Samaritan's Purse and the other to MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship). What excites me about this photograph is that it represents a tangible expression of Jesus' prayer in John 17:23, "May [those who believe] be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me." (NIV) Seeing the teamwork and unity within the body of Christ that makes pictures like this reality is so encouraging. It's a team effort. We all have our part to play in the work of Christ. From the assembly line workers at Quest, to the crew training staff, to the crew themselves, to name a few, a lot of people were heavily involved in the makings of this scene. It's also exciting to see these two particular aircraft being utilized in this manner as I have a brief history with both of them. I was privileged to help with the production of these aircraft as they rolled down the assembly line at the Quest facilities when I worked there part-time while still at Moody Aviation. Since beginning my instructor intern position at STC (Spokane Turbine Center), almost all of the MAF Kodiak pilots have received their training through STC. Although we didn't train the Samaritan's Purse crew, one of our instructors delivered their Kodiak from Idaho to their headquarters in North Carolina, allowing it to be ready for a quick dispatch to Haiti shortly after the quake. It's pictures (and their stories) like these that we as Christ's disciples have the privilege of participating in. May we continue to show the world the love of Christ as manifest in our brotherly love for each other.

The G1000 Intern

So I've been full-time at STC for over two months now and it's already proven to be an absolutely invaluable experience. I have officially been designated the Garmin G1000 intern, which means that I am focusing my time and energy primarily on maintaining and improving the G1000 avionics course, classroom, computers, etc. For those who may be wondering what on earth a G1000 is and how bad it will hurt, I've posted a picture of an aircraft cockpit equipped with a 3-display Garmin G1000. When Quest aircraft company (see link at page bottom) designed the Kodiak for missionary and humanitarian work, they chose the G1000 avionics suite because of the incredible safety margin it provides. It contains an extraordinary amount of vital information to the pilot at the push of a button (or in some cases the twist of a big knob, then a small knob, then a button, then another knob...), including all essential flight information, navigation information, airport information, traffic and terrain awareness and alerts, detailed, up-to-the-minute weather via satellite, and so much more. The catch is knowing when to push which button, twist which knob and select which setting and in what order. That is, of course, where the STC G1000 course comes in. I've been doing a lot of studying and practicing and basically just getting to know the ins, the outs, the good and the not-so-good of this system and all its components. It's been great fun. Technology. Wow. And it changes so fast. In the single month that I've been focusing on this, Garmin has wasted no time in coming out with version 10.0 (updated from 9.03) with a few more fun features and additional eye candy to learn all the quirks thereof. I guess I won't be bored any time soon...