Meeting needs without SPAM

(above) day one of hiking, before our smell caused social distancing.

Hiking is overrated. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy hiking, but I just find it overrated. Hiking is just walking on dirt for hours on end with little water, TP, and way too much SPAM. I know that there are beautiful overlooks and bonding times around the campfire, but all of these things can be recreated at a campground or a hotel with a space heater.
Last fall my friends and I partook in the age-old quest to venture into the woods for no reason and after three days of personal fermentation, we left dehydrated, dirty, and tired. We hiked on a trail named North Fork Mountian Trail, and admittedly, it was beautiful, and I truly did have a good time.

In March, a friend of mine asked me if I would like to fly in his small Cessna from Coshocton (where MMS is located) to pick up his wife in Virginia. The flight was smooth as silk, and about 45 minutes in, we flew over the same trail my friends and I hiked last fall. I looked down to see if I could spot any stinky, smelly, and thirsty human beings below, simply to wish them well as I drank from my ice-cold water, in my freshly cleaned shirt. Flying is simply better than stinking and eating SPAM.

At the end of April, I will be part of a team headed to Zambia to perform what MMS calls a “Rapid Response trip”. Flying Mission (yes that is their name, and I love it) is in need of some urgent avionics upgrades to their Cessna airplanes. This is no small task, and Flying Mission reached out to MMS for help. Our MMS team leader, Mike Dunkley, has years of avionics experience and was just this year voted the FAA mechanic of the year. HE IS THE BEST PLANE FIXER UPPER IN ‘MERICA!

I am really excited about this trip. Flying Mission’s focus is to aid in building the local church and supporting bush clinics in rural Zambia. To aid in the work of meeting people’s Spiritual and medical needs is one of my passions, and that is why it might appear as a recurring theme in my newsletters. The road conditions in rural Zambia are improving, but journeys that can take days by ground, can be done in only hours by air. Air travel makes it possible for teams of visiting medical specialists to maximize their time in Zambia. The roads also have a nasty habit of taking out suspension when you least expect it, which is a bummer. Flying is simply better than being broken down along the road, car parts exploded in every direction.

So please pray for us, and pray for Maria and the children as they stay in Coshocton. Drop her a text, or send her a cake, or whatever people normally do. Just please don’t send SPAM.

Quick update about the end of February, March, and the beginning of April

My current project at MMS is the overhauling of an engine for “Pilots for Christ” This engine is the one installed on an aircraft called a Bonanza, pictured above. Overhauling an engine is a long process, but when done correctly should allow the engine to fly safely for the next 264,000,000 engine revolutions. In addition to overhauling the engine, I had to make custom engine mounts for our test stand. It felt really good to do some steel fabrication again like I use to do at my old job.

Pilots for Christ flies sick patients around the USA free of charge, and it is an honor to be able to overhaul this engine for them.

We got a zoo membership at the Columbus zoo. So now many a beautiful Saturday is spent walking among the fascinating critters there. Freddie saw that they had a train there, and from that moment on he was single-mindedly focused on getting a ride aboard. The 30 min wait was “worth” the 3 min ride 🙂 Aira loved the goats in the petting area. Maybe because she identities so much with them. They, like her, eat almost anything that can fit in their mouths, and they, like her, tend to smell a lot.

We got our first camping trip in for the year. We are a camping family. Campers are an interesting group. Some people have large 200 ft. RVs with seventeen slideouts and an inground pool. Meanwhile, others are of the hard-core crowd that only take a tarp and knife to the forest. We are somewhere in the middle, and no matter how you camp, burning marshmallows with your children is a great experience.

BABY WATCH:
Maria is doing well with this pregnancy, but she does feel slightly sicker. It is my hope that that sickness is a sign of twins. Maria does not have the same hope.

Prayer
Pray for the team of us headed to Zambia. We will need a clean Covid test three days before we leave, so please pray that they all come back negative. We are planning on leaving April 22nd
Pray for Maria and the children as I am gone for three weeks on this trip.
Pray that Maria and I will know how to reach out to our neighbors here in Coshocton. There is hopelessness in Coshocton, and pray for us as we share the hope of Christ with our neighbors.

Praise
Praise that Maria is feeling better. She is feeling way better now that she is past the first trimester.

Till next tme,

What do you do when your village is already flooded, and there is a cyclone headed your way? This picture (above) was taken in January, just two days before Cyclone Eloise dumped more water on Mozambique and Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland).

No-one slept the night of Cyclone Eloise. Roofs blew off, and rain poured into the simple homes. Families quickly gathered their few belongings and sought shelter with neighbors who still had a roof on their hut. As morning light came, the destruction and flooding around the village became painfully clear. “We need help from outside,” the people said to each other. “But who knows about our dire state of need?”
Our Heavenly Father knew! And He had people in place, ready to meet the need. Medical missionary Dr. Costa has a long term relationship with these people, but trying to contact anyone from the community was of no avail. The quickly-organized, Mercy Air flight revealed multiple washed away bridges and flooded sections of the dirt road. The helicopter landed in a field near the village. Speaking with the population, it became quickly clear that the biggest imminent need was food, as most of the food stock got wet from the torrential rains. On the same day Mercy Air arranged for food with the help of Dr. Costa’s team, and a first load of fortified maize meal was delivered. The people were overjoyed!

Mae Doroteia was looking after 16 people in need. Now she has reason to smile, “We are not forgotten- thank you for coming so quickly to help us!” Her husband added, “Now that we have food in our stomachs again, we can start to repair our homes and continue with life.”
Delivering food supplies to one of the region’s five accommodation centers
CYCLONE!

Two of Mercy Air’s helicopters have been rebuilt/modified here at MMS Aviation, and the third helicopter is here now waiting on needed personnel to arrive from Switzerland so that it can also receive its upgrades and be ready for field service.

Mercy Air uses aircraft to deliver church teams, medical help, educational supplies, relief aid, and agricultural programs in southern Africa. THANK YOU for your prayers and gifts to MMS Aviation; the Lord has allowed us all to play a part in reaching these precious people in their time of need. Continue to pray for Dr. Costa and the many other missionaries in southern Africa as they reach out with the love of Jesus and build His kingdom in Africa.
To God be the glory

One of my first projects at MMS was an airplane called a Bearhawk. I do not know what a “Bearhawk” animal is and it is my belief that the inventor was stumped as to what to call his new aircraft, and after a trip to the local zoo came to the cages for the bears and hawks and had a lightbulb moment. This “Bearhawk” serves with a ministry in Haiti called “Loving Shepherd Ministry”. One of the ministry’s focuses is homes for children in the remote sections of Haiti. This plane served as a pickup truck of sorts to aid these homes. 

   When the Bearhawk came to MMS it was in need of some loving. After 17 hard summers in Haiti, the earth’s closest star had done its damage. This airplane is likely different from the planes you are familiar with. Unlike the all-metal 737’s you have flown on, this aircraft’s skin was made of fabric, with a steel tube skeleton. In other words, you are basically 10000 feet up in a fancy shiny tent. Don’t get me wrong, a fabric-covered aircraft is actually great. Fabric is really easy to fix and is super forgiving when landing on gnarly runways. Fabric’s downfall is that when exposed to direct sunlight long enough it breaks down. So we removed all the old and reassembled with new. I came late into this project after almost all the fabric work was already done. Nevertheless, there was plenty of work yet to do. Almost everything was repainted, new wires were run everywhere, and endless small improvements took time. 

  Finally, the day arrived for the owner to come and return the Bearhawk to service. We all watched with bated breath as it took to the sky, praying that the engine won’t sputter, or the wings fall off. We double and triple-checked EVERYTHING, but the fears are always there in the corners of your mind. When a plane takes to the sky a landing is always guaranteed, but not always in one piece. Fortunately for all involved, she flew perfectly! And after a few small tweaks, the Bearhawk left its MMS nest. Before she left, I convinced the pilot to give me a ride, see the video below.

#doctorkiller’s engine is getting assembled!! Engine assembly is a long, tedious, and sometimes delicate process, much like cleaning an angry lion’s teeth. The crankcase and cylinders hardware is all torqued to the required specifications. Finding the proper torque specs can be difficult at times, but with enough patience, the info is there. So much of my day is digging through up to three different large manuals at a time, reading paragraphs composed by a lawyer/doctor/someone smarter than me. We take our time, and with luck, this engine will not need much attention for the next 126,000,000 engine revolutions.

Currently, I am overhauling an engine installed on an airplane called a Beechcraft Bonanza. This aircraft is owned by a ministry called “Pilots for Christ”. Their ministry focus is to offer free flights to those that are sick and are in need of transportation to and from distant clinics.

This lifesaving aircraft is a model of airplane ironically nicknamed “the doctor killer”. Back in the good old days, when doctors still smoked in the OR, they would upgrade from their slower Cessnas to a Bonanza, without upgrading their pilot skills. The results were unfortunately predictable. The Bonanza is a great airplane, and with the proper training, it is a safe and powerful tool.

Overhauling an aircraft engine is a very in-depth process and takes time. Everything is measured, and many components are sent out to specialty shops for even more thorough inspections. Airplane engines are not complex, more like lawnmowers than Lamborghinis, but unlike either of those, failure is not just an inconvenience, it’s deadly. So we measure everything and look through mountains of paperwork all in an effort to prevent failure. 

I will be posting here from time to time on the progress of this project, so check back.

above: the clearest picture of my Chevy Corsica

I am not perfect. If you know my wife she will somewhat gleefully attest to this. So not being perfect there are of course stories that I would rather not tell you, skeletons in the closest. What I write in the next few paragraphs is not to make myself appear greater, nor is it to play on your emotions, but it is a story that if you resonate to, I pray you will find help and peace.

  I once owned a $600 1993 Chevy Corsica and let me tell you it was truly a terrible car! The tires would make a terrible screeching sound as they surrendered their duties around every corner. The headlights were dim because instead of buying fancy expensive bulbs to get that cool blue headlight effect, I being poor painted my reflectors blue. Cheap. Cool. Dim. Dumb. I would weekly repaint both the wheels and tires with gloss black paint to give them that “attractive” wet tire look. I wisely installed a “fart” pipe and cut the airbox so that it could gain more horsepower; unfortunately, all that did was make it louder and give it the undesirable ability to be heard from a few miles away. I made a custom grille and installed fog lights similar to a Ford Mustang GT, unfortunately when installed on my Corsica they did not have the same stellar appearance I was hoping for. 17-year-old Bryan’s car was definitely not stylish. I write all this back story on my style less car because I was in that car when this story took place.

  The night of the story, I had just come home from work, tired and frustrated from another day in what seemed like a dead-end job. I look back at the expectations I had on myself at 17, like did I really need a job that was a lifelong career? At 17 the world is wide open to you, but as you will see later that is not how I view it. After dragging myself into the house, a fight between my parents and I somehow began. Humanity is fallen, and this is not a story to somehow blame my parents, I believe very much that I am the largest stakeholder of the blame in this story. After an intense disagreement, I went out to my car to drive to the nearest stone quarry where I have been planning to throw myself from the highest point. Wanting to commit suicide is not a destination that I arrived at in one day. It was a journey on the road of sin, rejection, self-loathing, anger, and self-pity. My story is not everyone’s story, you may have been physically hurt, sexually abused, and misused. And even though our stories may not be the same, that quest for death and escape is woven through both. I sat in that car and cried. I would have to back out of the driveway so, I put the car in “reverse”, and then terrified I would shift back into “park”. Then once again in “reverse”, then “park”. There I was backing up 3 feet at a time, spiraling out of control. I do not claim to understand the depths of the spiritual realm. But at that moment there was the presence of evil (satan or a demon) in my car. “DO IT YOU FOOL, DO IT!” The pressure to give in to the escape seemed overwhelming. Every time the presence would yell “DO IT” I would dutifully back up the car 3 ft. I was losing.

  Then another Presence entered the car. And though this Corsica was not the splendor He’s used to, He nevertheless came to rescue His drowning child. I honestly believe that Jesus was in that car with me that night. A quieter but firmer voice drowned out the yelling simply by saying, “I love you”. I don’t know where my experience fits into systematic theology, and honestly, I don’t care. Those three words broke me. Those words had the power they did, not because I heard them from some girlfriend, family member, or world ruler, but because the Source of all Love drowned out the yelling with a whisper.

  I died that night, but now I am alive in Christ. If you are drowning, and suicide looks more and more appealing, I beg you first die to yourself, get the professional help you desperately need and follow Christ. 

Above: One of my many trophies

MAN

I am not a hunter. To those that know me, this is not a surprise. I like the concept of hunting; being alone in the woods, holding a gun, quiet, still. But I find myself quickly bored, wondering where the deer are. It seems like I can be wearing a full camo ghillie suit with every scent blocker/adder known to man, set up a decoy deer holding a Valentine card saying “be mine”, and still have less luck than a car going 50 mph with its horn blaring. 

Once my buddies asked me if I would like to go hunting. My testosterone/ego answered “of course yes” even though my inner lazy man complained, howbeit lazily, “bro just stay home and eat chips.” So the day arrived, and I honestly was excited. My buddy let me borrow his gun, an 3030-9mm-470-something. Hanging out with buddies, carrying a gun, hiking in nature, this was manly, manly, manly. I was on the crew that would drive the deer towards the other armed manly man. This was great UNTIL we reached the never-ending briar patch. You may think, “big deal wimp it was just a few briars”, and early into that day I would’ve agreed, but after several miles and severe blood loss my opinion changed. Halfway through I wearily vowed to plow through if for no other reason than to see my family once more before I succumb to the wrath of the briars.

   There is great pain in this world. Violent men in South Sudan have caused tribal warfare in that country for years. Millions are displaced from their home, over 400,000 dead, innocent people were and still are massacred. In 2020 there were an estimated 6 million people facing severe food insecurity due to the fighting, flooding, and lack of infrastructure. 

   The Light shines brightest in the darkness, and South Sudan is a place filled with pain and loss. Impassable roads, thieves, and road blockades set up by militant groups make road travel dangerous. Organizations I will not name fly to these areas to bring supplies, doctors, and the hope of the Gospel. This is no youth group mission trip; in 2020 nine aide workers got killed in South Sudan. Christ did not call us believers to walk an easy trail, and there will be briars, potholes, and men with machine guns. But He is faithful, and I pray often for the mission pilots, doctors, and the people of South Sudan.

Quick update about the end of December, January, and the beginning of February

So…. we are adding to our flight crew! Maria and I are expecting our new bundle of joy in September. Maria is sicker with the third one, and the food cravings are more intense and unpredictable which I find fun; Maria less so. Right now the baby is hungry for straight carbohydrates, and the baby gets what the baby wants! We are really excited, and let me go on public record predicting it is a boy.

Recently, an airplane that I worked on last year got picked up from MMS. The plane belongs to a ministry called “Flights for Christ”, and it will serve in Haiti. Violence and a lack of infrastructure makes travel in Haiti difficult. I installed some large bush tires and helped in the upgrading of the avionics. With those big tires, he will be able to get into some of the more neglected parts of the country and deliver medical aid to those most in need. Before he left he flew a pattern that spelled out “MMS” on a flight tracker. This is next-level nerdy and I love it!

Our “little” boy Freddie turned five in January! Sometimes I still feel like my teenage years weren’t that long ago, and then I am reminded that Freddie is now closer to 16 than I am. Maria made a Blippi cake, and if you don’t know who Blippi is, you are blessed.

Prayer

Pray for the people of South Sudan. The warfare there is brutal, and I can’t imagine the pain and hopelessness.
Pray for Maria and the children as she enjoys the ups and downs of growing a human. She is a great mother and I am grateful for our children’s sake, the roles are not reversed.

Praise

Praise for safety during our Christmas travels. Miles and miles, cries and smiles, joy and cheer, will repeat next year.
Praise that the health of the MMS staff has been restored! Covid affected some worse than others, but we praise God to all be back at work.

Till next time,

(above) Dano as an MMS apprentice around 2007

Elizabeth Maddux from MMS is writing stories about what our great God is doing in the world, and below is her first one. When available I will post more. Enjoy!

February 2021

Dear Ones,                                                      

Do you have time for a story?  From time to time, we’d like to tell you stories:  Fun, true stories about airplanes, jungles, and amazing rescues.  Stories that actually involve YOU. And of course, our awe-inspiring LORD will always be the Main Character.

Once upon a recent time and only ½ a world away, there lived a people group, called Dem, deep within the jungle of Southeast Asia.  Not accessible by boat or road, the Dem people lived in great isolation, as even foot travel to their land in the interior was not a viable option.  They didn’t have a written language, which means that they had no Scripture; they had not heard the best News in all the world.  But their Maker did not forget about them.

Fast forward to about three weeks ago, January 11, 2021 to be exact. “Creator Talk” began for the Dem!  This means that starting January 11 and continuing on for the next 3 ½ months, the Dem will hear training sessions about the Good News – from Creation to the Resurrection.  How is this happening???

For the last 7 years, four missionary families have been living among the Dem, learning their language and culture.  Now they are ready to teach the Good News!  God has called and equipped them for their task in many ways, and He is using missionary aviation flights to make it possible.  Small planes and/or helicopters CAN reach this isolated group, allowing the proclamation of Jesus in one-of-the utmost ends of the earth.

And just more fun background info –  in the early 2000’s, God brought a man named Dano to MMS for apprenticeship training.  For about a decade now, Dano and his family have been living and working in Southeast Asia, keeping planes in the air for these missionaries in the interior.  God had the Dem people on His mind way back when we were still in training!

And He is using people like YOU to help reach the Dem and other people groups.  Many of you have been praying for and/or financially supporting MMS.  Thank you.  And maybe someday we will get to hear from the Dem themselves, “Thank you!”

I would love to end with a “happily ever after,” but that part hasn’t been told yet.  So I will leave you with a way you can help finish the story.  Please join with us in lifting up the Dem people at this crucial time in their history!

These prayer requests were sent to us by Dano’s wife:

We are praying that by the time the team reaches the stories of Jesus and of His crucifixion and resurrection that the Dem will be ready to receive this most precious, life changing gift.

Please pray for them to gather to hear the “Creator Talk.” Pray for distractions to be non-existent.

Pray for the Holy Spirit to open their hearts.

Pray for this team of four families as the enemy will be at work as they share the Gospel.

May their children grasp the importance of the sacrifices that they and their parents are making to impact eternity for the Dem people. 

To God be the glory!!

What am I doing here?

Rain is terrible. Yeah, yeah, farmers may say it’s important, because without it food “doesn’t grow” blah, blah. To which I ask, “have you ever ridden a motorcycle in the rain?” It’s terrible, just terrible.
A long, long, time ago when I was a teenager, a friend and I rode our unreliable motorcycles to Harrisburg, Pa to see how our tax dollars were carefully and diligently spent. The day took a surprising turn when we walked out of the restaurant to discover that it was raining, raining hard! The trip home from Harrisburg was about 45 minutes, and after 20 minutes of hugging my tank in the cold rain at 70mph, my skin started turning various colors of the rainbow. To make my attitude worse, a large man on a large motorcycle with a large windshield and a large heater, passed us by carelessly smoking a cigar, making me ponder “what am I doing here?”
This January will mark one year since I started at MMS. Various times, especially during difficult times I have wondered “what I am doing here?” For example, most of my day is spent speaking a language that almost sounds like English, but it is not. We say things like “The FAA AD on the empennage DME STC makes that plane unairworthy.” What?
Then there is the story of Randy. Randy received a life flight from Flights For Christ, one of the many missions we serve. Randy was in need of a liver and kidney transplant, and fortunately the Cleveland Clinic had him on the transplant list. Unfortunately when the time came for him to receive his transplant surgery, he was in such a weakened state that he did not believe he would be able to endure the 8 hour drive. Bringing a very sick man to a large airport in the middle of the COVID pandemic also seemed like a bad idea. Flights for Christ was able to fly Randy from a small airport to Cleveland, bringing the 8 hours of travel down to two hours and fifteen minutes. Randy received his much needed transplants two days later.

MMS serviced the plane that flew Randy earlier this year at no labor cost to Flights for Christ. From time to time I wonder what really is the point of working on these shiny flying lawnmowers. I feel God has called us here, but why? Then I hear stories like Randy’s and I am reminded, that’s what I am doing here.

Quick update about the end of October, November, and the beginning of December

Currently, at MMS I am working on tearing down, cleaning, and reassembling an engine that will serve a mission named Missionary Aeroplanes. The mission will use this engine in the foothills of Mexico to serve the first nations people of Mexico. The engine I am working on was new during the Nixon presidency in 1974. It was run once and then stored for over 40 years in a storage unit and eventually donated to Missionary Aeroplanes. The engine has a protectant oil in it that turned to tar over the decades, requiring many hours of cleaning with harsh chemicals. Working with harsh chemicals is bad, but on the plus side, my hands glow in the dark now!

After backpacking with my friends Freddie said he wanted to go camping with daddy. So the next weekend he and I hopped in our van, headed to the nearest campground, and roasted way too many marshmallows. It was a blast!

For the last two weeks in November, we were in Pennsylvania, so I could help take care of my folks; my mom had a cast on her leg, and both of them having COVID. Maria stayed at her parent’s house so she didn’t have to miss her brother’s wedding on the 28th. There is nothing that makes you love your wife more, than to be away for two weeks! I tested positive a few days before the wedding, so I, unfortunately, missed it. So far I have had almost no symptoms which is such a blessing. Freddie was a cute little greeter and handed out candy to the guest. I believe this is the first time in his life that he has given away candy:) Congratulations to Nate & Emily!!

Prayer

Pray The health of the people working at MMS. Currently, COVID is racing through MMS and is affecting some worst than others.
Pray For safe travels during this holiday season. My van is starting to make some interesting metallic noises, and the highways are always super full during the holidays.

Praise

Praise January will be one whole year that we have been at MMS. This has been a trying year, and adjusting to a new way of living has been difficult at times, but God has been faithful and we are so grateful to be here.
Praise That COVID has no caused more serious symptoms for me or my family. My parents are fully recovered and I feel decent. This disease can be a bear or a lamb, and we praise God for the strain my family and I have received was a more mild one.

Till next time,

Your life is like diet decaffeinated Coke

In a dark woods, an evil man mixed Coca-Cola and Nyquil and invented diet decaffeinated coke. Growing up I drank large quantities of the coke-like substance because I did not know better. I thought all coca-cola tasted like old, fermented mouthwash. My family drank diet decaffeinated coke out of love. They had to watch their sugar intake (the diet part), and my mom was sensitive to caffeine (the decaffeinated part).
My life all changed one day when I went to Mexico as a teenager. I remember that day almost more clearly than my wedding day. I was helping build a wall for a friend who was a missionary there. The day was hot and dry, and after working for what felt like 27 hours, he handed me an ice-cold, cane sugar, glass-bottled coca-cola! It tasted like joy, hope, and love all combined, in fact, that may be an understatement.
Life as a Christian is a lot like the two cokes; no matter how much DD coke you drink, it is never enough to compare to the real thing. I daily struggle with drinking the wrong coke. I try to be someone, making this life as amazing as possible. I daily try to be a better, funnier, healthier, more clever, most goodest person. I daily want people to tell me that I am the most amazing thing in the world. The thing is….It’s never enough.
The most freeing and joy producing truth of all time is to realize you are not good enough. In fact, you will never find lasting joy in anything. This may sound like the worst self-help ever, and that is because it is! Lasting joy is found in Christ alone! And, for a few short minutes, in ice-cold, sugar cane, glass-bottled Coca-Cola.

SAM Air recently made a trip to northern Bolivia where missionaries serve the Araona people. They brought in medical supplies, and while there were able to witness the baptism of the village chief and his entire family. MMS did extensive work to the plane they flew there on. It’s because of your support that planes can be fixed, and lives can be changed.

Mission Spotlight

Gospel Carrier International uses planes to reach Chinese immigrants living throughout the United States, and Canada. They focus on
leading conferences and will rapidly travel from one event to
another. They support ministries in need of pastoral transportation and will lead pastoral teams from China to preach at multiple
churches back to back. The planes MMS fix for GCI enable this work to continue; saving weeks of travel time per evangelistic tour.
Learn more at http://www.gcigospel.org.

Quick update about the end of August, September, and the beginning of October

In 1596 man invented the flushable toilet. In 1829 indoor plumbing was making its debut. In 1885 man invented the automobile. In 1903 the Wright brothers perfected the flying machine. In 2020 me and the other grinning idoits decided to leave all that behind and hike 24 miles on the North Fork trail in West Virginia. Its was fun, but my favorite part of the trail was the parking lot at the end. On a serious note, a “fun” hike like this is the only way for tens of millions of people to get to hospital around the world.

My mom recently had foot reconstruction surgery and is recovering at a rehab center. We recently made a quick trip to PA see her in the most 2020 way possible; by sitting in our cars and shouting at her:)

Recently I aided Tim Obarow with an annual inspection on a plane that serves in Haiti. During the inspection, we had to inspect the rivets inside of the horizontal stabilizer. No matter how much butter we applied neither of our heads fit in the two-inch hole, so Tim is pictured here teaching me how to use a small inspection camera.

Aria is a very bright girl. Recently she was exploring Newton’s 3rd law by launching straight and headfirst off the couch and into the piano bench. We all learned something that night; where Coshocton hospital is, how much medical glue cost and that Aria’s guardian angel will be busy for the next few years.

Freddie on his balance bike is my favorite Coshocton exploring buddy.

Prayer

Pray for my mom as she recovers from surgery. The surgery went well, and now comes the long road of recovery. Pray also for her doctors as they fine-tune her medicines. Recently one med is starting to cause kidney problems.
Pray for the unreached. I recently downloaded the app “Unreached of the day”. It’s a great app and a daily reminder of the reason we are here.

Praise

Praise that Aria’s eyebrow cut wasn’t worse. It’s all healed up now and only a groovy scar remains.
Praise that my passport came! Now I am ready to ship out on a rapid response trip when the need arises.
Till next time,