MMS Aviation's news about Preparing People and Planes for Worldwide Mission Service
GroundCrew Issue - August 2008 - Page Four
President's Pen - Dwight Jarboe
Forty Years—Observations of a Mechanic Still on a Learning Curve
On July 9, 1968, the Federal Aviation Agency issued Dwight Jarboe a mechanic certificate with airframe and powerplant ratings. With written tests successfully completed, I took the oral and practical part of the mechanic exam. The FAA Designated Mechanic Examiner (DME) asked me questions and observed me as I completed the aircraft maintenance tasks that he assigned. The oral and practical tests took almost three hours to complete and I became a certificated aircraft mechanic that day.
Like the three little pigs in the children’s story, it was time to go out into the big, wide world and seek my fortune. Formal schooling was done, but the learning just kept on going. “Rich” Richardson, Raymond Whitfield, Sherman Clark, George Wheeler and other superb aircraft mechanics were examples and mentors to this green kid who wanted to be a good maintainer of airplanes.
In 1972 the Lord opened the door for me to mission aviation. I walked through it to serve with JAARS, the technical support arm of Wycliffe Bible Translators. There were many experienced mechanics to learn from. Jim Miller, Elmer Ash, Ed Svedberg, George Tilt and others worked on planes in a way that honored the One who called us to do so.
While with JAARS I married, and our family grew. We saw mission aircraft transport messengers of the gospel, carry indigenous people to training courses, deliver supplies, and bring ill and injured to medical care. Giving God’s Word to people whose language had not previously been written was, and still is, a particular joy to us.
After ten years with JAARS, we accepted an invitation to join the staff of Missionary Maintenance Services (MMS Aviation). It was time to be an example and mentor in a more direct way to aircraft mechanics going into mission aviation.
On July 9, 2008 the Federal Aviation Administration issued Shawn Bupp a mechanic certificate with airframe and powerplant ratings. With previously passed written tests, he took the oral and practical part of the exam. Having become a DME in 1991, I asked Shawn questions and observed him complete aircraft maintenance tasks. The oral and practical tests take about ten hours now. (The FAA is a bureaucracy, so things get longer not shorter.) Shawn did very well and became a certified aircraft mechanic that day.
It’s been a good forty years! It hasn’t all been fun or easy, but it’s been good. That’s because God provided everything that was needed: His presence and guidance, good examples and mentors, and supporters and encouragers. I’m looking forward to more years like that!
Prayer and Praise
Please Pray
... for additional families to seek apprenticeship with MMS.
... for newly approved candidates Ben & Caroline Fisher and Andy Porter to quickly raise the support necessary to start service.
... for completion of the Cessna 206 projects for mission organizations in Chad, Honduras, and Brazil.
Praise God
... for Bob Schwartz, Chuck Egbert, and Scott Lazaros’ safe return from a successful Rapid Response in Alaska.
... for the arrival of Emily Jude at MMS as a summer intern from LeTourneau University’s aviation program.
... for Dale & Deborah Coates’ fifteen years of service with MMS.
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