A brief account of
THE HISTORY OF
CHRISTIAN WINGS FOR THE WORLD
The
CWW Story
Christian
Wings for the World Inc.
Training
Aviators for Christ
The Lord calls us all to do works
of service of one kind or another Eph. 4: 11-13 It was He who gave some to be
apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors
and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service so that the body of
Christ may be built up. I got a
call to start training missionary pilots in the fall of 1978, I heard the call
and even made a few plans to go ahead and do it.
At the time I got the call I had a going business, doing flight training,
air taxi service, flying backup for a commuter airline, I had a working
agreement with Skyways Airline who was based at Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo. I also had
FAA blessings to fly the Skyways scheduled flights.
A friend of mine, Roland Tetley,
who was also a pilot and manager of the Lee C. Fine airport at Lake of the
Ozarks for a number of years. Roland
was a manager for Skyways Airline (mentioned above).
Roland had a heart attack one day and called my office for a medical
flight to V.A. hospital at Columbia Mo. That's right Roland made the call. My son Skyler was managing things for me at the airport that
day. I was flying a student locally
in our Cessna 150. My son
Skyler called me on the aircraft radio and told me that Roland had called for me
to come to Lee C. Fine for a flight in our Cessna 172 but he didn't say why or
where, however Skye noted a different note of urgency in Roland's voice.
I told Skye to get the 172 untied, fueled and made ready for a flight,
which was done before I could get landed. My
student was able to taxi the 150 so I instructed him to park the plane and tie
it down and we would log the flight another day.
I quickly started the already warmed up 172 and taxied out for an
immediate take off. When I arrived
at Lee C. Fine I saw the door open to Roland's office and a number of people
standing there. I still didn't know
what was going on. When I got in
the office Roland was on the floor looking at me. The room was filled with other
people. I asked Roland what he
wanted me to do, he said take me to Columbia as soon as possible and that he had
suffered a heart attack. Skyway
airline had a flight that had just taxied out so I contacted the pilot of that
flight to ask him to hold while I took off.
I ran the power wide open all the way to Columbia, I radioed ahead to
have the ambulance waiting when we got there.
Roland had four by passes and recovered very well.
Roland had an Airstream travel trailer and I had a place to park it so we
became close neighbors
I was also busy doing aircraft
rental, banner towing, ag plane service and several other things.
I was married and had three wonderful children, and a few dollars in the
bank and I was simply too busy, having fun doing what I wanted to do and making
money, to do the job that God had called me to.
(Priorities all wrong)
1979 started off to be the best
year we had ever had with a lot of flying going and a lot more already
contracted, I had already put on quite a few tons of fertilizer to top dress
wheat fields, and seeded several acres of other fields.
In April the spray season was getting started, on Saturday the 28 th. I
put some herbicide on a wheat field and was scheduled to spray some insecticide
on and alfalfa field the following Monday, so it was necessary to flush out the
spray system with detergent and water, in order to get rid of the herbicide, the
plane I had, used a windmill spray pump, so the plane had to be in the air in
order for the pump to work. I
loaded the plane with detergent and water, filled it up with fuel and took off
to flush out the system over the home airport.
I took off and made a spray run along side the runway thinking that what
chemical was in the system would kill the dandelions and other weeds,
I made two spray runs and was turning around for the third one when the
engine stopped. At low altitude and
airspeed with no power the choices of what to do was very limited, and you
guessed it the landing was very hard.
The airplane pan-caked down so
hard that it totaled and almost did me as well.
The hospital that the ambulance took me to told my wife Sara that I would
certainly die and furthermore they weren't going to do anything to attempt to
change that. There was, however, a
lady in the waiting room that told Sara to have the ambulance to take me to
Columbia to the University Medical Center and at least they would do something.
When the ambulance arrived at UMC 9:30 Sunday night the head orthopedic
surgeon and his surgical team were there, PTL. the impact
crushed my back and gave me
a massive brain hemorrhage. After
all these injuries Dr. Gaines new I would never be able to hold a normal job
again so he applied for my disability, which turned out to be a blessing for the
years that I had it. With the
physical injuries sustained in the plane crash I will never again be an
employable person, in the sense of holding a normal job.
The shoulder harnesses held but
they pulled my shoulders so far out of place that my left arm was paralyzed for
a couple of weeks, there were many other lesser injuries.
After 56 days in the hospital and nine more years of healing God healed
me to the point that I can do what He called me to do in 1978, PTL God
gave me another chance. Dr. Robert Gaines was the surgeon that put me back together.
He put four Harrington rods in my spinal column and fused six vertebrae.
Because of the spinal cord injuries I lost bladder and bowel control,
feeling in several parts of my body and some other control functions.
The resulting pain was also at times unbearable, I am so thankful for the
comfort and healing that God provided during these years and the encouragement
of a loving wife and three wonderful children.
One
day after Roland had been out looking for property where he could raise some
farm animals, he came by and told me that his realtor had a piece of property
that I might be interested in, near Mountain View, Mo.
I bought that property and we all moved together to the Mountain View
area. August 10th. 1980 with seven
vehicles in the group my son Skyler 16years old, with his own car loaded full,
commented, “We got us a convoy.” as we headed out with all of our most
valuable belongings.
When we arrived there I had three
airplanes, none of which I could fly. A
Cessna150, Cessna-172, and a Piper Pawnee.
I traded the 150 for some calves, and sold the Pawnee to an airport
operator at a near by airport. Noel
Orchard from Eminence, Mo. heard about my 172 and ended up buying it.
As the years went by my emotions
were always on a roller coaster, it seemed I had moments of bitterness because
of my physical condition and remembering the rapidly growing business we had at
the Lake of the Ozarks. I had
moments of happiness, moments of accomplishments, and a time of spiritual
strengthening. During these years I
struggled to help Sara, now the breadwinner of our family.
Sara had cooked at some of the finest restaurants at the Lake of the
Ozarks, now she was cooking at the nursing home in Willow Springs, Mo. to make
enough money to keep from losing our home our car and the Cessna 172 which was
still financed and to meet all the other expenses.
I believe it was 1983 when Noel bought the C-172. I built a gooseneck trailer out of an old mobile home that a
friend gave me and started hauling hay from Illinois. I sold the hay to help support the family.
It was quite a challenge trying to make ends meet.
We raised some animals for food and to sell.
Our eldest son Skyler raised some ducks and our younger son Robert raised
rabbits and all of us worked on the garden, my daughter Kayla was pretty small
then but she helped out when she could.
God provided the increase and true to His promise we were not forsaken.
Noel came by one day
and told me during 1989, that he was going
to Thayer to get his flight physical renewed and suggested that I should go with
him to see if I could pass a flight physical as well.
Noel told me that Dr. Phillips would be willing to work with me to see if
I could get through the medical paper work that would be necessary because of
all the injuries that I had sustained in the plane crash in 1979.
In 1989, because of Noel's
encouragement, I got a feeling that I should go for a flight physical, of course
I questioned that idea, with all the injuries that I had the chances of passing
one was remote at best. After the
physical exam the Dr. Phillips told me that if I hadn't told him of the injuries
that I had and the fact that FAA had denied me a medical, that he would have
given me a class II which is for commercial operations.
I only asked for a class III that is what I got after a number of other
tests.
After getting the medical, I
wanted to get my pilot certificate renewed so I started checking around to see
where I could hire a flight instructor and rent an airplane for a refresher and
a flight review to reinstate my pilot certification.
I located a flight instructor (George Meyers) in Willow Springs, Mo.
which is just six miles West of where I lived. So far so good now we need
an airplane. No one in the area had a rental airplane however George new of an
airplane, a (Piper Colt) at Houston Mo. which was only about and hour drive.
Now this is getting to the point where I am starting to wonder if I am up
to taking a check ride without a lot of training.
I am also a little uneasy about how I might react to the flight
environment after all that had happened and the time that had elapsed since I
was last a current pilot. The
flight check was short and I felt right at home, which was a confirmation to me
that I had done the right thing so far. I
am still not sure what the Lord has in mind for me, or if this is just something
I want to do.
After getting my pilot status
current, I got the urge to use it. With
no rental airplanes near by I started thinking about buying one (a rather
bizarre idea considering that I hadn't been able to work for a number of years
and the income from Sara's work barely covered the expenses, we also had three
children at home). Sara bless her
heart wanted me to get to fly again (Sara has done a lot of those special, above
and beyond things through the years. I
thank the Lord for Sara quite often, she is very special to me. Sara sat down
with me to see what she could get by without and what we could sell to figure a
way to buy an airplane. We came up
with the figure of ten thousand dollars that would be the maximum that we could
even consider and only then with a very friendly banker.
We drove into Willow Springs to talk to Pat Stuart, who is a used car
dealer who also is a pilot. I
thought he might know of an airplane for sale in the area. Pat had a 1958 tri-pacer that he said he would sell for ten
thousand five hundred. Close but
still five hundred more than the limit that we set.
I asked him if we could get a mechanic to do a pre-buy inspection on it,
Pat agreed to take it to Houston, Missouri to Paul Morrison for the inspection.
Paul found two cylinders that were low on compression and Pat said he
would reduce the price by a thousand dollars, now the price is within the limits
we set on the price. After the
repairs were done the price was still under ten thousand.
Sara and I made several local
flights and I had a good feeling about getting to fly again.
Now we decided it was time to go see our son Skyler who was in the Navy,
Skyler was stationed at NAS Dallas, and was living at Arlington, Texas.
The tri-pacer didn't have radios that were dependable so we were
navigating the old fashioned way using pilotage and dead reckoning, (chart,
compass, and clock) and of course the communication radios didn't work very well
either. Going down it was a great
trip. We spent about a week with
the family in Texas that wouldn't have been possible without the (paper piper,
as Paul Morrison called them). On checking the weather I found that we would have to
leave the next morning in order to get Sara home in time to get her back to
work. A front was coming to
Missouri that was expected to become stationary causing low weather for several
days, and without instrument capabilities that was not good.
We took off in the sunshine and headed for the show me state.
We experienced a very unwelcome situation right after take off, we had a
strong head wind 20 -30 knots, as a result it is taking a lot longer to get home
than I first estimated and required an extra fuel stop, again adding to the
travel time. The weather and the
sun were going down together. Harrison
Arkansas was within our fuel range and by the time we got there the weather had
gone from clear and unlimited to 2000 overcast and 4 miles visibility by
sundown. As the temperature cools down at night the weather usually
deteriorates right along with it. I
had pretty well made up my mind to over night at Harrison but Harrison still had
a flight service station (a place where a pilot can walk in and check the
weather). I went in and talked to the weather briefer about the remainder of the
flight to Cabool, he said that the weather would probably get better going that
way. The weather gradually got
worse and with no radio to get a weather updates and very seriously doubting the
weather behind us to be any better than what we were in at this time. The time
remaining to Cabool being less than that back to Harrison I chose to continue to
Cabool. I had checked the altimeter
at Harrison and found it to be near perfect for accuracy, which gave me a little
more confidence that we knew our distance above the terrain.
The loran had proven itself to be very accurate on this trip even though
we had terrain clearance we went pretty close to two towers that were above us
and didn't see either one of them. The
loran and God's grace and mercy guided us directly to the approach end of the
runway at Cabool. By the end of
that flight Sara and I decided that it was no more long cross-country flights
until the airplane was equipped and it and I were certified for instrument
flight. After more hard work selling more things and shopping
around the country I managed to get enough new equipment to make the little
airplane comfortable for flight in instrument conditions.
I got the equipment installed and the airplane certified the next step
was for me to go for a competency check ride to get recertified as an instrument
pilot.
In a few days I decided that
perhaps I should try to renew my flight instructor certificates, I didn't really
think I could without a lot of problems re-testing etc.
I called FAA and they told me that all I had to do was pass a CFI renewal
check flight, sounds easy enough. Praise
God he guided me through all the maneuvers on the check ride and I was a flight
instructor again. It still wasn't
clear to me where all this was going, but I felt like there was more to it than
just me wanting to do all this. I
did think that I would like to teach my kids to fly but didn't have any idea
that I would ever again do anything as a pro-pilot.
Shortly after I got recertified
as a flight instructor brother Noel Orchard (now mayor of Eminence, Mo.) once
again entered the picture by telling the Mayor of Mountain View, Mo. that I had
my CFI renewed and that I might consider opening a flight school in Mountain
View. She, Joan Smith, came to me
and asked if I would be willing to give her city a flight school and before I
could say no, I said yes. The city
and Charlie Webster (the airport manager) was very cooperative and helpful
through it all and the flight school gave me experience and opportunities to get
current in flying again.
Sara and I went to the airport in Mountain View in March of 1990 and put
the tri-pacer on the line as a trainer and rental airplane.
Some of our customers weren't happy about the fact that the little plane
was covered in fabric, so I started looking for a metal airplane.
Sara and I were in Illinois on a trip to visit family and on the way back
home we went through Jerseyville, IL. where Skyler our first son was born and
also where we had purchased our first airplane (a tri-pacer) and hangar.
I made my first solo flight at the Jerseyville, Illinois airport in 1963.
On the way past the airport we pulled in to see if there were any
airplanes for sale
While we were at the airport in Jerseyville we found a Cessna 150 for
sale. The price was right so we
bought 7901F,a 1966 Cessna 150, a two-place airplane.
Bert Rodgers was a flight instructor for Smith's Flying service. Bert
gave approximately a 1000 hours of flight instruction in 12 months.
In 1990 we bought a Cessna 310 that was in
pretty bad condition. It took us 10
or 11 months to make it airworthy.
In 1991 we bought another Cessna 150 7953G
to train with. We were getting
pretty busy by now and meeting quite a number of Christians who were interested
in flying.
1992
another C-150 became available on a lease basis so we added it to the fleet as
needed. With Bert Rogers, to help
out and three 150s available and several rental customers a 310 and a tri-pacer
we were staying pretty busy. During
this time period Noel Orchard offered the Cessna 172 back to me if I wanted to
buy it so we added it to our fleet.
1993, In the middle of a busy day on the
flight line during the summer of 1993 I got a little slack and went in my
office, closed the door and sat down at my desk to enjoy the peace and quiet.
I hadn't been there very long when I heard this voice (Remember 1978?)
yep I sure did. I took that as a
note that I was being given another chance to do what God called me to do back
in 1978.
I knew that in order to train pilots for third world country operations I
would need some special training and I didn't know where to start, so I asked
God for direction then He gave me the a nudge to call Moody Bible College in
Chicago Il. and ask them if they
had a flight program. Their answer
was yes the do have a flight program but not at their Chicago campus.
They were helpful in that they gave me the number and a name to call at
their Elizabethton Tennessee campus. I
called Tenn. and told their chief instructor what I was looking for and after
answering several questions for him, he told me that the only way they could
help me would be to send me a list of pilot placement organizations that used
bush pilots in the mission field. I
received the envelope in a few days that had a lot of good information in it.
I started looking for a place in the Midwest, so I wouldn't have to
travel so far, but there weren't any missionary training facilities in the
Midwest. I continued to search the
list. I noticed an organization
named Tribal Air and Communications and wondered if that could be part of New
Tribes Mission. A friend of mine,
Carl Hanks that lived at the Lake of the Ozarks told me about New Tribes Mission
and their flight program. I dialed
the phone and before the phone even rang a second voice told me that these
people won't help you because you are not part of their organization so I hung
up the phone. Before I could even
take my hand off the phone the first voice came back saying you quit on me in
1978 and I am giving you another chance. I
picked up the phone and pushed the redial button I am still hearing the other
voice telling me I am wasting my time calling these people.
When Tribal Air answered I told the lady on the other end who I am and
what I wanted she told me that I would have to talk to their chief pilot, Mr.
Jim Ferguson. That voice is still
there trying to get me to hang up and forget it but I have made up my mind that
I am not quitting with out giving it a good try this time. In a couple of minutes Bro. Jim Ferguson (chief pilot
for New Tribes Mission/Aviation, TAC(Tribal Air and Communications) back then)
came on the phone and I shared with him the need that I had and he said that
they would be glad to help any way they could and asked when I could come to AZ.
and guess what that voice with all the negative stuff was gone PTL.
I told Bro. Jim that I could schedule to come the last week of Sept. or
the first week of Oct. He told me that he couldn't help me the first week of Oct.
because that is the time that they do their evaluation for their up and coming
new jungle pilots to be, so I told him I would be down the last week of Sept.
Sara was excited about the fact that God was providing the opportunity
for me to get the training that I needed but was not the least bit interested in
flying over the Rockies to get there because of the rugged terrain and the
possibility of bad weather. The
night before we were supposed to go to AZ. I checked the weather and noticed
that we had a very unusual weather pattern.
There were four high pressure systems across the Northern half of the U.
S. that not only provided us with unusually clear weather but also provided us
with a tail wind all the way to Douglas Arizona, WOW PTL.
We had a very good trip to say the least.
The first day of training started with a flight with brother Jim in a
C-185 where he demonstrated a short field takeoff and landing using some field
techniques and also checking me on some other maneuvers.
Next several flights were with Paul Dye also in the C-185
21X where I learned things like canyon turns, ridge crossings, special
purpose takeoff and landing procedures, package drops and more.
It was a great time to say the least.
Normally it takes several months of training.
In my case I had several thousand hours of flight experience than the
typical applicant. After the
final testing they gave me a graduation certificate PTL.
Now I felt much more confident about training others to be bush pilots
for our Lord's air force. Sara and
I had a great time of fellowship with Paul and Pat Dye and many others at TAC
base. Paul Dye is one of the
missionary pilots that was kidnapped in Columbia South America in Oct. of 1985.
With God's intervention Paul escaped from the Guerilla camp, in
conditions that was certainly impossible within human standards.
Tribal Air and Communications/TAC is now New Tribes Mission/Aviation.
NTM made a video of this account. The
video is available from New Tribes Missions in Sanford, FL, the video title is
"When Things seem Impossible".
To summarize the trip to Arizona, we had beautiful weather all the way
including a tailwind, (the wind is normally from the West, this time it was from
the East, imagine that!) While I
was there I flew with Jim Ferguson, Chief Pilot, then Paul Dye, TAC's Senior
Pilot, after considerable testing and teaching me the specialty things I would
need to know, Paul took me to the graduation strip in New Mexico. The graduation strip is 950 feet long in the bottom of a
canyon with a mountain sitting at the end.
This strip is sloping up and to the side, very rough and narrow and only
a one way strip. After successfully
landing and taking off from there I was given a Certificate of graduation
Sara and I had a good trip home we, spent a night at Alamosa Colorado on
the way. The aspens were in
full color and went up to approx. 11,400 feet on the mountainsides.
We really enjoyed our trip home. We
went North of our route that we used to get to Arizona so we could enjoy the
beauty of Grand Canyon and many other of the great works of our God.
Bro.
Jim Ferguson invited us to come to a missionary pilot safety seminar in Sanford
Florida in 1994, that was three days well spent.
1994, Ninety four and five were very busy.
Our Lord was preparing the way for us by sending a quite a few students,
with a high percentage of them being pastors, elders, deacons, Sunday school
teachers, and even missionaries, for different levels of flight and ground
training. We were also flying
mercy flights using Smith's Flying Service airplanes.
In the meantime we noticed that most of the students we were training
were Preachers, Elders, Deacons, Sunday school Teachers, Missionaries, and
dedicated Christians. (Again not a normal thing at a public flight school)
(Another nudge).
Then
we met Paul and Janice Wedin (who had made a lot of missionary trips to Mexico.
And at this time owned Promise Land Airpark (appropriate name, don't you
think. Paul and Jan offered a lot
of encouragement and support.
Sara
and I are still looking for direction and encouragement to get going with.
Greg
Gale, a Pastor from Summersville, MO came to us for flight training and soon he
and his wife, Elaine became a part of CWW.
Greg was helping out in our repair shop to maintain the airplanes that we
were using on the flight line.
Richard
Castle, (Minister at the Christian Church at Calleo, Missouri) came and helped
us get things together to help us get our corporate charter.
In
the meantime we bought a 1953 Cessna 180 N2941A to use for our missionary pilot
training
Sara
was cooking at the Rock Garden Christian service Camp at West Eminence,
Missouri. While Sara was working at the camp she met Marvin Valentine.
Marvin was the minister at the Winona Christian Church, Marvin was a
pilot and interested in what we were doing and offered to help out.
Marvin sent out mailers to various churches and also suggested the name
"Christian Wings for the World." Marvin has gone to be with our Lord.
1996, Ninety six I got around to working on getting our non-profit
corporation approved in the state of Missouri, a task that we were told was
difficult at best, June the nineteenth of ninety six is the date on our
corporate charter. I was then
asking God how to get the word out to the rest of the world that we are here and
why we are here. In a few days I
got a call from Bro. Jim Ferguson telling me that he had gotten a call from a
young man (Geerten Vreugendhil) in the Netherlands. Geerten needed some special
training in the Cessna 180/185 type airplanes so that he might be able to pass
the MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) flight evaluation. Geerten sent an e-mail stating that he was one of four that
came for evaluation at that time and that he was the only one that passed (I
took this as a confirmation from God that I was doing what He wanted me to)
The next step was to try to get our tax exempt status IRS 501 C3, several
people once again told us it would be better to get listed with a church or
other organization that already had one, because it was difficult to impossible
to get one on your own. They didn't
seem to understand that we had God with us on this project, the 501 C3 was soon
approved, PTL. Since then we
have trained several other pilots from places such as Germany, Canada, others
from the Netherlands, , Africa and even the U. S. At this time all the missionary pilots that trained
here are currently working with aviation missions in third world countries.
Several other pilots took some flight training with us during these
years.
December
1998 I was once again to the point where I didn't know what God wanted me to do.
SFS (Smith's Flying Service) had five airplanes sitting there along with
two simulators, pilot supplies etc. and CWW had one airplane sitting there.
I asked God to show me what he wanted me to do.
In one month the two most indebted airplanes sold one for cash, (not a
normal thing), the other for a cashier's check, both for my asking price and no
squawks. (not, a normal thing).
(Note
during the summer of 1998 our CWW board was talking about starting to raise
money to buy a piece of land to put an airstrip on).
We notified our prayer warriors to ask God to provide us with money to
buy a piece of land with that we could put and airstrip on. (I have a really bad tendency to limit God even though I know
God has no limitations to His power)
1999,
The first week of January 1999 Brother Greg Gale (CWW Treasurer by now) picked
up the CWW mail and found a Title Deed for an airport that was made out to
Christian Wings for the World. (I
believe this, along with the quick sale of two airplanes, that weren't even
advertised at the time, was a pretty obvious clue that I was to shut down
Smith's Flying Service and move to the CWW property near Ironton, Missouri.
(Wow, PTL).
Closing
our business, Smith's Flying Service, our livelihood, leaving the only real home
we ever had, we lived there nineteen years, and the place where we last had our
three wonderful children all together was possibly the most difficult task I
ever had to do. This is also the
place where I had made many friends and fond memories of raising cows, restoring
old cars, gardening, and many other thing while God was healing my broken body.
It was also difficult to leave our home church, which we helped to build.
FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF Mountain View, Mo.
If you are ever in that area please stop by for a visit or to worship at
this wonderful church.
Greg
and Elaine moved to the CWW property in November 1999. James Ratcliffe from Wis.
came and helped us get our water lines installed to get water to Greg’s mobile
home. Glenn Vetter was also
involved in helping us get moved in. The
property was very grown up in sprouts and trees and there was a large dozer pile
of trees that was left behind from when the airstrip was originally put in.
This dozer pile needed to be moved and a lot of other improvements,
requiring a bulldozer needed to be done. Brother
Noel Orchard is mentioned earlier in this account of how CWW got started.
I was telling Noel about our new airstrip and some of the needs including
the need for a dozer. When I got to
the part about the dozer a smile came on Noel's face, then he told me that he
had a D-7 Caterpillar with a bulldozer blade on it and he would help us with
this part.
Noel
Orchard brought his D-7 bulldozer and did a lot of work for us in cleaning up
our property. He took out a lot of
trees that were certainly in the way as well as moving old dozer piles, cleaning
out drain ditches and doing many other much needed tasks.
Glenn
Vetter, a local resident, who used to live in Illinois not far from where I grew
up was able and willing to help out also.
Glenn was our grounds keeper and general handyman.
Glenn mowed the grass, built things we needed serviced all sorts of
things to keep us going. Glenn
built the wall that formed our first office.
Sara
and I moved there in December 1999, Andy Day and his family arrived from Cody,
Wyoming in December 1999 also. Andy
came for pilot and mechanic training. Christmas
of 1999 was very quiet at Dove airstrip. Sara
and I had Christmas dinner for two this year.
On
New Years eve. we had a praise and worship time to see the new year in. The
heated hangar that God gave us was a good place to do this, and it seemed like
the appropriate way to see the new century in.
2000 was a busy year we trained two pilots for service in third world countries Frank Toews from Canada and another foreign national, Frank is a Moody school of aviation graduate. Frank earned our graduation certificate for mountain and jungle flying.
December
2000 we had a Christmas dinner and fellowship time with CWW staff, student's
family and three neighbors that totaled 26 people.
We
trained several pilots including two Jungle Pilots this year at Dove Airstrip.
Willy Kocu the other
Frank Toews, a Canadian, that will be serving with another mission.
We
currently have six students working on various levels of certification.
2001
Started off to be a busy year of working in the shop going to conventions, doing
presentations flying mercy flights, flying students, working on improvements on
the property and many other things.
Jared
Willey from South Carolina came to train for his flight instructor certificate,
which he successfully passed all the tests for.
Jared is a dedicated Christian. Jared
and his family are members of the Mennonite church.
Jared feels a call to missionary aviation work.
May 27, 2001 Missionary pilot Martin Burnham and his wife Gracia were kidnapped in the Philippines. Martin was born and raised in the Philippines, his parents were missionaries there. Martin served as a flight instructor for us during his furlough of 98. Because of the encouragement and instruction that Martin gave me, I made two missionary support flights to Haiti.
June
of 2001 we had our traditional annual Gospel sing and bar b que.
We were blessed with a good crowd, estimated at 400.
I asked our crowd to pray for the Burnhams
Joel
Harper came during his summer break from College of the Ozarks, to get his
instrument rating. PTL we were
successful again and he was the only one in his class that got the instrument
rating during summer. Joel needed
this rating so that he could enroll in the fall semester for commercial pilot
training. Joel is a Missionary Kid
his parents are missionaries for New Tribes Missions, in Papua New Guinea.
July
CWW had an exhibit at the EAA, Experimental Aircraft Association air show in
Osh- Kosh, WI. this was a great time of fellowship with many others that are
involved in missionary aviation. MASA
Mission Aviation Support Association sponsored the tent for our exhibits, they
furnished all our food and transportation without which it would not have been
possible for us to have gone to this gathering PTL.
During
August, Rock Garden Christian Service Camp from Mountain View, Missouri brought
their deeper life campers and staff out for a work day and thanks to all that
helped out, a lot of work was accomplished that day.
I don’t think I ever saw a bunch of kids work so hard for so long.
I don’t think I heard any complaints from anyone.
Sara, bless her heart, fixed lunch for 85 people that day.
All were fed on time and a very small amount of food was left over PTL
there was enough. God promised to
supply our needs PTL.
September
the 8th 2001, Sara and I were on our way to Virginia Beach, Va. to
visit our son Skyler and pin his new rank on him, Skyler made chief petty
officer Skyler is in the Navy. When
we stopped in Dayton Ohio to visit our son Robert and his family, Rob is
stationed in Dayton at this time at Wright Patterson
AFB. Sara and I were in the
air force museum when the airplanes hit the world trade center Sept. 11th 2001.
9/11
All
small aircraft were grounded for several weeks and all contacts from
international students stopped for quite a while.
Due to the fact that over half of our support comes from doing flight
training, this put a real squeeze on our already very limited finances, things
looked really bad at that time. We,
the CWW staff prayed for God to show us what He wanted us to do now it became
evident that we were to build the rooms on that we had talked about for some
time. We needed a new office, new flight operations room and a
storage/furnace/multi-use room. God
blessed us with enough of everything to get our new office finished to the point
that we could use it PTL.
My
cousin, whom I have seen very little of for many years, Kenny Campbell from
Rolla, Mo. John Mayberry from Ind., Gary Steele from Kansas Ok. and several
other came to work on our construction projects.
Greg Reinoelh from Greencastle Ind., a sector supervisor for Indianapolis
Center (ARTCC, Air Route Traffic Control Center) and also a pilot brought us a
load of lumber that we needed in order to start building the rooms we needed.
Bro. Greg Reinoelh asked if it was ok if the lumber was Maple,(Maple is
much better lumber than the common pine). Many
others donated materials and money to make it possible for us to have the rooms
we so desperately needed.
During
the fall we got back into flying again. Trevor
Johnson is now training with us to prepare for missionary pilot service.
Jason Dillard is training with us. Jason
is working on his private certificate at this time.
Others have come for various types of training.
We
made application for CWW to be able to give student visas for our international
students that need to come for long-term training.
We have been approved through the first stages.
Due to the terrorist activity last September it may take a while and a
lot of prayers to get this one through.
Christmas
2001 was another
great time of fellowship with CWW workers students, staff, and friends.
Christmas dinner brought 23 guests this time for our CWW dinner.
Sara
and I/CWW hosted a Christmas dinner for the Community Christian Church with a
good crowd, approx. 25 people attended this one
2002,
Started busy with the holidays over we were back under construction. Scott
Ratliff from Theodosia, Ron Thomas from Joplin, and several others came to do
the drywall and other necessary chores to make our new office ready to use.
Trevor Johnson is still in training with us, Carl Stevens of ACM, African
Christian Missions, who is serving with CARM Christian Aviation and Radio
Mission in the Philippines is here for a refresher. Jason Dillard is now flying
solo.
April has been a busy month with a lot of conventions and speaking
engagements in addition to keeping the flight students going.
Joel
Pierce from Fredericktown, Mo. started his flight training. Joel is a strong Christian from a Christian family.
Joel is not sure at this time if he will become a missionary pilot, but
he may. Joel completed his private
pilot training this year.
Djamba Mundeke (a
Congolese national) from Democratic Republic of the Congo arrived in St. Louis
on April the nineteenth and is now here with us for additional training to
prepare him for mission aviation support in his home country.
Djamba is our first African national student.
Djamba is with Wings of Caring Djamba D. Mundeke is a missionary of the
General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church assigned to
the Central Congo Annual Conference in the Democratic Republic of Congo,
formerly Zaire. Based in Kananga in the central part of the country, he serves
as a pilot and electronic technician for the Wings of Caring Aviation Ministry.
Wings of Caring planes soar as
they carry pastors, professors, school supplies, medicines, and emergency
equipment to otherwise unreachable locations. "We fly the airplane over the
jungle and any other place in the country where roads are almost nonexistent;
the airplane is the only means of transportation to reach people in need of help
and spread the Gospel, "explains Djamba.
June
7th 2002 Martin Burnham was killed and his wife Gracia was wounded
during a shoot out between Philippine government troops and the Guerilla
soldiers.
http://www.ntm.org/news/srburnham_02.php?page=burnhams:%20chronology
June 8th
2002 We had our annual open house that had been scheduled for several weeks,
some of us were having a hard time being cheerful today.
The good news is we knew that Martin was at home with our heavenly father
and I am thankful that I had a chance to know and work with Martin.
Greg
Gale, our treasurer and all around co-worker, is now working on getting his
commercial pilot certificate.
Several
other pilots are in training at this time.
October
16th 2002 Don Morris, an MK (missionary kid) started working on his private
certificate.
Don
is a schoolteacher who has worked several years for a Christian school
and now wants to take pilot training to use in ministry work or perhaps even in
the field.
December 9th
2002Myron Martin, who is already a private pilot, is now starting his work on
getting his commercial pilot certificate, instrument rating, Multi-engine rating
and his jungle pilot training.
Jan.
2003
we were having more that our usual amount of winter weather this year.
Student inquiry is up a little which is an encouraging factor.
Sara
and I are scheduled to be the missionaries for VBS at the Cornerstone Christian
Church in Alliance OH July, 21-23-2003. They
also asked if I would do an airplane demonstration for their congregation.
This was a great time of fellowship with the people of Cornerstone
Christian Church and a great time working with their young people.
The VBS class raised enough money to buy CWW a much-needed weather
station. We gave all the kids an
airplane ride that had their parents permission.
I also had the opportunity to demonstrate some of the maneuvers and
procedures that we train our missionary pilots to perform.
Forest Barber of, Barber Aviation, was a great help for us during our
stay there. Forest helped to take
care of our airplane as well as performing some interesting maneuvers in one of
his planes.
Mike Sayre started his missionary pilot training 8/11/2003
Mike has been accepted by World Team Mission. Mike will be going to West Paupa after he finishes his
training with us.
Don
Morris is enrolled in an aircraft Maintenance Technicians class in Springfield.
Don told me that the City of Springfield has some hangars that they would
donate to anyone who would remove them.
Because of Don's lead we were given some hangars.
2003/2004
CHECK DATES AND EVENTS IN THIS ERA.
Myron
Martin finished his training program and is the founder of On Eagles Wings
aviation ministry located in Alaska.
http://www.oneagleswingsinc.org/
Hangar
project started removing hangars three large nested T hangars 30 X 280 from the
Springfield Il airport September the 8th of 2004 finished up Nov 5th. 2004 These
hangars when re-erected will afford aircraft storage, dorm rooms, class rooms,
and other much needed growing room for our work here.
We need several thousand dollars in order to get the materials to
re-erect the hangars. We have been
blessed with a number of offers for people to come work for us on this project.
Charlie and Lea Thompson (SOS workers from Colorado) came to help us tear
down the hangars. Charlie and Lea
were scheduled to come to Ironton but changed their destination to Springfield
to help tear down the hangars. Wings
for Christ from Waco, TX brought three men who spent several days helping us to
tear down the hangars. People came
from AR, KY, TN, IN, IL, CO, AZ, CA, OH, and perhaps other places. Several people helped by bringing large trucks to help haul
the hangar parts.
Bruce
McCurdy: Bruce was born in Papua
New Guinea in the fifties; his parents were missionaries for New Tribes Mission
then. Bruce served as a missionary pilot there for 17 years.
Bruce's mother gave us the property that we are now using for our mission
base. Bruce has served in several
countries since then and has been asked to go to the Philippines to
serve where Martin Burnham was working. Bruce
Died 1-17-2005 in a car crash in Michigan he was on a ministry trip.
Bruce's memorial service was held Feb.
22-2005
There are many vacant spots in the
field where properly trained pilots are desperately needed.
One
of our supporters from Louisville has overhauled an airplane engine for one of
our small trainers PTL. Because of
his lead we have scheduled a time to speak to the Missions Team at the Okolona
Christian Church in Louisville PTL.
We are tentatively scheduled to train at least three missionary pilots
this year and have had a number of requests for information about pilot and
mechanic training.
We are praying for more opportunities to share the ministry of Christian
Wings for the World with others that might be interested in becoming partners
with us in the work of providing air support for God's missionaries in getting
the Gospel to the uttermost parts of His Kingdom.
At
this time we are getting ready for the flight season to get started which
usually gets under way by May. I am
working to get some more speaking engagements set up in order to share our
mission with others and hopefully gain more, much needed financial partners. All our staff is working for approximately minimum wages with
no health or life insurance. Our
mission statement calls for us to place mission planes and pilots in the field
as soon as possible. We have had
requests for at least two planes to be placed in the field by one of the
translator missions in the Christian Church brotherhood.
They need one in Papua New Guinea and one in Senegal, Africa.
Other missions have asked us to consider providing air support for them
when we could in various countries. The
only way we can provide any of the services mentioned is with God's blessings.
We
got word a few days ago that Marco Koffeman, one of our alumni is helping with
the Tsunami relief in Indonesia. Marco
has served for several years with Mission Aviation Fellowship in Uganda, Africa.
Southeast
Outlook ran a story on our mission Thursday March 3rd. 2005 the writer is Ruth
Schenk.
During
March of 2005 I receive an email that a mission in Alaska (KAKO Retreat at
Russian Mission, Alaska), needed a pilot for a couple of months and I
volunteered to go to help them during this period of time.
While there I plan to look at the areas where a plane could help others
to have a missionary to share God's word with them.
Sara and I are planning to go to Alaska during June and July of 05.
April 3rd I received an email from Myron Martin, (Myron was one of our students, the email stated that Myron had been blessed with the money to buy a small airplane with. Myron is now living at Port Alsworth, Alaska. Port Alsworth is approximately 180 miles Southwest of Anchorage, Myron stated that there are no roads. I ordered an aeronautical chart of that Area and there are no roads. Myron arrived home April 23rd. PTL. Most of Alaska has no roads. It has been said that Alaska begins where the road ends.
Below
you will see an endorsement from Myron Martin.
My name is Myron Martin and I'd like to
share a little with those who are considering training
through Christian Wings for the World. It was on
Father's Day in 2002 that the Lord made it clear to me and my family that we
were to attend training through CWW. The Lord used it as a time of growth
that we never really anticipated. We were blessed by not only excellent
training but also by testimonies of God's amazing work through CWW and Mission
Aviation in general. The knowledge we gained through these testimonies
along with the Lord's obvious presence in the training encouraged us a
great deal. We found Lionel and Greg to be great men of God. It
should not take you long to see that their lives are dedicated to your
training for the Lord.
They will teach you things that can
be done in airplanes that you may have previously thought impossible.
Landing on short obstructed runways. Turning and flaring for landing at
the same time as you maneuver through a curved approach. Landing
on curved airstrips and much more. Lionel was always a perfect gentleman,
even at those times when things were getting very busy in the cockpit. As
a missionary in Alaska I have found the training to be priceless. There
are many nonstandard airports obstructed by hills. Winds can be quite
strong with gusts that intimidate all but the most experienced pilots. But
after Lionel is done with you and releases you for service you should be
able to tackle then with ease and also find them to be quite fun.
The most important thing about the
training though comes from the anointing that God has given it. If the
Lord calls you to attend training through CWW you can be sure that that
anointing will fall on you if you stay close to the Lord Jesus Christ and allow
Him to have His way with you. There is really no way to explain it.
You have to experience it to really know what I'm talking about. So as you
fly for the Lord always remember Psalms 36:5, "Your Love, O
LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies."
James
VonAllmen from Clever, Mo. arrived here April 17th bringing with him a machine
with a loader and a backhoe along with a lot of tools necessary for him to put
the foundation in for our first new/old hangar.
As you saw above we received three hangars from Springfield, IL airport
authority. We are now well under way to get the first of these hangars
back up. A number of other people
came to make this project a reality PTL. James
is planning on taking the forms off the concrete during the next few days.
June
25th
Sara and I left for Western Alaska on a mission trip.
Kako Retreat center needed a pilot and a plane to help transport Eskimo
and Indian kids in for youth camp, they offer camps for different groups during
June and July each year. I was told
that Alaska has four seasons “June, July, August, and Winter” Sara worked
with the cooking and kitchen crew most of the time.
Lionel flew the Cessna 180 to bring in campers, volunteer workers, food,
mail, and a lot of other items necessary to keep camp going.
The planes had to take the campers home on Friday.
The Weather and flying conditions along with the sometimes not very
improved airstrips, were somewhat
challenging. The passes in the
mountains were sometimes very steep, crooked, narrow and foggy.
Overall it was a great trip as God gave us good enough conditions that we
made it through and let us get home in time to be at Mtn. View,
Mo to be missionaries for the week there and at West Eminence, Mo. We
actually arrived there July 28th and went on home the 30th.
The
forms have been removed for several days. We
are now getting ready to get started putting the steel up.
Hopefully we will see some of the steel up before the end of May 2005.
July
20th – 24th Craig Collver and five
others from his church in IL came to put up steel.
The temp was high and the heat index was 100 plus making it difficult to
work but a lot of steel was put up anyway PTL.
A
couple (Richard and Betty Gray) from SOS (servants of our Savior) came and
helped put up a lot more of our steel during a two week period during the summer
of 05.
Oct
22-05 A group of
15 men from a church at Cape Giradeau, Mo. Came for a work day this crew pretty
well finished putting up the main frame of the hangar.
Nov.
17th – 20th 2005 We went to Atlanta for the North
American Christian Convention. This
was one of the best conventions we have been to yet in regard to the number of
people that came by our exhibit that seemed interested in our ministry.
We had a drawing for three hours of flight instruction. Nick Dennis from IL won the drawing. Nick is a student at Ozark Christian College.
Nov.
21st – 26th were in Va. Beach
we spent several days with Skyler and family.
Nov
27th spoke at Tammy Krolow’s church in OH
Nov.
28th Spoke at church Cornerstone
Christian Church in Alliance OH. We
were missionaries for the week at this church July 19th – 24th
2003.
Nov.
29th 2005 Russiaville IN
2006
Feb
25th 2006 we hosted Shenandoah boys ranch to pizza at CI CIs
Networks
Youth Ministries brought 13 youth and three adults to help paint and improve the
inside of our hangar. They were
with us March 11th 15th
2006 .
During
March, 2006 around the 17th
– 24th Dr. Self and his son Levi came for some instruction, Dr. Self needed to get his tri-pacer annualed and also get
some instrument instruction our simulator.
Levi needed some flight instruction, I gave Dr. Self around 15 hours of
sim time. I gave Levi some cross
country instruction and some other instruction to get him soloed in the Cessna
150 and also in the Tri-Pacer. Levi
soloed both airplanes and I signed him off for the XC flight back to Ft. Scott.
KS. Levi made his trip home without
incident. Levi built an airplane
when he was 15 years old and then taught himself to fly it.
March
24th – 27th Nick Dennis was with us, Nick won our
drawing for free flight time. Nick
won the drawing at the NMC in Atlanta, GA last Nov.
Nick is a student at OCC.
We
have decided to have our ten year celebration June the 10th the theme
will be a Luau.
Since
early in 2001 we have encountered many problems such as 1000 percent
increase in insurance 300 percent increase in aircraft fuel, 200 percent
increase in aircraft parts, decreases in support and student calls that we are
walking in the valley of indecision. We
have taken our school catalog off the internet all except the top it off
program. Thank God for all His
provisions thus far. We have four
airplanes that are paid for PTL we don’t have to insure them.
We are prayerfully looking to see what God wants us to do in the future,
with all that He has given us.
March
31st and April 1st Sara, Josh, and I had an exhibit at the
MO Christian Convention at Lodge of the four seasons.
A couple of old friends that we hadn’t seen since 1973 came by our
booth. Ted and Janet
Mountjoy. I taught both of them to
fly in the early seventies. Ted
gave me a job driving a concrete truck the winter of 71 – 72 which was very
necessary for us to survive that winter. Ted
is Discipleship minister for the Forum Boulevard Christian Church in Columbia,
Mo.
April
7th Sara and I are on our way to Little Rock, AR for the AR Christian
convention The AR convention was another good one, we met several people that
seemed interested in our ministry and heard several very good speaker that had
great messages.
April
We have been talking to Paul Coffman who is the replacement for Tom
Blackeagle. Tom used to be the
director for American Indian Evangelism Association in Toppenish WA.
CWW offered to bring a plane and provide transportation for Paul to make
the rounds to several of the Indian reservations in different states in the
North West. We plan to do a study to see if it would be practical to have
an airplane and pilot full time to support the work there.
April/May?
I went in for an eye exam and the Dr. discovered that I had an oval pupil
in my left eye, with further examination he found a tumor and sent me to a
specialist, Dr. Fitz in Farmington who sent me to another specialist at the
Barnes Retina Center. Dr. J. W. Harbour determined that I have a tumor that might
be Malignant and scheduled me for a biopsy on the 19th.
We were scheduled to attend the IAMA conference in Coshocton OH during
May 10th – 12th because of the eye problem we canceled
going to the IAMA conference I sent a mission report to Keith Dodson for him to
read it to the group.
With
the problem with my eye we have decided to postpone our Luau until a later time.
May
12, 2006. Our son Robert and his
family will be moving from Scott air force base in Belleville IL to an air force
base in Shreveport, LA. We have
gone to spend this weekend with them.
While
Sara and I were with Rob and family at the Union Station in St. Louis I
got a call from Richard Gray of SOS, Richard said that he and Betty could come
work for us May 20 and stay for two weeks, June 3rd PTL for God
sending his people when we need help. Mike Horton and Harriss? From Hillsboro Christian Church also
came and helped us several days during the last two weeks of May.
Today is Sat. June 3rd Richard Gray has been helping us with several
different projects for the last two weeks, Richard and Betty will be going to
church with me tomorrow, then they will be leaving for TN. Monday.
My
biopsy on my eye read nothing found and my Dr. seems sure that I have cancer.
With all my prayer warriors praying for no cancer and no further
treatment necessary along with the biopsy report I believe that all is well with
my eye PTL.
I am hoping to get to meet with some of the leadership staff of St. Louis Christian College later this month to discuss the possibilities of working with them as a partner school, a satellite campus or possibly some other category.
June 24, 2006 Today we went to Carl Hanks memorial service at Linn Creek Baptist Church on A road.
June 25th July 1st North
American Christian Convention Sara
Kayla and Kamen went o Louisville to represent CWW at the convention.
July 21st until July 30th Went to Oshkosh for a week at the
EAA fly in convention. I
had a good week at Oshkosh and made a lot of new contacts.
I got a chance to lead a Small group Saturday night and to preach at a
Baptist church Sunday morning and came home after that.
July 30th come
home from Oshkosh, Wi
Aug
I have worked several long days on the property this month.
I
have been leveling fields, removing trees and taking dirt out of the pond to use
to level the field next to the pond and to fill around the hangar that we are
building.
Aug Still hoping to get to meet with the
people at St. Louis Christian College and still hoping to get enough good news
about my medical problems that I can get back to a normal way of life.
Sept Still working long days on the property.
Rented a track loader from Family Center for $ 1317.00 plus $70 for
hauling it. I also had to hi
are a dump truck to haul a lot of dirt around the hangar.
Sept.. 14th Steven Saint and Benjamin Schmidt
stopped by and spent the night with us and left Friday 15th.
Steve is interested in working with us to get his Native pilots trained.
Steve was flying an RV 10 that his natives had built for him.
Sara has been working long days and nights to get things ready for our
Luau.
Sept. 30th Our
Luau/ 10 year celebration was a great success
Oct. 14th 8 men
from Christ’s Church of the Heartland came and worked on our hangar project
Oct 24 Still having problems with my left eye so I went to another Dr. in St. Louis. Dr told me that I do have a tumor in my eye and reccomended that I go see the first Dr. to have it taken care of. Please pray for a good outcome on this problem.
Oct. 27th Steven and
Ginny Saint came by for a visit and to talk about ways that our missions may be
able to work together. .
Oct. 29th Bill Archer
came by for a visit and to offer encouragement and support for the mission that
God has called us to here at Dove airstrip.
PTL for answering our prayers.
2007 May God bless you with a happy and blessed new year.
Jan. 25th Monte Michael pilot and one of the directors of Wings for Christ ministry http://www.wings-for-christ.org/ came by for a visit. Monte and two other men from this ministry came for two weeks to help us teardown the hangars at Springfield, Ill.
Feb. 1st Went to see Dr. Harbout in St. Louis for a check up on my eye. Dr. said it looked like it was as it should be at this point.
Feb .10th A man from Tx. came to pick up some large airplane systems training simulators.
Mar. 1st. Went to see Dr. Harbour because of pain in my left eye.
Mar. 2nd Went to Dr. Fitz for a previously scheduled check up.
Mar. 8-10th One of my students sponsored a trip to Branson to one of Ken Copeland's meetings including a healing school, we also got to go to see the Pierce Arrow music show.
Mar. 12th Eye was hurting so I went to Dr. Fitz eye pressure was 50, way too high.
Mar. 14th back to Dr. Fitz pressure down to 26. still too high but much better.
Mar. 29 Went to Dr. Lype, (Optometrist) for eye pressure check 32 this time.
Mar. 21st Back to St. Louis to see Dr. Harbour, Dr. said tumor is dead or dying and breaking up in large chunks instead of gradually dissolving, this is why the pressure is bad. Dr. Harbour expiained that the remains of the tumor is wedged between my lens, causing the cataract problem and the cornea causing it to be damaged. Dr. told me that to save the eye I neede to get the cataract removed ASAP at least within the next two to three weeks. As things go Dr. Fitz was recommended to remove the cataract and he is out of town until next Thursday and his normal surgery day is Tues. I plan to call Dr. Harbours office tomorrow to see if he wants me to get another Dr. to do the cataract surgery.
Mar. 23rd I am planning on going to see Dr. Lype this morning to get a pressure check.
Mar. 23-25 I am scheduled to do an annual for one of my customers airplanes..
April. Kurt Hettinger from Hillsboro Christian Church came and asked if we wanted him to help with fund raiser work including grant writing.
May 30th Charley Thompson from Colorado came and worked for us for a week PTL
June 17th 23rd Aviation youth camp
We had a great week with our first Christian youth camp with an aviation emphasis PTL.
The age group we had at this camp was Junior High and High School. the activities were the usual devotions, Bible studies, vespers, campfires, fun things such as games trips to St. Louis Christian College the Arch, Elephant Rocks park, swimming etc. including some ground school classes and an introductory flight lesson. We are planning to offer a camp next year for the same age group and a second camp for the age group starting with the seniors that graduate next year and up to 22 that might be interested in missions or mission aviation. For more information Call 573-734-2649 for details.
July 14th CMA Christian Motorcyclist Association came for a work day and bar b que
July 22nd- 30 EAA fly in at Oshkosh, WI Thanks to MASA providing free housing, food and a place for our display we were able to attend. This was another great opportunity to meet and fellowship with others in the Missionary aviation community. PTL
Aug Don Morris has arrived. Don is a flight instructor and aircraft mechanic. Don has come to work with us at CWW and do whatever needs to be done. Don is planning on being here full time.
Aug. 16th Passed my medical flight check. PTL I now have my medical re-instated on the basis of demonstrated ability, SODA.
Sept 17th Glenn and Dorothy Wied Missionaries working in Mexico are coming to work on getting an airplane together to use in Mexico. Glenn and Dorothy will be with us for several weeks.
Oct 18th - 20th Richard Castle from Callao, Mo. and several others came for three days of work on our hangar project.
Oct 26th Br. Daniel I will put his real name in later. Br. Daniel is a German who is a missionary to the Congo in Africa he will be with for a week of training and evaluation.
Oct 27th Lionel and Sara Smith sponsored a Church hayride for the young and the young at heart from several different Churches in the area.
Oct 28th- Nov 2nd Jerry Hurd an MK who grew up in Paupa New Guinea. Jerry's parents were translators for Wycliffe. Jerry is now in training to prepare him to be a missionary pilot with AIM-AIR in Nairobi. Jerry came here to get his tail wheel training and endorsement. While Jerry was here we also did some advanced airmanship training as well.
Nov 3rd Bob and Melcy Meyer from St. Louis came for a work day.
Nov 15th-18th Sara and I went to the NMC (National Missionary Convention) in Cincinnati, OH
Sara and I have quite a bit of traveling to do for various reasons Don will be minding the shop for us and we can be reached by calling our mobile phones. Lionel 573-315-9626 Sara 573-315-9636
We are now scheduling flight lessons. Please call to schedule flight instruction or to request a mercy flight or a speaking engagements.
NOTE:
There is quite a lot of missing information that I am hoping to be able to find
and add to this document. (
Computer crashes etc.) Check back
later to see if I have an updated version of this document.
Lionel
Smith
If
anyone is interested in helping out with any of our needs you can check our web
at http://www.christianwings.org/howtohlp.htm
or
call 573-734-2649
Christian
Wings for the World Inc.
736
Dillard Rd.
Ironton, MO 63650