...of a missionary aviation mechanic is not always as glamorous as one might think. But that doesn't stop me from loving what I do.
The day begins at various times for various people...for me, I'm trying to make the hangar by 7:45 to 8:00am. With three small children getting up around 7:00am, it's nice to play with them in the morning for a few minutes and also help get them going for the day. Heading to the hangar involves about 15 minutes of shear terror as I navigate the roads of Nairobi on my Haro mountain bike. Once safely in the hangar, the day pretty much goes and goes and goes...much like it would in a normal aircraft maintenance operation would in the United States...or does it?
We have a fairly diverse fleet of airplanes. It includes five Cessna 206s, a Cessna 210, three Cessna 208Bs, a Super King Air 200, and a turbine DC-3. There is also a supercharged Cessna 206 on amphibious floats that is being prepped in the US to come out soon and operate in Tanzania. There are a handful of expatriate missionaries and a handful of Kenyan nationals who work alongside each other doing the task of aircraft maintenance. There is such a diverse crowd, ranging from over 15 years of experience to guys just beginning their aviation careers. We work on these different airplanes as best as we can with the talents that the Lord has given us; and it is truly amazing to see how different each mechanic's talents are. One might be gifted with a detailed eye for inspection; one might know more about piston engines than anyone else; one might be able to detect a crack with his naked eye from a mile away; one might be honing his hands for sheetmetal work. It's a variety of guys that have been brought together to do certain tasks on airplanes that are doing more than just flying people and cargo.
AIM AIR is dedicated to flying missionaries and their cargo, national pastors, short term mission groups, medical supplies, and a host of other things. We are utilizing the gifts and abilities that the Lord has given us to serve His work all throughout East Africa. On a daily basis, pilots head out to carry servants of the Lord, to see the work that God is doing, while we in the maintenance hangar only watch and wonder about those strange places that we hear about. We hear stories about different tribes of people in different countries, and how the Lord is working through the missionaries and the local pastors in those areas, and that people are coming to Christ! But it is not something that we get to experience first hand.
We are left behind, waiting for the report that our pilot got to his destination safely, that all is well with both our friend and the airplane. We wait anxiously when we don't hear anything, or when something seems to be a bit out of sync. Every time an airplane flies past our hangar doors on final approach to Runway 07, we look up to see if it's one of ours. When it is one of our planes, we watch as the pilot gently puts the airplane down on the runway, with our quiet comments coaching him from afar off. We smile and run out to greet him when the plane arrives at the hangar, eager to hear how the flight went and what all happened, and why is the airplane covered in mud?!
The AIM AIR hangar is just another concrete and steel hangar on a busy airport in a busy African city. But what we do inside that hangar is different than what they do in the hangar next to us...or the next hangar...or the next. We are working to keep these airplanes in the air, so that we can be an avenue of taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth. It involves routine maintenance...100hr inspections, phase checks, and scheduled down times. It also involves non-scheduled maintenance; this is usually when something goes a little out of sync and we rush to resolve the issue, whether it might be an electrical problem, changing a leaky fuel drain, repairing a collapsed landing gear strut, or perhaps even an entire engine change. When our airplanes are not flying, then the Gospel is not going out...when our airplanes are gone, then we are always praying that the Lord will use them to further His kingdom.
Time and time again, we work hard and long to keep our airplanes going. The maintenance staff at AIM AIR is a dedicated team of individuals that seek to follow the Lord's will for our lives. We are all just simple men that God has taken and put in this hangar for this time and we are serving Him to the best of our ability, because we know that we honor Him when we do our job well.
Do I miss working on the airplanes I was working on back in the United States? Sure I do...there isn't a day that goes by that I don't see one of Air Kenya's Twin Otters flying by the hangar and I just wish that I could turn a wrench on one of those again. But you know what? God used the skills that I learned rebuilding and refurbing Twin Otters and CASA 212s and brought me here to serve with Samaritan's Purse and AIM AIR. I've had the privilege to be a part of the team that rebuilt two Cessna 206s that are now serving the Lord all over East Africa, and we're working on the the third one right now. I've been able to help change some PT6A-65AR engines on the DC-3, which not many people get to do. I've even been able to fly a little bit (emphasis on
little bit) in the areas around Nairobi and see the land that the Lord has brought us here to serve.
To be a part of AIM AIR is like a dream come true for me...and God knew that all along. I had always thought that I wanted to be a part of the missionary aviation community, but never knew how or in what capacity. I thought I wanted to be a pilot, but God had different plans for my life. I love what I do as a grease monkey, and wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. God took my love for airplanes and used it for His glory when He brought me and my family out to serve Him in Kenya.
So...is life out here in the AIM AIR hangar the same as it would be working at a aircraft maintenance shop in the United States? Yes...and no. Aircraft maintenance is aircraft maintenance. Inspections need to be completed, paperwork done, logbooks signed off. But the underlying reason why we do what we do is fundamentally different. We are here to serve the Lord. Each day, as we turn wrenches, torque fuel injector nozzles, clean and re-pack wheel bearings, change fuel and oil filters, and otherwise do normal aircraft maintenance, we do it with the knowledge that God has us in His hands and we are working to honor Him, because as Christians our sole purpose is to glorify God.
Nothing more...nothing less.
AIM AIR - Serving those who serve
