The Togo is being prepared to gogo

Here at the hangar I have been hearing about the Togo and when is the Togo going to get its parts and get overhauled? So what is a Togo? Or a better  question would be where is Togo? Togo is a small country in the west Africa region reaching down to the coast and is slenderly seated between Ghana and Benin.

 I was not sure at first what a Togo was, I thought it was a type of aircraft engine that I had never heard of and that we were working on one. After further investigation I found out that it was the name of a country in west Africa and that is where the engine is going to after we are finished with it.

 The Togo engine is for a 206 Cessna that is being used for mission service with ABWE or Association of Baptists for World Evangelism.To find out more about ABWE and their ministry just click on the highlighted link.

 Here at MMS we have this engine in for an overhaul, this basically means that everything in the engine has been inspected and verified to be within serviceable condition or replaced with new parts. Josh who is our engine shop supervisor is heading up the project. He has been getting some help from Sarah Morris of Compass Aviation this past week. Sarah is working with Josh to gain some more engine experience that she can take with her on the world wide mission field.  We are very blessed to get to be a part of preparing airplanes and people. We truly do impact the world right here from Ohio. You will find below some pictures of this engine as well as a related map of Togo.

 

A view from the engine stand. A beautiful work of art in progress.

Josh is working on the quill shaft and Sarah is studying the cylinder and valve placement.

How is that valve coming Sarah?

Josh teaching Sarah how to properly hone out the cylinder.

Preparing people....

One of the crucial parts of MMS is the "preparing people" part. There are generally two parts to this, candidacy and apprenticeship. As God starts to work in peoples lives and they start to inquire about becoming a missionary with MMS, we help them through this process of application and evaluation into the process of raising support, where God carves away at them and builds their character and equips them for the task that God has given them. We work closely with candidates raising support building their understanding and responsibility through scripture and guidance from the Human Resources Director. 

The second part of "preparing people" is when they reach the point of 100% financial support they are cleared to begin at MMS in the apprenticeship program or advanced skills building process if they are certificated already. Once they are at the hangar they are transferred to the director of training and he will start to work with them in order to build their skills and knowledge so that they become a useful tool on the mission field. Once they have completed this they move on to one of the 165 Christian missions flight organizations around the world.So we "prepare people" for the spiritual side as well as the mechanical side of missionary aviation maintenance.

 Some will move on to become pilots as well, through a partnership with MAG or Mission Air Group. We love what we do here knowing that we are making a difference with the gospel being shared all over the world due to the efforts of all who support MMS and the hard work of the staff of MMS. Here is a glimpse of the "preparing people" side of what we do. The below pictures are a glimpse of evaluation of a possible future apprentice going through evaluation to possible candidacy and two apprentices who are here gaining the necessary knowledge.

 Here Ryan is scraping paint during his evaluation

Josh teaching Ryan about engines and testing his knowledge

Masking for painting details is an exact science

Jim showing how to wire gauges properly and testing Ryan's knowledge

Mike is finishing up with some brake work for evaluation

Our director of training Bob Schwartz is showing the apprentices how a magneto works

Bob is checking their work on the magneto

Glen and Aaron are now ready to rebuild their own magneto

The MAG is stripped to perfection

 We have many different ministries that we serve. One of these ministries that we are serving also happens to be a partner in raising up missionaries with us here at MMS. Mission Air Group also known as MAG has one of their Cessna 206's here for maintenance repairs. We are currently working on stripping the paint from all of the body of the aircraft. The wings, fuselage, tail sections and many small intricate parts need to be stripped of their outer coating down to the bare metal. This is a very tedious event. Every rivet every crevasse between skin pieces needs to be completely scrubbed free of debris so that the metal can be prepared for the new paint scheme to adhere to it.

In the same way Christ is doing the same thing to us who have given our lives to him. When we receive Christ he takes us apart and starts to work on our imperfections until we are finely polished and useful in his hands. He then puts us back together and paints us white as snow. Jesus is our shop foreman and he chooses us to do his work. We are his hands and feet on this earth.

Just as an airplane is refurbished by a team of qualified mechanics we work together to accomplish God's work on this earth. This is where MAG comes in to play. Here at MMS we are "preparing people and airplanes for world wide missionary service". As we build up mechanics we recognize that we need a partner who will provide the necessary skills for those God has called to be pilots as well. We are working together to accomplish the great commission. What a blessing to have a partnership like this. We are blessed to get to do the maintenance on this airplane as well. The 206 that you see pictured below is an air ambulance that is going to Rus Rus, Honduras. For more information about MAG you can go to Mission Air Group.

The 206 Cessna from Honduras when it arrived here at MMS

A stripping agent is applied and then covered in plastic

Aaron is removing the dissolved paint after the thinner was applied

Here is the fuselage about 90% complete

Many intricate small pieces ready to be stripped and polished