The LeTourneau Crew
For the past couple of years a
small group of college students have traveled 18 hours from LeTourneau University
in Longview, TX. to spend their spring break volunteering
at MMS. The purpose of their trip is to provide an opportunity to explore
mission aviation on a personal level, a professional level and a spiritual
level. This Face-to-Face profile
highlights this group of students and their advisor.
This is a photo of the four students and their staff
advisor that came to MMS this year.
Sitting on the left side of
the couch is Pablo Silverio, staff advisor. LeTourneau requires a staff member
accompany students on trips such as this and as of two weeks ago no staff had
committed. When Pablo stepped forward
the students were grateful because without him the trip would not have
happened.
On the personal side, Pablo is
a programmer and he and his wife moved from Ecuador last July. He works in the
IT department at LeTourneau and has been able to assist MMS with some of their
computer issues.
On the right of the couch is
Rebekah Martel. She is in her freshman year at LeTourneau. However, Rebekah is
not your typical first year college student. She graduated from high School in
2011 and worked in a hardware store the past couple of years putting away money
for school. During that time she felt
the Lord working on her heart and calling her to missions. When she was 12 she
took her first airplane ride while attending a Young Eagles Day coordinated by
the EAA. It was then she fell in love with planes. She says that the Lord is
combining all her passions by calling her to mission aviation; flying, fixing
things and mission work.
Standing directly behind
Rebekah is Caleb Gibson. When asked the question concerning his call into
missions he is quick to tell you he has felt called since the age of 6. It was
then he developed a love for planes. During his freshmen year in high school he
heard a missionary speak and he knew then mission aviation was for him. This is
Caleb’s senior year at LeTourneau and he will be graduating in May. He is very
open about his school loans and hopes to get a job to pay them off quickly.
This will allow him to get to the mission field that he feels such a passion
for and calling to.
To the left of Caleb is Jack
Harper. Unlike Caleb, Jack is not able to be so specific about the date and
time he felt called into mission aviation. Growing up his family went on short
term mission trips which created a desire for mission work. However, it wasn’t
until recently an interest in mission aviation developed. His father is a pilot
and when flying with him during his high school years (just last year, Jack is
a freshman) he came to realize how much he enjoyed it.
Standing next to Jack is Trey
Kleppe. Trey wants to work with helicopters more then anything. His first ride
in one occurred in high school when his church was conducting a community
outreach dropping Easter eggs out of a helicopter. Ever since that flight
helicopters have excited him. His dream is to fly helicopters for a mission
organization when he graduates from LeTourneau.
Collectively they readily
admitted how beneficial they have found their time at MMS. The opportunity to
work with licensed mechanics on planes that are going to serve all over the
world is enriching their lives. They feel encouraged, more knowledgeable, and
better able to picture what mission aviation maintenance looks like on a day to
day basis. Learning from people who have served in different parts of the world
has also broadened their scope of what it means to work in mission aviation. In
addition, to be able to network among people who have the same passion as
theirs seems to feed into their souls.
It was a pleasure to meet Pablo
and each of these students. I pray for
their future and hope that the rest of the MMS family joins me. I am grateful God continues to call people to
serve Him in mission aviation. “Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is
plentiful, but the workers are few.’” Mathew 9:37
