Homeschool Graduates at the Airport, Part 2

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Yesterday I told you about the fascinating people I met in Shelby, North Carolina, on Tuesday. They were the staff and students of Compass Aviation, a training center for people who want to become missionary pilot/mechanics.

The smiling young man in the foreground of this photo is Aaron Watt. While I was taking photos of the Compass Aviation training center, Aaron and two others posed for me in one of the planes outside. I asked Aaron how he got involved in Compass Aviation. He said that it is a family story.

Aaron’s parents are John and Tara Watt, pictured below.

John is the director of Compass Aviation. Tara supports the ministry through prayer and as the part-time administrator. She homeschools their two children who are still in school. Aaron has been helping at Compass Aviation since he was fourteen years old. He began working one day each week as an apprentice. He has worked in the shop full-time since he graduated from homeschool high school in 2015. He and the Compass Aviation students and staff provide airplane maintenance for clients. This brings in money for the ministry and also provides students with instruction and experience.

John Watt was born in Zaire. His first words were in Swahili. His parents homeschooled him in grades 8 through 12. John grew up seeing the essential role that airplanes play  in mission work in remote areas of the world. After high school, John was an apprentice with Mission Aviation Fellowship. After twenty-plus years as missionaries in Zaire, John’s parents brought their family back to the United States in 1991.

The small Shelby-Cleveland County Regional Airport in Shelby, North Carolina, was shabby in 2004. God opened a door for John Watt and dentist Dr. Paul Hounshell to revitalize it. John said that their getting that contract was “against all odds.”

In John’s words, “The airport came alive.” God blessed their efforts and brought air traffic and customers to their venture. The city of Shelby now operates the public side of the airport. They have replaced the terminal building that was there when Watt and Dr. Hounshell took over. This is the beautiful building that Terry and I saw when we arrived at the airport on Tuesday.

John Watt and Dr. Hounshell wanted to do more than revitalize a small airport. After writing the post for yesterday, I emailed John to find out more about his work at the airport. This is how he described his and Dr. Hounshell’s vision:

Paul and I wanted a place to combine our loves  of God, missionary work, and aviation. We wanted to encourage and equip young people to go out to the mission field as skillful pilots and mechanics, so they in turn could serve the Lord and bless others by helping meet the desperate needs overseas. God is doing that and more.

You‘ve been in our shop and seen the flags. They are there to remind us on a daily basis of why we do what we do.  Most of those flags represent countries where folks Compass has helped to train/prepare are now serving — helping others in the name of Jesus — far from home and the comforts of America.  It takes a unique person to go and do what he can to help — using the airplane as HIS tool.  So we invest heavily in helping to prepare these pilot/mechanics so they in turn can help others.  It makes for an unusual way to run a shop when we are endeavoring to train and prepare folks to leave. That kind of turn-over is good and we want to see a lot of it.

Dr. Hounshell is now retired, but John Watt continues to work in the ministry of Compass Aviation. Another staff member is Andy Porter. Andy teaches airplane mechanics at Compass Aviation. Andy is from the area of Liverpool and Manchester in northern England. After working in ministry in England, Andy moved to America. He met his wife here. The car that my friend Terry purchased on Tuesday actually belonged to Andy’s mother-in-law. Caleb Warner was selling it for her.

Andy joined Compass Aviation after contacting the organization a couple of years ago. When Andy told John Watt about his training and experience, John told him, “We’ve been praying for you for two years.”

Missionary pilots deliver food, medicine, mail, and supplies to overseas missionaries. Organizations desperately need missionary pilots with mechanical skills. Many missionary pilots are now at retirement age. Compass Aviation provides people who want to be missionary pilots with flight training and training in airplane maintenance at little or no cost to the student.

In his email, John Watt also told me:

We live in a hurting world. We see it all around us. Even at the airport, a pretty fun place to be, we come into contact with so many people who desperately need the hope, comfort, and joy of the Lord. And we need it, too, of course! Days can be hard and we have to fight discouragement sometimes. Please pray that His light and His Spirit will shine through us and reach the people he brings our way.

As homeschooling mamas, you also know that days can be hard. You know what it is to fight discouragement sometimes. John Watt’s parents taught him about Jesus, and they homeschooled him. John and Tara taught Aaron and his siblings about Jesus, and they also homeschooled them. It is worth the hard days and discouragement. Hang in there and pray. God wants you and your children to succeed, even more than you do.

Now to Him who is able to do
far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think,
according to the power that works within us,
to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 3:20-21

 

 

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