 Mark Miller, lead pastor at Whitestone Mennonite Church, Hesston, Kan., and a 1987 aviation graduate of Hesston College, speaks to aviation students, faculty, and alumni at the college’s aviation hangar Saturday, April 19. |
May 5, 2008
Four graduates of Hesston College’s aviation program challenged students to serve God, no matter what their position or situation in the aviation world. They spoke on campus and at the college’s hangar at Newton (Kan.) City-County Airport during the fifth annual “Aviation as Mission” weekend April 18-19.
Mark Miller, lead pastor at Whitestone Mennonite Church in Hesston, spoke on campus Friday evening April 18 about how a Christian should look at servanthood in an aviation career. “There will be possibilities beyond your imagination,” he said, indicating that these days, pilots earn $70,000 to $200,000.
Miller read from Ephesians 6:5-7, where Paul tells believers to keep an eye on obeying one’s real master. “No matter who gives the orders, no matter the situation you’re in, you’re serving God,” Miller said. “Consider the idea of serving people no matter what your pay is. The reality in that is that you’re doing it as serving God.
“What you build here at Hesston,” he emphasized, “will identify the foundation of servanthood throughout all the rest of life as a servant of Christ.
Miller studied at Hesston College for three years, graduating in 1987 with degrees in aviation and in Bible and religion. Then he taught aviation at the college for seven years and finished his bachelor’s degree in Bible and religion at Bethel College (North Newton, Kan.). “I had some thoughts of getting into mission aviation,” he said, “but as time went on, I recognized a desire to pastor instead.”
After graduating from Eastern Mennonite Seminary, Harrisonburg, Va., in 1997, he served as pastor at a Mennonite congregation in Ohio, then came to Whitestone Mennonite Church in Hesston in 2004.
Miller’s wife, Wendy (Wyse), a 1986 Hesston graduate, serves half-time as an associate pastor at Whitestone Mennonite; they have three children.
Students and aviation faculty members also heard from John Reimer, who graduated from Hesston in 1990 with an aviation degree, after getting his private pilot’s license under the tutelage of Miller. He was a flight instructor at Hesston briefly in 1991, then again for the 1992-93 and 1993-94 school years. Since early 2000, Reimer has served as a demonstration pilot for Cessna Aircraft Company in Wichita. He flies the new Cessna Citations for clients all over the world.
As he began his presentation, Reimer said, “Everything I share tonight is an ideal, something I continually strive for. These are my goals—to live a life of integrity in aviation and lead a life that Christ would want me to, and be the witness he would want me to in this career that often is missing that element. [Aviation] is an intellectual career, with facts and figures, black and white; there’s not much room for religion.”
According to Reimer, professional pilots are trusted with a lot, including the lives of people who are senior leaders of a corporation. “Most important, don’t betray their trust of your profession, because your professionalism and the trust that you gain from people is going to give you credibility to open up the doors to witness,” he said. “And if they trust you with their lives, there’s a good chance that someday there’s going to be an opportunity where they will trust you to witness to their souls, and you’ll be able to open that door.”
Reimer emphasized that serving with integrity means serving God, your family, and yourself first and foremost. “If those things aren’t in line, nothing else in your life will matter, nothing else in your life will come together,” he said. “You’ve got to build the foundation from there up or it will tumble immediately.
“You’re going to be put in situations where your morals are challenged,” he said. “It’s important to be strong. If you fall down, you’ll lose all the credibility of your coworkers. They might not trust your decision-making as a pilot.
Reimer also advised the students to avoid situations that might be tempting or a weakness. For example, he pointed out, “The television in a hotel room has as many channels as you want. And it has as many pornographic channels as you could want.
“You are the only one in that room to be accountable to. I have heard of people who will go to the front desk to check-in and ask that the maintenance person disconnect the TV. If that’s your weakness, don’t trust your own strength.”
Speakers Saturday morning April 19 at the airport included Jim Smith (a 1986 Hesston graduate), a Flight Safety International instructor in Wichita who teaches in a Cessna Citation X program, and Mike Wallace (who graduated from Hesston in 1992), a Flight Safety International program manager who provides leadership for the King Air 300/350/1900D training program at the Hawker Beechcraft Learning Center, also in Wichita.
Friday evening guest Mark Miller addressed the students again Saturday morning as well.
Hesston College Aviation