Saturday, March 8, 2025

Would you interview for a position with Ethnos360 Aviation?

 Have you ever felt nervous about a job interview? Were you confident you wanted the job but uncertain what impressions you would leave as you interviewed for the position?

I still remember having similar feelings as David and I interviewed with Ethnos360 Aviation in January of 2019. We had already visited McNeal, Arizona once before and spent a week with the McNeal staff while David worked in the hangar alongside other mechanics. Eight months later, we had added our second child to the family and begun attending the training classes required to apply for membership with the organization. We came for candidate evaluation a little out of the usual order. Most candidates participate in evaluation before they attend the training center in Missouri and then interview for membership.

The Candidate Evaluation week at Ethnos360 Aviation headquarters isn’t a final interview. It is an official part of the interview process before you can become a career missionary employed with Ethnos360 and be assigned to serve within the aviation department. To start an evaluation week, Ethnos360 Aviation leadership at McNeal’s international headquarters spend a few days with the pilots, mechanics, and spouses explaining our ministry vision and purpose. The pilots fly with our instructors and complete specific flight challenges. The mechanics are given tasks to complete and are evaluated on their ability to problem solve, complete the task efficiently and quickly, and resolve the maintenance issue correctly.

In the midst of the meetings and technical evaluation, a candidate spends time getting to know the aviation staff who serve Ethnos360 from McNeal, Arizona. Our staff families, and members in training, are given the option of hosting candidates and their families for lunch or dinner. Many staff host a different family each day. The candidates and their families begin relationships with the men and women who form the “home” team of missionaries and support the global team we send overseas. Relationships are monumental within the body of Christ and candidates are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Lord willing, we will continue serving his body, the global church, alongside these pilots and mechanics whether they become members of our organization or serve with a different aviation ministry someday.  Our family looks forward to hosting and building these relationships every year. Some years, we make friends we will welcome back to McNeal in a year or two. Sometimes, we make friends we will not see in McNeal but can support through prayer though we do not know a time and place we will fellowship together again.

Our desire is to welcome these candidates with open hearts and arms. We want to see how God is directing their steps in pursuit of aviation ministry and help encourage them on the way. One of the blessings we experience as we host candidates is the opportunity we have to share our viewpoint about the ministry of Ethnos360 and its distinctives. We have the privilege of telling these men and women how God led us through making the decision to join Ethnos360 for our professional career. We enjoy sharing our life experiences and biblical convictions with other believers who carry similar convictions. 

This year, we were able to answer the questions our guest was asking about God’s direction in our choice of ministry. In the process, we were able to encourage this candidate with two assets we appreciate about Ethnos360 Aviation. First, we expressed our appreciation for how God has given our leadership a clear commitment to a stated vision and purpose. Second, we shared how God has guided our leadership to remain faithful to that vision and purpose. We feel privileged to serve with an organization that has not compromised or deviated from the purpose God set before its members. Another quality we appreciate about our organization is the atmosphere of connected community within the teams in each field overseas and here in the US. The members of the aviation department love one another well, and the candidates feel welcomed into that community! What a privilege to be part of this community and ministry team.

Our leadership continually seeks to invite qualified individuals to attend our evaluation and consider joining our team. We need more employees for multiple reasons. Only God knows when a missionary might need to step into a different role. We have coworkers who needed to change their location or even end their career in missions for medical reasons, family needing additional care, visas being denied, a pandemic, or simply because God transitioned them to a different ministry.

One reason we need to increase our staff in McNeal and overseas is that our committed and faithful team includes leaders and members who are well past retirement age. These men and women are capably continuing in their positions of leadership and ministry. Somehow, the positions will need to be filled before the roles become suddenly vacant because God decided to “retire” someone to a home that is not in this world. Our leadership has been diligently pursuing those who need to step into their leadership positions. Transitions have begun. However, every man or woman who steps into a position in leadership on the McNeal staff has to leave the position they were filling previously. Who will step into those roles and fulfill those responsibilities whether in the US or another country?

When David and I came to candidate evaluation, we had already committed to serving in missions for the remainder of our lifetime as God allowed. We already had invested years in training to gain skills and develop qualifications for serving as part of a team of aviation personnel. The candidates we welcome to this evaluation week each January are on a similar journey. They have made decisions to commit to and invest in a lifetime of serving our Savior, Jesus Christ. They have a desire to grow as individuals whose qualifications as a professional (pilot, mechanic, accountant, nurse, teacher, etc) will enable them to partner with other professionals in delivering a message of hope and life. They have followed God’s word in making a commitment to know Jesus and the one who sent him and to tell the world that Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father [God] except through me [Jesus].” John 14:6

Will you pray with us for our staff who are involved in recruiting professionals to join our ministry? Will you pray for the candidates who are pursuing the necessary qualifications to join our team? Please pray with us that God will continue to direct our organization and those who are interested in joining the ministry to provide pilots, mechanics, IT personnel, and any other professional whom God might choose as his instrument to reach the unreached people of the world through aviation ministry.