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astocks2622
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Name: Aaron
Country: United States
State: Washington
Birthday: 1/7/1986
Gender: Male
Interests: some of the stuff said in my about me, also enjoy random shootings of the roommate by airsoft. biking, play guitar and piano, like to kayak, aviation rocks.
Expertise: high explosives, precision long-distance arboreal rodent shooting (sniping squirrels), dogfighting (aerial, not doberman's)
Occupation: Student
Message: message me
AIM:  stoaar04
Member Since:
1/30/2006
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| Of Money, Heavy Farm Equipment, and Cows.Hello everyone. I have some great news. As of last week, all but $400 of my MBI tuition for next semester is paid through donations! I still have to pay for the mechanics classes that I'll be taking next semester through Spokane Community College (SCC), but hopefully I'll be able to get federal grants for most of that. There seems to be some confusion as to why I'm taking classes outside of MBI. The aviation program here includes one year of Bible and General education that i just finished up, which is done through MBI. There are two years of Airframe and Powerplant Mechanics, which MBI has arranged to be taken through SCC, as well as one Bible class per semester, which is taken through MBI. finally there are two years of flight training which is done entirely through MBI. so for the next two years, I will be attending both MBI and SCC. Thats the overview of the program. I also realized that I haven't told you much about the church i am attending, Shiloh Hills Fellowship. It is a large (700-ish) church that doesn't have a large church feel. It is very friendly and the people there are quick to make you feel welcome. More importantly, it has a pastor who is Biblically grounded, who says it like it is, and is truly concerned about the people in the church. I have been volunteering every Wednesday night to help lead worship for the church's youth group. That has been a ton of fun. I started work two weeks ago as a farm hand at a farm north of Spokane. The farmer is Loren Lentz, and he mainly produces hay, but also raises a few cattle on the side. The hours are a little crazy, but I don't have much else I have to do this summer, so I figure i can use the money. I worked 65 hrs last week, and 55 hrs this week. it sounds like there will be a few weeks right at the peak of cutting time that 100hrs/wk won't be unlikely. I get one day off a week that I can choose, so obviously, I'll be taking Sundays off. So far I've helped repair machinery, feed cows, fix irrigation systems, dig ditches, and just about anything else Loren needs done. One piece of advice, don't head-butt heavy farm equipment, it hurts. Loren was using a gigantic roto-tiller to till up one of the fields, but every time you hit a large enough rock, the bolts that hold on the teeth would simply shear right off. The bolts are also quite large, and to tighten them, I had to put all of my weight into turning the wrench. as i was doing this, the wrench rounded off the bolt and slipped off, sending me flying face first into the trailer hitch. I got an instant black eye, and the next morning my eye was swollen shut. that of course was the day we were picking rocks out of the field that had just been tilled. So i had to try to pick rocks, that are covered in dirt and look just like the other clumps of dirt, without any depth perception. talk about an interesting first week. I also managed to let the entire herd of 50 cows out of the pens last Friday. I had been told to feed the cows by using the tractor to haul a bunch of hay. No one bothered to tell me that you have to have two people to do this... when I opened the gate, all the cows walked right out past the running tractor. I tried to block the gate with the tractor, but the cows stood right under the bucket that had all the hay in it, so i couldn't lower it to block the gate. every last one, except one calf, walked right out. Loren's dad, who helps out occasionally, jumped on a four wheeler and started rounding up the cows. they have a dog, but i guess it's trained to round up the cows, not to drive them any where. every time we'd try to drive the cows toward the pens, the dog would go to the front of the herd and keep them from moving forward. In spite of all this, it only took us about half an hour to get all the cows back into the pens. we all had a good laugh afterwards.
So that's kind of what's been going on here. In Christ, Aaron Stocks | | |
| 'nother updateHello everyone. It has been a while, hasn't it... a lot has happened in the last month and a half. It has been a roIlercoaster ride. I got to go home for Easter, and that was really nice. I had been hoping to see my sister Laura, who has been in TX doing a year-long internship/discipleship thing at Teen Mania's Honor Academy. unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to see her, and we missed each other by a week. Oh well. I also went to Tennessee to see some of my friends from Bryan College who will be graduating this year, and to see Jillian. that visit was really bittersweet. I got to see my old friends and had a lot of fun, but the time with Jillian was rough, and some of the discussions we had ultimately led us to conclude that we were not who God intended for each other and that we needed to end the romantic aspect of our relationship a few weeks later. That happened last Tuesday, and this past week has been one of the most trying and most growing times I can remember going through. Please keep us both in your prayers as we both are trying to push through this tough time and are learning to rely on God for the strength to handle this in a way that is glorifying to God. On a better note, I am paid in full for this semester of Moody! Now I can start saving for next semester. I have to buy tools this fall for the airframe & power plant (A&P) mechanics classes I'll be taking. all of this is a little intimidating, but I am hoping to get a good paying full-time job out here and I hope to get a good amount of government financial aid for the A&P classes, which are through a local community college. I've had God provide for me in remarkable ways countless times before, so why don't i just trust Him? I don't know. I have two weeks left of classes this semester, and that means tons of homework. I have several papers due this upcoming week, and finals shortly after that. once I'm through those, I'll have an entire year of classes at MBI Spokane under my belt. It feels like it hasn't been that long, but at the same time, the things that were going on in my life a year ago seem much further in the past than only a year. it's an odd feeling. the year has both flown by and dragged on. So that's kind of what's going on in my life. In Christ, Aaron Stocks
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a man is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Jim Elliot
Romans 8:38-39 | | |
| SWEET!Hello all, The last few weeks have been amazing. This is just a short update to let you all know what's been going on. As some of you know, Sear's cut my hours drastically a few weeks ago. when it came time to pay my landlord's/roommates (Ryan and Caleb) for rent and utilities, I did not have enough money. I also had another payment to MBI coming up a week after rent was due. I was having trouble figuring out why God would delay in providing what I needed. My parents were able to help out tremendously and paid the majority of the rent. between what they gave me and what I already had, I was able to pay Ryan and Caleb, but that left $3.50 in my account, with a $630 payment to MBI due in a week. Literally as I handed the checks to Ryan and Caleb and stepped out in faith that God would provide the rest, I saw two letters had come in the mail for me. One was from a good friend from the summer camp I worked at, and the other was from a friend from Bryan College where i studied the last two years. Inside one letter was a check for $800 with a note asking me to give $100 to each of my roommates (there are five other guys here) and that I could use the rest for whatever my needs were! The other letter contained a check for $110!. Also, one of my roommate decided he wanted to give me his $100. Also, when I checked my MBI account, there had been a $150 deposit made! this gave me enough to pay MBI on time and left me with $60 in my account, plenty to get me by until I get my next paycheck (which will thankfully be bigger than the last few because Sear's finally returned my hours to a livable level). God is amazing and will most definitely care for your every need, this He has made abundantly clear (and yet I still worry about money?) Just wanted to let you all in on my good news. Thank you all who prayed about this. In Christ, Aaron Stocks
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a man is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Jim Elliot
Romans 8:38-39 | | |
| The last few weeks have been rough. I'm not sure where to start. until this month, by the grace of God I have been able to pay both tuition and rent when it's been due. every time it has come down to the wire, money has either been given to me or I have had enough in the bank from work to be able to pay. this month very little came in from supporters and I had my hours cut to 5 per week at work. I owe a good chunk of cash to Ryan and Caleb (my roommates/landlords) for rent and utilities from the last two months. I simply do not have the money nor do I see a way that I can earn the necessary cash in the next week or so. they understand, but they're college students too who depend on that income. I am not angry at God, but I am really confused and to be honest, doubt has crept in. I am fighting it and praying about it, but it's still there. On top of all this, I had a great time with the HS youth group from Shiloh Hills Fellowship last weekend. I should have been on the lookout for Satan's attacks, but apparently wasn't. I feel stressed out, confused, exhausted, and because of a lot of this, i either slept through the times i planned for quiet times or simply never made time for them later in the day. as a resut, I've not been in the Word consistently, which just makes me more stressed and discouraged, which makes me want even less to do the only thing that will help me fight these emotions. There are some other tough decisions I have to make and issues I have to deal with that are ading to the stress and anxiety. I guess my biggest request would be for prayer that God would grow me through this time, that He would give me real, unshakable faith in whatever it is that He's doing, and that I would gain joy in these tough times, as I am feeling anything but joyful right now. If you want to comment feel free, if you have more personal help/encouragement/advice ask me for me email or cell #. In Christ, no matter what, Aaron | | |
| the best airplane everSo this fledgling aircraft company managed to design a turbine powered prop bush plane that pretty much changes everything. It's called the Kodiak, by Quest. the plane that has been used the most recently for missions and backcountry flying is the cessna 206. the kodiak can carry the cessna 206 and its max payload, and usees less runway than the 206 to do it. it's pretty much amazing. nothing like 750 hp to pull you around. | Max. Ramp Weight | 6,800 lbs | | Max. Takeoff Weight | 6,750 lbs | | Empty Weight | 3,450 lbs | | Useful Load | 3,350 lbs | | Fuel Capacity | 320 gal | | Max. Wing Loading | 28 lb/ft | | Max. Power Loading | 9 lb/hp |
| Stall Speed Vs1 (Flaps up) | 78 kcas | | Stall Speed Vs0 (Flaps down) | 60 kcas | | Rate of Climb (max. cont. at SL) | 1,700 ft/min | | Rate of Climb (10,000 ft) | 1,150 ft/min | | Takeoff Ground Roll | 700 ft | | Braked Roll (w/o reverse) | 750 ft | | Certified Ceiling | 25,000 ft | | Cruise Performance | 190 ktas |
| Range & Endurance w/ 1.0 hr Reserve | | | At 185 kts, at 12,500 ft fuel consumption is 47 gph | | | yielding 1,075 nm over 5.8 hr |
check out the vid on the video blog enjoy *edit* this is the piper cub that laniehoey was talking about in the comments section 
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