PhD programs are still run to train (and exploit) scholars more than general leaders, I suppose the equivalent might be terminal...
PhD programs are still run to train (and exploit) scholars more than general leaders, I suppose the equivalent might be terminal masters’ degrees like MBAs and nonprofit management programs. (The NGO-industrial complex is actually a pretty clear successor to Prot mission work domestically and abroad, and all of these basically serve(d) in America [in alliance with the U.S. Navy/Marines] as sort of a makeshift Colonial Service)
Riffing off that…
On the way back from Missoula on that motorcycle trip that I’ll get around to maybe next week, today’s coffee is wearing off and I’d like to do some yard work while the sun’s still up, my bike broke down in Sandpoint, Idaho.
Long story short I would’ve been fucked unless I could find people with both experience as vintage Honda mechanics and machine tool-assisted metal fabrication, and by complete coincidence I immediately ran into people with those exact skill sets in a random parking lot.
The one guy, Andrew, was a serious Christian preparing to go off with his family on mission (again). He took the coincidence as divine will and he’s probably got something there - not a Christian myself, but the whole region’s been very clearly and strongly sanctified to Christ. In any case, very Good Samaritan of him, made for great witness. He had access to machine tools because he worked for an aircraft manufacturer that specializes in building planes for mission work in the islands of SE Asia and Oceania.
Said that in addition to what you’d expect from a mission plane - heavy cargo capacity, long range, ability to land at and take off from short, unimproved facilities - what sets their plane apart was though a light single-engine it’s a turboprop running on jet fuel, because mission fields tend towards areas without a general aviation infrastructure and thus access to avgas, but you’re never too far away from US or client military infrastructure to source jet fuel.
(He also said he’d heard of interest from South America, and intimated that he wouldn’t be surprised if it appealed to smugglers.)