SERVANT AIR MINISTRIES, INC.
ANNUAL REPORT 12/31/2001
Servant Air Ministries in the year 2001 had again, a blessed year. Mr. Kris Hull was nominated for General Membership on the Board. He is going to be our first Youth Director and Liaison with the Board of Directors for those that are eighteen years old and under.
The slate of offices was presented by Mr. Neal Spurlock and voted upon, electing Dr. Lehton as President, Mr. Steve Miller as Vice President, Mr. Skip Williams as Treasurer and Mr. Fred Pino as Acting Secretary with Mr. Kyle Dixon. The financial position of Servant Air Ministries is stable, with a positive cash balance at the end of this year, with no outstanding expenses, except for the current mortgage on the Saratoga PA-32.
This year has especially increased in missionary flight pilot training and in missions to the Bahamas. Servant Air Ministry continues to be involved in the Prison Invasion Ministries with Bill Glass, Murf the Surf, and Dove Ministries. Evangelism has consisted of parachute jumping and teaching in at least thirty different prisons in the state of Florida. This year Bob Lehton and Steve Miller did the majority of prison invasion flights in Florida.
Again, Servant Air Ministries was instrumental in helping to bring the Feast of Tabernacles to the King Center in Melbourne, which is in celebration of the Christian Feast of Succoth, with the International Christian Embassy. Servant Air Ministries not only helped raise donations, which were over $10,000, but also provided missionary flights for musicians and dancers to various locations in Florida.
Servant Air Ministries, likewise, supported Pastor Abraham of India in carrying out his missions and speaking engagements in the state of Florida. Servant Air Ministries was privileged to take eight members to the Bahamian Congress in the Bahamas this year and return them safely. The Congress grew out of an outreach that Servant Air Ministries did over eight years ago to Walkers Cay and Grand Cay. Fred Pino was lead pilot to go to the Abaco Islands bringing 180 Creole Bibles, and providing support to the churches in that area. On one of his flights he even brought some live rabbits to the pastor to continue raising rabbits for food.
Mare Ivanchek flew to Central America for approximately two months to continue the work of his International Seminary and Children’s’ Orphanages in Nicaragua. This past Summer Servant Air Ministries sent over three hundred Spanish Gospels of John to the mission field with Mr. Roy Coy in Nicaragua. Skip and Karen Williams with Bob & Bunny Lehton took five hundred Bibles to Long Cay in the Bahamas, which is one of our longest flights to the South as yet. Likewise, Skip & Bob took five hundred Bibles to
Walkers’ Cay and Skip & Karen distributed the Bibles throughout the Abaco chain with their boat, as part of their summer vacation. Steve Miller took 3 members of WEGO to The grand opening of the orphanage in Nicaragua which was a flight to Cuba, Grand Cayman Islands, and onto Central America.
We would like to thank New Life Fellowship and Cocoa Beach Ministerial Association again, financially sponsoring us for this past year. The end of December was an exciting month, in the sense of receiving $1,000.00 for scholarship, to be provided to one of our youth, who is studying to be a missionary pilot. Likewise, one of our members gave a donation of $3,000.00 to help support our flight training ministry, by helping to support the Cessna 150. The Christmas party this year was not as well attended as last year, perhaps due to the tension America is now feeling because of the World Trade Center and all the activities that occur during this particular time of the year. However, we are looking for a time of celebration in the coming year to celebrate Christ’s birthday.
It was our pleasure to host the annual Pilots for Christ convention in Cocoa Beach, for three days, from October 26th through October 28th. Even though our initial date was September 15th and had to be postponed because of the National tragedy, everyone pulled together and had a great convention. We had over seventy people attend the convention and heard from eight great speakers that taught from missions in Africa to jumping out of airplanes for Jesus. The convention was well attended and again, I thank you personally, all those within Servant Air Ministry that helped put on this fine affair.
Looking at actual flight data this past year the Saratoga PA-32 flew approximately 139.7 hours of missionary endeavors. The Cessna 172 flew less than last year with only 83.6 hours of actual missionary flight time. The Cessna 150 continues to be our “workhorse” for missionary flight training and it received its official WR certification this December and flew 126.3 hours of flight training during the year 2001. Servant Air Ministry flew 349.6 hours total for the year 2001. Again, we praise the Lord for fine running aircraft and no incidents. Likewise we would like to finally acknowledge our Board of Directors for their fine work in supervising the ministry and likewise, our head mechanic, Dave Thomason and Roy Coy for their work in doing annual inspections and keeping the aircraft in top notch shape.
To conclude, it has been my privilege to serve as President of our organization for the past eight years and thank you once again for your strong volunteer and support efforts in this ministry. Likewise, we would like to acknowledge Paul Mitton who has done a fine job in putting together our web site and he will be deeply missed as he goes to California to start a new career. Paul will continue to be on the Board of Directors, and continue to upgrade our web site, and we sincerely thank him for his talents.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
ROBERT E. LEHTON, CFII, MEI
SERVANT AIR MINISTRY, INC.
MINUTES
BOARD OF DIRECTOR’S MEETING
JUNE 25, 2001
PRESENT: Dr. Bob Lehton, Mr. Steve Miller, Mr. Nick Smith, Mr. Skip Williams, Mr. Fred Pino, Mr. Paul Mitton, Mr. Neal Spurlock
MEMBERS ABSENT: Mr. Roy Coy, Mr. Kyle Dixon
CALLED TO ORDER: Dr. Lehton called the meeting to order at 7:10pm at the Cocoa Beach office of Servant Air Ministry.
READING OF THE MINUTES: Minutes were approved with a motion of consensus by the Board of Directors. It was noted that consensus votes would be taken based on the change of Roberts Rules of Order for all future meetings. The only exception will be in the election of officers.
TREASURER’S REPORT: The Treasurer’s Report was read by Mr. Nick Smith and accepted by the Board by consensus.
NOMINATING COMMITTEE:
The Nominating Committee recommended Mr. Kris Hull for general membership. Mr. Hull will act as the Youth Liason to the Board, being on the Board of Directors, but being under the age of 18 years old without voting privileges. Mr. Spurlock presented the slate of officers for this coming year. Dr. Robert Lehton was presented again as President, with a first by Mr. Smith, second by Mr. Miller with the Board concurring. Mr. Steve Miller was nominated for Vice President; a first by Mr. Skip Williams and seconded by Mr. Nick Smith, and he was confirmed likewise. Mr. Kyle Dixon was recommended for Secretary, but in his absence, the Board recommended Mr. Fred Pino for Secretary as a caveat unless Mr. Dixon will not accept the nomination. Mr. Skip Williams was recommended for Treasurer of the Board with a motion by Mr. Nick Smith and a second by Mr. Fred Pino and all agreed in favor. The Executive Committee did not meet this year because there was no outstanding business that needed to be recognized without full Board approval.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT:
This year especially has shown an increase in missionary pilot flight training and missions to the Bahamas. Likewise, Servant Air Ministry has been involved in an increased participation in the Prison Invasion Ministries with Bill Glass Ministries and Murph the Surf Ministry. Evangelism, as in the previous years, has consisted of parachute jumping and teaching in at least 40 different prisons in the State of Florida. Last year, Steve Miller, Jonathan Miller and Bob Lehton have flown over 7 missions invading more than 24 prisons in the State of Florida. Likewise, we have had fundraisers to raise money for Bibles to go to the Bahamas and we have sent over 181 Creole Bibles to the Bahamas and 1,250 King James Bibles. Sergeui Popov, world-renowned violinist, put on a benefit concert to raise money for Bibles and what we needed was $1250. The night of the concert we received $1251!
Servant Air Ministries was instrumental in helping bring the Feast of Tabernacles to the King Center in Melbourne, which is a celebration of the Christian Feast of Succot, through the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem. Likewise, Servant Air did over 10 flights flying musicians and dancers to various locations in Florida to be part of that blessing to the Jewish people.
Servant Air flew numerous missions for pastors, especially Pastor Abraham Eliphaz from India, taking him throughout Florida for speaking engagements to help raise money for building a new cathedral in his province within India.
The Christmas celebration at the Lehton’s this year was exceptional! Approximately 50 people attended with their spouses and it was an evening of celebration and joy. Servant Air made a special presentation of the President’s Award for the most outstanding Board Member, Steve Miller. Likewise, Mr. Dave Thomason was recognized as making the most outstanding contribution to helping maintain the support aircraft with our ministry. Both of these individuals have shown high quality of enthusiasm and work to continue the mission of Servant Air. Mr. Paul Mitton has created an additional web site for Servant Air Ministries, which is servantairministries.org which you can find on the web. This web site links up with Marc Ivanchak’s web site of International World Evangelistic Gospel Outreach and Servant Air is now on Pilots For Christ’s web site, as the Florida Chapter.
This year has been exciting and new in the sense that in October, Servant Air Ministries voted ,with approval of Pilots For Christ International, to be the official Florida Chapter of Pilots For Christ to the nations. This is an honor for the Florida Chapter to become part of this organization which will expand our ability to provide air transportation throughout the United States through a type of “pony express” with other chapters throughout the United States for Angel and Mercy flights.
In January, Skip and Karen Williams, who helped carry over 1000 Bibles to the Bahamas this past June, will begin bringing an additional 250 Bibles to a new mission outreach on Long Island in the southernmost part of the Bahamas. Servant Air salutes Skip and Karen for their steadfastness in providing God’s Word to the various location sites in the Bahamas through air and boat transportation.
Please mark on your calendars the second Saturday in January when Mr. Jim McConnell will be coming in from Maryland to present the Charter for Servant Air Ministries becoming the Florida Chapter of Pilots For Christ. Mr. McConnell is a dedicated, hard-working individual that will answer questions concerning the liaison and relationship between Pilots For Christ and Servant Air Ministries. Likewise, we have been honored to put on the Annual Convention this year in September 2001 for Pilots for Christ International, and all members will be flying into Merritt Island Airport to participate in this Congress.
This past year our Cessna 150 flew over 163.6 hours in missionary flight training. The Cessna 172 flew 288.59 hours, and the PA-32 Piper Saratoga accumulated 77.3 hours.
Mr. Fred Pino
Acting Secretary