Aces of Trades: Unfulfilled in his federal job, Matthew Woods turned to God

COSHOCTON – His real goal is to serve the Lord.

“Growing up, I wanted to be either a cop or a pilot,” recalled Matthew Woods. “When I was 6 years old my dad, a cop, arranged a ride on a police helicopter for me and it was phenomenal.

“I didn’t even know,” he added, “a place like MMS Aviation existed until I was in my mid-30s.”

Today, Woods is an aviation maintenance apprentice at MMS Aviation.

“I’ve been here for about 18 months,” he said. “I’m currently training to get licensed as an airframe and powerplant mechanic, then go out into the mission field with my family.”

Woods, 44, was born and raised in Columbus and graduated from Tree of Life Christian High School in 1999.

“In my younger life,” he said, “I became a federal officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and was in that role for 10 years before beginning my journey to Coshocton and MMS.

“I gave over a decade of my life to public service,” he further explained. “And while it was generally a good experience (there were bad days), I put too much of my identity into that life and lifestyle. I was at the pinnacle of my career. I was a decorated officer with an exemplary record. I’ve worked with every federal agency you can think of, and almost every branch of the military working cool, important, and secret jobs. I’ve developed training courses that were adopted at a national level. I’ve done things I’m still not allowed to talk about, and, throughout it all, I felt empty. I asked God what could possibly be more rewarding and everlasting than this, and He said, ‘Um… Me.’ So, I decided to go all in for Jesus and I have no regrets.

“It doesn’t do me any good to dwell on the past,” he noted. “I am forever thankful to the Lord for where He has me now and will take me in the future.”

Chris Jutte is maintenance supervisor at MMS Aviation.

“Matt is always willing to give a helping hand whenever possible and always gives a kind answer,” assessed Jutte. “He’s willing to learn new concepts in aviation maintenance and put them into practice.”

“Although the desire to work in aviation is strong,” Woods responded, “the even greater pull is to be fully living to honor and glorify the Lord. If God called me to scrub toilets to bring glory and honor to Him and to help spread the good news of Jesus Christ, then I’d be scrubbing toilets. However, He has me here and I’m good with that.”

MMS Aviation is located at 24387 Airport Road. For more information, call 740-622-6848 or log on www.mmsaviation.org.

Aces of Trades is a weekly series focusing on people and their jobs – whether they’re unusual jobs, fun jobs or people who take ordinary jobs and make them extraordinary. If you have a suggestion for a future profile, let us know at ctnews@coshoctontribune.com.

This article originally appeared on Coshocton Tribune: God led Matthew Woods to MMS Aviation