Here in Arizona I have the privilege of joining the leadership committee in their meetings each week. It has been very eye opening for me to see how complex many of the decisions that face NTMA are, and how much we need God’s wisdom in all our decisions. Some weeks I feel encouraged and others frustrated, but in the end we know it is by God’s grace, and in His strength that we get anything done.
One thing we have been working with will directly affect us and our time in the Philippines. There are many complicated decisions that we are making with how we are going to incorporate the new pilots who are soon to arrive on the field. Right now we have one active pilot, and one who is just finishing language school and preparing to start flying early next year. The next pilot team to arrive in the Philippines should be us. Where in the Philippines will we serve? That is the big question.
There are a couple of missionaries who have airstrips that are too short for us to land our Cessna 185s on safely. Currently another mission is meeting all our flight needs in that region with their Helio Courier airplanes which are able to land on such short airstrips. In the beginning of 2010, they are no longer able to do our flights in that region and we will be on our own to serve the missionaries with those short airstrips. So what will we do?
That is the big question. The tribes these missionaries work in are almost to the “Mature Church” level and the missionaries are nearly finished and can leave the tribe with their own elders and missionaries to finish the task. However, it will still be around 5-6 years before they feel they will be finished. There is no other way to get into those tribal stations for the missionaries who are getting older and are not able to travel through the jungles.
I have been encouraged that the leadership here shares my attitude that there is no price too great to pay to see these tribal works finished. That means, we have to come up with a more capable airplane, or some other solution to make sure these tribal works continue uninterrupted. Some of the ideas we are throwing around are so radically impractical that it reminds me of the man from the parable who left the whole flock behind to pursue the one lost sheep. That is the kind of zeal we are approaching this problem with, but we are not coming up with very many great ideas. Will you pray for this decision we are struggling with? It will definitely affect Bailey and I, and we may be asked to be the ones doing ridiculous things to see these tribes reach the point where they can reach other tribes as well.
It is a situation like this that makes us so eager to get overseas so we can start learning the language and begin getting our hands dirty with solving these complex problems. It is all about seeing the last tribe reached with the Gospel, and we are so excited to play such a direct part in the process.