When I was a three year old (or thereabouts) I still remember sitting in an airplane at the SIL mission center in Mindanao and hearing its big engines roar and the Aero Commander start to roll down the grass airstrip. I couldn’t contain my excitement and yelled out, “Weee!” My parents still laugh about that flight to this day. I was hooked from then on and couldn’t think about much else other than being a missionary pilot in the Philippines.
I’m a little older now and my dreams and focus have changed many times as I’ve grown up, but God returned me to that dream on April 26, 2010 at 7:30am. Just 3 minutes after takeoff I flew right over that little grass airstrip that hooked me as a 3-year old. I was en route on my first operational flight as a missionary pilot!
I can’t very well put into words what that felt like, and how the flood of gratitude toward our amazing and loving God has taken me off guard. I am amazed at God’s grace and work of redemption for me, but for some reason I tend to forget that I was saved for something. God redeemed me so that I could live an abundant life in a relationship with Him. In this relationship, God has again and again overwhelmed me with his amazing love. As if it wasn’t enough that He would give everything to save someone like me who wasn’t even interested in a relationship with Him. Wow! He loves us…
I was listening to the David Crowder Band on my way to the airport for this flight and I think he said it best:
“He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree, Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy. When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory, And I realize just how beautiful You are, And how great Your affections are for me. And oh, how He loves us oh…
And we are His portion and He is our prize, Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes, If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking. And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss, And my heart turns violently inside of my chest, I don’t have time to maintain these regrets, When I think about, the way… That He loves us…”
Once airborne I had to think about flying and a lot less about sentimental things, but then as I gave a routine radio position report my lovely wife came back on the radio reading back a confirmation of the information I just gave her. Never has a routine position report been so beautiful. It was so cool to be working as a team to get this missionary couple out of the tribe so they could get some medical care. Thank you to all of you who have stood behind Bailey and I in our pursuit of the ministry we are now serving in. For me, it has been just short of 12 years to get here. Wow…