The heart of man plans his way,
but the Lord establishes his steps – Proverbs 16:9
When my phone rings, I never know what to expect. One aspect of being a missionary pilot that I never considered before becoming one, is that we are on call 24/7. For most of our missionaries we are truly their lifeline to the outside world, and that includes emergency services. While I have become used to these phone calls, texts, and radio messages for help after three years, I had no idea the chain of events that the phone call I received on May 13 would trigger. Once again I flew out the very sick daughter of one of our missionaries, but this time she did not bounce back the way she had in the past. After weeks of harsh antibiotics and batteries of tests, the doctors determined that the frequent infections cause by a birth defect were beginning to damage her kidneys, and that she needed surgery as soon as possible. This family immediately began making plans to return to the U.S. for three months to address their daughter’s health needs, while we found ourselves dealing with a totally unexpected scenario: because a number of other families were already out of their locations dealing with family or medical challenges, there were not enough church planters left to provide the minimum number of flights that are required for safe operations!
Candy and I were discouraged at best, and really struggled, asking God why he had brought us back to Palawan, and “pulled our ministry out from under our feet” after only 3 months. Granted we were only looking at three months with no flights, until missionaries began returning to their locations, but it was still difficult to face. Then less than two days after this difficult decision was made, I received yet another phone call. Honestly I felt a little ashamed of my attitude toward the Lord as I hung up the phone. Our helicopter pilot on Luzon had just told me that he had discovered excessive internal engine wear that would require pulling the engine out of the helicopter and completely disassembling it in order to replace the worn parts. What I realized is that in his wisdom, the Lord had just freed us up to assist with the helicopter repairs, as well as address a mountain of projects for all of our flight programs that have been neglected just because we’ve been too short-handed to assign any personnel to them.
As I write this, I am on my 6th airline flight in 6 weeks, and my family on their 4th, this time going to spend a week with our chief pilot in yet another region of the Philippines working on some of these projects together. We are tired and a little overwhelmed, but thankful that once again the Lord has proven his faithfulness, and that His ways are far better than my feeble plans.
Please pray with us, and consider if the Lord would have you play a part in this unexpected three-month ministry. We are thrilled at the opportunity the Lord has given us to serve, not just on Palawan, but across the Philippines, but it comes at quite a cost financially. By the time we finish this period of “traveling ministry”, our travel expenses will total close to $3000, and we also are facing a $2000 two-year visa renewal cost next month. The Lord has always proven faithful to provide, and we have no doubt that he will meet these needs as well. If you believe the Lord would have you partner with us in these specific needs, this link will take you to more information.
Thank you for being a part of seeing lives changed. Our Savior is truly at work saving and transforming people for his glory!
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