beautiful things

It has been a heavy week around here, and really around the globe. Our world has been rocked and our hearts are hurting. As one of the executives here at the office said, “I’m ready to take that step of faith into the Jordan and follow Jesus; but I can’t find the Jordan!”

Early last week one of our pilots in Papua New Guinea was in a motorcycle accident which resulted in him losing his leg. Jon and Adie Leedahl were already a step of faith by the NTMA leadership, as they were sent to PNG to train with a different mission organization on an airplane that we didn’t have yet. Shortly after that, we received our first Kodiak, and then our second. God made it very clear that the aviation program in PNG should be continued and strengthened; all we needed to do was follow Him and let Him work.

Now things look bad. A man lost his leg. Jon has a long time of recovery and relearning everything ahead of him. Adie has a hard job of adjustment ahead of her. At least for the foreseeable future, there’s no one to fly for NTMA in Papua New Guinea. We have two brand new Kodiak’s sitting in our hangar here, being outfitted for exportation to PNG, with no pilot. There are two brand new pilots who arrived on-field this summer, with no one to train them in-country. Between people retiring from the mission or simply not in a position to take over, the personnel needs in PNG were already huge, and now they are even more dire. This is one of those impossible situations that only God can fix.

We could look at this as a list of things to discourage and sadden us, or we could look at it as an opportunity to watch God do amazing things. Yeah, there are a lot of unknowns right now. Yeah, it makes it hard to know what to think or do or even pray (seriously, what do you pray in this situation except for a miracle?!). But my God is bigger than even this. He is always good, always perfect, and His plan is always completed beautifully. I don’t see it now, and it really doesn’t feel good or perfect; but I trust Him.

This song came on the radio right after we heard about Jon’s accident, and all of the questions about what would happen now began spinning around our head. Josh and I both found it to be such an encouraging reminder of God’s love and power. This accident will change a lot of things for NTMA here and in PNG, it will also change things for us. We don’t know what any of it will be. But God does.

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God makes beautiful things out of the ashes we bring to Him, we just have to step into the Jordan (once we find it!) and follow Him.