Under Construction

No, I'm not closing or moving my blog. But it, like many facets of life, is constantly changing, growing, and maturing. We tend to view these changes in stages, but often the motion never stops.

The first 8 weeks of this semester I was afforded the opportunity to grow in many ways. Particularly in learning the founding principles of aviation maintenance including aircraft drawings, tools, hardware, metal characteristics, fluid lines, corrosion control, metal inspection, airport ground operations, aircraft weight and balance, and FAA regulations for mechanics. While I at least have an aviation background, some of my classmates have never even flown before. Needless to say, there was a lot of learning going on. The forebode half-semester-long project called the turnbuckle tool made many wonder if we would pass.

After making an aluminum template (I remember when I thought that was hard!) we hack sawed aluminum bar stock to have enough material to make two of what's pictured above (the second is on the other end of the cable). We then proceeded to saw and file and cut and file and drill and file. We swaged the fork fitting to aircraft control cable and then proceeded to file some more. It was a long process and there were a TON of aluminum shavings (I don't think my pinky will ever look the same). Drill holes, thread them, and then the sanding. By the time I was done with it you couldn't see any of the scratches in the picture above. I was second to last of my classmates to finish and my instructor says, "are you ready to gold plate it yet?" I graciously declined. But at least now if I ever find myself needing repairs on a jungle airstrip I can fabricate a turnbuckle tool from bamboo and swage it with coconuts! All I need is a drill, oh yeah, and a file. Just like this aircraft part, my classes progressed slowly yet steadily. First from learning how to write my ABC's and draw (not kidding) but eventually ending in fabricating a finely polished part. This is to say I earned all A's in my first 8 weeks (11 credits) of classes in the Aircraft Maintenance Technology program. Now on to 12 more credits of Electricity, Aviation Math, Physics, and Aircraft Structures.

Suddenly, I'm thrown back to square one. A new set of classes and electricity isn't something in which I have a strong background. But really, changing classes doesn't mean I've stopped growing. Sure it's a new stage, new material, but progress is still made in these moments where I feel like I've hit a brick wall. Many of us feel bound to the similar "Rollercoaster Christianity." Mission trips, summer camps, and retreats make us feel like Moses's, David's, and Paul's. Then a few weeks later we're Judas's, Herod's, and Saul's. There were times when filing down that aluminum block felt like watching a pot try to boil. The times I didn't see any progress  were the times I felt the most sore. Yet it's in these times of greatest spiritual difficulty we most need to press on.

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

~Romans 5:3-4

God granted Nehemiah the cry of his heart to rebuild Jerusalem, but he began with no more than rubble. But what an exciting time that is! Any new convert, though, can tell you it doesn't take long for life's pressures to cast shadows over a celebration. In fact, Nehemiah endured extreme ridicule, "What they are building--if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!" (Nehemiah 4:3). They finished half the wall when plots spread of Jerusalem's enemies attacking to stop the construction. Half the men were put to guard duty and the rest worked with one hand while holding a weapon in the other! Talking about inefficiency. But the point is, they kept working.

Nehemiah's Prayer: "Now strengthen my hands."

After 52 days of ridicule, threat, and intimidation, they finally finished the wall (my turnbuckle tool didn't take that long). Sometimes our spiritual walk seems to find a low point, a stand-still, a virtual doldrum. Don't deny God's invisible hand in these moments gently helping you along. There were several days I thought I would never finish my turnbuckle tool, but it ended up a polished gem. Remember, our spiritual journey is a race, not a rollercoaster. The key is to Keep Moving Forward.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

~Hebrews 12:1

Under Construction implies the process is continuing. We learn, we grow, some times faster than others, but mercy abounds.

If your Faith is UNDER CONSTRUCTION, let it be just that.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

~James 1:2-4

JAARS Pilot Reaches the Moi Tribe

JAARS pilot Nate Gordon shares a time when he was able to share "The Redeemer" with the Moi tribe. I previously introduced the Moi tribe in my blog in a short film documentary capturing the moment they heard and understood the salvation message. Credit for this article goes to JAARS and Nate Gordon but I thought it worth sharing a pilot's testimony of the minstry to the Moi people in Indonesia.

Credit to JAARS: http://www.jaars.org/stories/two-murderers

Two Murderers

Final approach to Daboto is always an edge-of-your-seat affair. The short shelf of dirt rushes up at me at 75 miles an hour. Clouds on my left block the escape route. I’m committed to land.

Lord, help me not to bend this thing ... especially in front of all these people.

Seems like well over 100 Moi people have converged on the Daboto airstrip this morning. I don’t think I’ve ever seen more than 20 here before.

Stepping out of the airplane, I see Rich and Karen walking up the airstrip. Funny, their feet don’t seem to be touching the ground. They are beaming. “What’s with all the people?” I ask.

“God is doing an amazing thing among the Moi!” says Rich with a face-splitting grin.

After years of language learning and preparation, the missionaries among the Moi were finally able to begin their chronological teaching through the Scriptures. They started with the creation story and were moving through the narratives to end up at the resurrection of Christ. People had come from all the far-flung hamlets of the Moi territory, some hiking five days to get there.

The initial plan was to have teaching sessions five days a week. Soon after beginning, though, the Moi insisted that the storying be done six days a week ... and they refused to return to their hamlets to tend their gardens and get food.

The people were literally going hungry so that they could hear the Good News.

On the day I arrived, they were finishing up the teaching of the Law ... and the Moi were profoundly convicted of their sins and convinced that they stood under God’s judgment. They were urgently pushing the process forward so that they could get to the part about the promised Redeemer they kept hearing mentioned in the stories.

“Nate, we’ve got all the people here, and I don’t think any of them understand why you came to them with the others in that first helicopter 10 years ago, and I don’t think they have a clue why you keep coming back here. Would you share your story with them so that they might understand what drives you?” Rich puts me on the spot.

Backtrack to the year 2000. I’m standing in a small clearing in the rainforest, high on a ridge in Moi territory, without another human being in sight. An hour earlier we’d gingerly dropped out of a helicopter onto a knife-edge ridge that a lightning strike and fire had cleared of trees. I’m waiting for my GPS to pick up a satellite fix. The rest of the team has hiked ahead, slowly clearing a path on a compass heading that we hope will someday turn into an airstrip to reach the Moi.

The hairs on the back of my neck rise as I sense that I am not alone.

I turn to find that a Moi man has crept up behind me without me ever hearing the slightest snap of a twig. I am the first outsider, the first white man Piato has ever seen. Now as I stand at the top of the Daboto airstrip, in a crowd of Moi, I turn and find, once again, that Piato is standing right behind me. I put my arm around this warrior, and my heart begins to speak while Rich translates into Moi.

“Some of you have murdered.” An image of Piato finishing off one of his wives with an axe flashes across my mind. “I have not killed. But I have hated others in my heart, and the Redeemer has said that I am guilty of murder—I lacked only the axe.”

One murderer embracing another, I continued.

“My heart was black, and I stood under the judgment of the Creator. But I have met the Redeemer, and He has paid my penalty for murder and washed my heart clean. This is why I have come. This is why I keep coming back. So that you also may meet this Redeemer and have Him carry off your sins ... that you may walk with Him in the light.”

I released Piato and picked up a tiny little boy at my feet, buck naked. Made in the image of the living God.

“I have come also because I have a dream that this little boy will be part of the first generation of Moi to grow up in the light, free from the constant fear and oppression of the evil spirits. The Redeemer will give you victory over the evil spirits. Please, listen to the stories and follow the Redeemer when you meet Him.”

Praise the Lord. The word we continue to hear out of Daboto is that the vast majority of the Moi are embracing Jesus and breaking free from bondage to evil spirits. The Light has come!

Watch testimonies of Moi people who committed their lives to Christ as a result of these teaching sessions. (Filmed by missionaries from New Tribes Mission, which helps plant churches among unreached people groups.)

Read more about Nate's first contact with the Moi in "Getting There" ( Rev. 7, Spring 2006, pages 4–6).

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—Nate Gordon and his wife, Sheri, have served with our aviation partner YAJASI in Papua, Indonesia, since 1997. Read more on his blog, Off the Path.

Credit to JAARS: http://www.jaars.org/stories/two-murderers

Crossing the Rift

I would like to sit

And ruminate...

on the vast endlessness__________________________________ of the deep blue skies

It seems you could easily (hold) that which (surrounds) EVERYthing you've ever seen

The intangible creates a looooonging to somehow grasp the skies that sep-

arate us from space

But if I could cross the ||rift||

that keeps us on the ground, then we could freely SOAR the pristine air

T-h-e     u-b-i-q-u-i-t-o-u-s     s-k-i-e-s     s-t-r-e-c-h     a-c-r-o-s-s     t-h-e     e-a-r-t-h.

However, the GRAVITY of earth is intransigent and will not baRgAiN with me

Nothing I proffer interests him

But when I finally diss~~emble the %barrier%, we could              float              amongst the clouds

No cynicism[sp] could pull me _down_

The *c*r*y*p*t*i*c* flight of the bird has ??baffled?? men for centruies, but not until now, has it been

FOUND

I wrote this poem when I was 15, three years after I was called to be a pilot and a year and a half before I passed the Private Pilot Written Exam.

A New School

I'm five weeks into my first semester at Middle Georgia College! I'm focusing on a few academic courses this semester and plan on starting full blown A&P (aircraft maintenance) training next semester. The photograph is MGC's Piper Seminole overlooking campus. The dorm is just a few yards upwind. My bedroom window is literally less than 100 yards from the taxiway! The school uses all piper aircraft so that's a departure from my Skyhawk experiences. If I get a chance to learn one it can only help my career. Finances providing I may look to get my tail-wheel endorsement for experience and to keep my flight proficiency these next two years. I'm missing Liberty, marching band, and all my friends in Virginia, but I know this is just another God-ordained opportunity to connect with more people and learn new things in a different environment. If nothing else this is a chance for me to shine my light in a school that isn't quite as 'salty' as Liberty.

Meeting a Legend

At Oshkosh this year I had the great pleasure of meeting Steve Saint. His father, Nate Saint, was a pilot with MAF in the 50s in Ecuador and was martyred by the Waodoni tribe in cold blood. As a boy Steve returned  to the tribe with his aunt and much of the tribe have since converted to Christianity. Steve is now close friends with  some of those responsible for the killings of his father and coworkers. Steve Saint has led the tribe to creating the only current certified flying car; the Maverick. The idea that fueled its progress is a notion that an indigenous tribe could operate this vehicle off-road, beyond roads, and above areas where roads don't even exist. Why hike through the Amazon all day when you can take a 5 minute flight? It was a joy to meet this aviation AND missions legend. If missions aviation is an interest to you, reading a book about Nate Saint or watching one of his movies would be worthwhile.