God’s Multiplying Force
The owner of the Bearhawk airplane that I’ve been working on is a popcorn farmer in Indiana. Several months out of the year he spends in Haiti flying planes in support of a rural orphanage. Recently while he was serving in Haiti he began losing vision in the lower portion of his right eye. Fearing the worst, he was able to drive four hours to a clinic in Port-Au-Prince where he was operated on by a Haitian eye doctor. Now, getting your eye operated on in a Haitian clinic is a little scary but as it turns out, the doctor was actually trained in Jerusalem and is considered a world renowned ophthalmologist. What are the chances?! As if that wasn’t crazy enough, during that very week four visiting doctors from the States were in the same clinic and were able to examine, recommend, and follow up on the procedure. Little did anybody expect to find world class eye care at a little Haitian clinic but God finds a way.
The other day here in the lunchroom, John, who is a native Ohioan with an Amish background, was conversing in Swahili with Vincent, a native Kenyan who is at MMS taking his A&P exams. John, the Ohioan, used to be a missionary in Kenya. It turns out that since John grew up speaking Pennsylvania Dutch, he was able to learn to speak fluent Swahili without an accent. Apparently both languages roll R’s in the same way. Both John and Vincent were delighted to find somebody else in the middle of Ohio who could speak Swahili. What are the chances?!
What I’m getting at is this: When you allow God to use you in whatever way He wishes, suddenly you’re a gear in a much larger machine and you find that the torque you apply to your little wheel is multiplied through the other gears in God’s machine and you can get big things done. God has a way of gathering all kinds of random bolts, gears, fittings, flywheels, clutches, windshields, and yes, a few nuts together and makes something amazing out of it all. We see a pile of scrap metal; God sees a potential bulldozer. God is one creative mechanic. We’re so thankful that we’re a part of this. We’re thankful to have your gears next to ours, moving mountains for the kingdom of God.
The Back Page
On March 1 we’re visiting JAARS (Jungle Aviation and Radio Services) in Waxhaw, North Carolina for a two day visit with the intentions of possibly joining their organization after we’re done with our apprenticeship here at MMS Aviation. Please pray that God would make His direction clear!
In April I’m traveling to Zambia with Mike, who is on staff here at MMS Aviation, to help an organization called Flying Mission. We’re planning on upgrading the avionics on three Cessna 206’s and a Cessna 210. Avionics are the instruments pilots use to fly and newer avionics are more reliable, accurate, and require less “plumbing” than older instruments. This results in safer flights, easier flight planning, and less pilot fatigue. I’m really excited to be working with Mike who has been fixing planes for fifty years. What a great learning opportunity! Pray for safety as we travel and that all the preparation could go smoothly.
As far as family goes, Elliot fell down the steps the other day. We keep telling him to stay off the steps but one day the inevitable happened. Both kids were upstairs. Mom turned her back for two seconds. Naturally Adi decided to run down the steps at that precise moment and Elliot decided if Adi could do it, he could too. I hope this experience has taught him that when descending stairs it’s more important to use your legs than your head. Praise God that he wasn’t hurt, except for a little black and blue spot under his eye. Elliot is definitely a different child than Adi. He’s loud, aggressive, and getting into everything. It suddenly occurred to me the other day that we’ll probably be living in a jungle when he’s four or five years old. He’ll be eating every bug and spider out there. How will we even keep him alive? Lots of prayer, I guess.
We just got home from visiting Michigan. You know, It’s neat how God works things out, even in less-than-ideal situations. We were planning to take my in-laws zero-turn lawnmower back because since we moved into town our yard isn’t big enough for it anymore (it would take only three passes and we’d be done). We just picked a random weekend in February to make the trip and I requested a day of vacation so Grandma Detweiler could spend more time with the grandkids. As the weekend approached, Janice’s uncle Ray succumbed to a long illness and passed away. The funeral was planned for the exact weekend we were going to visit. We were able to be there for the funeral and enjoy time with all the relatives from far away places like Paraguay and Virginia. We know we’ll see Uncle Ray again when this life is over!
That’s about all the space I have to write. Thank you all for making this possible. I love what I do.
Blessings,
Josh