Why would anyone want to be a missionary pilot? (Part 1)

I was involved in this area of aviation basically for 17 years.  Three in training at Moody Aviation (at that time in Elizabethton, TN, now in Spokane, WA), and 14 with Mission Aviation Fellowship (8 as pilot/mechanic and 6 as a stateside recruiter).  All that to say, this is based on my own experiences as well having talked with hundreds, I don’t know…maybe thousands of people over the years.

This posts title is one question that I heard a lot, maybe not always vocalized quite that literally, but you could hear it in the tone of other questions or statements like:

“How much do they pay you to do this?”
“Must be exciting, but isn’t your wife scared you’ll get killed?”
“What do your kids do for school?”
“Don’t your kids miss their friends here?”
“Aren’t there a lot of snakes?  I hate snakes.”
“Must be hard on your parents, you being so far away and all, them not being able to see their grandkids.”
“Aren’t you afraid you’ll crash in the jungle?”
“How do you communicate with those people down there?”
“Well you can always come back home and fly for the airlines couldn’t you?”
“How long do you think you do this before coming home?”

….they go on and on.  You get the idea.

First, my story.  How I got into this.

People are surprised to learn I was not in the military or an ex-airline pilot first of all.  That’s a popular misconception a lot of people have about this type flying.

I was actually a businessman in Atlanta, Georgia, doing fairly well. We lived in a nice swim& tennis subdivision in suburban Atlanta.

I was in my early thirties and had come to know Jesus Christ as Savior in my late twenties (aka “became a Christian”).  Then for the next several years I began to study what the Bible actually had to say about life and how to live it versus what I thought I knew. Simply put, I began to realize that we are not put here for our own pleasures.

We are put here for many reasons, and while self fulfillment of your God given abilities is not wrong, it’s at best only one of a myriad of reasons.  Others are: help people, learn to love the unlovely, go out of your way for others as a way of life and not for a pat on the back, and so on.  What I discovered that my specific area of abilities were more in the area of service to others.  Some are better at teaching, others and giving of their resources, others are very insightful, others encouragers.  But my gifts fell into the area of serving mainly.

So at the age of 32 or so I began searching for ways to serve people possibly as a way of life.  But let me be clear, it wasn’t a call to be in ministry or let alone be a missionary.  No I was just looking to get involved with a company, or organization where I could put my serving skills to work  as a layman or maybe even full-time in Atlanta.

“What about talents?” you may ask.  That’s different.  Talents (artist, speaker, mechanic, athlete, etc.) are useful in the area you are gifted in (serving, teaching, giving, etc).  Don’t confuse the two.

My talents were in the creative and speaking realm.  My college degree was in Communications with a minor in graphic arts.  That about says it all.

So I began looking into a lot of exciting opportunities.  One was with a Christian film maker in Atlanta, another with the Walk Through the Bible folks, another was just working with a successful Christian owned business. But they and many others all fell through over a period of two years.

Having actually given up on that concept I decided to just be a witness where I worked and that’s be that.

Then one day I was making marketing calls to potential clients and called Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.  You see at the time I worked for a company that brokered jet fuel and avgas (and I wasn’t even a pilot then).  I had seen their flight school (Moody Aviation) listed, that they had a number of aircraft  and wanted to sell them fuel for their fleet.  Logical thought.

One thing led to another. That was in 1989.  In 1990 our family found ourselves in Elizabethton, TN enrolled at Moody Aviation. I was there for the next three years (1990-93) getting my commercial pilots license, instrument rating and the airframe & powerplant mechanics license.  I graduated in 1993 and joined Mission Aviation Fellowship (aka MAF) that same year. One year after that (1994) we were in San Jose, Costa Rica studying Spanish for one year before eventually arriving to our base of operations, Shell, Ecuador in 1995.  I was forty.

I hope I captured the speed at which this all happened.  It was a whirlwind indeed.

Training to be a missionary pilot is more than stick & rudder

Doors opened to Moody Aviation almost effortlessly it appears to many.  However the training was hard and we had our days there when we asked ourselves “What have we gotten ourselves into?” .  God knew we needed training in more ways than one: Learning that God is faithful and to trust Him completely even when it hurts a little, maybe even a lot.  Examples?  My mother died while at Moody after a month in ICU.  My sister became terminally ill during that time. My wife had a miscarriage.

But while these situations were heart wrenching, we also saw God work so many incredible miracles.  Let me give one example.

The first winter there was brutal to a southern boy like me.  We were cold most of the time it seemed with only a small wooden stove for heat.

I had decided we would use a credit card and buy a nicer, bigger wood stove.  They ran about $500.

Then one day a I got a call from a recent Moody Aviation grad who said someone had told him I was looking for a bigger wood stove and that he had an older one that just needed a little work.  So I went to look at it and was surprised at what good shape it was in.  The guy just gave it to me saying someone had given it to him (Paying it forward before paying it forward was cool).  But here’s the really cool part.  Read on…

So I bring the stove home after making a few repairs in the shop at Moody, set it up, and realize, now I need a lot of wood.

The next day while I am at Moody Aviation, my wife gets a knock on the door.  It was a tree trimming foreman working with a crew on our street.  The city was cutting down all of the old Maples and Oaks on our street.  He asked if he could use our phone.

Noticing the stove he asked, “You all need wood for that stove?”

“Yes!” Trish said.

The next thing she knew he had measured the firebox and said, “I’ll have my crew cut all these trees on your street up the right size for your stove”.

That was eight cords of wood neatly stacked in front of my house and that supply lasted us nearly the next two years.

Total cost for the new wood stove and two years of wood: ZERO!

That’s how I’ve seen God work in the lives of others as well.

But when you experience this first hand, it should cause a chill to run down your back on the one hand and smile come on your face on the other.

God is perfect.  His plans are perfect.  Sometimes we just tend to want to do it our own way and frankly…. we just slow things down.

Training to be a missionary pilot is more than stick & rudder.  It is a family affair and everyone has to be on board and God will use the flight and maintenance curriculum yes to prepare you technically, but as importantly, as a backdrop for His greater training in faithfulness and for His greater purpose.

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In Part 2: Discussing the role of the missionary pilot.  If you want to be a missionary pilot just because you like to fly and want to use your skills for God, please think again.