The Most Important Flights
One thought has captivated me ever since embarking on this path of being a missionary pilot: flying the translated Word of God into a village for the very first time. For me that was the pinnacle—as good as it could get.
Well, last week I had the chance to do that in the “N” village. Two fellow pilots and I flew four and a half hours up to N to deliver the first boxes of the New Testament in their language, in preparation for the celebration of these Scriptures that will take place in a few weeks.
While there, we also checked out and measured the airstrip. Then we flew some training circuits to get ready for flying in many of the visitors that have been invited to participate in the celebration.
Though it was certainly special to land in that village with their first Bibles, it struck me that this flight, my first to this village, was not the most important. The significant trips have been all of those routine flights over the years: delivering food, building supplies, and medicine, and flying the missionaries to and from the village. Those were the most important flights. The faithful monotony of those everyday flights kept the work of translating God’s Word on track.
Of course, that’s just this pilot’s point of view. I know that seeing it through eyes of the translators or the villagers would be a very different perspective. But I think the theme would be the same—God has used the small, consistent faithfulness of his people to bring the final result.
