Missionary Pilot Wives: You Are Not Forgotten
This is the third article in our mountain week series. Don’t miss the article about helicopter training or this one about fixed-wing aircraft.
While pilots and mechanics are learning how to serve in remote locations, what about their spouses?
These women or men play just as vital a role in serving overseas. In fact, according to Dominique Raychard, wife of helicopter pilot Greg Raychard, the biggest reason that aviators can’t stay in the field is because their wives lack a connection to community.
As a military wife, Dominique has experienced the stigmas surrounding aviation and how difficult it can be to connect to others. “Isolation is a recipe for disaster overseas,” she said.
JAARS has not forgotten these missionary pilot wives. To enable them and their families to serve longer overseas, we’ve created the weekly wives meetings to prepare the women for life overseas in their unique role as a missionary pilot or mechanic wife.
Lori Ruth, who helps run these meetings, said these meetings “are a chance during orientation for the wives to get together, to feel a sense of community, and for them to learn how to thrive overseas as a wife and mom by giving them practical tips.”
Missionary Pilot Wives: Prepared Practically
Every week, the ladies listen to a different speaker who has served overseas in a similar capacity.
The practical topics range from how to take care of yourself when there’s no doctor to tips for traveling with kids. Lori even taught one of the women how to drive a stick-shift vehicle because that type of vehicle is so common overseas, and it’s important for the women to be independent.
Dominique led a session on canning—a skill the women can grow in confident about using if they need it where they’re serving.
Missionary Pilot Wives: Prepared Spiritually
Because we as Christians have a very real enemy, the women also learn how to take care of their spiritual lives. Speakers share ways to study the Bible and spend time with the Lord.
Lori realizes that she and the other leaders can’t keep fears from bubbling to the surface, but they can guide the women on how to respond when they’re anxious about their husbands’ safety. “Hopefully by preparing them and using spiritual guidance and tools, we can teach them how to turn to God and how to reach out to others for help.”
When There is No Preparation
Lori grew up overseas as a missionary kid, so she had an advantage, knowing more about what life overseas would look like when she and her husband went to Indonesia.
“However, going overseas as an adult, and as a mom, is different than being a kid where it’s carefree,” she explained, looking back.
She was one of the few people who did not attend a wives meeting when her husband went through Pre-Field Orientation 20 years ago. “I had no clue what it was like to be a pilot’s wife. I knew what being a missionary was like from growing up overseas, but I did not know what to expect for aviation.”
She feels a burden for helping other women because she knows how much it could have helped her to know what to expect and how mission aviation differs from other kinds of missionary callings.
The Whole Family is a Team
During the meetings, the women also discussed the importance of the wife’s role in aviation for the safety of the pilot. If there are problems at home, the pilot inadvertently carries that stress into the air when he’s flying. Working on their marriage and communicating well is vital, as is a wife not letting her husband fly if she knows there’s an issue.
“We have more of a job than we realize keeping things going at home,” Lori said. “But it’s not all on my shoulders. We’re a team. The whole entire family is a team. We’re there as a family, working together.”
Training and Sustaining
Dominique appreciated these weekly meetings and that the JAARS staff cared not just about the aviator but the entire family.
“There’s love and grace here,” Dominique said. “[JAARS is] clearly not treating the aviators just like a number and cranking them out, but they are treating them like a person who needs more than just aviation training. And it’s evident with the wives and the children as well that [JAARS is] trying to provide things so that we’re not just a training facility, but here at JAARS, we’re also a sustaining facility.”
We can’t sustain families and prepare them to serve overseas without you! Give now to train and sustain the fourth generation of missionaries and make a lasting difference.
