A New Way for Us to Share Updates

As you can see, we haven't posted here for a while. We may return to using this blog, but for the past several months, we have been sharing our updates on our Epistle site. By visiting that page you will see a few of our posts, but to see them all, please consider subscribing to our newsletter!

Back in Bolivia (for a little while)

On Saturday, we set foot in Cochamba for the first time in more than a year and a half. We began the painful process of selling off everything in our house in Bolivia. We knew it would be difficult, but that would be an understatement. When we moved here, we went all-in, investing so much in the life we were building. We were able to ship some large and valuable items to Bolivia—including musical instruments, tools, and kitchen supplies—but we didn't realize it would be extremely difficult or costly to take things back to the USA when that time came. Then again, we didn't think much about it; we planned to establish a life here for the long haul and had no intention of moving back to the USA within just a few years.

Now, as we have to sell or donate almost all of our belongings, we are grieving the loss of the life and ministry we had and hoped to have in Bolivia. Yes, there is a heavy financial loss. But the deeper pain is saying goodbye to our life and relationships here, and to the hopes and dreams that are linked to so many of our possessions. On one hand, those are just material things. But they carry with them memories of the life that we had here in Bolivia, and the hopes of the life we would have.

A tote of camping gear represents the days and nights I hoped to spend in the villages of Bolivia, serving alongside my friends and teammates. The military cot in the corner causes me to reminisce about driving fifteen hours, sleeping in the school building of a remote village, then hiking for several hours to help a friend recover his damaged airplane. When I open that tote, I also can't help thinking of the camping trips with my kids that never happened and never will happen. 

There is a cabinet full of kitchen supplies that Tara carefully selected and brought to Bolivia over the course of several years. But they are more than just plastic and metal. They are the tools that she used to prepare many family meals and to bake cookies and cuñapes to bless our American and Bolivian friends. Those material possessions are an expression of her desire to make our home a hospitable place where everyone feels welcome and loved. We remember the many times that we hosted friends at our house and the meals we shared together as a family, and we grieve the loss of future opportunities to express Christ's love in Bolivia through hospitality.

On one hand, these are just things. But as we pare down our entire household to a few suitcases, we are processing many layers of loss. Please pray for us during these few weeks. 

Look Around

It seems simple enough, but how often do we go through our day without taking time to consider—to really pay attention—to the people around us? How many people do we pass by without as much as a fleeting thought? Whether I am busy, distracted, focused on my own issues and problems, or simply off in my own little world, it's easy to allow my thoughts to center around one person: me!

These past few weeks, we have been meeting with friends and ministry partners as we transition to a new place of missionary service. Though it's a lot of work, it is also a blessing to connect with so many people—many of whom we haven't seen in a long time. It is refreshing to catch up with old friends, and we have been blessed by the outpouring of support and encouragement as we move toward serving with Compass Aviation.

But there is also a flipside. For all of the happy faces and friendly greetings, we have found that many people are also struggling. When I ask people whether they have anything I can be praying for, it usually doesn't take long for them to come up with something. Whether it's a health problem, the death of a loved one, family issues, or something else, many are dealing with hurt, loss, and pain. Often, they deal with these things silently. It should not be this way! Why aren't we, the Church, loving each other and bearing each other's burdens? Why do so many people feel as if they have no place to turn for help, love, and support?

In my experience, there are a number of reasons for this. Sometimes we feel alone, as if no one will understand. Other times we simply don't know who we can talk to. We wonder how people will respond if we are open and honest. Will we be judged? Will we become the next topic in the church gossip ring? Will we be chastised for lacking faith? These worries and concerns can lead us to internalize our struggles and keep them hidden behind a facade. In some churches, it's believed that speaking negative words is tantamount to speaking curses over oneself or others, so struggles and hardships cannot be verbalized.

My point is not to write exhaustively about the reasons we keep our struggles quiet. Rather, it is to encourage you to stop and look around. Look at the people that you pass by every day—at work, at school, in your home. Maybe take a minute to ask how they are doing. Not as a greeting only, but to really ask how they are. Of course, that begs the question, "What do you do after they actually tell you?" That's an important question, but a question for another day. A place to start is taking time to look around with love and compassion, and ask the Lord to help us be a conduit of His love and peace to those around us.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. 

Colossians 3:12–17 

 

A New Invitation

We are excited to announce that we have been invited to join Compass Aviation, where Aaron will serve as a flight instructor and aircraft mechanic, working primarily with future missionary pilots and mechanics. Over the past couple of years, the Lord has used various people and circumstances to clarify the ministry areas to which we feel called and passionate about serving. At the same time, it's become clear that it was time to seek out a new sending organization due to evolving roles and expectations. We remain as committed as ever to reaching the nations with the Gospel, but our specific role will be changing. To reach every corner of the world with the truth about Jesus, some of his followers must be willing to go to the nations, and others must prepare and send them. We are still willing to go, but it seems that God is moving us into a season of preparing and sending—at least for the foreseeable future.

At Compass, we will help to train the next generation of missionary pilots and mechanics for the mission field. Aaron will serve as a flight instructor, mechanic, and inspector.  We have spent time praying and considering the areas in which the Lord has gifted us, and in which we are passionate about serving. Our ministry at Compass encompasses the following areas:

• Aviation (flight and maintenance). Aaron is a pilot, flight instructor, and aircraft mechanic/inspector, and is passionate about stewarding these skills well and investing in future missionary aviators. His desire is to teach and serve with technical excellence while caring well for people. We are also open to returning to an international field of service some day—either short- or long-term—if the Lord should open the door for that! 
• Encouraging other believers. Tara has always had a gift for connecting with other women and being a support and encouragement to them. Sometimes this has been in a formal ministry role, and other times it has been through natural relationships that she has developed through the church or community. Aaron also enjoys supporting and encouraging other missionaries, and saw this as an important part of his role as a missionary pilot. Wherever we are, we want our family to be a source of life and light to the people around us—not only as a witness to unbelievers, but as an encouragement to other followers of Jesus. 
• Teaching and mentoring. Aaron has always loved teaching, and flight instructing is no exception. Aaron enjoys instructing in technical subject areas, while also being a spiritual mentor. Technical expertise is important for missionary aviators, but that alone will not prepare a person for the mission field. That preparation must include interpersonal, emotional, and spiritual aspects as well.
• Cross-cultural and international missions. Even though will be based in the United States, we continue to be passionate about reaching the nations with the Gospel. Even as we live in the USA, we will seek out ways to be personally involved in going, as well as preparing and sending others to the world.

Though we all have room for growth, we believe that our experience and gifts have prepared us well to serve in these areas. They are areas that we are passionate about, in which others have affirmed us, and in which we have joyfully served in the past. As we look to the future, we are also considering how we can better prepare and position ourselves to be a resource for missionaries in need of healing, rest, and encouragement. We are excited to see how the Lord will weave our unique passions and life experiences together so that we can better serve Him and bring Him glory.

Longing for a place to call home

Can you feel homesick when you don’t have a home? Lately, I have found myself longing to be home, while simultaneously realizing that I no longer have one—not on this planet, anyway. They say that home is where the heart is, but there is something to be said for having a place that feels like home.

Longing for home is a topic I've explored from a different angle before, but now we are facing the reality of moving out of our houses in the United States and in Bolivia, and we are unsure of where we are going next. Our plan was for our home in Bolivia to be a familiar place for our college-age children to return to—despite being on a different continent. But now that we have made the decision to leave Bolivia, we will be saying goodbye to our house in Cochabamba.

There is a part of me that longs to return to a place filled with family memories, where I can recline in a comfortable chair or in my hammock, sipping a good cup of coffee in a relaxing and welcoming environment. I wish that we had a place to host guests or to share a meal with family and friends. But such a place now exists only in my imagination.

Once again, I am reminded that the present world is only temporary. We have the hope that one day we will be resurrected to new life, in which we will enjoy all of the pleasures and peace that this broken world cannot offer. All that we enjoy now is a shadow of the things that are to come!

A New Semester Begins

Tuesday evening was opening night for the Melbourne, Florida chapter of Wings of Grace. A room full of teenagers and their parents gathered to share a meal and kick off the new semester. It was encouraging to see several familiar faces and to meet several students who are new to the program. We have the great privilege of building into the lives of these teens, not only by teaching them aviation and life skills, but by sharing with them the truth of God's Word and setting an example of what it looks like to walk with Jesus.

I was reminded last night that ministry is really about people. I enjoy flying and maintaining airplanes, but what really excites me is using aviation to serve, help, and minister to others—whether they live in a remote Bolivian jungle, or right here in the United States. As I stood with the other mentors in front of the students and their parents, I experienced a mix of excitement and sadness. I am excited that I can build into these teens during our Tuesday night meetings and by working alongside them on designated service days. But I also felt discouraged that I can't participate in teaching the students to fly, since I still don't have my certified flight instructor (CFI) certificate.

We would like to trust the Lord to provide for me to get my CFI certificate as soon as possible, but as with many things in life, time and money have been standing in my way. I have studied for and passed the two required knowledge tests, but still have a lot of preparation to do before I can take my oral and practical exams. Despite my best intentions, I have found it challenging to devote the time necessary to studying. With an endless supply of airplanes needing maintenance, I have devoted most of my time to fixing them—not flying them—and have not had the time to prepare the lessons that I will need to teach during my oral and practical tests.

Would you pray and trust the Lord to provide the resources so that I can become a CFI soon? During our two years in the United States, I would love to be able to instruct with Wings of Grace Ministries (as we had planned to do). This would not only be an excellent opportunity to disciple and mentor young people, but would also help me to stay proficient as I look forward to returning to Bolivia as a missionary pilot. There is an instructor at Wings of Grace who is willing to help me prepare for the CFI exam, but he has limited time and lives in another state. If I had the funds, I could devote a few weeks to take an intensive course and earn my flight instructor certificate in a very short time. For that to become a reality, the Lord would need to provide the funds or a reduced-cost option. 

We don't make a lot of direct appeals, but the semester has already started and we want to make the most of our time. I have always enjoyed teaching, and being a flight instructor would allow me to continue to train and build into future missionary pilots for the next 20-25 years—even after I am too old to be flying on the mission field myself. But I don't have to wait until then; I can start right now! Please trust the Lord with us, and if you would like to help, please get in touch with us!

An Unforgettable Journey: Part 3 (Conclusion)

You know that feeling you get when you're driving on a remote Bolivian dirt road, and you suddenly find yourself at the end of the barrel of a gun?

This is the conclusion of a story from last year, which I never finished telling. You can find the previous posts here (Part 1) and here (Part 2). But before we get to the end of the story, let's back up. Our group had traveled a full day on sketchy Bolivian roads, then spent the next day hiking to the site of the wreck and salvaging as much as we could. We spent that second night with a Bolivian family, and on the third day hiked back to where our vehicles were parked. At this point, day three is just a blur to me, but it's day four—the day that we drove back home to Cochabamba—that really stands out in my mind.

We were up early to get on the road. It was going to be a long day of driving, and we were hoping not to run into any snags along the way. It was hard not to turn heads with airplane parts strapped to our vehicles!

DJ's Land Cruiser, with pieces of his airplane's wing strapped on top.

A warning to passing drivers to be more careful than the guy who was driving this truck.

The drive was going somewhat smoothly, with only a few times that our vehicles nearly got stuck trying to go uphill on muddy, rutted roads. About halfway through the drive, I was starting to feel optimistic. The worst of the roads were behind us, and pretty soon it would be smooth sailing back to Cochabamba. But that feeling of optimism would soon give way to a host of new feelings.

I was second-to-last in our group of four vehicles, and I couldn't see what was going on up ahead. All I knew was that the lead car was coming to a stop. I thought that perhaps it was a checkpoint of some sort, or maybe locals asking for money to allow us to pass through. But without warning, a large group of uniformed men emerged with guns drawn, running past our cars. Had we inadvertently found ourselves in the middle of a military exercise? Wait, no...those guns are pointed at us!

We rolled down our windows, and the men in military fatigues yelled at us to hand over our phones. They asked repeatedly if I had guns in the vehicle and ordered us to exit our cars. Some of us were put in handcuffs, and I was simply ordered to stay near my vehicle. I was forced to hand over my wallet, and my vehicle was searched while the man with the gun kept telling me not to run. I'm not sure where he thought I was going to go, since we were in the middle of nowhere. I would probably get lost and die of starvation out there! I'd rather take my chances on the guy with the gun.

After some time we finally found out that we weren't being robbed or kidnapped. Apparently, two or three police units, along with a couple helicopters, had been dispatched to look for us. Someone had made a false claim on social media that DJ's plane was a drug plane, and that the pilot had died in the "crash". Imagine their confusion when DJ—alive and well—informed them that he was the pilot who "had died" a few days earlier!

My vehicle, with DJ's following behind. I didn't get any photos of the real excitement
because our phones were confiscated by the police.

We were detained for quite some time while the police figured out what to do with us. We suspected that they finally realized they had made a mistake, but what were they going to do at that point? Let us go? Of course not. They did return our phones and our belongings, but instead of letting us go, they escorted us all the way back to Cochabamba. It was slow-going, and it was the middle of the night by the time we arrived on the outskirts of town. 

We pulled off on the side of the road, hungry, exhausted, and confused. As we sat waiting in the dark, we could tell that the police were still trying to figure out what to do with us. All we wanted to do was get home, eat a little something, and go to sleep. By this point, they had changed their story. Now they told us that we had been stopped at a routine checkpoint. They suddenly "forgot" about that social media post they had shown to DJ earlier in the day.

There is a reason why the airplane is such a useful tool out here!
The roads can be quite treacherous.

After several phone calls and much deliberation, they decided to confiscate DJ's airplane to test it for drugs. We would all be free to go home, but not before being taken down to the police station to be questioned. By this point it was early morning. We were escorted by the police back to the station where we were questioned one-by-one. After giving my statement, I was finally free to leave.

It was a crazy, emotional, exhausting day, but I was happy to finally be home with my family. It sure beat spending the night in a Bolivian jail! I can't say that the experience was one that I'd like to repeat, but if nothing else, it makes for a good story! And in case you're wondering, the airplane was found to be clean of drugs. This is what we expected, of course—our only concern being that someone malicious could have planted drugs in the days that the airplane was unattended at the site of the incident. But thank God for his watch and care over us and over the airplane!