losses (part 2)

Bent airplanes are never fun. Hurt people are never fun. The combination of the two can be very hard to endure.

I remember vividly back to the Spring of 1991. My Mom called to tell me that we (the family company) had lost a pilot and an airplane in some power lines during a spray contract. The pilot was too close and got caught up in the power lines. He did not make it through that day. I did not know him, but it did not matter . . . I bawled my eyes out.

We hear of evacuations of missionaries in the bush. We have lost friends who were killed, martyred is really the correct word, as they were doing the Lord’s work. We hear of others who have been shot and should have died. Others who have been beat up by the very people they were ministering to. The Lord said it was not time for them to go Home yet.

Just the other weekend one of our pilots ended up flipped over in an airplane accident. No one was killed, but all were hurt to some degree (see dakflyer.com for details). The pilot’s wife is a friend. It hits close to home. It is the “call” or the “visit” that no pilot’s wife ever wants -- that her husband has been in an accident. I am forever grateful for the fact that I never knew about Rod’s accident until he was the one to tell me, face to face. Even Cristiana knew something was wrong that day, and she was still in the womb.

I have written about the traditions that we have every time that Rod leaves. Times like this they become even more important. He left the next morning to go help out with the rescue effort: taking mechanics to assess the airplane, helping to get the injured to a better hospital, doing whatever needed to be done. We said our good-byes with a different level, lingering a little longer with that last hug, and maybe, can I even say, with more meaning and feeling behind the words.

It is always good to leave each other on the right note. No regrets if something were to happen and he never comes back.

The Lord knows. And, for that I am grateful in knowing that He will never give us anything that we cannot handle. And, He knows and holds the future in HIS Hands. Praise Him for that!

(For clarification: “broke” means those airplanes that need some work done on them; “bent” means an airplane that has been in an incident or accident.)