Updates: Flying by Faith, and Flight Log
This month has been a stretch for my faith, as well as including lots of rather intense training. My flight lessons have progressed nicely and I have learned several new maneuvers. We practiced a good deal of ground-reference maneuvers. These focus on making steady, smooth, and consistent turns over a set area. Basically practicing these maneuvers has taught me the basics for flying around an airfield in preparation for landing. My landings and takeoffs have improved also, and I've had the chance to perform several of them in a crosswind. Most recently I've practiced recovery from unusual attitudes. These prepare me to be able to quickly assess and correct an unusual attitude, such as a spin, stall, or dive. In the event of a stall, I quickly add full power and lower the nose. In a dive, I'm taught to quickly pull power and bring the nose up. This has reminded me of important lessons in our spiritual walks. When we encounter difficulties, we need to instantly turn to Jesus, just like I instinctively adjust my power in an unusual attitude. Jesus is always there to help and encourage us!
Now I'd like to share with you a short story about a recent flight lesson. I hope this will encourage your faith, as well as prove that God is always faithful!
"The sky was covered with a high layer of clouds, as I hurried towards the hangar for my flight lesson. The winds were light, and the weather was perfect for flying. As I dipped the gas tanks on the Cessna 172, I quickly realized that we didn’t have enough fuel for the flight. A check around the hangar also informed me that our gas cans were empty as well. I was pondering the situation when the flight instructor showed up. I asked him what we would do. At an ordinary flight school, we’d just go fill up with gas. But here at school, we fly by faith. God provides that training money through our donors. However, due to some recent large expenses, our account was low. With another sizeable expense coming up, we were brought to a difficult decision. Do we go buy gas or save for the other expense? What would you do? After some time of prayer and thought we came to a conclusion. God had given us work to do, so we would go flying and train for service. Although that would leave our account even lower, we had faith that God would provide. All week, I prayed and was excited to see how God would provide. The next week, a large number of donations came in. I was thrilled!! God had just worked a miracle for us. This is one reason I love training at Oklahoma Academy. It’s just like the mission field. We have to trust God in faith that He will provide, and complete the work that He has started. To be sure, it would be easier to go to another school pay a flat fee, and never worry about issues like this. But these situations have brought me closer to God and have helped me learn two things: 1. God always is faithful. 2. Prayer works! Although we are still working on reaching our fundraising goals, by God’s grace, we have never had to cancel a flight due to insufficient funds. Praise God for His faithfulness."
Thank you so much for supporting and being a part of God’s work here. YOU are a vital part of this ministry! Thanks to your generosity and God's goodness have reached over half of our monthly fundraising goal. I also want to encourage you to trust God more with everything. The same God that’s making it possible for me to train to use aviation to reach the unreached, can work miracles for you too. Will you join me in trusting God more?
In Service Together,
Micah
Prayer Requests:
Continued prayers for the graduated missionaries.
Prayers that God will continue to provide financially.
Prayers for Kean, one of our missionaries who is returning from the mission field in Alaska this week to complete his pilot check ride. After this, he will be a licensed pilot. All his previous attempts were canceled due to bad weather so we are praying that the weather will be good for his check ride.
Prayers that God will provide us with a second instructor.
Prayers that God will continue to bless us in our flight training.
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