Directing Our Paths

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Sharon Garrett, Ministry Partner, with Kacey Ginn, Volunteer
October-December 2015

If my husband, Mike, and I have learned anything from our ministries in four different countries, it’s to be content where we are. God has taken us on a lot of detours.

We first went into an aviation ministry with WGM in 1994: Wings of Peace in Bolivia. Mike is a licensed Air Frame and Power Plant (A&P) mechanic, so he helped maintain the fleet of planes. I was a substitute teacher for preschool and taught home economics for a semester at Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center. But one year later, God closed that door. We resigned from WGM, but stayed involved in missions with our home church in Ohio.

In 2010, Mike and I felt the Lord calling us to be active in missionary work again, so we joined Christian Services International. We spent two months overseeing a medical clinic in Haiti and then traveled around the U.S., encouraging churches to organize work teams. However, due to a necessary downsizing within that organization, that ministry ended as well. Once again, God directed us to WGM.

We agreed to serve in Choluteca, Honduras, in what we thought was going to be a vocational teaching ministry. This time, God didn’t change the location, but the plan: we found there was a huge interest in learning English. We wound up teaching two different English classes. I’m still amazed how God used those classes to build precious relationships between us and our students.

In 2014, my mom was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. Recognizing the need for me to be with my mom during her chemotherapy treatments, WGM asked if we would be interested in working at Missionary Maintenance Services in Coshocton, Ohio, which is near my mom. MMS is the facility where Mike received his training for his A&P license. Now he trains apprentices in airplane mechanics in this place where he first learned those skills. And now that my mom has made a full recovery, I’m looking for ways to plug into the ministry here as well.

When we originally started with Wings of Peace, we thought that was where we were going to be career missionaries. When we went to Choluteca, again, we thought that was where we would be until retirement. Now, we know that the Lord will be faithful to direct our paths (Proverbs 3:6)—it’s just not always the direction we think He’s going to take us.

MORE: Learn more about MMS Aviation or invite a representative to share about the ministry with your church or small group at www.mmsaviation.org. The facility is also always interviewing for new apprentices.