Standing On The Promises

Paul and Lois Steward, Retired Missionaries
January-March 2016

Revised from The Call, May/June 2010, Page 19

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.”  (Psalm 32:8 NKJV)

What a promise for two new missionaries left in charge of the isolated mission station of Santa Maria, Bolivia. Having been on the field only a few months, we were still struggling with learning the language and the culture, and we had absolutely no medical training. We were trusting the Lord to instruct and teach us.

Nestor was a Siriono Indian who lived at Santa Maria. Several of the Siriono were invited to live there by earlier missionaries. Nestor was a slave who had escaped two different times. He earned the name El Diablo after killing a man with an ax. He had come to live at Santa Maria several years before we arrived, was converted, and now he had a small family.

Nestor was injured while he and several men were traveling on the river. The water was high and the current pushed the canoe into some trees along the river. A sharp point of bamboo hidden in the leaves entered Nestor’s arm and tore it open about eight or nine inches.

The older missionary family had left for medical reasons and we were staying in their house. Nestor’s friends brought him to us. Nestor’s wound was the worst I had ever seen. There was no one else to help, so we were the ones who had to take care of it. The Wings of Peace airplane was out of service and medical help upriver was too far away.

We asked the Lord for wisdom, and the promise that He would guide us with His eyes was very special. Lois boiled thread and curved needles (a bit rusty from the high humidity). Nestor was in a lot of pain, and I found some Novocain in the medicine cabinet. There were no disposable syringes back then, so after we boiled a glass one, I filled it with the medicine. I remember thinking: Where do I give the shot?

Then I remembered from experience that the dentist always put the shot as near the bad tooth as possible. I injected several places along Nestor’s arm and his pain lessened. We cleaned the wound and were very thankful there was no bleeding. One tendon was damaged, but it seemed like it would heal. We started at one end of the wound and began stitching. I had to give him more shots for pain, and we kept him at our home that night. We made some mistakes (we knew that a career in medicine was not for us!), but his wound healed without infection, although with a big scar. Nestor still lives today as far as we know. Truly Jesus was with us and helped us do something we never expected to be able to do.

Note: When the other missionary family returned, they said that if we had tried to send Nestor out, he would have died. This took place in 1959, so there was no way for us to communicate with the other missionaries until the next morning. We know people in the U.S. were praying for us.

PRAY: Missionaries are often placed in situations they don’t feel qualified for. This is when they need your prayers more than ever. Commit to praying for God’s provision on behalf of missionaries for the rest of this year.

Aviation Ministries

An excerpt from...

Aviation Ministries

Partnerships for the repairs of missionary aircraft
By Jim Newman, Airplane Maintenance, Ohio
January-March 2014

As you walk through the hangar door, the first things you may notice are several aircraft in various stages of disassembly and a group of mechanics dressed in similar uniforms. As you take a closer look at the airplanes, you will see the registration numbers indicate that they are from various countries around the world. As you begin to listen to the conversations of the mechanics, you realize they are also from different regions of the world. If you look and listen closely, you may realize that a World Gospel Mission missionary mechanic is training an apprentice mechanic for Missionary Flights International on an aircraft owned by Mission Aviation Fellowship in the facilities of Missionary Maintenance Service. Some people may be amazed that there are four missions groups represented on a single project, but at Missionary Maintenance Service, this is more the norm than the exception.

Many missionaries rely on aircraft to provide transportation and supplies. By flying over dangerous terrain or hostile situations, they can reach more people for Christ. These aircraft require highly skilled and properly trained mechanics to maintain them in rugged environments.

MMS has been meeting this critical need since 1975 and has served over 100 different Christian ministries. Through the blending of an aviation apprenticeship with actual modification and repair of missionary aircraft, we return aircraft to field service and provide hands-on experience to each apprentice mechanic. All MMS personnel are faith-supported, allowing us to provide our services labor-free to Christian ministries, saving them hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

WGM’s aviation ministry Wings of Peace in Bolivia was blessed by this relationship many times since 1985. As a former Wings of Peace family, my wife, Mary, and I have been on special assignment with MMS as part of the training staff since the closing of WOP.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:14-20: “For the body is not one member, but many.… But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body” (NASB).

An airplane is made up of thousands of parts, each one necessary to make it airworthy. We and the different missions groups we serve are all parts, each with unique gifts and talents, but it’s only when we work together that we form the Body.

PRAY: How many times do you notice those shiny birds overhead? The next time you do, take a moment to pray for Jim and Mary and those with whom they work for the cause of missions. Ask God to use this partnership to further His kingdom.

Our Walk Around Inspection

An excerpt from...

Our Walk Around Inspection

By John Kunkle, Hispanic Ministries USA and former pilot withWings of Peace, Bolivia
October-December 2013

When I was in training for service with Wings of Peace in Bolivia, I was privileged to have flown with a man named Paul Dye, an instructor serving with the New Tribes Mission Aviation training center in McNeal, Arizona. One day during my training, Paul said, “Today you are going to make an electronic checklist.” Paul showed me the necessary tools and I quickly finished the project. It was one of the highlights of my training because I had a means of keeping a checklist of critical procedures that needed to be accomplished for the safe take-off and landing phases of each flight.

As Christians, we can also follow a checklist prior to boarding each day. Here is an abbreviated checklist from an average airplane preflight “walk-around” and how it resembles our Christian walk.

1. Engine: How do we maintain that quality oil in our spiritual engines for maximum power and efficiency? By prayerfully seeking the renewal and cleansing of the Holy Spirit and reading the Bible.
   
2. Wings: They are the main source of lift and contain the ailerons and flaps.
   a. The ailerons (the narrow, hinged panels near the wing tips) roll the plane from side to side. Do we have our spiritual controls moving freely and correctly to keep us on course?
   b. The flaps are large, adjustable panels that lower at the back of the main wing on each side to provide drag for slower flight upon landing. In spiritual terms, we need self-control and patience in our lives to help us slow down and be able to see what God is doing around us.
   
3. Tail: The tail is made up of the rudder and elevators which help keep the plane in stable flight.
   a. Rudder: This panel at the back of the vertical stabilizer rotates the plane from side to side, providing correct turning forces that coordinate with the roll of the plane in a turn. In other words, the rudder keeps the passengers from feeling like they are on a roller coaster! In our spiritual lives, without proper coordination with God, we can be out of control and at times feel like we are in a spiritual “slip!” (The term “slip” refers to the lack of rudder pressure applied by the pilot in the direction of the turn in coordination with the ailerons.)
   b. Elevator: Possibly the most important control on the airplane—it determines the up or down “attitude” of the airplane. If you don’t have the elevator “trimmed” just right, you can be fighting the controls to exhaustion and possible loss of control. Spiritually speaking, if you don’t have your life trimmed with the right attitude, you will be in a constant battle to reach the levels to which God wants to take your life. You’ll need to “adjust your attitude to gain proper altitude.”
   
4. Global Positioning System: This modern marvel has saved many lives, including my own. GPS instrumentation has allowed pilots (and their wives) the peace of mind to relieve much of the extra stress encountered when flying over rugged jungle terrain.
   
   We also depended on what my dad, Joe Kunkle, referred to as God’s Prayer System for our safety while flying; the vast network of praying people like you who kept our lives and ministry before God’s throne. Prayer is vital to our existence as missionaries.
   
5. Fuel tanks, fuel, and filters: The only way to get the engine to run right is to have the right kind and amount of fuel for the flight.
   
   Our spiritual fuel tanks must also be kept filled and ready for flight. Any sin condensation or worldly dirt in our tanks that is not removed will cause our lives to come to a complete stop, resulting in a very hard landing or crash.
   
6. Weight and balance: We must make sure the plane is within its proper weight and balance limits for safe flight. If not, you won’t be able to lift off the ground. We also need to keep our lives balanced with family, church, work, and rest to be able to stay within the operating limits that God has set for us.
   
7. Instruments: We need to keep our instruments set to the correct settings for critical phases of the flight. Hebrews 11:2 reminds us: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…”(NIV).

Still, the Christian walk is not simply a checklist. Our walk with Christ is a product of the reconciliation of God to man through Jesus Christ, and a growing, living relationship with our heavenly Father by the power of the Holy Spirit living within us. Let’s make every walk-around inspection of our spiritual airplane consistent every day.

Prayer Calendar: October 13-19, 2013

Your mission's prayer point this week from The Call is:

ASK God to help you make a “walk-around” inspection of your spiritual practices.

This request is inspired by John Kunkle's story Our Walk Around Inspection where he shares about his ministry with Wings of Peace in Bolivia. Read the article here: http://www.wgm.org/walk-around-inspection