Death

Death...it's quite a significant event...it's one that none of us who can read this have experienced, but something all of us will come face to face with. I've had cause to to consider it a little more than usual in the last month with the death of Ali's grandfather (last month) and my uncle this past weekend. One was expected, the other came as a shock...quick and without warning. Ali and I traveled to Florida for the service and to be with my family for a few days and that also prompted several thoughts.

It sure would be nice to know when people are going to die, you know, have a milestone where everyone knows, "this is when you are going to die." How much differently would we live if we knew when our time on earth was over? Wouldn't we want to make the most of our time? So why doesn't the mystery of death and the realization that our turn could be tomorrow, or today, move us to live with purpose? I, for one, want to live life to the fullest; even if I live for another fifty years I want to make each day special and unique.

My other thought relates to the after life. The awareness of death and life after death, either with or without God, impresses the importance of the gospel on me. Every day people around the world die without Christ, every day that passes is one less that another person has to live. I want to do my part in drawing others into the Kingdom of God. That means here and now, today, in my world, with everyone I meet being a mirror that reflects the light of Christ. Part of that is aviation, and more specifically, aviation that delivers the "mirrors" who will reflect Christ to those millions of people around the world who have never seen Him. What a purpose! That is why we are here!

Cross Country

In training pilots, we spend a lot of time staying close to our home base. We practice take-offs and landings, different maneuvers in the practice area just north or south of the airport, and short 10 minute hops to airports every now and then just to mix it up a little. Of course, the goal isn't to make pilots who won't ever leave their little corner in the sky and go somewhere else, the whole point of aviation is to travel from point A to point B in an efficient manner. That's why, once a student has learned enough of the basics to manage the airplane we introduce them to something called a cross country flight. The name is a little deceiving because we don't actually cross the country, however, we do leave the training grounds and go exploring to new cities and airports and scenery. I launched into the cross country phase of training with my students this past week and they have now flown several with me as well as one on their own. At this stage of training, our cross country flights are usually in the area of 3-4 hours long. We generally go to two other airports and end the flight back in Spokane. One of these flights took us from Spokane to Pullman, on to Wenatchee (which you can see in the picture), and back to Spokane. All in all, the flight was right at 4 hours, and we covered ground that map quest says should take 7 and a half hours by car! There is such a difference in time between flying and driving, and this is here is the U.S. where we have highways and interstates. Many of the places where the gospel is still just being introduced do not have the benefit of an infrastructure as useful as we have here in the States. Just think of how much more impact the airplane has in those countries where the roads, if they even exist, are in horrible condition and we can cover in an hour what it normally takes a week to travel!