With God's help we made it to the first Solo! This morning Frank went up in the helicopter for the first time completely ALONE!
Praise the Lord for safety and success!
Enjoy this video "progress report"! (And compare it to our previous blog's video for perspective!)
Soloing has been an exciting event for us, but this milestone has also brought us to the end of the finances God has provided so far for the helicopter training.
While we know that God can provide the remaining $56,000 in a variety of ways, we are specifically asking Him to provide it through monthly supporters. If we were 100% funded in our overseas monthly budget right now, we would have just what we need to cover the helicopter training costs through to the end. And this way, when the training is complete, we would already be fully funded and able to meet the desperate need in the Asia-Pacific region even sooner!
This milestone reminds us of a verse from a song by Keith and Kristyn Getty:
My worth is not in skill or name
In win or lose, in pride or shame
But in the blood of Christ that flowed
At the cross
Skills and fame can only impress on a human level - they are not where we find our worth. Perhaps Frank will become an amazing helicopter pilot, save countless lives and help plant many tribal churches. Or, maybe things won’t go as we plan and it will appear that he has failed as a pilot. But at the core of who we are, this is irrelevant. Because our worth is not coming from this training or the ministry we hope to accomplish through it, we can find confidence in Christ. It is for Christ and His blood at the cross that we strive. The amazing truth is that our worth is found solely in what’s been done for us – not in anything we could ever accomplish ourselves!