Your life is like diet decaffeinated Coke
In a dark woods, an evil man mixed Coca-Cola and Nyquil and invented diet decaffeinated coke. Growing up I drank large quantities of the coke-like substance because I did not know better. I thought all coca-cola tasted like old, fermented mouthwash. My family drank diet decaffeinated coke out of love. They had to watch their sugar intake (the diet part), and my mom was sensitive to caffeine (the decaffeinated part).
My life all changed one day when I went to Mexico as a teenager. I remember that day almost more clearly than my wedding day. I was helping build a wall for a friend who was a missionary there. The day was hot and dry, and after working for what felt like 27 hours, he handed me an ice-cold, cane sugar, glass-bottled coca-cola! It tasted like joy, hope, and love all combined, in fact, that may be an understatement.
Life as a Christian is a lot like the two cokes; no matter how much DD coke you drink, it is never enough to compare to the real thing. I daily struggle with drinking the wrong coke. I try to be someone, making this life as amazing as possible. I daily try to be a better, funnier, healthier, more clever, most goodest person. I daily want people to tell me that I am the most amazing thing in the world. The thing is….It’s never enough.
The most freeing and joy producing truth of all time is to realize you are not good enough. In fact, you will never find lasting joy in anything. This may sound like the worst self-help ever, and that is because it is! Lasting joy is found in Christ alone! And, for a few short minutes, in ice-cold, sugar cane, glass-bottled Coca-Cola.
SAM Air recently made a trip to northern Bolivia where missionaries serve the Araona people. They brought in medical supplies, and while there were able to witness the baptism of the village chief and his entire family. MMS did extensive work to the plane they flew there on. It’s because of your support that planes can be fixed, and lives can be changed.
Mission Spotlight
Gospel Carrier International uses planes to reach Chinese immigrants living throughout the United States, and Canada. They focus on
leading conferences and will rapidly travel from one event to
another. They support ministries in need of pastoral transportation and will lead pastoral teams from China to preach at multiple
churches back to back. The planes MMS fix for GCI enable this work to continue; saving weeks of travel time per evangelistic tour.
Learn more at http://www.gcigospel.org.
Quick update about the end of August, September, and the beginning of October
In 1596 man invented the flushable toilet. In 1829 indoor plumbing was making its debut. In 1885 man invented the automobile. In 1903 the Wright brothers perfected the flying machine. In 2020 me and the other grinning idoits decided to leave all that behind and hike 24 miles on the North Fork trail in West Virginia. Its was fun, but my favorite part of the trail was the parking lot at the end. On a serious note, a “fun” hike like this is the only way for tens of millions of people to get to hospital around the world.
My mom recently had foot reconstruction surgery and is recovering at a rehab center. We recently made a quick trip to PA see her in the most 2020 way possible; by sitting in our cars and shouting at her:)
Recently I aided Tim Obarow with an annual inspection on a plane that serves in Haiti. During the inspection, we had to inspect the rivets inside of the horizontal stabilizer. No matter how much butter we applied neither of our heads fit in the two-inch hole, so Tim is pictured here teaching me how to use a small inspection camera.
Aria is a very bright girl. Recently she was exploring Newton’s 3rd law by launching straight and headfirst off the couch and into the piano bench. We all learned something that night; where Coshocton hospital is, how much medical glue cost and that Aria’s guardian angel will be busy for the next few years.
Freddie on his balance bike is my favorite Coshocton exploring buddy.
Prayer
Pray for my mom as she recovers from surgery. The surgery went well, and now comes the long road of recovery. Pray also for her doctors as they fine-tune her medicines. Recently one med is starting to cause kidney problems.
Pray for the unreached. I recently downloaded the app “Unreached of the day”. It’s a great app and a daily reminder of the reason we are here.
Praise
Praise that Aria’s eyebrow cut wasn’t worse. It’s all healed up now and only a groovy scar remains.
Praise that my passport came! Now I am ready to ship out on a rapid response trip when the need arises.
Till next time,
Flyin' Bryan 