“Where are you going?” Believe it or not, this is a question I have been asked and have even asked myself a lot lately. Currently, I am training for my instrument rating, a rating that will allow me to fly confidently in clouds. Clouds are great, and I am told they are important, but they sure are annoying to fly in! To become an instrument-rated pilot, you need to become confident about where you are and where you are going in three-dimensional space with only the navigational equipment in the plane. This is important because if you were to lose communication with air traffic control, it is expected for you to fly safely to your destination. Our plane has a GPS unit, and because of that fancy sextant, navigation is easy! But like any good teacher, as soon as you become comfortable, it’s time to challenge the pupil to the next level.
That is why my teachers have been failing almost all the navigation equipment on the airplane every flight! GPS is gone often and what is left is navigation by fancy ground-based aviation radios called VORs. Navigation via VORs is not impossible, and most of the time is not even that difficult, but sometimes depending on the simulated situation, it makes my grey matter overheated. In one of my last flights, I was asked to fly the “056 radial off the Liberty VOR and track inbound”. This is not normally a hard request, but my brain was not engaging, much like the transmission when I was a pimply teen learning to drive a stick shift. I correctly identified where I was going, but I did not correctly identify where I was. I wrongly believed that I needed to turn right and proceeded to do so. My teacher, watching me do so in quiet judgment and apathy, like my face when I see other people’s children throwing a tantrum in a store about a cereal decision, gently asked me “Where are you going?”. A question like this from someone who knows where they are going quickly erodes the fragile belief that you, a student, know where you are. I quickly did a 180-degree turn and confidently pretended like I knew where I was the whole time. Real men don’t need directions, between the powers of our testosterone and blind confidence we can do anything!
“Where are you going” has been a primary thought of mine for over a decade now. For those of you who don’t already know, I am training to become a missionary pilot/mechanic. This path first started in Pennsylvania during the summer of 2007, which is when I would’ve first felt called to this form of ministry at a “Mission Aviation Fest”. Fast forward 11 years, and my wife and I submitted interest forms to an organization where I could get trained called MMS Aviation in the winter of 2018. This road has been long, and God has been good. After our time of training, we will have to decide about where to serve long term. Because of this, the question “Where are you going?” is always there, a continuous thought that plays repeatedly like an earworm of your favorite song.
My wife and I have reached a prayer-laden decision, and we believe God is clearly leading us in one direction. But regardless of our future, this question “Where are you going” still haunts me. As a believer I am assured of where I am going, based completely on the blood of Christ. However, an estimated 1/5 of people worldwide do not have a Bible translated into their language. And The Joshua Project estimates that 3.4 billion people are unreached/underreached. So, the question that should be haunting you the reader is “Where are they going?”
I am the least productive evangelist you will ever meet. If I am given the option to share in front of a group of nonbelievers or clean a run-down 7/11 gas station’s bathroom so someone else can, I would pick the latter. It’s not that God’s grace and redemption are unworthy of daily utterance, but I do not feel gifted as an evangelist.
So why am I here? That’s easy! God has called us to this, has provided for us in this, and has given me this burning question, “where are they going?” I view flying/fixing airplanes as my only slightly less stinky 7/11 bathroom. If I can use my ability as a fancy flying cab driver to move Bible translators and evangelists from one area to another to further the reach of the gospel… then Hallelujah!
That is why we are here. We do not know completely the steps ahead, but we know that we are in God’s hands, and ask yourself this… where else would you wanna go?
Flyin' Bryan 