Chronicles

I've started a few different blog posts over the past week, but haven't finished them yet. So much has been churning in my mind for a brief while but then disappears like a mist blown away by the breeze as soon as I try to solidify it into words on a page, or on a computer screen actually. What I've decided to do in this post to somewhat bypass my typer's cramp (did I just invent a new term?) is just chronicle some of what has happened since I arrived in Botswana. It will be more facts and less thoughts than usual. Please forgive any repetitions that may slip in from previous posts. 

Cessna A2-FME

Nine and a half weeks ago, I arrived in the beautiful country of Botswana. My contract with Flying Mission Services was as a pilot, and I was slated to fly Cessnas into the Okavango Delta region around the city of Maun. Since arriving, I have submitted applications for both a work permit and residence permit to allow me to begin working and living legally in the country for the next two or more years. Neither one has been granted yet. In fact, many applications like mine have been denied in the past few months, so I'm very grateful that I can trust God to take care of mine and teach me more about Him through the whole process! In the meantime, I've technically been volunteering at the FMS offices here in Gaborone. The first few days and weeks here I was scrambling to get through ground school, testing, and applications as quickly as possible. It's a waiting game for my permits right now, but I still have one more step each to complete for the validation of my pilot's license and my mechanic's license. Monday and Tuesday of this week I will be taking a check ride in a Cessna 206 up in Maun with a Botswana pilot examiner. After that, it will just be a matter of time, hopefully. Taking one more written test is all that I need to accomplish for my mechanic validation. Lord willing, the end of the waiting is in sight! 

The beauty of a sunset in the bush

The office work I've been doing has included writing some new in-house tests for incoming company pilots, researching aircraft maintenance compliance for various planes being worked on in the hangar, counting airplane parts to verify the amount of inventory in stock, and helping cook for the monthly company braii (cookout). There are definitely some days where I feel useless and impatiently want my authorization to start flying to come through. Remembering that God has a plan for His ultimate good in all of this always perks me back up though!

Braiing some chicken and sausage 

Outside of the office I have been able to connect with some of the local community through sports like ultimate frisbee, running, volleyball, and tennis; get to know other FMS personnel on camping trips, at pool parties, and lots of cookouts; and spend time with some IMB missionaries, the founder of FMS, and the young men's group from a local Baptist Church. Some of the new foods I have been able to try so far include zebra, impala, and goat head as well as Ethiopian, Indian, and Lebanese cuisine. It has all been delicious! I've always been a sucker for delicious foods, and there are plenty of them here. One thing that has been a little shocking for this small town, tee totaling, country boy who has lived in the homeschooling and Christian college bubbles his whole life is the amount of alcohol that gets consumed over here. Apparently a social event here isn't complete without beer, wine, rum, whisky, or homemade moonshine (ok, I haven't actually seen anything home made yet). The country as a whole has an alcohol problem that the government has attempted to curb by continually raising taxes on alcoholic beverages. But, in the words of Clarence from It's a Wonderful Life, "No, I didn't have a drink!" 

Giraffes beneath a cloudy sky

I have had a few minor challenges in the past nine weeks, but overall it has been a great time of learning and growing. My car had to go into the shop for repairs on two different occasions, but God showed his goodness by allowing it break on the day before my warranty from the dealer expired. It's hard to call it a trial or hard time when my car gets fixed for free. The first time I tried to turn in my application for my pilot's license here, it was rejected and I became a bit dejected. But again, The Lord has been faithful, and I should be able to successfully resubmit the application within the next week to 10 days. On the electronic front, my laptop crashed and the batteries ran out in both of my wrist watches last month. A quick shopping trip should remedy those issues, though. I have to remind myself that these "problems" are so insignificant in the greater scheme of things. Most of them can be classified as learning experiences and faith builders more easily than as trials or tribulations. I am very blessed.

Camping in South Africa for a weekend

I always request your prayers for my time here in Africa, for FMS, and for the nation of Botswana. It may not appear that dark or lost from the outside looking in, but there is great need for Jesus in this country. 

Inventory

Over the past week or two, the parts department at FMS has been preparing for an audit. One aspect of the preparations is counting and verifying inventory. The parts room is lined with shelves that are stacked with boxes that are filled with parts, and each of those many thousands of parts has to be counted.

The boxes were all dusty and some even had dead bugs and spiderwebs in them - evidence that no one had needed that exact part in many months, or maybe even years. The tiny star-shaped lock washers that were almost too small to be able to pinch between your fingers and the bags and bags full of rivets were probably the hardest items to count accurately. It was simple to count fuel sending units and seatbelts because of their size, but the nuts, screws, and washers were an entirely different matter. 

One screw, two screw, there screw, four.... My mind began wondering what analogy could be drawn between counting airplane parts and our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. I suppose we need to be sure to audit ourselves from time to time and see what inventory we have in our lives. Have we counted our blessings today? That's usually a cheerful way to start out - by looking at the good things God has blessed us with and being thankful. How many of the nine fruits of the spirit that Galatians 5 talks about do we have evident in our daily walk with The Lord? Try counting those for yourself. If we count the numbers if sins we committed, the number of mistakes we made, or the number of times we failed today, that may be a depressing part of our spiritual inventory, but it is still important. Counting sins isn't important because the number itself matters. It's important to identify different forms of sin in our lives and hearts so that we can fight against them and try to clean them out of our parts room completely. 

One of the difficult things about taking inventory during the middle of a busy workday was all of the noise and commotion going on all around you. Eighty-six, eighty-seven, eighty-eight... Then someone would bust through the door and call your name. Like a flash, that last number you had counted vanished from your mind, and you had to start all over. Life is full of distractions too, and these tend to pull us away from the duties and responsibilities we need to concentrate on as Christians. In the middle of going through your prayer list, someone suddenly calls you and needs your help, pronto! After a few steady weeks of daily Bible reading you contract a bad illness, and in a matter of days, the good habit gets broken and thrown out the window. It happens. Sometimes  we just have to start again and not lose heart. 

Look at the bright side, at least we don't have to count the hairs on our head or the stars in the sky - God has those numbered already! 

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! (2 Corinthians 13:5 ESV)

Bare Feet

For as long as I can remember I have hated wearing shoes. Not just leather dress shoes or heavy work boots, but any kind of shoe or boot. They stifle and oppress my free-spirited feet to no end. I have been known to fight grass fires, cut down trees with a chainsaw, fly an airplane, and many other random things while being barefoot. It sounds crazy (and probably is crazy), but I just like being barefoot. 

The Bible talks about feet in a number of passages. Romans 10:15 says "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" Psalms 119:105 says "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." In John 12 Mary anoints the feet of Jesus and then in chapter 13 Jesus gets down on the floor and washes His disciples' feet. The feet of Jesus were pierced by nails at Calvary, but in the end, the Bible says that all things will be put into subjection under those same feet.

I know that I'm a part of the body of Christ, and sometimes I wonder if I am the feet. It seems appropriate. Feet do the traveling to get the body from one place to another. Feet are down in the dirt and the ditches getting the soldier across the battlefield. Feet help support and hold up the body. Feet are used to kick Satan in the face or a stubborn brother in the pants. Feet are under a lot of weight and pressure. Feet sometimes get stepped on by others or poked with thorns. Feet seem disgusting and unsightly to some people. Feet can be broken or twisted. Feet need washing and care and protection. Feet are just one of the many parts of the body with a job to do - and that job is not to be propped up on the couch all the time doing nothing. 

At first glance, it seems almost conceited to think that I might be likened to the feet of the body of Christ, His church. Feet are important, and they might even be considered one of the more important parts of the body. I must be full of myself! That's the wrong viewpoint though. 1 Corinthians 12 tells us that all parts of the body are important and rely on one another to function as a whole.

If I'm the feet, then I have the responsibility to keep moving so the hands can reach out and touch the needy and the ears can listen to the cries of the hurting and the eyes can see where The Lord is leading. We all have to work together as the church in our different but equally important roles. So let's get up off the couch and get walking! 

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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. And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; or again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." (1 Corinthians 12:18-21 NASB)