PostScript: The End of The Beginning

From the desk of Jonathan Hartness, Peru Team Member:

Hope, to me, is a paradox.  As a pilot, I hold dear the creed, "There is no room for hope in aviation."  It simply means that if the weather ahead is poor, a pilot does not hope that the weather will improve.  We land and wait for the weather to pass or we fly somewhere else.

If the aircraft just completed a maintenance check, a pilot does not hope that the plane is in a good condition to fly.  We inspect it carefully before flight.  We must not assume, but take action to control everything that we can, and leave nothing to chance.

This philosophy bleeds over to my non-aviation life, too.

Yet Hebrews 11 tells us, "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see."  So if I do not hope, do I have faith?

Psalms, likewise has countless references to placing our hope in the Lord.

So I am in conflict.  How much to try to control?  How much do I place in God's hands?  Our Savior came that we may have life, and know the Father intimately.  And that we know how much He cares for us.  And that we can hope in Him.

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Our Team is back in Greensboro.  We are all back to work, Mike returned from the Andes, Steve recovered from his illness, and we are in our normal routines. 

We feel so fortunate to have spent time with the families working in the Pucallpa area.  I am grateful that our Lord set up a church whose purpose it is to send out workers into a field of harvest.  And I get to be a part of that church.  That is a true honor.

Sometime this summer and again during our Fall Global Celebration, several of the SAMAIR missionaries may visit Westover.  I hope they do.  I hope more people here at home meet these new friends.

And for our Team, I hope that the five of us still serve together.  I hope we dare to allow God to use us in a way we cannot imagine.  We may travel thousands of miles, or across Muirs Chapel Road.  We may complete a project together that changes the course of history, or we may paint a wall that no one will ever notice.  Regardless, I found four brothers that I can count on.

Winston Churchill said in 1942, "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

So what's my role?  What do I do now?  Pray.  Share the Gospel.  Tell other Christians about what SAM and SAMAIR are doing in Peru.  And hope.