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Needing a good night’s sleep

Missionary pilot Brian Pruett knew his next day was going to be a long one, and the evening was not going well.

In the morning he was going to fly missionaries Chris and Lynn Strange to a Banwaon village in the Philippines. He was to stay with them there until they were ready to head out later in the day. With a front moving in, he anticipated nasty weather and the stress that brings to flying.

As Brian and his wife Bailey were unwinding before going to bed, one of their children got sick.

“We cleaned her up, changed her bedding and held her on the couch in the living room,” Brian wrote. “I had to start thinking, ‘If this continues I'll be in no shape to be flying in the morning.”

Their daughter seemed OK, but as they were putting her to bed she was sick again.

“While I was taking her clothes and other dirty stuff to the laundry room Bailey gathered her own pillow and things for the night,” Brian wrote. “She knew that if I had to help in the night it would mean I'd have to cancel the flight and the Stranges, who had waited a long time to be reunited with their tribal friends, would have to wait for another opportunity.

“It wasn't even a discussion. Bailey barricaded herself in the bedroom, and I got a good night's sleep and woke up fresh for the flight.”

When Brian reached the village airstrip the next day, he called Bailey on the radio to let her know he was landing soon. What he didn’t know was that when he called his daughter was sick again.

“Bailey stayed at the radio, mess and all, until I was on the ground and safe. I had no idea anything had happened until I got home later that afternoon,” Brian wrote.

“It was never more clear … that I can't do this job without her, and the missionaries can't do their jobs like they do now without her,” Brian wrote.

Pray for safety for missionary pilots, and thank God for the perseverance and faithfulness He has given their wives and the many others who stand behind them.

Tags: Aviation, Mission News, Prayer, Banwaon People, Philippines,
POSTED ON Apr 28, 2011 by Ian Fallis
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