Pilot - Again and Again and Agaijn
Steffan (r.) with the Seth Sanford family.
Every family working in a remote and isolated setting loves a pilot who shows he cares about them. When Steve (now CEO of Ethnos360) and Sharon Sanford worked with a remote people group in a South American country in the 2000s, Steffan Pyle was one of the pilots who flew for them.
The Sanford family. Seth is on the left.
Steffan was the kind of pilot who would interact, sit down and talk, have lunch with them at their house, and even at times intentionally end his day at their location to spend the evening watching a favorite movie together. Steve and Sharon considered Steffan a close friend, and so did their three preteen/early teen boys, one of whom was named Seth.
When the Sanfords were about to be expelled from the people group among whom they served, the people were distraught. And how would they keep growing as believers? But the Sanfords had to leave, though their work was far from done. Steffan, in a Cessna 206, came to take them out for the very last time.
Steffan unloading the precious cargo.
On that last flight, Steffan brought copies of the newly printed book of Titus. Paul’s teaching to Titus was just what the leading believers needed to continue providing godly oversight of the church. With those Scriptures in their hands, the people were no longer worried about the missionaries leaving. As Steffan unloaded the booklets, the people stood around reading them. And, because they had never practiced reading silently in their literacy classes, they all read out loud!
After pilot Steffan and his wife, Julie, were also forced to leave the South American country, they and their family transferred to the field of Indonesia. Steffan flew the Ethnos360 Aviation’s Kodiak and also Bell helicopters owned by another mission. When they left Indonesia to settle their children in the USA, Steffan and Julie weren’t done with missions. They went on loan for a number of years to Moody Aviation in Spokane, WA, with Steffan training future mission pilots and Julie doing administrative work.
Several years later, with the empty nest soon upon them, Steffan and Julie realized they could return overseas. Steffan still had some “flight” in him. So, they signed up to go to Papua New Guinea. And that’s where their past came to meet them.
A recent flight connected them back to the Sanford family. Steve and Sharon’s son Seth now works as a church planter among the Konomala people group in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. In the past, Seth and his wife, Kaitlyn, and their three girls were able to use roads to get to a larger town and fly back to the mainland. But now, roads have deteriorated, bridges are washed out, and they must rely on the helicopter to take them in and out of the village.
Who should be their pilot for a recent supply flight but Steffan Pyle! Seth wrote: “Great moment with Steffan today. We only had a minute to chat, but he’s as genuine
and kind as I remember him 20 years ago. His faithfulness is a true encouragement.”
Ethnos360 Aviation is grateful for pilots, mechanics, church planters and other personnel – as well as you who pray, give, encourage and volunteer – who have hearts to faithfully go the “long haul” together to reach isolated people groups with the gospel.