Sad News from Africa

We got some sad news today. We do not know the families involved, but this is the mission group we worked with in Nairobi. Last week (8/1) an AIM-Air (Africa Inland Mission air branch) plane crashed. They were on a photo tour of the city, not even a missionary type trip, right in Nairobi, and somehow hit power lines. The pilot died on the scene and we just got word that the other AIM-air person (a mechanic) in the plane died this week. He was in Nairobi National Hospital, but his wounds were so bad, they airlifted him to Johannesburg. His wife was getting ready to leave for Johannesburg when they got news that he had died. If you don't mind keeping the families of Ryan Williams and Frank Toews in your thoughts & prayers, I know the families could use those. This is the first time that AIM has ever lost anyone in a plane crash.

While we don't know the families, it tugs at our hearts. We were there doing the same thing. We were in the jungle in the middle of Africa (if you can find Lodja, Democratic Republic of Congo on a map, you will see it's nearly smack-dab in the center) and Phil flew a plane for six months all around that country. He flew with engine problems once. He flew over Kikwit, the village that had the outbreak of Ebola in 1995, right when the outbreak was making news. We had a snake in the house, army ants in our bungalow, and spiders bigger than anything I'd ever seen. We then lived in Nairobi for six months where "roads" are created out of sidewalks if the driver becomes impatient, and walking people have to run for their lives. We rode on a motorcycle through a city with more potholes than pavement. We were blessed with a new life inside of me but went through scares when she didn't seem to want to stay put. Through all of this God protected us, and we can only wonder at why He kept us safe and why these men were taken. That isn't ours to know. As a song says, "God is God and I am not." We can't know His ways, but we can trust that He does have a plan & purpose through all of this.

Thanks for joining us in praying for these families.