Psalm 67: Reaching the Nations Through Mission Aviation (Interview with Bob Schwartz)

Every Christian has a role in taking the gospel to the world. In this message from Psalm 67, Pastor Chris Teien interviews veteran missionary Bob Schwartz about how God uses aviation, mechanical skills, and faithful servants to help missionaries reach people who have never heard the name of Jesus.

Psalm 67 reminds us that God blesses His people so they can become a blessing to the nations. This interview explores the importance of world missions, the unique ministry of missionary aviation, and how every believer can participate in God's global mission through their gifts, prayers, generosity, and faithful service.

In This Message:

1. God Blesses His People to Bless the Nations

God's blessings are never meant to stop with us. This message explains how every believer has been entrusted with gifts, abilities, and opportunities that can be used to make Christ known both locally and around the world. (Psalm 67:1-2; Genesis 12:2-3; Titus 2:11)

2. Every Christian Has a Part in the Great Commission

Missionary aviation helps overcome barriers that prevent missionaries from reaching remote people groups. Through Bob Schwartz's testimony, this interview demonstrates how God uses mechanics, pilots, churches, and faithful supporters together to advance the gospel where it has never been heard. (Psalm 67:3-5; Matthew 28:18-20; Revelation 7:9)

3. Faithful Obedience Creates Eternal Impact

God often prepares His people through ordinary experiences before opening unexpected doors for ministry. This message encourages believers to faithfully use their skills, trust God's leading, and invest their lives in work that advances His kingdom and brings glory to Christ. (Psalm 67:6-7; John 4:35-38; 2 Corinthians 9:11)

Takeaway

God has uniquely gifted you to serve His kingdom. Whether you go, send, pray, give, or use your vocational skills, faithfully invest your life in helping more people hear the good news of Jesus Christ.

Illustrations

• Comparing the world to a birthday cake with only part of the frosting illustrates how much of the world's population still lacks meaningful access to the gospel.

• Missionary flights that reduce three-day journeys to just a few hours demonstrate how aviation accelerates the spread of the gospel.

• Bob Schwartz's journey from an automotive student to training missionary aviation mechanics illustrates how God prepares ordinary believers for extraordinary ministry.

Key Quotes

"God has blessed us so that we can bless others."

"We can be consumers of God's blessings or conveyors of God's blessings."

"Focus on Christ and what He's done for us."

Search Topics

missions, missionary aviation, Psalm 67, Great Commission, world missions, evangelism, MMS Aviation, Bob Schwartz, Christian service, Pastor Chris Teien

Full Episode & Transcript:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2285086/episodes/17611935

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Helping you apply God's Word and follow Jesus in everyday life. Learn more at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.church  Find episode transcripts at Well.faith 

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:16

I'm gonna read from Psalm 67 and Bob can come on up here and take a seat. Psalm sixty seven, the choir director, a song, a psalm to be accompanied by string instruments. May God be merciful and bless us. May his face smile with favor on us. May your ways be known throughout the earth, your saving power among people everywhere. May the nations praise you, O God. Yes, may all the nations praise you. Let the whole world sing for joy, because you govern the nations with justice and guide the people of the whole world. May the nations praise you, O God, yes, may all the nations praise you. Then the earth will yield its harvests, and God our God will richly bless us. Yes, God will bless us, and people all over the world will fear him. Psalm 67.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Did you know that 600 million people don't have the Bible in their own language? Over 3 billion people have few, if any, identifying Christians in their people groups. That's 41% of the world's population. Let's put it this way: everyone loves cake, right? So let's think of the world as a birthday cake and let's consider the gospel of the frosting. If that was the case, only 59% of the cake would have frosting on it. That's a terrible cake. However, it's not so easy spreading the frosting to the rest of the cake. Over 1 billion people have no access to all season roads, making ground transportation slow, dangerous, and at times completely impossible. Even when roads are available, bandits, bad bridges, flooding, mudslides, and nearly impassable roads can make transportation dangerous, difficult, and very, very slow. If a missionary can't get to a tribe, he obviously can't take the gospel to it. But what we need is a better way to get missionaries to the tribe that they need to reach. Um, hello, airplanes. While missionary aviation can't solve every problem on the mission field, it does provide a solution to many of the transportation problems. Missionary aviation links people in need with people who can help. Even a small airplane can cruise from 140 to 160 miles an hour and flies in a straight line over obstacles to its destination, saving valuable time. Brian Shepson is a pilot with MAF International. He took an informal survey among the missionaries he flew to see how much time they saved flying versus driving. Missionary number one said it takes him 10 hours on the ground versus a one-hour and 10-minute flight. Missionary number two said it takes him 11 hours on the ground versus a 48-minute flight. Missionary number three said it takes him 72 hours on the ground. That's almost three days versus a two-hour and ten-minute flight. That's around a 90% reduction in traveling time.

SPEAKER_03 3:51

Both of the helicopters that Mercier operates presently. There are Airbus Helicopters Ace350 B2s. Both of them went through MMS Aviation. MMS Aviation was absolutely instrumental and of tremendous help in getting this done. The skill level that is represented at MMS is truly amazing.

SPEAKER_04 4:19

Are you called to transform lives, expand God's kingdom, and shape eternity? This is what MMS Aviation has done since 1975. We prepare people and planes for worldwide missionary service. We do not pay salaries or provide benefits. Your brothers and sisters in Christ will do this for you. However, should you desire mission-specific, real-life experience that blends your passion for aviation with your devotion to Jesus Christ, spending a season with us might be something to consider. There are more missionary aircraft to repair than we can schedule. There are opportunities for flight operations with partner missions. And we have open slots on our team. The work is not glamorous, the conditions may not be easy. And most of the action does take place behind the scenes. Whether behind a desk, behind a control yoke, or behind a wrench. Consider us your gateway to long-term effective service on the mission field. We want our experience to become your reality. Let us invest our lives in yours so you can invest your life in others. Our hangar doors are open.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Well, Lisa's there. So Bob is a member of this church you want to tell us about your background and oh sure.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

So this church wasn't yet built when I came here. My parents have moved to the range when I was in college. And let me back up even further. How did I get involved in this thing anyway? I I'd worked at Trout Lake Camp. Previous to that, I was I would watch the people there working on different projects, and I really loved doing things with my hands. And then when I ended up at Bethel, all my friends went there, so I did too. And they have a student missionary program. And I thought, well, I'm not really missionary material, but I was kind of tired of camp. I wanted a break from camp, and so I I applied to the student missionary program, and they accepted me. Now I was really surprised because I wasn't a preacher, I wasn't a teacher, I was a fixer. And that's when I came here. I mean, my family lived here, my dad ran the what used to be the Mr. Stake, some of you are him. And it was this church forty-six years ago that sent me out this summer. And so when I called Pastor Chris a couple weeks, months ago, I said, I just want to come back and say thank you. Forty-six years ago. And uh boy, what a marvelous ride it's been since then.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Psalm 67 verse one. May God be merciful and bless us. May his face smile with favor on us, and may your ways be known throughout the earth. May your saving power among people everywhere. When it comes to mercy, God's blessing moves us to care about the world. We all have these opportunities. Maybe we're not missionary aviation experts, but maybe we're probably an expert in something. You all have skills. I'm always amazed at who in the church has different kinds of skills. I've met some amazing people with amazing skills, and God can use that as a bridge to reach your neighbors, the community, and the world with Jesus Christ. And so it's exciting to hear of people that have grown up in the church or gone out from the church to serve in an amazing way. And as we, you know, think about okay, he trains missionary mechanics to get ready to go be me to for missions, which is tough. There's a spiritual battle involved in missions. It's not, you know, just easy. There's an added dimension of spiritual warfare that goes with it. But when we think about all that the Lord has done and what God has done in our lives and his mandate for us to reach the world for Christ, this niche that missionary aviation has is absolutely amazing. And so I want to encourage you while you sit there and you think about this guy is amazing. I wish I had skills like that. I would do something for God. Instead, think about what you do have and what you can do and who you can reach and the amazing things that happen. So when you think about this verse, this passage, this topic, Bob, what what comes to mind?

SPEAKER_02 8:52

I mean, as you think about God blesses us and God is so merciful and so gracious to us. And years ago I saw this presentation, it was called Dog and Cat Theology. Dog and Cat Theology, they look at theology from a dog and a cat's perspective. And the dog says to his master, Oh, you love me, you feed me, you care for me, you must be God. The cat says, You love me, you feed me, you care, care for me, I must be God. And in our culture today, it's almost like we see God and his mercy and his grace as a means to an end. As if he exists for our happiness. Now he does. I mean, there's nothing happier than someone that's following Christ and living living that truth. The truth that God has provided for us, that God cares for us, that God has lavished on us the lives that we have now, is it easy? No, it's not easy. We still live in a sinful world, but the promises he has for us that we can rest in him, that we can trust in you, then instead of being consumers of his blessings, we can be conveyors of his blessings. We can convey that to other people. God has blessed us so that we can bless others. And he said that to Abraham back in in Genesis chapter 12, blessing Abraham so that he can be a blessing to the nations. And that's what we want to be. That's what we try to be. That's what we live for. To trust in Christ, to thicken thin so that we can represent him to the world.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

That's great. So I'm going to read three scripture verses that apply to this, and I'm going to ask you three questions that you've already that we already gave you. So Titus 2.11 says, For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. And when we watched the video, we saw how missionaries can reach different people groups and to spread the gospel to all people is an amazing feat to be to be able to do that. Isaiah 49.6 said, says, It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. And God cares about all people of all nations all around. And then finally, like he mentioned, 2 Corinthians 9 11 says, Yes, about giving. You will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when you take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. So blessing leads to generosity, and generosity leads to praise. And when you give to this church, you help support this ministry and Bob and Lisa, because it looks like everybody there doesn't get a paycheck, they just get support from it's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

Churches like you, individuals, they fund, they provide our livelihood. So when we work on a missionary aircraft, we don't need to try to charge those organizations a fee for our labor. So a dozen years ago or so, during a tough economic time, someone asked our president, Well, during these tough economic times, you get enough work. And with his Kentucky drawl, he said, Well, when you work for free, you get all the work you can handle. So one of the quotes there, we have lots of aircraft that are ready to come to us to be to be repaired. And then Lisa and I would oversee the training that we provide to qualify for the FA license.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

All right. Can you share a moment when you sense God's blessing or direction that led you into this unique ministry of training, missionary aviation mechanics, and ever maybe pilots and whoever else?

SPEAKER_02 12:32

Yeah, yeah. So when when you all sent me out here uh 46 years ago, I went to Alaska and I'd been I'd finished a degree at Bible at Bethlehem and then a Bible degree, and then I came here and and I thought I ought to put it to work. And so there was some single people here like Jerry Tucker who were part of that, and then we just lots of lots of history there. But I went to Alaska to be a mechanic. I was trained at the Votec here and trained in automotive. But when you go way out like that, you're working on everything from excavators to chainsaws. And then I became the Dean of Students of Alaska Bible College, and then I became the college pilot. About halfway through, God brought Lisa out there and we married. But when she was pregnant with our first with our son, she developed uh a dis autoimmune disease which necessitated us leaving Alaska. And so it was never on my radar. We came back to the states and then found out about this organization in Ohio because they'd overhauled an engine on an airplane that I flew, and so for the last 20 years we've been doing what we do now of training these mechanics. And so I kind of lost your question there.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

You're doing great. You're doing great.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

But yeah, God has just been so faithful, had had no idea. If you would have told me in high school I'd be doing what I was doing today, I wouldn't have believed it. But God has been very faithful.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

Alright, so tell us about your students. How have you seen God's blessing not just enrich your life but open doors to others to experience his saving power?

SPEAKER_02 14:00

I I'd see some of these videos that you found online, but that one with the sketch, is it it's really creative, and that was done by one of the guys that we trained. His picture was there briefly, he was sitting at a computer. But to see these guys come to us in maybe minimal skill level, and I I'm able to supervise and oversee. I don't I'm not the main trainer, I just kind of I oversee it, do some of it. But to see them come to our level and then to go beyond, those guys that we train become a lot better mechanics than we are, and it's just thrilling to see how God works in people's lives like that.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

That's great. And okay, so moving to the next verse. Verse three. May the nations praise you, O God. Yes, may all the nations praise you. Let the whole world sing for joy because you govern the nations with justice and God the people of the whole world. May the nations praise you, O God. Yes, may all the nations praise you. So, number two, mission: help people near and far know God's will and experience joy. And when you look in the book of Revelation, you see that it says, After this, I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne in the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. And we look at Psalm 67, and everything points forward to this time when people of all nations and all languages will be praising the Lord. And what a what a great time. And to think about the investment that goes into missions so that people from different tribes and languages and people groups can come to Christ, a sacrifice that is made. I have a feeling you could probably make a lot of money and you're fixing normal airplanes, but you choose to serve the Lord and put him first, and that is an awesome investment of your life. And it's admirable, and we are so glad that we support you and pray for you. And so, what is one story where you saw people respond with joy because of the arrival or service of a missionary plane or a mechanic or a pilot or in preparing for this?

SPEAKER_02 16:17

I looked, got on the computer last night, and I found something I watched before. It's called the The Kim Yal tribe, K-I-M-Y-A-L tribe. If you look at it on YouTube, you'll find it. But it's a video that they produced in 2020 of the Kim Yal people of Papua receiving the first New Testament. And so you see this airplane, and a Mayo airplane flying it in, and then you see the excitement and the joy and the exuberance, and then they they interview a number of these believers from the Kim Yal tribe. And and it's just a remarkable thing. I recommend that you that you look at that, that you find that. Because they were so entrapped in Satan's negativity and oppression and spirit worship and fear. And so you can see the joy on their faces, you can you can hear them speak of how they've been set free, how they've been released because of the scriptures, because of Christ. And that's just a remarkable video that I that I highly recommend.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

So, with that then, what about the people that you're training? So, where do they find their joy? Did they find their joy when they actually get something fixed or when they hear back of what the results were when like you just shared this? But how do how what causes the people at MMS to throw a party and praise God?

SPEAKER_02 17:35

We are really happy when an airplane goes out the door. And and it gets and it gets done. That we we we will gather around it, we'll pray and pray for that ministry as it as it leaves. As our we call them apprentices, and as they finish, we are excited about that, and then as they come back, the young man that did the sketch, the pencil sketch, he is now back with us. His wife, I don't know if she delivered yet, but she was going to deliver their fourth child, and she had a great experience the last delivery, and they're on their furlong, so they're back with us. But they had a very challenging time in a culture, in a language, in an area that is totally foreign. And so one of the things that Lisa and I are looking forward to doing in the coming weeks is be able to meet with them and encourage them and hopefully prepare them to go back to that very difficult place. But it's a it's a joy they they they do air ambulance in in Indonesia, where the airplane goes out and finds the patients, brings them to the hospital, and then they've shared videos when they go back to the hospital and they visit some of those patients. So that's where they find joy. Obviously, we like to see the airplane go, but when we see that the gospel is going forward, when we see that the work of Christ is going forward because of because of what we've done using the aircraft that we've worked on or someone that we've trained, it's a it's a very joyful thing.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

This is totally off script, but say I find a like an electrician mechanic or someone from Cirrus over there in Duluth and they're excited about following Jesus, and I say I know a guy, and I send him your way. What what does the process look like? What is he gonna learn?

SPEAKER_02 19:13

Well, a guy from if a guy's already trained in Cirrus, we'd probably put him right to work. Matter of fact, we have a good friend that works at Cirrus and and and we we talk a lot about that kind of thing. To to become a mechan an airplane mechanic, there's two different courses of action. There are two ways that the FA is authorized. That one is to go to a certified school, and the other one is to go through an apprenticeship. And an apprenticeship, it takes 30 months, and so our program is 30 months long. So when someone comes to us, they uh well let's let's not take the serious example. Let's take someone off the street that doesn't know anything about it, which we is usually what we get. Someone that just feels like, hey, I I I want to do this, and sometimes they hardly know which end of the hammer to hold on to. Maybe I should say screwdriver, we don't use hammers a lot. But they enter the program and we take them through just some of the basic training, and then we put them on put them on aircraft and they're getting experience working on airplane. So yeah, we we have a couple couple young ladies that are now in the process and and and it's gonna be exciting, exciting to see what happens to them. You saw a picture on on the screen of of Jenny. I don't know if you remember Jenny, she had the blue shirt, reddish hair. She she has a manic mechanical engineering degree, but she wanted she got tired of driving a computer, and so she came to us and we met with her, and she she decided she wanted to do that, and so she trained with us, and her dad was an emergency room doctor, and her mom was housewife. But I remember them sitting in my office and tears running down his face, concerned about the where welfare of his of his young single daughter. And I said to him, Danny, it's hard for us to imagine, but God loves and cares for your daughter even more than you do. And he's got a good plan for her. Well, she went through the apprenticeship, and at some point I was trying to teach her something about magnetos, which is the anyway, the ignition system of the airplane, and asked her if she understood it. And I got the glassy-eyed nod, which means she didn't have a clue. And so I talked to our chief inspector. I said, Dennis, do you have an old engine that you could just take apart with Jenny and and meticulously oh yeah. Now Dennis was he's kind of rough with the guys, but very gentle with the girls. And so he did. He took this engine all apart and meticulously showed her how each little thing worked, put it all back together and put some oil and fuel in it, and then stood back and said, Okay, Jenny, start it up. And she said, All right, it's got a bank. She said, Do you mean it'll run? He said, Of course it will, you just put it together. Well, she's been on now, she overhauls engines, and she does she is now the director of maintenance in our shop. So I would oversee the training component, but she oversees the airplane component. And so it it's it's thrilling for me to work side by side with someone like that whose caliber far expensive. Exceeds mine, and I just can have a little piece and say, Oh, God gave me the opportunity to pour into this brilliant music. And now she's doing great things. Yeah, she runs circles around me now. So that's fun.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

So you explain how you could take somebody that had no skills and possibly train them up. Is there someone in the organization that takes care of the spiritual component that trains them up to be missionary aviation?

SPEAKER_02 22:40

That would be kind of us as well, but it's it's very organic. Thirty months is a long time. And if we were to extend the program longer, we'd be just afraid that people wouldn't people wouldn't come. And so we try to the ladies do things. We have a devotion time every Wednesday morning, and I lead that or I oversee that with our team. We decide probably a year ago now, maybe over a year, that each person is going to share on a song. Because we don't want just people that are fixing airplanes. When one of our team members goes overseas, they don't just want them to fix airplanes. They want them to be able to train others. They want them to be spiritual leaders, and so we've put it on our team. You will be leading the devotion. Some people are really uncomfortable with that. But I I'm working on that. We're we're coming up to Psalm 119. And I think what I'm going to do is break that into the different first sections. But that's something we do. We have fellowship in is once in a while. And a lot of people come to us already having some Bible training. So it's it's more organic. There's nothing really structured.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

That's good. We're coming up to Psalm 119 also in my Sunday school class. That starts after Labor Day. So you can sign up for that.

unknown 24:01

All right.

SPEAKER_02 24:01

Watch the videos and know how to do it.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

Yeah, yeah. All right. Psalm 67. I'm going the wrong way. Hang on a second. Momentum. Okay, then the earth will yield its harvest, and God, our God, will richly bless us. Yes, God will bless us, and people all over the world will fear him. And so momentum. God's global purpose advances through our obedience. You know, when we're faithful to show up, God often works through us. So many people say they can't, or God doesn't work, or God can't use them, but they're not faithful to show up. They're not faithful to start to participate. They're not faithful to say, well, let me try that. Let me try that new thing. And so Bob made it sound like if you didn't know the difference between a wrench and a screwdriver, that he could teach you how to fix mechanic, fix airplanes, which is there's all these teenagers are going to be headed your way. Someone's going to hear this and they're going to be like, hey, send them to Ohio. This guy will fix them. But the momentum of what God is doing. So the more that God has been faithful, the more that you show up and God works through you, the more that you see the fruit of your labors, the more excited you get to try new things and to keep moving forward. And life is a really interesting journey because sometimes God leaves us in a position long enough to give us a new skill that we wouldn't have had to make us useful for what he truly has for us. And when you talk about being the leader of a Bible college in Alaska and then heading, you know, for this position that you have now, it just seems like God had you in the wilderness preparing you for something that only a unique individual could do. And we all we need to pray for workers in the harvest. John 4 35, Jesus says, Don't you say there are still four months and then comes the harvest? Listen to what I'm telling you. Open your eyes and look at the fields because they are ready for harvest. The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. When we are able to, you know, we don't support you a ton, but when we're able to support missionaries, and then we hear them come back and tell of the victories they experience and the ministry that they're doing, and we see videos or hear stories about the effects of what's going on. We all receive benefits. I think that Jesus gives us commission on those investments and dividends on those investments. And that is an awesome thing. We're supposed to spread, as you know, because we say this all the time. We're supposed to talk about Jesus and spread Jesus through the world, the great commission, Matthew 28, 18. Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. When you get somebody that's willing to go preach the gospel, spread the gospel, to make disciples, but their problem is they can't get there. And then you hook them up with a pilot who has an airplane or a helicopter or some way for them to go where they need to go. That team effort can fulfill this great commission, and Jesus is honored and Jesus is glorified. And you may never preach overseas, you may never go to a third world country, but you can pray for MMS, you can pray for the missionaries, you can help fund the missionaries. There are so many things that you can do. So I'm just curious, Bob, what are some of the ways God has provided financially, spiritually, or practically during your ministry?

SPEAKER_02 27:38

You know, it's it's amazing to me. We we have never lacked. We've always there have been some lean times, but God has provided for us so marvelously and so many times. So we I mentioned that we we were in Alaska and then we had had to deal with sickness, and it was kind of a difficult time and in transition, and and so we got stuff to move, and all of a sudden, just when the truck arrived to load up our stuff, same time a group of men showed up to load it. And it's like, wow, that was amazing. But time and time and time and time again, he's gone before us, and just at the right moment he'll provide exactly what we need and and give us opportunities with people, and it's been I wouldn't say miraculous, but it's been very lazy. Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

So you have these apprentice students, you have these people out there, and they all need to raise support too, right?

SPEAKER_02 28:34

They do, and that's an that's an interesting phrase that we use all the time. You need to raise your own support. However, we believe that when God calls somebody into the ministry, he's already prepared the people to support. And so then really it's an at a matter of of discovering who God has already established to be your to be your partners. And and it it's uh all we have to do, what we do is we just go out and share the vision that's God given to us, what God has put on their hearts, and then allow God to lead the people to to to partner with him. And it's it's amazing. People just say, Yeah, I want to be involved in that. I really do. And so Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

So this is on YouTube and the audio is recorded, so please don't use names or specific circumstances. But what keeps you going when work is hard, expensive or slow, or full of spiritual warfare-based problems and conflicts?

SPEAKER_02 29:28

What keeps us going to know that Christ won. You know, Christ, God has this we don't understand it all the time because there's a lot of difficulties, a lot of hardship, a lot of pain. But God still got this. And we rest in that. We know that. And we trust Him to provide moment by moment the words to say, the things to do. It was very, very probably our greatest joy of the last number of years is having people from other countries in our home. We've trained a number of people from Africa, from both Kenya and Uganda, and they experience spiritual warfare very significantly, but it's almost like they expect it and they take it in stride. So their government is corrupt, but they say, but at least it's stable. Or at least it's conservative, or something something along that line. And so but when we have opportunity to rub shoulders with them and see the difficulties they go through, it really puts it in perspective and reminds us of what that Christ that Christ has it hasn't is in control.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

We have your prayer card and the stuff you send out in the missions cabinet over there. But just real quick for anybody that didn't read that, how can we be praying for you and what what's coming up? Is there anything exciting coming up that we can be praying about?

SPEAKER_02 30:51

Let's think. We have a trip to Alaska next week. We're gonna get done with this one, then we're gonna go up there. Our son was born there but has never been back, and now he's married, and so we've made arrangements to uh to visit there. So we'll be spending a week up there. We're looking forward to that. Hopefully we'll get a couple days of rest after this trip before that one. But that'll be fun to rub shoulders with people we knew up there. A number of our graduates from our program now are up there and a number of friends. So we're looking forward to that. In October, we are celebrating 50 years as an organization. And so both Lisa and I and others are really involved with planning for that, that event, and that's October 18th, I believe. So if y'all want to wander out to Ohio, we'll show you a good time. The family that I referred to earlier, the guy that drew the sketch, we're looking forward, hoping that we'll be able to spend some time with them debriefing their last term of service and then preparing them for the next. So we're we're by God's grace, we'll be able to do that. But it's not like we're gonna force it on them, we're gonna offer it to them. You know, we'd love to sit down and talk with you. We've done some training on debriefing and transition, and we'd love to share that with you. So you can be praying that this particular family will take advantage of that and meet with us and that God would be gracious and really prepare them for what's ahead. That would be one thing to remind. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 32:16

All right, so in your years of wisdom, if you had any last comments to say before it doesn't have to be about me, just to encourage the people here that probably don't fly planes or own helicopters or work on engines, anything that you would encourage them from Psalm 67 or just your your years of wisdom and experience before I pray and the worship team comes up here?

SPEAKER_02 32:39

Yeah, thanks. Yeah, Psalm 67 is is like is is is a psalm, it's a prayer, it's an encouragement to to to trust in this God that we know. I I just yesterday I was asked when we're in Alaska to share a devotional and I was thinking about what I was going to share. And I'm gonna I think I'm gonna go back to Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. I beseech ye therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, and then it goes on from there. But the most difficult thing probably for us is living sacrifices. I don't know who said it years ago. The problem with the living sacrifice is he keeps climbing off the altar. And we continue to have to deal with our own fleshly desires. What I want, we we continue to have to, okay, God, I'm gonna submit to your will, I'm gonna submit to your way. And that's sometimes a daily, if not an hourly thing that we have to do because our our flesh raises up and and I want my rights, and our culture supports all of that. So that would mean my biggest encouragement is focus on Christ and what he's done for us. Let that be the bedrock of your life, of your faith, and then just let him flow out.

SPEAKER_01 33:53

All right. If you're visiting and you don't know anything about this faith, we have some how to find God New Testaments on the table by the door there. We would love to talk to you about that. But I'm gonna pray and then the worship is gonna come up here. Lord Jesus, I just thank you so much for Bob and Lisa. I thank you that they came to visit us. I thank you that they came from here and went on into the world and are making a difference, that they're training leaders to be leaders to reach people around the world. God, I pray you'd provide everything that they need. I pray you'd bless them with health. I pray that when problems arise, conflict arises, and man asked that you would help Bob to have wisdom to make sure that these young apprentices get through this program in the midst of spiritual warfare and difficulty so that they can be used by you to make a difference in the world for the rest of their days. God, we pray that the gospel would be spread around the world using any means necessary. And we're thankful so much that we're able to help support MMS Aviation and Bob and Lisa Schwartz. So we just thank you for this time, and we thank you for it all in Jesus' name. Amen.