GuhBahYou

The other day, Travis was looking at my web site, and he clicked on the map, only to discover that he could zoom all over Thailand and look at things. This may not sound like an earth shattering event, but it did turn out to be! You see, he found the school here, and started looking at what is around us. As he was gazing at the school from outer space, he noticed that there is a huge sandy beach just around the bend from the school, right next to the river. That got him to thinking, and pretty soon he dashed out the door and down the path towards the river.An excited Travis soon came bounding back up the stairs, and enthusiastically told me that there was a huge, flat, hard beach that would make a perfect runway just down the river a couple hundred feet from the property here. He soon had talked to all the necessary people to get permission to use it as a landing strip, and that is how the fun began!Yesterday, the airplane enthusiasts told me that this morning at 9 a.m. they would fly that plane down at the beach. I did not say anything, but I could not help but wonder if Travis really shouldn’t wait until he had finished flight school before attempting to fly that plane. It sounded reasonable to me anyway… He only had a few hours of air time with the trainer so far. Do I sound like a Mom?This morning as I was cleaning house, Inge came over with the same concern that I had. Maybe the guys should not take off until they had finished their flight training. After all, it might be dangerous.(She sounds like a Mom too!) True, it did seem really providential that we had found a great landing strip so close to home, so we decided to pray about it. We had just barely got up off our knees when we heard engines in the distance. We both dashed to the railing to see, and low and behold, it was a little red airplane way up in the sky! The plane soon swooped over our house, and Inge and I both grabbed our little girls, and the cameras and quickly made our way towards where we thought we might be able to get to the beach. We wanted to be sure to see the landing, and make sure that nobody was killed.In order to get to the right part of the river, we had to walk down through the neighbor’s property. I was surprised to see a LOT of people over there, they were talking excitedly and looking now and then towards the river as if they were expecting something. When they saw Inge and me, they said Guhbahyou and pointed the way to where we could get down to the river. When we got there, we found the plane already safely on the ground, with one very happy looking group of people surrounding it. All of our IMM students were there watching the proceedings intently. Of course, the one with the biggest grin was Travis.The plane looked unscathed, and so did Travis, so I believe that our prayers for safety had been answered. He nearly took out the camera man, Michael, upon landing, but did not manage to actually hit him. I guess his landing skills need a bit more work… but he did not crash! He does say that he needs to gain a bit of weight since he was not heavy enough to keep the nose of the plane in the right position...he is rather skinny.Travis tells me that people were running out of their houses to see him fly around. School children and teachers poured out of the buildings when he flew over, and the soldiers across the way told him that he can land at their ball field anytime he wants. (I think they wanted to see the plane up close) When he went to town this afternoon, he found that word of the incredible plane had already reached to every check point and gathering place along the way. People are so excited, and are trying to figure out how they can build their own guhbahyous! The school in town wants Travis to come and show the students the plane. You have to remember that nearly all of the people around here have never seen a plane this close before, usually they are just a spec way up in the sky.We can clearly see the hand of God in this whole experience. We did not ask for a plane, we did not even think about using one here, since we did not think that it was really possible. But, God has opened the way one step at a time, and He has made it clear that this is His project. We are just praising the Lord to be able to be a small part in finishing His work. Ellen White states that we will be amazed at the simple methods that God will use to finish the work. Do you suppose that a little ultra light airplane could be one of those simple methods? We are inclined to think so!