Sunday, December 24, 2006
A Timely Reminder
I found this in my Christian Missions book and thought it was a good reminder for all of us:
"Mission pilots, as did all missionaries, made many personal sacrifices for their profession. The Christmas story of Bernie May, a pilot for Wycliffe Bible Translators before he became the U.S. director, illustrates this. Three days before Christmas he had delivered emergency medical supplies to a remote village in the Amazon jungle. He had landed his pontoon plane safely on the river, and with the cargo unloaded, he set up a make-shift shelter for the night. But during the night it began raining, and the rain continued, leaving him in the jungle, wallowing in self-pity, as he later recalled:
–Ruth A. Tucker, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya
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"Mission pilots, as did all missionaries, made many personal sacrifices for their profession. The Christmas story of Bernie May, a pilot for Wycliffe Bible Translators before he became the U.S. director, illustrates this. Three days before Christmas he had delivered emergency medical supplies to a remote village in the Amazon jungle. He had landed his pontoon plane safely on the river, and with the cargo unloaded, he set up a make-shift shelter for the night. But during the night it began raining, and the rain continued, leaving him in the jungle, wallowing in self-pity, as he later recalled:
It was Christmas Eve and night was descending on the jungle. There was no way I could get back home. Back in Pennsylvania, my folks would have returned from church and Mother would be getting the turkey ready. Outside the snow would be falling… In Yarinachcha, six hours away, Nancy and the boys would be sitting at home alone. They knew by now, because I had been able to radio back that I was stuck in the jungle. I would not be with them for Christmas.
'Oh God,' I moaned, 'I’m in the wrong place.' … That night, under my mosquito net I had a visitation from God—something like those shepherds must have had on the hills of Bethlehem. There were no angels, and no bright light. But as I lay there in my hammock, desperately homesick, I felt I heard God say: 'My son, this is what Christmas is all about. Jesus left heaven and on Christmas morning He woke up in the ‘wrong place’—a stable in Bethlehem. Christmas means leaving home, not going home. My only begotten Son did not come home for Christmas—He left his home to be with you.'"
–Ruth A. Tucker, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya
Labels: Holidays
