An Exciting Email From Troy Paul

I received an exciting email today. It seems Troy Paul, a prospective candidate I'd "recruited" for nearly two years was led to join a different ministry! So why should that excite me? For two reasons: 1) Because the ministry he joined and the role he will fill perfectly fits his natural gifts, and 2) MMS was a tool in God's hand in directing Troy to his true calling. I love it when that happens. Everyone at MMS desires to help others find their calling. If it's to MMS? Great. If it's to somewhere else and MMS can help discern that? Great! God is glorified either way.

Karen and I were blessed to host Troy in our home for a week in May. You can read that post and see a picture of Troy by clicking here. Would Troy have made a good missionary pilot/mechanic? We believe he would have. He'd purchased a plane, learned to fly, and certainly had the mechanical aptitude to be a competent mechanic. But as sometimes happens, God leads us in one direction to move is in another.

Just prior to Troy coming up, he and his wife were questioning the aviation part of their mission vision. While Troy was in the hangar, he talked with many of our guys, all of whom want one thing: to glorify God however He would choose to glorify Himself. In my time with Troy, I just listened to his heart and realized he was qualified to serve without taking another flight lesson or ever learning to be an airplane mechanic. All I did, with the help of the other MMSers he worked with and ate with and spoke with during his week with us, was provide him with some service options he hadn't considered and information to make some contacts he hadn't yet discovered. We talked, we prayed, and we rejoiced in God's faithfulness and grace leaving the revelation up to God.

Troy was seeking God's will the best he knew how by pursuing MMS and God, in his faithfulness, revealed His will to His faithful seeker by directing him somewhere else. It gives me chills to be reminded through this of how God's hand rests on MMS, our staff, and our apprentices. But not only that, His hand rests on everyone who comes into our hangar whether they are Believers or not. Whether someone is seeking His will, already serving in His will, or is a local aviator in a hurry to have us pump up his airplane tires so he can fly out for a $150 hamburger somewhere, God's hand rests on each one who enters our hangar. As Believers we are scripturally in his grip (John 10:27-29) and consequently need to be sensitive to His touch because we never know how, where or when we'll be enabled to make a God honoring difference in someone else's life.