Inspiring Story: The Highest Calling

This weeks inspiring story comes from the website of Mission Aviation Fellowship. (Nate Saint was a member of this organization in its early days.) The title was “Mission Aviation History to Hitch a Ride on the Space Shuttle: Astronaut Taking a Piece of Nate Saint’s Piper PA-14 on ‘Discovery.’” Here is an excerpt from the article:

Proving that space flight is not the highest calling for a pilot, astronaut Patrick Forrester is taking a bit of missionary history onboard space shuttle “Discovery,” which is scheduled for liftoff from Kennedy Space Center in the early morning hours of Aug. 28. The aim of the two-week orbital mission is to equip the International Space Station.

The item comes from martyred missionary pilot Nate Saint’s Piper PA-14, which is on display at the headquarters of MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) in Nampa, Idaho. Saint and four other missionaries were martyred on a sandbar in Ecuador on Jan. 8, 1956, by a tribe of Waodani Indians.

The incident sparked international news coverage and renewed interest in missionary service. Several of the tribesmen that killed Saint and the others were later converted to Christianity by relatives of the slain missionaries.

“Bringing attention to and renewing interest in missions would be a great result of this experience,” said Forrester, who was born in El Paso, Texas, the year after the martyrdoms. “My deepest intent is to honor Nate Saint, the Saint family and all missionaries around the world.”

Forrester heard about Saint and the other four missionary martyrs while attending a Steven Curtis Chapman concert. “He told the story of the missionaries who had gone down and had lost their lives,” Forrester recalled. “That story just fascinated me, and through that I heard of the book ‘Through the Gates of Splendor.’ That’s when I really first understood about MAF.”

As for himself, Forrester sees missions in his career flight plan. “We are all called to serve God in some manner,” Forrester said. “I have had the opportunity to participate in several short-term mission trips to Uganda, Canada, Puerto Rico and South Africa. Each time I have developed a heart for the people we served. I believe my wife and I will continue to serve in the mission field for the rest of our lives – whether it is at home or overseas, short-term or full-time.”

“Nate’s intent was to use the airplane to bridge the gap to those who have no contact with the outside world, and introduce them to a God who loves them,” said Jordan. “The shuttle allows us to explore the intricacies of the universe that reflects this loving God.”

You can watch Steven Curtis Chapman’s concert presentation here.

I think it is so neat how one person’s obedience to God has simply endless effects. It doesn’t even begin with Nate Saint! It goes back to his parents, and even further back than that. Nate Saint’s parents made a very good effort to bring their children up in the ways of God, and his older sister read to him missionary stories. When Nate experienced a severe childhood illness, he promised God that if He would heal him, he would turn over his whole life to Him. When Nate was a young man, he rededicated his life to God and set his sights on the mission field. When he found an Auca settlement, he accepted it as God’s leading to try to reach them. Even though danger and death were imminent, he decided to do what he knew God wanted him to do, leaving the results in His hands. Nate Saint did not die in Ecuador in 1956; he died several years before, when he devoted his whole being to God. But the effects of his obedience did not stop when he was called up to heaven; we still see the fruit being produced today. God is still using that story to draw people unto Himself; 53 years later, a piece of Nate’s primitive airplane is exploring the heavens with some of the most advanced technology known to man. The little PA-14 might not have made it to heaven with Nate, but it came pretty close!

For more Inspiring Stories, visit In Defense of the Christian Faith.