Tuesday missionaries placed Beni, an ill Morop teenager, in a helicopter sent by Helimission and the boy is now at the hospital receiving medical treatment.
But making the decision caused missionaries to ask difficult questions which weighed more than just Beni's life and eternal destiny.
"We've never been in a position like that before," wrote Ray Milton. "When you put a human life on one side of the scale what do you put on the other?"
The risk of exposing the pilot and his crew to disease, the monetary cost of the flight and hospital for a boy who had refused medical help, as well as the ultimate effect on their ministry should the boy die were all weighed.
"I cannot even begin to tell you how stressful this has been for our team," wrote Jim Elliott. "It is a day-to-day battle in here. But God has given us peace in this decision."
Ray, Jim and a few others brought Beni out on a stretcher and strapped him into his seat as the sounds of mourning and wailing surrounded the helicopter. Beni's family doesn't know if they will ever see him again.
"We can't offer them reassurance that they will, nor yet offer them hope if he doesn't come back," wrote Ray. "How clear that what is needed is the hope of our Savior!"
After the helicopter took off the people surged forward as the crying and wailing grew stronger. They moved as if to follow the helicopter flying away down the valley. Then slowly the wailing faded and the people returned home.
"Beni is precious in God's sight and He could have healed him on the spot," Ray wrote. "But God often uses us weak vessels as instruments to glorify Him. This may show the people God's love for them through us or it may just be His way of growing us through this very stressful situation."
Please pray that Beni will grow stronger and receive the medicine necessary to make him well. Pray also for the Morop people that they will one day be able to understand the hope that lies in Christ.
"Someday," wrote Ray, "we will be able to speak their language and share this wonderful news so that they will no longer have to mourn and wail."
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