Life for missionary pilot Jim Stewart and his wife, Kris, has taken some bizarre twists in Senegal.
"While we were at our friend's house on Christmas day, a huge sheep fell off of the neighbor's second story roof and landed in our friend's yard." wrote Kris. "There were comments made the rest of the day about having falling sheep instead of falling snow for Christmas."
Without a better place in the city to keep their livestock, people in Dakar will sometimes keep a sheep for sacrificing on their roof.
But sheep aren't the only animals that have encroached upon the Stewart's lives.
"Jim found kittens inside the wing of the plane," Kris wrote. "Thankfully, this was before he took off instead of after he had landed."
Other pilot concerns that keep life interesting for Jim and Kris are postal problems and the lack of aviation fuel.
"Jim needed a plane part from the [USA] and the company made a mistake and shipped the part to Dakar, South Africa (there is no such place) instead of to Senegal," wrote Kris. "The second part was ordered and arrived the same day as the part that had been sent to South Africa.
"There hasn't been any [aviation fuel] available in Senegal for the last couple of months," wrote Kris. "And last Friday, Jim used up the last of his reserve … We weren't sure if there would be fuel to do a scheduled flight this coming Friday."
The missionaries were pleased to find out a few days later that fuel was back in the country and the flight could be made.
Despite falling sheep, misplaced kittens, wayward parts and fuel shortages, Jim and Kris will continue to faithfully man the skies over Senegal. They know how important it is.
Isolated in remote locations, tribal church-planting missionaries have to depend on airplanes to meet their physical needs so they can focus on meeting the spiritual ones. So Jim will keep right on flying.
Pray for wisdom and safety for this dedicated pilot as he does his part in bringing the Gospel to the people of Senegal.
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