Please Pray

We wanted to quickly write and ask you all to join us in praying for a young missionary couple who passed away in a plane crash yesterday. Jay & Katrina Erickson were missionaries here in Zambia  and were responsible for flying to and from Chitokoloki Mission Hospital in NW Zambia. Please pray especially for their two little children (3 and 1) who are here in Zambia but not with them at the time of the crash. While we did not know the Ericksons personally, this story hit close to home as Brent Roberts and Luke briefly met Jay when they flew into Flying Mission's headquarters 10 days ago. Please take a moment and read a post Jay shared on his website back on April 20th. We hope it will touch you as it did us and be a source of encouragement for those redeemed in His blood. Equally we hope it will serve as a wake up call to us all that many are perishing and dying without every experiencing the love of Christ.  

Pondering Death  

Oddly enough, I (Jay) have been pondering the concept of death since arriving at Chitokoloki. Living next door to a bush hospital, we hear quite clearly the wails of mourning with each death. And these occur frequently, being about every other day. In addition, I have been reading through Israel’s wanderings through the wilderness and all the times God’s wrath was poured out such that each time thousands were consumed, bitten, swallowed, or otherwise perished. Still again, I have been reading Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis, which though a fictional work, deals philosophically with death. Even in eating meat here when I saw the creature alive that morning reminds me of the topic. I did not plan the correlation, but it caused me to think along these lines and realize again in a new way that there is nothing sad about the death of a Christian. The only sadness (and I do not intend to belittle this aspect) is in the loss of companionship by those left behind. And yet, to contrast this, the level of tragedy is so vast for the passing of an unbeliever. To borrow from physics, it seems the “equal and opposite reaction.” It warms my heart to hear the frequent and fervent preaching of the Gospel here. Perhaps it is the real presence of death here that we seem so surgically removed from in the USA which is the motivation. At any rate, I hope it will inspire me to get over those inhibitions which so easily hinder me from speaking. I will close with a quote from C.S. Lewis which is at the foundation of my thinking: “You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.” And I know that when this body dies, my soul will get a new one.

 ....join us, not only in praying for this dear couple, their children and family, but honor their lives by reaching out and sharing God's love with someone you encounter today. You can visit the Erickson's website by clicking here.