Wings of Service

Godly Words

2010-11-16T15:02:00.000Z

It is no evidence of manliness in the husband for him to dwell constantly upon his position as head of the family. It does not increase respect for him to hear him quoting Scripture to sustain his claims to authority. It will not make him more manly to require his wife, the mother of his children, to act upon his plans as if they were infallible. The Lord has constituted the husband the head of the wife to be her protector; he is the house-band of the family, binding the members together, even as Christ is the head of the church and the Saviour of the mystical body. Let every husband who claims to love God carefully study the requirements of God in his position. Christ's authority is exercised in wisdom, in all kindness and gentleness; so let the husband exercise his power and imitate the great Head of the church.
-Adventist Home P. 216

A Gift for Our Time

2010-11-01T13:37:00.000Z

I have been thinking a lot about how Ellen Whites writings relate to us as an end time people, in comparison with the importance of scripture. Here are some of my thoughts. Obviously the Bible is the greatest gift and light we have, and all of our beliefs are clearly laid out in its pages. We should as end time people be able to defend are beliefs by Solo Scriptora, the Bible only. However there is another aspect, a great gift -by God- for His people. I believe Ellen Whites writings were given to us to clarify the Bible message, and to give us useful knowledge in many practical areas of our lives. But with this said I think we often miss-use her writings to rebuke others, or to push our own point. I know I have been guilty of this myself. However have you ever looked at the big picture of Mrs. Whites message? Have you ever noticed how the Conflict of the Ages series begins and ends? Check it out for yourself, the first sentence of Patriarchs and Prophets, "God is Love.", the last sentence of the Great Controversy, "From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love." That truly is the God that is portrayed, yes there are words which point out evil very clearly, and there may be words which cut deeply in our souls. However if we do not miss the big picture of a loving God, how can we do anything but to love Him in return. God says, If you love me keep my commandments. Isn't it to our benefit to search our souls and study the words which will draw us closer to Christ. How can we do anything but unquestioningly strive for perfect unity with all of the words which God has given us. Isn't it only logical that if we do so we will be filled more fully with the Love of Christ to share with humanity? That we will be more filled with the Holy Spirit and enabled in a greater way to to finish the work of our Lord and savior. I encourage you friends, press close to Jesus, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 Tim 2:15. Press forward to finish the work, and go home to heaven with as many of the those around us as possible! Should we not desire to make our lives a living testimony of the Love and the Life of Christ?

Musing in the ways of God.

2010-10-15T13:52:00.000+01:00

So I was filling kinda lonely yesterday, wondering if there was a companion out their for me. I walked out into the night and looked up at the beauty of the sky, and began to talk to God. I shared with Him how I wanted to be okay being alone in this world if that was God's will. I talked for a while like you talk to a friend, and I reached peace with the fact that God is in control, and he can make me perfectly happy alone if that is His will :) Then I walked back inside, and felt impressed to take out my Bible and read a Psalm . . . something I do from time to time. I flipped to the Psalms and and my eyes fell on Psalms 128 Titled A song for the ascent to Jerusalem. It struck me as interesting and I read the first two verses thinking this is a nice Psalm.

1. "How happy are those who fear the Lord-- all who follow his ways!"
2. "You will enjoy the fruit of your labor. How happy you will be! How rich your life!"

Sounds pretty good, huh? Then I read verse three and stopped cold in my tracks. I had to read the chapter a couple times to let it sink in. :)

3. "Your wife will be like a fruitful vine, flourishing within your home. And look at all those children! There they sit around your table as vigorous and healthy as young olive trees."
4. "That is the Lord's reward for those who fear him."
5. "May the Lord continually bless you from Zion. May you see Jerusalem prosper as long as you live."
6. "May you live to enjoy your grandchildren. And may Israel have quietness and peace."

Well I don't know what the Lord has in store, and I'm still happy to be single if that's the Lords will! But I did have to laugh, and wonder with quiet excitement what the Lord may have in His plans :D

The Project

2010-06-01T01:21:00.000+01:00

About 10 days ago my Dad and I decided that the back porch needed replaced due to dry rot. So we jacked up the roof, and took the old deck apart. Here's what we came up with when we were done:

Anyways it was a fun project, but I never realized how much work it was to put up all those deck rails. Believe it or not the over 100 2x2's took a couple days to install. Although I shouldn't have to do it again any time soon. Overall it was a pretty good vacation.

Haiti in Review

2010-03-29T02:17:00.002+01:00

A family who still had a home, resting in the mid-afternoon heat.

The home next to the last one.

A section of the city that is mostly standing.

A classic roadside "tent" that the locals have constructed since the quake.

One of the camps which have been set up.

Someone's house with the presidential palace in the background.

An interesting looking shop.....but it wasn't open.

This friendly critter was on the ceiling above my head one evening.

Staff housing...simple, but better then what most of the people had.

Some of the staff preferred it up here on the roof.

One wing of the hospital with the cooking shack where the patients food was prepared behind the hospital.

Another wing of the hospital, with the three one day churches that are being set up out front as short term storage.

The hospital Chapel.

My Dad, who was able to come with me!

A colorful roadside store.

More of the market.

A church in the city.

The Adventist Seminary's library.

This large auditorium is on the Adventist University's campus and is no longer usable do to structural damage.

An Adventist congregation meets outside of a perfectly good church because the people are afraid to go inside of it. Perhaps this is Haiti's biggest challenge --to rebuilt the hearts of the people.

The Faith of a Child

2010-02-27T01:57:00.000Z

"A young man stood on the shore and waved to a ship at sea.

A man beside him said, 'don't be silly.

The steamer will not change it's course because you waved.'

But the ship turned, came to shore and picked the boy up.

From the bridge he shouted, 'Sir, I'm not a fool.

The captain is my Father!'

We also know that he who steers the universe

on its course is our Father and that He hears our prayers."

-as written by Sabina Wurmbrand

Love Throught a Life

2010-02-26T02:46:00.001Z

As some of you may know my Step-Mom Terri passed away, well I guess it was just a week ago. In some ways it seems like an eternity and in others like I just got off the phone with my Dad after that terrible phone call. Terri had been diagnosed with cancer some months ago, and was told she would not live past November. Yet she seemed to be doing fine, in the back of my mind there was the possibility of death. However she was still working and the last report we had the tumors were not enlarging. Yet last Wednesday that she went in to the ER not feeling well and died of complications only four hours later.

A sad story you say....don't misunderstand me. I am not writing for your sympathy, No, I am writing to tell you a story that I knew well and a story which I learn more of it seems as the time goes by. Terri was an amazing woman; the people she has affected and will continue to affect will not be numbered until we meet again. For those of you who never met her, I am sorry because you missed out. She was the sort of person that you always knew where she was, walk into a building and you could find her in seconds, no matter the occasion she had a laugh that expressed her love for people and life which seemed to fill the very crevasse of the desert. Terri had the ability to know how you felt, and express her love to anyone and everyone. But it was more than that; Terri had a living, loving relationship with her Savior. THAT is what she wanted everyone to have, and everyone could see it in her. In the way that she lived her life, in every action of every moment, and mostly in the way that she loved my Father.

Both of them had pasts, multiple marriages, lots of baggage, yet the two of them seemed to love each other in a way seldom seem in sweetest on newlyweds. There seems to be only one thing that explains in, ask my father today what their most meaningful memories and he won't tell you about a hot date (not those didn't exist), nor will he say it was their wedding night or some other happening. No, instead he will be quick to tell you it was their time each morning that they spent together, reading the Bible, praying for their children, their church, their coworkers, and their friends. Their love for each other increased as their love for God pulled them together. They could share anything, their challenges and mostly their laughs. You never heard jokes told in their home, but you will never hear a home with more laughter. It seemed all of life was to love and to laugh about. Have you ever seen two grandparents roll on the floor cause there laughing so hard they can't stand up anymore. I have! Soul mates, yes! That is what they called each other. Perfect, no, but they loved each other and laughed at each other’s imperfections.

Terri was the sort of person, who said, "At my funeral I’d prefer it if ya'll had a party." Now there were tears shed, but somehow we all felt united by the love of a woman who left a legacy, a true legacy of Christian virtue. It will take time to move on, especially for my Dad, and her two daughters, but Terrie had thought of that as well. You see Terrie was a practical person as well, and she requested to be cremated. So the question is asked, what do we do with the ashes? Now I don't know where she ever got the idea, but Terri had that figured that out too, not that she cared, but one of her the things she said was her biggest challenges in life was that she climbed half dome in Yosemite, and on the way down she even passed out. So her daughters being a little less adventurous have always been terrified of it. Terri, I surmise, in her wisdom new that it would be hard for them to move on and face life’s challenges. How could they live up to the place their mom had left? How could they make that high standard? So Terrie requested that her daughters take her ashes to the top of half dome. They wonder how they’re going to make it, but that was Terri, loving tenderly when we needed it, and shoving us forward, when that’s what it was going to take. So do I mourn? Absolutely. Do I fill a loss? Yes. But I know also remember that I must push on and Love as Terrie Loved, not that anyone could fill her place, however we can fill the place God has for us. We can live our lives, to share His love to everyone we can come in contact with. Who knows maybe someday we can be so filled with God's love that people will know it when they come into the room.

HAITI!

2010-02-11T01:56:00.000Z

Just thought I would put a copy of a letter I am sending out up so you can see what I've been up to. :)

February 10, 2010

Dear Friends and Family,

This is a quick update for those of you that I have lost contact with in the last few years. After I graduated from high-school I worked in the water-well pump industry for a time before God called me to train as a mission pilot here at Andrews University. I have spent the last two years working on my aviation maintenance certificates and will complete the program this coming May. Then, God willing, I will start flight training next year. This last two years have been an amazing experience of one miracle after another which has kept me in school; so that I can spend my life helping others as God has helped me. This time has also brought me into contact with many organizations which operate from Andres University, one of those is WeCare.

After the resent disaster in Haiti, WeCare Disaster Relief which is a part of Center for Youth Evangelism here at Andrews University has organized a group of thirty-eight relief workers to go to Haiti over spring break. Their goal is to provide basic assistance to the many displaced persons, such as the twenty-thousand people who are camping around the ADRA headquarters. More people are joining these crude camps daily and many of the basics such as food and clean water simply do not exist. WeCare has asked me to join their group and assist the Haitian people with the skills which God has given me. Although I know my skills in basic water and electric systems will make very little difference in comparison with the great needs of these people, I pray that I may serve with any means possible. Perhaps most importantly we can give them a picture of Jesus by our small gesture of love. WeCare has stepped forward in faith and put my name on an airplane ticket, hoping that I can raise the needed $1450 for the trip. They have given me a deadline of March 5th to raise the money, as we will be leaving on the 12th. I am asking that if you feel the Lord has blessed you and is leading you to help, that you do so. The most important way you can help is by praying for the trip, those coordinating the relief and the people of Haiti; and also by sending your gifts to help me serve them.

My address is:

Stephen Lingenfelter
PO Box 14
Berrien Springs, MI 49103

Because this is not a standard student mission trip, I need to turn the funds in personally, so checks should be made out in my name. I thank you in advance for furthering the cause of Christ.

In HIS Service,

Stephen D. Lingenfelter

Wisdom from Military Manuels and Beyond...

2010-01-14T14:37:00.000Z

So much wisdom all in one place:

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'If the enemy is in range, so are you.'
- Infantry Journal
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'It is generally inadvisable to eject directly over the area you just bombed.'
- US. Air Force Manual
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'Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons.'
- General Mac Arthur
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'You, you, and you ... Panic. The rest of you, come with me.'
- U.S. Marine Corp Gunnery Sgt.
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'Tracers work both ways.'
- U.S. Army Ordnance
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'Five second fuses only last three seconds.'
- Infantry Journal
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'Any ship can be a minesweeper. Once.'
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'Never tell the Platoon Sergeant you have nothing to do'
- Unknown Marine Recruit
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'If you see a bomb technician running, try to keep up with him.'
- USAF Ammo Troop
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'Though I Fly Through the Valley of Death , I Shall Fear No Evil. For I am at 50,000 Feet and Climbing.'
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'You've never been lost until you've been lost at Mach 3.'
- Paul F. Crickmore (test pilot)
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'The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.'
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'If the wings are traveling faster than the fuselage, it's probably a helicopter -- and therefore, unsafe.'
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'When one engine fails on a twin-engine airplane you always have enough power left to get you to the scene of the crash.'
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'What is the similarity between air traffic controllers and pilots?
If a pilot screws up, the pilot dies;
If ATC screws up, .... The pilot dies.'
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'Never trade luck for skill.'
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The three most common expressions (or famous last words), in aviation are:
'Why is it doing that?'
'Where are we?'
And ...
'Oh No...!'
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'Airspeed, altitude and brains. Two are always needed to successfully complete the flight.'
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'Mankind has a perfect record in aviation;
we have never left one up there!'
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'Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding
or doing anything about it.'
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'The Piper Cub is the safest airplane in the world;
it can just barely kill you.'
-      Attributed to Max Stanley (Northrop test pilot)
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Airman, maintain thy air speed, lest the earth rise up and smite you!
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'There is no reason to fly through a thunderstorm in peacetime.'
Sign over the Squadron Ops. Desk at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, 1970
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'If something hasn't broken on your helicopter, it's about to.'
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'You know that your landing gear is up and locked when it takes full power to taxi to the terminal.'
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As the test pilot climbs out of the experimental aircraft, having torn off the wings and tail in the crash landing, the crash truck arrives; the rescuer sees a bloodied pilot and asks,   'What happened?'
The pilot's reply: 'I don't know, I just got here myself!'
- Attributed to Ray Crandell   (Lockheed test pilot)

2009-12-24T02:56:00.000Z

I'm home at my Moms for Christmas! We headed out for a walk yesterday and discovered that the recent warm weather was melting the snow and flooding the root cellar, as the drain seems to have frozen solid. Looks like the original drain was to small for the situation. So my step-dad and I set out on a new adventure last night about sunset.

We began digging a new drainage ditch with the tractor and discovered that the ground was too frozen to dig in with the plow blade we were trying to use. We built a fire over top the ditch and went to bed last night, hoping it would thaw out while we slept. :) It did thaw out about 6 or 8 inches of the 12 to 20 inches which were frozen. So this morning we went to work with the pick and shovel. And we had the majority of the 40 foot ditch dug out when we came across a small obstacle. This is where the adventure started!

Our small obstacle! It wouldn't budge . . .

So we pulled on it with the tractor a little harder . . .

A little more weight on it, wonder how long the chain will hold the weight?
Notice how the front tires are squished!

And we bounced it a little bit . . .

Frank lifted pulled on the hydraulics and the tractor went a little higher in the air . . .

It now looks like this. Well except we started digging out around the rock, maybe the drain pipe will bend easier then the rock moves, or brakes for that matter, we also pulled and pushed and hammered on it for a while with a 16 pound hammer.

So we built some more fires on the frozen spots as the sunset this evening. My fingers have a tight feeling, like they have been cold for a long time, and my back aches like I've been swinging a pick all day. However its been a good day and sooner or later will have a drainage ditch dug, and the spring will come. The ditch can be deepened and a good drain pipe can be put in. Maybe it will be a good reminder to people in the future that doing something right the first time can be far more profitable, and easier, the first time when the weather it good and you have a backhoe to do the work. At least I have the satisfaction of being tired from a good days work and clean mountain air in my lungs. Well minus the smoke from the fires :) and that has to be better then smog!

Why do we wait?

2009-11-22T16:06:00.001Z

It's the that time of year again, Thanksgiving is just around the corner. However I was pondering that thought this morning, why is it that we all wait until this time of year to express our thanks? Yes, there is a lot to be thankful for, God has blessed me in so many ways this past year.
Friends, who stand beside me, encourage me when I'm down, run off on wild adventures when I feel like it, and walk shoulder to shoulder with me as we strive to better understand God. Professors who see good in me that I sometimes don't even see in myself, and work hard to help me in every way they can. Going out of the way in those specials ways that make professors more then teachers, that makes them also my friends. A landlord who buys me apple cider and gives me produce from their garden, even invites me over for lunch sometimes, and never complains about my old truck parked in front of their house. My wonderful family tries so hard to show their love, sacrificing to help me when they really can't afford it, standing beside me and encouraging me in my dreams and ambitions. I'm sure that is not that is is always easy, I have so many plans, desires, and ambitions to serve parts of the world that seem to be forgotten. Do they flinch when I share ideas to help some of the areas of this earth that our considered the most dangerous? No, they support me and encourage me. With all this in mind I want to take this opportunity to change my habits of expressing thanks.
I don't want to wait until thanksgiving to share my gratitude, after all you never know when you might not get the chance. We are never promised tomorrow in this life, but we have today so let's use it to the fullest. Join me in making this holiday not be about the food,

let's make it a holiday of life, a never ending spirit of thanksgiving in our lives. Let's not wait for for this day any longer! So from me to you, THANK-YOU for being a part of my life!

Debt and New Projects

2009-11-14T12:47:00.000Z

Well I recently sold my 04' ranger to get out of debt. So now I have a new project vehicle. So it has a few problems, but it's bigger and 4x4 which I like. It's a Ford Diesel, with lot's of power and low end torque. The exciting part is that I am working on a project to convert to BioDiesel. This has been a very exciting project for me, because I love the idea of being free from the the pumps and the biggest perk is getting out of debt I am know one step closer to to entering humanitarian work full time.
Friends I don't know of a more exciting journey then to serve other people. My personal motto for the last few years has been, "Life is not worth living unless you live with giving." Anything that enables me to give more of myself gives such peace and contentment. I challenge you today, how can you help the hurting people of this world? How can you give of your self to lift the burden of just one person today?

Life's Ponderings

2009-11-14T12:31:00.000Z

A new blog, a fresh start, a refocus on my goals in life. I've been doing a lot of thinking about how I can serve others better lately. I've started this blog hoping to use it as a median to share life's experiences of service, and maybe someday soon service from the wings of an airplane. To provide reports of were God is taking me.