Wings of Joy -- the Story of a Missionary Airplane

The story of missions is the story of people reaching out to people with God's love.  That "reaching out" takes many forms.  Here is the story of a group of people that God brought together to accomplish an unique task -- that of getting an airplane to Africa to be used in His work.

The Cessna 182 airplane (a four seat, single engine plane) was donated via The Mission Society for United Methodists to Joy in the Harvest in 1993 and was sold in early 2006.  In those 13 years this airplane provided service to the missionaries working in Tanzania and flew both routine supply flights and mercy flights.  God blessed "Wings of Joy" with 13 years of flying without accident or incident.

Several of those whom God called to this task have now died.  But the remarkable way they were used by God will remain a part of the history of Joy in the Harvest and Christian missions forever.

After the airplane became operational in Tanzania, we put together a small paper telling the story of how God used many people to make this project a reality and to thank them for what they did.  This story contains the accounts of people working hard, giving generously, and risking their lives for the Lord's work.  This  paper is now presented here in our archive for download.

Download: Wings of Joy (9 pages; 1.06MB)