It seemed everyone was advising us not to do it. Now, looking back many years later, no longer the headstrong newly-weds, the desire to fly across the country from El Monte, California to a small town of Duxbury,, Massachusetts was foolhardy at best. I had just earned my private pilot license, and had only 48 hours total time, only 8 hours past the minimum.

Members of the flying club had only these words of advice.

• “Don’t fly in weather”

• “Don’t fly at night”

Good advice for a brand new, over confident pilot.

The adventuresome duo held hands, said a brief prayer for a safe trip, and took off heading for the first stop in Phoenix, Arizona. As we made a farewell sweep above the airport, we were astonished by what we saw.

Sitting brazenly at our airplane parking spot was our car, doors wide open. Was this a bad omen of things to come? We safely landed, parked the car and made another attempt to start our trip.

After an hour we noticed clouds were beginning to accumulate as we flew over the Colorado River. As we continued across New Mexico, the clouds got bigger and darker. Actually very dark.

The sun was setting, it began to rain. So much for following advice!

In the direction of our destination, the sky was almost black. Foreboding, scary only begins to describe it. Flashes of lightning danced around the sky over El Paso. I radioed the field for conditions. I was still 30 minutes away. The tower operator suggested an alternative airport at Deming, New Mexico.

I quickly searched my sectionals (air maps). I had neglected to bring adjacent sectional showing Deming, NM, so I radioed for verbal directions. The tower operator gave me a heading to fly from where I thought I was.

Reception was very poor. The last words I could understand were, “caution the mountains on your right.”

Below us was rocky desert of undulating hills. I could barely make out a dirt road beneath us. We had been on this course for over 15 minutes. Decision time.

• Continue to fly and hope to find the airport

• Land, and weather out the night and the storm.

• Fly into the mountains

It was starting to rain harder. I made a decision. “Say a prayer, Jeanette, I’m going to try to land on the road.” Just as I pulled the throttle to descend, Jeanette exclaimed with excitement, “Look, over there!“

Way off in the murky, dim distance I could see the rotating beacon of the airport.

God was showing me the way out of danger. God’s beacon was our salvation.

Now, as I think about this incident and the children in VBS, I think of the troubled lives many of them must have. I think how lucky I am to be able to show them the beacon of Jesus Christ . I can tell them that despite the darkness, how stormy their lives may be, Jesus is the way!

One of the joys of being part of VBS is that we can serve as a beacon for Christ We can shine our light on a way through the troubles of life by accepting Christ as our Savior. Actually, as we model our life on Christ’s example , we become beacons for the children (and volunteers, adults, others) As a VBS beacon, LET IT SHINE ! LET IT SHINE! LET IT SHINE!

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 Who is the beacon in your life?