Written by Jasson Farmer, UIMA field pilot
*Video at end of article
Recently, like all of you, we have found ourselves in a whirlwind. This pandemic of COVID-19 has seemed to affect all of us in one way or another. Many of the mission organizations that we fly for have decided to restrict all nonessential travel in and out of the tribal areas. Most of our flights have been canceled for the next month. The issues that we were facing is that our airplane needs to come to the States partly due to the fact that our Mexican permit needs to be renewed, but mostly because it is time to do an annual inspection on the plane. As plans were being made to get the plane to the States rumors were going around saying that the US/MEX border was going to be closing. Not wanting to leave the family behind, in case I get stuck on one side of the border and them on the other, we decided to take the whole family in the plane to the border.
Our family taking UIMA's Cessna to cross the border.
The next few days we were franticly packing up the house and getting ahead on all of our bills. By the time we were all packed up and ready to go, the border was already shut down to all nonessential travel. We decided to try and go anyways. It took a little bit of smooth talking with one of the Commodants in the Los Mochis’s airport in Mexico in order to convince him that the U.S. would allow me to enter before he would give me a flight plan. Soon the flight plan was in hand and we were airborne. A few hours, and a handful of full sick sacks (it was a really bumpy flight) later, we finally landed in the U.S. We were quickly welcomed into the USA. Grateful that we had made it into the country, our travels weren’t over yet. It was a quick half hour flight from the border of Nogales to Tucson where the UIMA hangar is located. The plane was soon parked in the hangar ready for maintenance, and we were all glad to finally get out of the airplane, after seven hours of flying.
The US border letting us pass! So excited to be in America!
The next day we borrowed a minivan from the mission and departed for Colorado to our parents’ home. We arrived there on a Monday and Thursday morning a statewide “stay at home “mandate was issued. We praise the Lord that we were able to make it to Colorado with family before things locked down. We praise the Lord that he guided our travels and we arrived safety. We are thankful for our maintenance team who will have the plane ready to return to Mexico for ministry when everything opens up again.
Giving grandparents precious gifts from Mexico!
We know that we are not alone and that many of you have had to make all kinds of sacrifices in the mist of this crisis. We truly appreciate all of you who continue to pray for the ministry and have continued to support us though out this whole crisis. In the mists of chaos, it is great to know that we have a God who is in control of all things and continues to work in the midst of trials.
Our 15-year-old son made a video about our evacuation from Mexico. Follow his other missionary adventures on his YouTube channel "Epic MK Adventures".
Help us keep our airplanes flying! Give to the Hangar Operations Fund to support everything from parts, utilities, fuel, aircraft insurance, hangar rent, and keeping the lights on. This fund enables all our aircraft and bases to run efficiently.
1 John 5:14-15 says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us- whatever we ask- we know that we have what we asked of him.”
