Jesus said, "Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men," in Mark 1.

In faith, we moved 4,400 miles to Alaska from Cincinnati, Ohio. Right now, I am serving as a tent maker. I don't make tents but the Lord uses my job as a staff engineer with GE Aerospace to provide for our personal needs. The Lord worked it out so I could work remotely in Alaska after serving in person with GE for over 17 years.

Serving God in Alaska has not been for the money. The cost of living in Alaska is 25 percent higher, and the ministry pay is about a 78 reduction for the same amount of effort. If you want to get rich in this world, go to the private sector, not to the ministry.

Alaska has a higher cost of living, the work is more difficult, and the pay is less, but our Lord called us to Alaska. And until he calls us somewhere else, it is the best place for us to be.

Before the Lord called us into ministry, I had sold my personal airplane, a 4-seat Piper Cherokee 140, and had told my sweetheart Ellesha I never wanted to own another airplane again because planes cost too much money to own, to store, to maintain, and to operate.

To my surprise, since following the Lord to Alaska, He called us to buy a Cessna 170 ($27,500) and then trade that Cessna 170 for the Blue Cherokee Six, also called The Word ($42,000) and then buy the Cessna 150, which is called The Life ($15,000) and this past year to buy the white Cherokee Six, which is called The Way ($106,000) which is flown by another missionary pilot Billy. Soaring for Christ now has a fleet consisting of The Way, The Word, and The Life. In total we have invested $163,000 of our savings, and retirement in the three ministry planes; and have payments of $936/month on the outstanding aircraft loans.

We could sell the planes to recoup our personal funds, but we believe that the Lord is calling us to be stewards of these aircraft so we can continue supporting the Bible Camps and missionaries we serve in Alaska.

The Lord provided enough to pay our bills over the past year, approximately $12,000 in maintenance, $12,000 in aircraft insurance, and $5,000 in other expenses. The Lord provided for our unexpected medical bills of over $10,000 for my neck surgery and Ellesha's broken bones, which were not in the budget.

Hourly flight costs vary yearly based on the maintenance needs and flight hours flown. Our costs don’t include the assistance we receive from our ministry partners and friends. This year our hourly operating cost was approximately: $216/per flight hr; $117/per passenger; $0.21/per mile.

It was a tough year due to the Cessna 150 being grounded for most of the season, due in part to part shortages and lots of flights being canceled due to all the forest fires in Alaska.

Sometimes I wonder: Is it worth it? — spending all our time, treasure, and talents serving in Alaska? In Matt 13:44 Jesus says: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” God explains here that kingdom of heaven is the only thing that is worth it in this life.

We are hoping that the Lord provides some additional funding in the coming years. We would like to pay down some of the aircraft loans to reduce those loan payments down from 936 dollars a month. Plus long term, it would be helpful to have a hanger. In Psalm 50 God says, "For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills and all that moves in the field is mine." We trust that the Lord will send some of his cattle our way in the coming years, so we can better protect and maintain the aircraft by keeping them covered in a hangar.

We ask you to consider supporting our ministry if the Lord is leading you, as described in Second Corinthians 9: "The point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful Giver."

We personally have invested in sharing the gospel in Alaska, and that doesn't fill my oil tank in the winter. But it does store our gold where it will last, as Jesus explains in Revelation 3, "For you say I am rich and have prospered and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy for me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich. And white garments, so that you may clothe yourself, and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen. And salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see."

Being just rich in this world, we are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. However, if we invest our wealth and dreams in his kingdom, not just in this world, we are truly rich.

Nate Saint, the missionary pilot who died sharing the gospel with the Auca tribe in Ecuador, said, "People who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives, and when the bubble has burst, they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted.