On Call Weekend

If you haven't figured it out yet due to my lack of posts this new year, I have been very busy. Rebecca and I are in a bit of a "slow" moment, so I thought I would write a few things before the crazy week gets going...

This weekend was mine for the on call shift. It is ironic, we had three flights, none of which I, the on call pilot, did. All three flights were to Quito. This is a route that I haven't been fully checked out on yet. Therefore, 3 of our other pilots chipped in while I stayed behind to help get things going, and stay available for anything that might (but didn't) come up in the jungle.

Yesterday, (Saturday) around noon, about 15 miles from Shell there was a horrific bus accident. While the details as to what made it crash are still sketchy, the best I can piece together from the numerous accounts I have talked to indicate that he lost his brakes. When the brakes finally gave way, the driver only had two options as the bus quickly gained speed heading downhill... 1.) swerve to the right, sending the bus about 300 feet down a cliff into the nearby Pastaza River, or 2.) swerve to the left into the hillside and hope it all works out. Well, he went to the left, but the results were not pretty. The bus impacted a boulder, slid and then rolled numerous times. EVERYONE on the bus was either killed or severely wounded. The hospital here in Shell was quickly overwhelmed as patients arrived in the back of pickup trucks and cars, blood everywhere. We were quickly brought into the picture because many of the patients needed to go to more advanced care in Quito. It still grieves my spirit to remember the faces of the numerous patients we flew to Quito in our three flights this weekend. NEVER have I seen such carnage and hurting. Families instantly lost moms, dads, children. While I am glad we were able to help in some small way to transport some critically injured people to better care in Quito, the pain that I saw as I loaded up plane after plane of patients was hard to comprehend.

I don't post this because I like morbid stories, or huge catastrophic accidents. I just wanted to have it written down, because I may never forget this weekend. Over 40 people riding that bus and a fruit vendor on the road side had their lives changed instantly, some eternally. It serves as a good reminder that our lives are "but a mist, here today and gone tomorrow." We don't know what the future holds, nor what our lives will play in it. All we do know, is Jesus conquered death, and when our day comes to walk though it's door, we have nothing to fear!