Florida to Guyana

The Lord is wonderful. There is no doubt in my mind about His willingness or ability to deliver those who chose to be His servants.

In the Caribbean and Guyana it is law that no single engine airplanes can fly after sundown, or before dawn. So, we took off from Florida at 4:30am because we had headwinds and that meant a 6 hour flight to Turk Island for fuel and another 5 ½ hour flight to Beef Island (British Virgin Islands) for the first days flight.

We arrived in Turk Island and the process there was very quick, the people refueled the planes quickly and the turnaround in customs and immigration was also quick.

That was good because we landed at Beef Island about 10 minutes before sundown. Praise the Lord!

Our next step was to figure out where we would spend the night. Being in the mission field there is not much money to go around so we were thinking of spending the night under the wing of the planes. Since 911 however, security has been tightened at all major airports as well as many smaller ones so it was doubtful this could be done. But, it was worth asking.

Gary first asked if we could move the Cessna 150 tail dragger onto the grass to keep it from moving in the wind since there were no tie downs where we had to park. The airport people came over to talk with us and asked where we were from and what we were doing. We told them these were missionary airplanes and were headed to Guyana. They asked what religion we were affiliated with so we said we were Seventh-day Adventists. The man brightened up and said “I’m a Seventh-day Adventist too!!”.

As it turned out, he took us all into town and paid for the majority of our hotel. We shared our faith together prayed with he and his wife. His desire is to fly in the mission field and already has his pilot credentials. So we now have contacts at Beef Island who want to serve the Lord.

The next morning, we could not leave as early as we did from Florida because customs and immigration did not open until 7am. However, arriving early we refueled the airplanes so at least that would be done. We took off at 7:20am.

Arriving in Greneda for fuel was going to be a little more challenging since we had to refuel, go through customs and immigration, and then file a new flight plan to Guyana. Since my airplane is faster than the Cessna 150 I went ahead and started refueling. When Gary and Kyle landed we went inside to clear customs. The turnaround was good and we got back in the planes. The 150 departed first, but my clearance was delayed about 20 minutes. This was going to be close.

I had to wait for another aircraft coming into Greneda before they could release me. Finally, I was given permission to takeoff. I flew the plane at full throttle all the way to Guyana and arrived 9 minutes before sundown and the 150 arrived 3 minutes before sundown.

This is truly providential because how can you even start to predict a landing time that close to sundown after flying for 8 hours and stopping for fuel, not knowing how long it would take for customs and immigration.

My prayer during the trip was simply “Lord, I’m in your hands, and I trust you”. He did not fail to clear the path and move the hearts of those we would talk to as well as keep his angels close by to safeguard the airplanes.

God is worthy to be praised. We made it to Guyana.

Brandtley