Trusting God: With Faith, Failure Is NotaEUR|

By W. Lewis Sain

This book is the story of my life, first as a worldly sinner, not knowing God's presence in my life, and then as a saved and redeemed sinner, recognizing and acknowledging God as my Lord and Savior. It is how God talked to me about life and showed me how to trust Him, through the understanding of what faith is, during fifty years as a pilot and as a Christian living life every day, a snapshot, a moment in time of my experiences. My life is not so unique. Most people start out their lives not knowing what vocation will be their life's work. Mine was no different. However, with that said, it was as if the hand of God has always been on me, directing and orchestrating my life. He allowed me to recognize His leading and has given me a unique perspective that may be beneficial to others to help them understand this thing which we call life. This is my God story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9798885403290

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Trusting God

With Faith, Failure Is NotaEUR|

W. Lewis Sain, Jr.

ISBN 979-8-88540-328-3 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88540-329-0 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by W. Lewis Sain, Jr.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Not Trusting God (The Beginning Journey)

Something Is Missing (Following the Rules)

On My Own (Now Is the Time to Solo)

Trusting God (A New Awakening)

Uncharted Trust (How Deep Is the Water?)

Expecting God (Storms as Far as the Eye Can See)

Familiar Trust (You Have Cancer)

Go and Possess the Land (I Will Lead You)

We Are Not Invincible (God, Are You There?)

Uncharted Waters (God Must Be Leading)

Trust Him (He Will Light Your Path)

You Want Us to Do What? (It Is All His Stuff)

The Process (I've Got to Do What Again?)

Flying with Him (God, Why Do I Have to Work with Him?)

Learning from the Father (Flying by the Seat of My Pants)

Finish Well, or Hell Will Be Your Destiny (Yes and Amen)

The Pain Is so Bad! (God, Can't You Just Take Me Home?)

Now I Know Why (You Know Me Better than Myself)

Part B

Trusting God Study Guide

Not Trusting God

Something Is Missing

On My Own

Trusting God

Uncharted Trust

Expecting God

Familiar Trust

Go and Possess the Land

We Are Not Invincible

Uncharted Waters

Trust Him

You Want Us to Do What?

The Process

Flying with Him

Learning from the Father

Finish Well, or Hell Will Be Your Destiny

The Pain Is so Bad!

Now I Know Why!

Part C

Breakout Questions for Each Chapter

References

It is with great pride that I dedicate this book to my wife, Karen Irene Mauch Sain, who, for over fifty years, has been my soul mate and best friend. Having been saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, shortly after I was saved, Karen has given me godly counsel and wisdom beyond her years. She being equally yoked with me has demonstrated to me and others what a Proverbs 31 virtuous woman looks like, acts like and what it means to allow the Holy Spirit to guide her all these years as my beautiful wife. She truly has been an inspiration and encourager for this book. For that, I am eternally grateful.

It is also the story of my life; first, as a worldly sinner not knowing God's presence in my life, and then as a saved and redeemed sinner recognizing and acknowledging God as my Lord and Savior. It is about how God talked to me about life and showed me how to trust Him, through the understanding of what faith is, during fifty years as a pilot and as a Christian living life every day, a snapshot, a moment in time, of my experiences. This is my God story.

50 Years in Aviation—my Secular Resume

Flight instructor both army and civilian

Ground instructor for both advanced and instrument training in helicopters and airplanes

Flight engineer turbojet in Boeing 727

Air transport pilot captain of Boeing 767

Associate of science degree in aviation management

Bachelor of science degree in aeronautical science

1,150 combat flight hours, decorated with 52 Air Medals, one of which had V for valor, a Bronze Star, and a Distinguished Flying Cross

Logged over 19,000 flight hours which is the equivalent of three years of my life in the air

Aviation safety inspector, Federal Aviation Administration

The Wright Brothers Master Pilot award (50 years of Service in aviation)

46 Years Trusting God—my Christian Resume

1975: Saved February 22, 1975, beginning to trust God but not knowing what that meant

1976: Gave up my flying career to seek God's plan for our life, began trusting God

1977: Healed of tumor while trusting God

1980: Went back to flying, trusting God

1985: Got a major airline job after being too old going through the door, trusting God

2003: Took 70 percent pay cut, wondering how but trusting God

2005: Prostate cancer, accepting death but trusting God

2013: Uncertain future, retirement but trusting God

2014: Living the retirement life, definitely trusting God

2016: Aortic aneurysm, not healed; gave up flying trusting God

2018: Cancer still there, not healed; radical surgery, trusting God

2020: Writing what God wanted, laying it all on the table, trusting God

2021: Enduring life as it comes trusting God

1

Not Trusting God (The Beginning Journey)

I began my journey through life as many people do, without direction and purpose. I did not trust God. I was raised a Lutheran, and our family, like most, attended church when it was mostly convenient and on Christmas and Easter but by no means on a regular basis.

As for academics, I barely graduated high school with a D average. The youngest student at seventeen in my high school graduation class of 1965, I had many disadvantages. I was not athletic, and reading comprehension was very difficult. In fact, I could only score 724 on the SAT of 1,500. I was told by my guidance counselor that I was not college material. He said I should consider a trade school education. My birthday being in November, I was still seventeen when I started attending Central Piedmont Community College that fall. I quickly did little in the way of disproving what my counselor had said. After two and a half years, I changed my major three times. I was all but being washed up when I got my draft notice in December at the age of twenty. I began my service to our country by way of a mandatory invitation by President Johnson. In January 1968, I was in the US Army and off to an adventure that would ultimately change my life forever, for God knew me from my mother's womb, and He was yet to show or tell me His plan for my life.

When I got to Ft. Brag in Fayetteville, North Carolina, it was bitter cold and icy. We stayed in the induction center for two weeks awaiting assignment to our basic training company. While there, I read about the Warrant Officer Candidate Program and asked my drill sergeant what it would take to go to helicopter flight school. He said that I had to take a series of tests, and somehow (was it God?), I passed it. I would like to tell you that it was easy from then on, but that was not to be the case. I went through basic for eight weeks and then on to Ft. Polk, Louisiana, for advanced infantry training for another eight weeks. Finally, after two weeks of leave, I was sent to US Army Warrant Officer Candidate school and began my helicopter flight training.

The original primary and advanced training facility during the Korean War for both fixed and rotary wing was done at Ft. Rucker, Alabama. In those days, the escalation of the Vietnam War had created a greater need for additional space. The army moved all primary helicopter training to a facility at Ft. Wolters, Texas, about sixty miles west of Dallas, Texas, in a small town named Mineral Wells. Ft. Rucker was allocated the task for advanced helicopter training, along with Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia. I started flying a small helicopter called a Hughes TH-55 in the summer of 1968. It is a two-place training helicopter (TH) which the army used to teach us the basic airman skills. All pilots learn very quickly that the Pilot Handbook is the best guide to flying an aircraft. It is very similar to the Holy Bible for a beginning Christian. If used correctly, it will bring success, but if taken out of context and used incorrectly, the outcome can be very confusing and dangerous. You could lose your life.

The student pilot uses the Pilot Handbook starting at the beginning, the Table of Contents. Familiarization with the Content helps the aviator find what he is looking for as a quick reference to something he has learned and would like to review.

There are key sections of the manual which begins with the operating limitations. Next, we find the various systems which make up the components of the aircraft. The power plant (engine), the various flight controls, the electrical and fuel systems, the radio and navigation systems and, finally, the performance section.

It wasn't till after I was married and had our first son at the age of twenty-six that I discovered God's truth. Our family started attending a little Nazarene Church, and I saw firsthand how the books of the Bible are laid out in similar fashion to a pilot flight manual with the Old and New Testament. Each of the books are listed in the Table of Contents. The Old Testament shows us the struggles that man has encountered through the ages in a kind of trial-and-error fashion. Without the benefit of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis, man had but one hope, the promise that God gave of a coming Messiah. Fortunately for mankind, God did not stop with the Old Testament. The New Testament gives us the new Deliverer, Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. It introduces to mankind God's operating system for life. We find Jesus in the first book of the Bible, Matthew. When God sent His Son, Jesus, He gave us a prototype for us