Winter – Seth and Deb Whittington

March 18, 2025

Snow Days?

What do we do when it Snows?

Well, the short answer is … we still show up. The airport is homebase to some essential services such as air ambulance and Missouri State Highway Patrol. For these services to operate we have to clear the essential areas for them to be able to serve the community. As soon as the snow stops the City of Bolivar Street Department will come and clear the areas that will allow the helicopter to get out of its hangar and clean around the fueling system to allow it to get fuel. Mother nature typically does a good job at melting the snow off of the runway, taxiway, and ramp areas as long as the snow depth is less than 4″ or so. This last snow we needed to assist mother nature in the process. We used our tractor front-end loader to clear the large snow drifts around the main building and fuel area. Later the city crew was able to come out with their larger trucks and clear the runway and taxiway. We are really grateful for our partnership with the City of Bolivar which allows us to do ministry through the operations at the Bolivar Airport.

Mission Candidate Update!

As we work throughout the year we have lots of milestones to hit this year. Bailey will be wrapping up his Commercial Certificate soon. Not long after that, we will begin to do some additional training for him so he can get his Flight Instructor rating. Skyler has been flying weekly, but the weather hasn’t been good enough to really focus extra enabling him to prep for solo. Hopefully in the next few weeks, we will be well into more favorable weather for him to complete that milestone. Dustin is in the home stretch of Procedure Trainer lessons that have to be completed before he can get in the cockpit.

Follow our Missionary Candidates and read more about them here!

Prayer Requests for March:

For SOAR: Pray for God to provide workers for our organization.
Personal: Pray for health and renewed strength for our family in this season.
For Mission Candidates: Pray for God to give them direction with big decisions.

Prayer Requests for 2025:

Pray for God’s guidance in all the decisions we face throughout the year.
Pray for spiritual growth and deeper faith for each member of our family.
Pray for God’s provision to meet our ministry’s financial needs.

February 7, 2025February 7, 2025

And we are off!

How is training going? (Seth)

Well, these days I am spending more time teaching Bailey how to teach. Bailey is working on his Commercial and Flight instructor ratings in tandem. I have been letting Bailey lead ground lessons with Skyler and Dustin. Part of prepping for your flight instructor rating is proving that you know how to teach. He is doing great, sometimes it’s really difficult to articulate information that you already know and bring it to a level that a student will understand. He is getting better every lesson at this. I also have been taking Duston through the procedure trainer lessons that need to be completed prior to him getting into the actual aircraft. Skyler has been flying on Fridays with an instructor who is helping me fill the extra load requirements. We are aiming to get Dustin to the same level as Skyler, and when the weather gets a little better we will focus on getting them to Solo. Come soon spring … come soon..

Airport Improvements (Seth)

A major role that I have taken on is working with the City, State, and Federal agencies along with the engineers to plan what’s next for the Bolivar Airport. We have been diligently planning and making provisions for new hangars. We are in the midst of an approach lighting system upgrade. We are also starting the preliminary plans for extending the runway length. A large part of our role with the City is to help manage and set the vision for future projects. This relationship is critical to our ability to operate our ministry at the Bolivar airport.

Snow fun!

January was filled with snow and ice. The girls took full advantage of the snowfall.

Are you not of more value than they?

Matthew 6:25-34
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Over the past year, as grocery prices have risen, we’ve felt the weight of meeting our budget needs. Realizing we needed to take action, in January we committed to diligently working toward growing our PD budget to match our expenses. We initially planned for this to be a two-year process, making steady progress toward our goal. But God, in His faithfulness, has been answering our prayers much faster than we imagined. While we haven’t reached our goal yet, He continues to connect us with the right people. Praise the Lord—our financial needs are being met!

Our tendency is to rely on our own strength, especially as go-getters who like to make things happen. But time and again, God reminds us that He is the one at work, moving long before we ever send a text or make a plan. He is the one providing and caring for us every step of the way.

Prayer Requests for February:

Prayer Requests for 2025:

Pray for God’s guidance in all the decisions we face throughout the year.
Pray for spiritual growth and deeper faith for each member of our family.
Pray for God’s provision to meet our ministry’s financial needs.

January 31, 2024April 20, 2024

Happy Anniversary

Goals

Somehow by the grace of God, we have managed to reach our third year in ministry. It seems to have flown by and gone slowly all at the same time. Thank you for another year with us as we launch into a new exciting season of ministry. We have some big plans for the year and here are a few that you can be praying for.

Cessna 206 advanced high-performance checkout
CFI-I ( Instrument Instructor)
Implementing the KSAs and Professional Behaviors (Soft Skills)

An Icy January

January is a mixed bag when it comes to flying weather. This year January has been filled with ice and freezing temps. We have been blessed to stay warm and not have to get out into these frigid temps. This means Seth is not doing much flying. But that doesn’t mean it has been slow. This has been a great opportunity to begin implementing KSA’s (Knowledge, Skills & Attributes) into flight training and moving in that direction. The focus on attributes (soft skills) allows us through technical training to evaluate how they will handle real-world issues. It also gives us a measurable way to track progress in this area.

Wedding Season?

This month we were busy celebrating some special days with two special couples. Josh one of our mission candidates who is specializing in Maintenance met his sweet wife Bethany during his time in our program. The other was a special and old friend of ours. We so loved celebrating this time with both couples and it was nice to have an excuse to dress up.

Coming up!

Feb 22-24 JAARS- Train the Trainer event in Waxhaw, NC: This is the first event coming out of the MAST (Mission Aviation Specific Training) summit to help us standardize as flight instructors in this mission aviation community.

March 12-14 IAMA Conference (International Associaton of Missionary Aviation)- This is exciting that for the first time, we will host this annual event in Bolivar. Stay tuned for more details about how you can be involved

January 31, 2023March 2, 2023

Going on year 3!

For those of you who are new to our journey, we thought we would share a couple of videos about who we are and what we do.

This is a video we created about us personally and the beginning of our Missions journey.

A little bit about us from when we began.

This video features Nathan White who completed his training through SOAR. Do you know someone who wants to become a missionary pilot? This is a great resource.

The journey of a missionary pilot from one of our former missionary candidates.

This video is about another organization, Ethnos360, where three of our Missionaries are serving. Church planting and bible translation are a big part of their work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi2xVzWqxVg

We are so grateful to be a part of SOAR and to be able to partner in the work that these organizations are doing.

These are the faces of those we have sent from SOAR. Pray for them as they serve all over the world.

These are our current missionary candidates. Please pray for them as they work on gaining the skills, knowledge and attributes to serve on the mission field.

Looking Foward into 2023

Training new flight students from the start is both rewarding and nerve-racking. For the last 3 weeks, Seth and Bailey have been working hard on Bailey’s first flight milestone, his first solo. The weather has been challenging with freezing conditions and high winds limiting the days that are beneficial for Bailey this early in his training. Pray that in the next weeks, he can achieve this milestone. Seth will also begin working on his CFII rating which will allow him to teach pilots to fly in instrument conditions.

Seth and Kerrick Tweedy our CEO have been working together weekly to teach Seth some of the business aspects of SOAR. This allows Seth to take some of the daily operational load from Kerrick and allows Kerrick to do more strategic partnership and relationship building. Kerrick has taken up the role of helping the International Association of Missionary Aviation(IAMA) as CEO to help guide the overall industry to new horizons. This doesn’t interfere with his role at SOAR but it helps it. It aligns with our vision as SOAR to be more intentional in providing readiness to non-traditional candidates.

Top Left: Our first day Jan 2021. Top Right: Kerrick and Seth sharing SOAR’s story. Bottom Left: Bailey and Seth. Bottom Right: IAMA’s tent at EAA AirVenture.

When we began this journey 2 years ago we weren’t quite sure what God had in store for us. As we begin this new year we are looking back to see how God has been faithful. From getting us here on his time to launching mission candidates. In all of it, he has proven that he is doing the work at SOAR.
As we begin this next year please pray for us. Pray for unity within our team. Pray for God’s Will, that it would be the direction we are constantly aiming for. Pray for our missionary candidates currently training, and the missionaries we have launched to the field. Pray for safety. Pray for families and marriages. Pray that God’s name is made big both here at home and abroad. We are so thankful we get to partner with him in what he is doing. We are so thankful for those of you who have chosen to partner and help us do what God has called us to. We could not do it without you.

Ways to Give!

Ways you can be praying for us & SOAR in 2023

• That God brings clarity and unity and we are able to find direction as a leadership team.
• That Seth is able to get his CFII done this year.
• That God grows and shapes our candidates to be used on the field and that he opens doors for them to be able to serve.

Ways you can be praying for us in February:

• That God will continue to provide the remaining partners needed.
• That we can make time for family.
• That God shows us direction for the next season here at SOAR.

February 12, 2021February 12, 2021

Who Ordered this Weather?

Never Ending Shifts

Practicing simulated instrument flying doing steep turns with only instrument reference.

Here we go again. This past year has felt like change after change. From the sale of the house to the shift in jobs, we have not felt settled. This month starts another shift for us. The first week of January we began working at SOAR. This was a bigger shift than we were expecting. Now our side work that we were doing in the evenings and weekends is now our day job. Things that we would normally wait till we had spare time are now our main focus. Seth began his more intense flight training and Deb began helping with marketing. This is also the first time we have ever worked in the same office. We are having to think through how to create separation of work and family. As we switch from a full schedule with every evening booked to living out intentionally during our daily schedule. I really think God is shifting us from our old focus’ to new goals and to a focus of long term goals and really leaning into Him and the path that he has lain out before us. This takes lots of intentionally in prayer and study of his word, and extra focus to slow down and listen. We would love some feedback on what tools and disciplines that you guys use to be successful in this area. It has been a huge shift for our family but ultimately he is working for our good to do what he is calling us to.

Winter Flying Woes

Weather dictates so much of when we do and don’t fly in light general aviation airplanes. I (Seth) find myself becoming much more aware of the weather conditions daily. I have been trying to keep a schedule of flying 3 times weekly. This is certainly difficult during the winter months. Battling clouds, precipitation, and winds when is warms up a bit as they can easily get above the airplanes maximum wind rating. I am trying to get through my instrument rating within the next three months. When trying to earn a new rating in an airplane its important to be consistent and frequent to polish those skills as they are being learned.

This last month one of the Mission Candidates and I flew down to northern Arkansas to a grass strip to scout it for future training flights. This is part of a long term goal of mine to build a network of places to fly that will give our students more of an ability to learn advanced skills that they will need before getting to the Mission Field.

Scouting grass airstrips for more intentional training. This one is in northern Arkansas

Ways you can be praying for us:

• That relationships will be built at SOAR and God helps us love those around us well.
• That God will continue to build partnerships.
• That Seth will be able get the remainder of his flight hours quickly.