A flight to help restore power to a major city leads to a conversation about the Highest Power

Story by Amy Embleton, an MAF missionary in Mozambique

On a Saturday at 6:00 a.m., my husband Kent received a call from a familiar client. It was the booking agent from the titanium mine that we fly for very often. The request, however, was quite different this time.

As they are the single largest customer of the electric company here in northern Mozambique, and they (as well as our city) were without power, they were keen to charter our Cessna 206 to help the power company find the issue.

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Kent met with an engineer at 7:00 and the two started the search, flying low from the city substation towards the next city 100 miles away. To Kent’s relief, the engineer spotted the problem just over 20 miles into the trip. One of the three 20,000-volt lines from the hydroelectric plant had fallen, due to a broken insulator. (Can you see it in the photo?) From the airplane, the engineer coordinated new parts and a work crew. After surveying the rest of the line, Kent was able to lead the work crew to the exact pole by circling over it. Our power at home came on shortly after. It was a great success!

As on many flights, Kent got the chance to answer the question, “Why are you here flying small airplanes in Mozambique?” which is always an opportunity to share our belief that God has called us here to serve.