Soaring Servant
Samuel Phillips' Pursuit of a Mission Aviation Career Takes Flight
By Allen Allnoch
CCC Communications
CCC Communications
Finding one’s “sweet spot” in life – that point where passion, skill and purpose intersect – can be an elusive thing. But when it happens, particularly when it’s God-ordained, it’s beautiful.
At just 20 years old, Samuel Phillips has found that sweet spot. The Phenix City native and CCC member is a student at Trinity Aviation Academy in Eatonville, Washington, where he’s training to be a missionary pilot and an aircraft mechanic.
“I’m surrounded by airplanes,” Sam says. “I wake up and walk a hundred feet and I’m in the hangar. I can’t get away from it – that’s what I love about it. It’s living, breathing, eating and drinking aviation.”
Aviation captured Sam’s heart when he was a child, but back then, he had no inkling it would become both a career and a ministry. He simply enjoyed making paper gliders and tossing them around in his yard.
He took his first flight at age 12, thanks to an Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) program called Young Eagles that offers free rides to children at Columbus Airport every month.
At just 20 years old, Samuel Phillips has found that sweet spot. The Phenix City native and CCC member is a student at Trinity Aviation Academy in Eatonville, Washington, where he’s training to be a missionary pilot and an aircraft mechanic.
“I’m surrounded by airplanes,” Sam says. “I wake up and walk a hundred feet and I’m in the hangar. I can’t get away from it – that’s what I love about it. It’s living, breathing, eating and drinking aviation.”
Aviation captured Sam’s heart when he was a child, but back then, he had no inkling it would become both a career and a ministry. He simply enjoyed making paper gliders and tossing them around in his yard.
He took his first flight at age 12, thanks to an Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) program called Young Eagles that offers free rides to children at Columbus Airport every month.
A Call to Missions
“I fell in love with flying,” Sam recalls. “I got involved with EAA for a year or so, but then I felt like God said to stop. I didn’t know why, but I said OK and stopped.”
Around that same time, Sam’s heart began to stir for international missions. His older brother, DJ, was serving in Turkey, and Sam knew plenty about Jesus’ Great Commission from growing up with mission-minded Christ Community as his home church.
In summer of 2014, Sam went on a CCC mission trip to Zambia, which he says “the Lord used to confirm that I would go into ministry.”
The next summer he went on two trips to Peru – one with CCC, one with another church – and later that year he spent two weeks in China with a CCC team.
“It was incredible, the way God opened doors for me to travel and see so many different parts of the world and how He is working,” he says.
By this time, Sam had again gotten involved in aviation, and a vision was starting to come together.
“After that trip to Zambia, I felt like God said, ‘OK you can get back into aviation,’ and He opened so many doors,” Sam says. “I loved the Lord, I loved doing ministry and I loved aviation, but it wasn’t until after that two-year period of taking time off from it, that I started to understand I could do those things together – that mission aviation is actually a thing.”
Sam hung around Columbus Airport as much as he could, volunteering with the local EAA chapter at Young Eagles events and the annual Thunder in the Valley Air Show. He even managed to log some introductory flying lessons, which reinforced his desire to become a pilot.
But first, he went back to Zambia. During a visit to Columbus, Japie and Wilna Venter, CCC’s former partners in that African nation, invited him to return following his high school graduation in May 2016. He spent four months there, and addition to his work with the Venters, he experienced something that he says “confirmed again that aviation and serving God can go together.”
Knowing Sam’s desire to be a missionary pilot, Japie introduced him to some friends at Flying Mission Zambia, an aviation base in Lusaka, the capital city. He spent three weeks there, observing, asking questions and even flying a supply mission to a remote location in northern Zambia.
“I actually got to see first-hand, in a foreign country, how a mission aviation organization works,” Sam says. “I went to dinner with the chief pilot one night and spent hours talking and hearing stories. He was very encouraging and gave me realistic expectations for training and the time it takes to get the experience necessary to fly in environments like that overseas.”
“I fell in love with flying,” Sam recalls. “I got involved with EAA for a year or so, but then I felt like God said to stop. I didn’t know why, but I said OK and stopped.”
Around that same time, Sam’s heart began to stir for international missions. His older brother, DJ, was serving in Turkey, and Sam knew plenty about Jesus’ Great Commission from growing up with mission-minded Christ Community as his home church.
In summer of 2014, Sam went on a CCC mission trip to Zambia, which he says “the Lord used to confirm that I would go into ministry.”
The next summer he went on two trips to Peru – one with CCC, one with another church – and later that year he spent two weeks in China with a CCC team.
“It was incredible, the way God opened doors for me to travel and see so many different parts of the world and how He is working,” he says.
By this time, Sam had again gotten involved in aviation, and a vision was starting to come together.
“After that trip to Zambia, I felt like God said, ‘OK you can get back into aviation,’ and He opened so many doors,” Sam says. “I loved the Lord, I loved doing ministry and I loved aviation, but it wasn’t until after that two-year period of taking time off from it, that I started to understand I could do those things together – that mission aviation is actually a thing.”
Sam hung around Columbus Airport as much as he could, volunteering with the local EAA chapter at Young Eagles events and the annual Thunder in the Valley Air Show. He even managed to log some introductory flying lessons, which reinforced his desire to become a pilot.
But first, he went back to Zambia. During a visit to Columbus, Japie and Wilna Venter, CCC’s former partners in that African nation, invited him to return following his high school graduation in May 2016. He spent four months there, and addition to his work with the Venters, he experienced something that he says “confirmed again that aviation and serving God can go together.”
Knowing Sam’s desire to be a missionary pilot, Japie introduced him to some friends at Flying Mission Zambia, an aviation base in Lusaka, the capital city. He spent three weeks there, observing, asking questions and even flying a supply mission to a remote location in northern Zambia.
“I actually got to see first-hand, in a foreign country, how a mission aviation organization works,” Sam says. “I went to dinner with the chief pilot one night and spent hours talking and hearing stories. He was very encouraging and gave me realistic expectations for training and the time it takes to get the experience necessary to fly in environments like that overseas.”
Serving God through Aviation
Missionary pilots like the ones Sam met in Zambia help spread the Gospel by getting personnel and supplies into areas that are difficult to reach by land.
“Pilots open doors for missionaries on the ground to be do more ministry,” Sam says. “It’s expensive, but you can’t put a price on ministry, on reaching people who need to be reached. Once you can get an airstrip built in a previously inaccessible location, it’s such a valuable tool.”
Most of these pilots also serve as their own mechanics, which is why Sam is training to get his Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) license along with the various pilot certifications he will need. He discovered Trinity Aviation Academy after returning home from Zambia and beginning an online search for an aviation school.
For a year, beginning in September 2016 he worked odd jobs to save money, including stints with a ferrier and a tractor supply store. In September 2017 he loaded up his Ford Ranger and made the cross-country trek to Eatonville, which lies 50 miles south of Seattle. He lives on site at tiny Swanson Airport, as do Trinity’s two instructors and several other students.
“I prayed that Trinity would be a school where people really love the Lord, and it is,” Sam says. “I know that’s why the Lord led me to it, because there would no other reason to pick it – it’s so small and it’s so far from home, but the Lord just kept bringing me back to it when I was still looking at all the schools available.”
Sam is quick to credit Christ Community for helping him grow spiritually and educating him about world missions, both through short-term trips and classroom experiences such as Perspectives, an in-depth, four-month course on God’s global purpose throughout history.
“The training has helped so much and the mission trips have been invaluable,” he says. “And the fellowship here, the mentorships, Pastor Keith, the youth group, [former youth leaders] Robert and Rachel [Williams] – they’ve all been a big part of my life and helped me grow spiritually.”
With that foundation, plus the skills he’ll have when he completes Trinity’s three-year curriculum, Sam will be ready for whatever God calls him to next. And whether it’s in the left seat of an airplane or turning a wrench underneath one, he’ll surely be in his sweet spot.
Missionary pilots like the ones Sam met in Zambia help spread the Gospel by getting personnel and supplies into areas that are difficult to reach by land.
“Pilots open doors for missionaries on the ground to be do more ministry,” Sam says. “It’s expensive, but you can’t put a price on ministry, on reaching people who need to be reached. Once you can get an airstrip built in a previously inaccessible location, it’s such a valuable tool.”
Most of these pilots also serve as their own mechanics, which is why Sam is training to get his Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) license along with the various pilot certifications he will need. He discovered Trinity Aviation Academy after returning home from Zambia and beginning an online search for an aviation school.
For a year, beginning in September 2016 he worked odd jobs to save money, including stints with a ferrier and a tractor supply store. In September 2017 he loaded up his Ford Ranger and made the cross-country trek to Eatonville, which lies 50 miles south of Seattle. He lives on site at tiny Swanson Airport, as do Trinity’s two instructors and several other students.
“I prayed that Trinity would be a school where people really love the Lord, and it is,” Sam says. “I know that’s why the Lord led me to it, because there would no other reason to pick it – it’s so small and it’s so far from home, but the Lord just kept bringing me back to it when I was still looking at all the schools available.”
Sam is quick to credit Christ Community for helping him grow spiritually and educating him about world missions, both through short-term trips and classroom experiences such as Perspectives, an in-depth, four-month course on God’s global purpose throughout history.
“The training has helped so much and the mission trips have been invaluable,” he says. “And the fellowship here, the mentorships, Pastor Keith, the youth group, [former youth leaders] Robert and Rachel [Williams] – they’ve all been a big part of my life and helped me grow spiritually.”
With that foundation, plus the skills he’ll have when he completes Trinity’s three-year curriculum, Sam will be ready for whatever God calls him to next. And whether it’s in the left seat of an airplane or turning a wrench underneath one, he’ll surely be in his sweet spot.
Support Sam
Want to help Sam become a missionary pilot? CCC accepts contributions toward his education (click here for instructions), or funds can be sent directly to Trinity Aviation Academy at P.O. Box 367, Eatonville, WA 98328, with Samuel Phillips on the memo line.