Stoners serving as God’s hands in aviation mission to Togo

Ever since he took his first flight at age 13, sitting in the cockpit on top of a phone book looking out the front window, Dan Stoner knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life.“Ever since I can remember, I have been reading and playing with anything associated with aviation,” said Stoner. “It has been my passion.”Even before that first airplane ride, Stoner knew he wanted to work in the mission field. At the age of 12 he felt called into ministry, although he didn’t know where. One day, when his Sunday school teacher gave him a flyer on the aviation ministry field, Stoner knew exactly what he was going to be doing as an adult.“There was no plan B,” said Stoner.That passion has led to a family and career immersed in service through the airways, as Dan and his wife, Rachael, who now live in Smithville, are full-time career pilots and mechanics with Association of Baptists for World Evangelism (ABWE). Their current assignment is in Togo, West Africa, where they are serving as pilot/mechanics and church planters. They will join a seasoned missionary team in Togo that have been involved in medical missions and church planting since 1974 in August of 2012, and are looking forward to what God has in store for them.While growing up, Dan’s father was a farmer, and he and his eight brothers all joined in on the farming duties. Yet Dan’s passion lay not in the soil, but in the clouds, spurred by his grandfather’s connection to aviation, working as a radar operator. He knew growing up working in the fields that his days of turning God’s sod would eventually lead to flying God’s airways.So it was no coincidence when he met Rachael several years later at Moody Bible Institute. Both pilots and both mechanics, both being very mission-minded, they knew that there were major connections between the two of them and where they wanted to go in life, and in following God’s calling. They were married, and when the opportunity to join ABWE came along, they knew they had met their calling.“We have always had this deep desire to use aviation as a way of spreading God’s Gospel, and so our motto, faster and farther was born,” said Stoner. “We looked at several options and sent out a number of emails, and when ABWE sent us an email back stating that they needed us to go to Togo now, we immediately knew.”The medical mission in Togo, which has a 50-bed hospital, will see the Stoners flying in supplies, and also helping take care of both the physical and spiritual needs of the people there.There was one small detail that needed to be taken care of, however.A plane.But Stoner said that once God calls, He opens doors, and soon a plane became available when one of the gentlemen flying for ABWE became ill. Rather than have his plane sit and collect dust, it will now be the form of transport for the Stoners and the missionaries they will transport.This past August, the Stoners took their first trip to Togo, a two-week opportunity to simply meet the staff there, and the people of Togo, and a chance to survey how they could help. Stoner said that trip confirmed everything they had felt up to that point: That God was leading them to Togo on wings and prayers.The training then began for the couple to make the transition to Togo a smooth one. They took a 10-day trip to Chicago to take Muslim outreach training.This coming August they will have to travel to France to take a crash course in learning French, the official language of Togo, although there are 28 other tribal languages scattered throughout the nation.Through it all, the Stoners will continue to seek God’s leading, as they not only prepare for their new lifestyle, but also take care of the three Stoner children, Isaac (7), Lydia (3) and Josiah (1), with another expected Stoner on the way.“Rachael has done a lot more in the mommy field than she has been doing in the aviation field lately, but that’s great,” said Stoner. “She has actually spent a lot more time in the air than I have, and I have done a lot of work on the mechanical end of it, so it works out great. We mesh well.”Stoner said that travel in Togo is arduous, and many times, using the airplane will allow the missionary to avoid many risks, such as difficult roads, night travel and robbery. By providing an avenue of transportation for missionaries, they will help them arrive at their destination refreshed and ready to minister, without the need of a day for recovery from traveling. Use of aviation in Togo will allow the existing ministries to reach farther faster; to go where missionaries have been unable to access.And with their heads in the clouds, so to speak, the Stoners are exactly where they want to be.“God has a place for everyone,” said Stoner, who works as a mechanic at the Holmes County Airport. “He wants each one of us to reach the potential he has put in us. Not everyone has the same function, and this is our calling. We both feel that it is hugely significant to help build the body of Christ, and our gifts are in the air.”However, aviation ministry is not all glitz and glamour. Part of the necessary dirty work is raising funds, which will allow them to pursue their ministry vision. That means seeking funding from others, and while they have been successful to date, there is still a ways to go before they are where they need to be financially.Even as they journey through Holmes and Wayne County speaking at churches, they ask for not just financial aid but for prayers too. “We can all be part of ministry and outreach in some way,” said Stoner.To learn more about the Stoners, find out how to contribute to their mission, and to learn more about the people of Togo, log on to their website at http://www.fasterandfarther.com.