=10 STAYING ON COURSE

This was so exciting it made her want to shout. Mrs. Miah began washing the cooking utensils and other things she'd used to make the cookies. It wasn't the dish washing that had her excited, it was listening to the enthusiasm of the two teens Noah and Samson and her young son nicknamed: Knee Miah.

As the boys carefully looked over the broken winged airplane that Samson had just brought, Knee noticed something was not right, and said so. “Sam you'll need to get more tape and fix the part of this back wing that looks loose... and here's another one.” In a friendly tone, Noah explained to Knee (that's Dean) those parts are supposed to be loose. He said, “That's how the pilot keeps his plane on course. Let me show ya.”

Noah slid the chair Knee was sitting on, out away from the table. He grabbed a broom with a short handle and stood it on the floor between his little buddy's knees. He told Knee to hold the broom handle with his left hand. “Now to stay on course you hafta be able to go left and right like your dad does in his car. But in an airplane ya halfta go up and down too. Ya with me, Dean?” “YOU BET!”

Noah continued, “OK. Here's where ya need to pay close attention. This broom handle is the “control stick”. It's what the pilot controls the plane with. You pretend you're the pilot. If you want the plane to go right, you move the control stick to the right a little, like this.” Noah and Knee moved the stick to the right. A similar explanation described the left turn. Even though the explanations continued, Noah's mind was still echoing the two words “little buddy.” The words seemed to turn on a warm 'wanted' feeling inside his heart.

Sam held up the plane with the broken wing he had taped, as Noah showed how the RUDDER moved – the tail flapper that wagged like the tail of a happy dog. Knee moved the broom handle – the control stick left and right as Noah moved the rudder left and right. Noah asked, “How we doin?” Knee was so excited with all this attention, his heart was in the clouds – those cotton candy clouds.

Noah next explained how moving the control stick forward made the airplane go down to land and moving the control stick back toward Dean's nose made the airplane climb higher. While Sam was holding the plane with one hand, he moved the tail ELEVATORS up and down.

Dean's mom finished the dishes and told the boys they'd have to continue the training next Saturday. Dean asked Sam and Noah for permission to take the airplane to his Sunday School class and show how to stay on course and not crash. Permission was given. Mrs. Miah said, “I should be baking more yummy missions cookies around 1 o'clock Saturday. We'd love to have you both back.”