I cannot remember a time when I wasn't crazy about anything with an internal combustion engine. In my life, I have owned a trophy-winning show car, raced stock cars, and have ridden and raced motorcycles.

I was first introduced to my true passion—flying—at only a few weeks old. But, life and finances always prevented me from fulfilling one of my life dreams. I kept telling myself, "Someday I'm going to get my pilot's license."

One day, I realized that if I didn't start immediately, "someday" might never come. A week later, I began my flight training, and forty hours later, my instructor signed off allowing me to take my Private Pilot Check Ride.

By day, I am a quality engineer at the General Motors Plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I have been with GM for more than 15 years, and work to investigate and problem solve quality issues within the frame, wheels and drivetrain of a vehicle.

Like flying, engineering requires attention to detail, and both involve constant multi-tasking. Whether flying a plane or working on one of our popular trucks like the GMC Sierra, you must be focused. If you get distracted someone could get killed. Safety can never be overemphasized.

After receiving my Flight Certificate, I decided to take my beautiful wife Kristina on an adventure, purchasing aerobatic rides together. The moment we returned to the ground, two things were clear to me—I needed to become an aerobatic pilot and we needed to go pray with other aerobatic pilots! Never one to steer away from achieving my dreams, Open Throttle Ministries was launched and I began as an International Aerobatic Club Competitor.

Open Throttle Ministries travels to airshows across the country, praying with pilots who accept our offer to do so and participating in motorsports events in whatever capacity we can. You will regularly see us at some of the top aerobatics events, pulling our fifth wheel with my Chevy Silverado, and leading invocations to start air shows while my wife, Kristina, sings the National Anthem.

Oftentimes, I feel we make sharing our faith far too difficult. We have learned throughout our time working with Open Throttle Ministries that, as Psalm 34:8 says, "Taste and see that the LORD is good." As we continue to share our faith with others at various air shows, the many opportunities of our ministry become clear to us, and we oftentimes find that by sharing our experience, people indeed like what they see.

God loves gearheads and Kristina and I have always wanted to share that love with others. Open Throttle Ministries never charges to attend an event and we are not in this for money. Our ultimate goal at each event we attend is to provide for the spiritual and emotional needs of motorsports enthusiasts such as ourselves, and to share the hope of eternal life and peace with the world.

For those interested in forming their own ministry, it is important that people know forming a ministry while also having a full-time occupation is very possible! I find fulfillment in both of my jobs; in my role at General Motors and leading the ministry—and I see similarities in both I have found that relationships are very important in both realms.

In engineering, I need to have a good rapport with the operators on the shop floor since we interact often, sharing feedback to ensure the top quality and design in all vehicles, like the 2015 GMC Sierra I work on.

In ministry, where I find my greatest passion, I need to have a good rapport with event promoters and organizers so they trust that I have something positive to offer their audience and participants.

Relationships such as these are built over time, much like the relationship with our Lord.

Below is a poem that is very meaningful to me; many pilots know it and love it:

High Flight (By John Gillespie Magee Jr.)

"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds—and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air ...

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew—

And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."

John Gillespie Magee, Jr. (9 June 1922 – 11 December 1941) was an American aviator and poet who died as a result of a mid-air collision over Lincolnshire during World War II. He was serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force, which he joined before the United States officially entered the war. He is most famous for his poem High Flight.

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