By: Garry L. Hamilton

Every so often in passing we hear of someone’s having lost a friend and we send our condolences.

Occasionally, however, while the event — in and of itself — may not be particularly “newsworthy” to the world, the man in the event is quietly larger than life.

I serve as a moderator on The High Road (a Second Amendment oriented forum), and we have a surprising breadth and depth among our staff. We have young guys and old guys, shooters, hunters, pilots, policemen, soldiers, engineers, computer geeks, a scientist, and… missionaries.

One of our staff, Brian, is currently in Cambodia with his wife on mission there. He received word yesterday that an old friend of his, a fellow missionary and mission pilot named Paul Westlund, had died in a crash in Indonesia. He shared a video Paul made of some of the flying they do over there. There’s another related video from that same locale, a montage of missionary bush plane landings in Indonesia. (For you geeks, that’s a Pilatus Porter.) Twenty five years of doing that. I am simply awed.

I am of the opinion that when this guy gets where he’s going he won’t have to “earn his wings.” Issued on arrival, I should imagine.

The intro to Paul’s video has this caption: He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. To which I can only say, amen. The song that accompanies that video (When It’s All Been Said and Done) is touching. I got all wet-eyed about it.

For those of you who pray, I offer a remembrance for Paul, a man of God, a man who lived his life doing what he loved, and doing it for others. There really is no higher calling. I knew him not, yet I am profoundly glad he lived.