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OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, August 20, 2009 · 8 Frank Toews Jr.'s passion was serving others Continued from page 1 (visit theplanefacts.net), which outlined many of his experiences in Africa. On Jan. 21, he wrote about being awakened early in the morning and asked to make an emergency flight to the Town of Garissa, which is about 480 kilometres from where he was stationed in Nairobi. The nurse, who accompanied Toews, told him that a missionary woman in the town had just given birth, but the baby was having trouble breathing on its own. The child needed to be taken to a hospital in Nairobi, which would take a day by car or 90 minutes by plane. Toews's compassionate nature could be seen after he took on what he referred to as his smallest passenger. "In the plane, the nurse held the baby as the mother was still quite sore from the cesarean. I helped the nurse get strapped in, then tied up the babies IV to one of our cargo rings. We brought along an oxygen bottle, but only had adult-sized oxygen masks. I connected the mask, turned on the oxygen then slipped the mask over the baby's face. The mask literally covered the child's entire face, she was so small and helpless. Without the oxygen on for even a minute she would turn blue, there is no way they could have kept that child alive if they had tried to drive to the hospital. The airplane was her only chance to live," wrote Toews. "As I stared down at that baby girl, I began to think of my three precious girls at home, my heart nearly broke. Before climbing into the plane, I said a word of prayer for the family and the baby girl, and we were off." Toews succeeded in getting the child to Nairobi, but does not know what happened after the baby was relayed to an ambulance. Besides flying, Toews and his wife Tiffany also made an impact on Kenya by contributing to the construction of a school, located to the northeast of Nairobi. The school had been in a dire situation with the student-teacher ratio being somewhere in the area of 90 students for every teacher. Many students were forced to stand outside the small classrooms. Toews's father said Toews and Tiffany helped raise enough awareness and support for the school to expand the building and add a kitchen and dormitory capable of housing 100 children. Additional teachers were also brought in to change the ratio to 2530 students for every teacher. FAMILY MAN: Frank Toews Jr. with his wife Tiffany and their children Loewen, Tabitha, Teagan and Aline Shortly before Toews' death, a well project was also started in hopes of making the community more selfsufficient. While Toews may have been larger than life to many, he was so much more to his family. "He was fun. He was just always having fun," said Shelley Seguin, Toews's sister. "He could be goofy one minute and very serious the next. My husband and I, we did a lot of travelling with him and some of the trips I remember all kinds of really bad things happening, but because we were together with him, they were really good memories in spite of broken air conditioners and busted brakes. Everything with him was just fun." Seguin described her brother, who attended Blakelock High School, as having a formidable personality noting that when he was in the room `he was in the room.' Toews's brother, David, remembers his fun side emerging during a family vacation in Tennessee when the two brothers suddenly burst out singing their own special rendition of the Marty Robbins song Down the Street. The pair had heard the song on countless family trips, but had never been able to understand what Robbins was saying, so they made up their own lyrics. Passersby did not appreciate the serenade. "People were moving to the other side of the road because they thought we were insane or something," said David. "I don't know what possessed us." A tribute video, created by AIM, also showed Toews to be a dedicated father with multiple clips showing him playing with his children Aline, 13, Tabitha, 10, Teagan, 6, and Loewen, 5. The video also showed Toews flying his Cessna with the never-ending and breathtakingly beautiful landscape of Africa stretching out below. Seeing the video again reduced more than one family member to tears. His father said Toews became interested in flying at an early age, eventually receiving his pilot's licence from the Moody Bible Institute Flight School in Elizabethton, Tennessee. As part of a born-again Christian family, Toews experienced missionary work in such places as Jamaica and Bolivia and it was these experiences that Toews's father believes led his son to combine his flight skills with his desire to help people. "He often said he had the best job in the world and he really enjoyed what he was doing," said his father. "He was very particular that he did not want to be involved in a flight-only program. He often said, `I don't want to be a bus driver', so when he would fly, he would be with people, whether it was Doctors Without Borders or missionary people, and he would help where he could, organize the lineups of people coming in for various clinics that were set up. He was involved in a hands-on way. I don't think flight was his number one passion, so much as serving people." Toews had been performing this service in Kenya for six years when the accident occurred on Aug. 1. On that day, Toews had received the special assignment to fly two journalists, who were making a documentary over the Kibera Slums just outside Nairobi, where nearly two million people attempt to get by on a $1 a day. The original aircraft Toews wanted was unavailable due to a battery problem, so he took another plane for the flight. "They had done one pass (over the slums) and on the second pass, 15 minutes into the 45-minute flight, they lost power," said his father. "He began to go through a process, I'm sure, of emergency procedures, looking for a site to put the plane down. He had to cross a fairly high ridge, which had buildings on it. He was trying to get out of Kibera because crashing in Kibera would have lost hundreds and hundreds of lives." In the end, when the plane was about 50 feet off the ground, the left wing sheered off causing the plane to come down hard just outside Kibera. The aircraft tumbled and rolled, finally crashing against a building. Amazingly, no one on the ground was killed, however, Toews and his best friend and mechanic Ryan Williams, who accompanied him during this flight, did not survive the impact. The two journalists survived and were taken to a hospital by local residents, who also braved flames to get Toews and Williams out of the plane's burning wreckage. Nairobi's under-funded emergency personnel arrived on the scene an hour later. The cause of the crash remains unknown and will likely stay unknown, said his father, because whatever parts of the plane that were not destroyed by the fire were taken by area residents. Toews' father said his son was a meticulous triple checker, who thoroughly examined his plane before takeoff. Family members, who attended Toews' funeral in Africa, called it exceedingly moving. A busload of children from the school Toews and Tiffany had been supporting sang at the funeral. "It was a significant tribute to Frank and the work he and Tiffany were involved in," said his father. As tragic as Toews' death was, his family has found comfort in their faith, which tells them that while they miss him deeply, he is in a better place. These feelings are probably best encapsulated in a tribute dedicated to Toews by AIM. "Frankie, there are many places you belong. At that empty desk in the pilot room. Flying high in the African skies. Kneeling low as you serve the least among us. Rolling in the grass with your family. Rolling in laughter with your teammates. But the place you most belong is where we'll see you next. With your Saviour and ours. And he's probably already told you what we didn't have a chance to say...well done." Toews is survived by his wife Tiffany, his children Aline, Tabitha, Teagan and Loewen, his parents Frank and Lore, his brother David, his sister Shelley and their families. A memorial service will be held for Toews in Burlington on Saturday, Sept. 12, at the Compass Point Bible Church, located at 2501 Eaglesfield Dr. The service will begin at 3 p.m. A Frank Toews Jr. memorial fund has been established to benefit his wife and four children. Cheques can be made payable to `O'Connor MacLeod Hanna LLP in trust and mailed to 1186 Beechgrove Cres, Oakville, ON, L6M 2B3.