American missionary Jerry Krause and wife Gina Krause
American missionary Jerry Krause has been missing for nearly two months. The 54-yr-old missionary pilot disappeared April 7 while flying his turboprop aircraft from South Africa to Mali.
Jerry’s wife, Gina Krause, served with her husband as a missionary to Africa for more than 25 years. Jerry worked with Mission Aviation Fellowship until the ministry left Mali back in 2009. They remained in the country and Jerry took a job with a private aviation company.
“I want my husband back,” cried Gina. “My husband is self-motivated, very intelligent.”
“He’s a central figure to our family. A man of God you know. He’s awesome, I love him to death,” their daughter Jessica Krause added.
Gina said her husband was so solid he was the one who kept “the family together.” Now Jerry’s family is having to rely more on God. He phoned right before departing South Africa and said he had some engine problems with the plane. But having years of experience Gina knew her husband could fix the engines.
“He’s a little bit of a McGuyver. He likes fiddling with things and he’s able to get things to work. So, he was going to do that and he was pretty optimistic about leaving,” she said.
Enroute to Mali the family expected Jerry to refuel in Sao Tome, an island nation at the equator, in the gulf of Guinea. But no one could tell the family if he was seen refueling there.
They are now left wondering if Jerry experienced engine trouble and landed the plane in a remote region of Africa, or did something worse happen?
“Though we didn’t have any concrete evidence, I think rationally there’s definitely a lot of different little indications leaning towards a plane crash,” said Jessica. Not knowing her father’s whereabouts or what happened is the hardest part for daughter Alyssa. She said she’s comes to trust God in everything.
“Okay, alright God, this is all yours. Whenever you’re ready to tell us where my dad is, that’s awesome, but we’ll wait for your timing.”
And Jerry’s son Nathan says the book of Job reminds him not to blame God. “I’m giving praise to God instead and asking God why did he do this, but not in a demeaning way–just questioning and waiting for God to answer.” No plane wreckage turned up after rescuers searched the gulf of Guinea.
“And to this day we don’t know where Jerry is, but God does,” Gina said. His family and Christians around the world are praying for answers.
