Kevin Rideout was a pilot. His whole life had been about lifting off the ground – carrying supplies, carrying people, carrying the gospel to places roads couldn’t reach. Then one day last October, on a street in Niamey, Niger, men took him. And for nine months, the man who spent his life in the open sky lived in captivity, unseen, unheard from – just a name on the prayer lists of people who refused to stop asking God to bring him home.
His friends at Serving In Mission never let go of him. Neither, it seems, did God. Somewhere in those long months, images surfaced – proof he was still alive, still breathing, still Kevin. And then in August, the word every family prays for finally came: he was free, in good health, back in American hands. “We are grateful to confirm that our good friend and brother in Christ has been released,” his organization said. Nine months of silence, broken by grace.
There’s a picture worth holding onto here. A man who once flew through open skies, grounded and held in darkness – and yet never truly alone. Captivity could take his freedom, but it couldn’t take the One who kept him. Sometimes deliverance comes in an instant, and sometimes it comes after nine long months of waiting. But it comes. It always comes. For those who belong to Him, no darkness is permanent and no captivity is the end of the story.
Psalm 46:1: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”
Cross Commission Ministries 