Spath speaks at Good Friday breakfast

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Bob Spath, former United States Navy aviator and graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and current Project Lead the Way pre-engineering teacher at Van Wert High School, talked about a close call while his E-2C Hawkeye was landing on an aircraft carrier, as well as efforts to adopt Eli, his Haitian-born son, during the YMCA’s annual Good Friday Breakfast.

Spath first talked about the moment he first came to know God, noting that, while he had said the right things and attended church regularly, his faith was “pretty shallow” before his epiphany.

“I had very little knowledge, very little understanding of who God was,” Spath told the approximately 200 people who attended the breakfast, held at Willow Bend Country Club.

That changed one evening in his apartment in Virginia in May 1999. Spath, who was finishing up flight school, was lonely because his wife, the former Sara Penton, who was also in the Navy, had left for a tour of duty on a ship off Italy. He was also trying to understand his relationship with God and what he called his sinful existence.

“When (Sara) left, I was struggling with a lot of things,” Spath noted. “I had placed a big wall around me and I was embarrassed about it.”

But his situation changed that night in his Virginia apartment.

“In that apartment in Virginia in 1999, God opened my eyes, he removed the blinders on who he was,” Spath said. “In just an evening, God changed my life forever. I finally understood who Jesus Christ was.”

Not long after finishing flight school, Spath was flown out to an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, first to be a part of operations in Kosovo, and later to patrol the no-fly zone over Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Also during that time, he and two other crew members of his E-2C Hawkeye early warning aircraft started a Bible study group and became lifetime friends as well.

It all nearly ended one day, though, when his aircraft lost the arresting wire that helps aircraft land on the relatively small deck of an aircraft carrier and the plane’s engine failed to kick back out of idle to provide the power needed to take off again from the carrier deck.

It looked at that moment, as if Spath and his fellow crew members were headed for certain death as the plane coasted toward the end of the carrier deck and a plunge of several stories into the ocean. Miraculously, the pilot was able to get the engine to accelerate the aircraft at the last moment and take off again as the plane slide off the carrier deck.

The close call and miraculous escape further reinforced his faith, but he and his family later struggled during a 2½-year wait to adopt their son, Eli.

Although the Spaths had four children of their own, they were also looking at adopting a child as well.

“We prayed about it, read a book; God kept pushing us toward adoption,” Spath explained, noting that they found their youngest son, Eli, now 5 years old, in a Haitian orphanage.

“I believe that adoption into a family teaches children how much God loves us,” Spath said.

However, there were many times when the couple wondered whether they would ever bring Eli home to America, mostly because of the red tape and delays in Haiti.

“We never realized the time, energy, and expenses that would be involved,” he said, but noted his family had lots of support from friends and his church family at First United Methodist Church.

The Spaths persevered, mostly because they were convinced that Eli belonged with their family.

“We knew that God had planned for Eli to be with us since the beginning of time,” Spath said. “Those of you here, you know how much you would do for your children. We felt the same way about Eli, and all of our children.

“This was our son and we were willing to do all that we can to bring him home,” he added. “We were willing to go to the ends of the earth to get him here.”

In talking about adopting Eli, Spath also spoke about his relationship with his own father, who had died several years before. Spath said he felt God was listening when he was struggling with a decision of whether to have a feeding tube placed in his father’s body, extending his life, but also probably continuing an existence that was becoming more and more painful.

That very night, his father passed away, negating the need to make the difficult decision on whether to keep him alive artificially.

“I think about my relationship with our children, and my relationship with dad, right up to the time that he passed,” Spath said. “It reminded me of the relationship Jesus had with His Father, and how He went to the ends of the Earth for us.”