Monday, August 27, 2012

Close To 1000 People Show Up For GCI Minister Funeral


http://www.jessupbahinting.com/


This man obviously made a huge impact on others lives.

Huge crowd joins family, bids farewell to Bahinting

Pilot’s daughter vows to continue flying school, business amid inquiry

Close to a thousand people bid farewell to Capt. Jessup Bahinting in burial rites held in Ginatilan town, southern Cebu at past 2 p.m. yesterday.

“My dad’s legacy is not only about aviation. His greatest legacy is his faith and love for Jesus,” said his  28-year-old daughter Sarah Lynn.

Requiem services were held in  the  family’s resort by the Grace Community International (GCI), a Christian group where the pilot served as a member of the advisory council of elders.

Sympathizers, most of whom wore white shirts, walked a kilometer from the resort to the cemetery behind the hearse carrying his remains to the Ginatilan municipal cemetery.

“We are overwhelmed by the number of people who came. This proved how good my husband was,” his widow Margarita told  reporter later.

The coffin was carried by students and pilots of  Aviatour Air Inc., the flying school and chartered flight service he founded.

One of the pall bearers was Nigerian pilot David Yakubu whom Bahinting had sent to Camiguin province on a mercy mission to get the anti-venom serum that saved the life of a Cebu zoo keeper.

A four-seater Cessna  flown by Bahinting’s nephew Joedan Bahinting made two passes in the sky while  Aviatour pilots carried the  blue casket.

The casket was placed on its stand for about five minutes.

GCI members sang  while the coffin was being laid in a tomb. A  hundred white balloons were released in the air. White roses were also placed there by family and friends.

The Siquijor-born pilot was laid to rest in Ginatilan, the hometown of his wife, over a week after the  Aug.  18 crash of a Piper Seneca, which Bahinting and his Nepalese co-pilot Kshitiz Chand flew, killling both of them and Interior  Secretary Jesse Robredo in the waters off Masbate City.

Bahinting’s  eldest daughter,  Jemar Rose, 36, flew in from the United States for the funeral.

Youngest son Dan, a pilot based in the US, was unable to come home due to lack of a travel permit.

The funeral reunited Bahinting’s friends from northern Mindanao, Caraga and Zamboanga  Peninsula in Mindanao.

Bahinting served as church leader of Grace Communion International in that area from 1984 to 1991.

Churchmates from Bacolod, Leyte and Bohol also came to pay their respects.

In his message, former senator Juan Miguel Zubiri described Bahinting as a great pilot and a friend.

“When we needed planes, he was there to help us. He never charged the usual rates,” Zubiri recounted.

He said he got to know Bahinting during the 2007 elections. Three days before the accident, Zubiri said he boarded the same plane that crashed off the seas of Masbate.

“That was an accident that nobody wanted. He was one of the best pilots I know. Many know of his big heart. It will be a shame if you let that memory pass away. Let’s keep his legacy flying,” he said.

Zubiri said Bahinting helped a victim in the recent failed ambush of Surigao del Norte Gov. Sol Matugas.

Eugene Guzon, national director of GCI, said Bahinting was very active in their church meetings and activities.

“He was a man of few words but his actions spoke  louder than words,” Guzon told Cebu Daily News.

Syko Wirawan, one of Bahinting’s students, said the flight school owner  treated his students as his sons. “His death is a big loss,” he said.

Zubiri said he will help in appealing to the Civilian Aviation Authority of the Philippines to lift the suspension on Aviatour’s fleet.

Jemar Rose, who is chief operating officer of the company, said they face  a challenge in continuing to run the company amid the  CAAP investigation.

The flying school has over 100 students, many of them foreigners.

“We will work hard to continue what my father started. We will continue his legacy,” she said. /Ador Vincent Mayol and BenCyrus G. Ellorin

3 comments:

DennisCDiehl said...

When it's all said and done, it is not what one believes or does not believe but what one does with the time they have in this short experience we think will last forever. I have a suspicion that no matter how long one lives, it all seems like 15 minutes.

Both Mr. Bahinting of CGI and Wayne Pyle of LCG, two groups born out of the same turmoil and opposites in belief have regular of course have many people who live whatever faith they have in whatever hopes they possess.

Not everyone is an "Armstrongist" or "Meridithian" Their funerals are a tribute to their living lives that others notice in a very positive way. By their fruits, as they say, and not their jabber, shall you know them.

Their is one minister in UCG, who I know personally and have put not a few miles on cars visiting with as a pup who puts his faith and beliefs into real giving and helpful ways. You know...I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me drink....This what he will be known for and not his beliefs.

It's not what one believes or doesn't believe that measures the man or the woman. It is what one does . One can be kind, serve others when possible, show compassion, teach the present truth that really enlightens and promote understanding, encourage and be supportive in the hard times in life. Or one can be rancerous, damning, critical, distant, and everything but the real things in life that show themselves in real ways

Actually it doesn't matter at all how the sincere and genuine see the message of the Bible or practice it. (I don't speak of those that appear to use the Bible as a profitable venture.) One is remembered for the kind of human being there were.

Hundreds of people don't tend to show up to honor the bitter and self absorbed.

"All the misery on the planet arises due to a personalized sense of "me" or "us." That covers up the essence of who you are. When you are unaware of that inner essence, in the end you always create misery. It's as simple as that. When you don't know who you are, you create a mind-made self as a substitute for your beautiful divine being and cling to that fearful and needy self.

Protecting and enhancing that false sense of self then becomes your primary motivating force

Eckhart Tolle

DennisCDiehl said...

"Both Mr. Bahinting of CGI and Wayne Pyle of LCG, two groups born out of the same turmoil and opposites in belief have lived their lives well accordingly. In time, I think we see that one is not remembered for beliefs but how those beliefs translate into real living. It's not about sabbaths, holydays, clean and unclean, grace, drama , the devil or the deep blue sea. That is all just a container and humans are both born or find many containers in life.

...is what paragraph 2 was meant to say :)

Anonymous said...

Hopefully, the outpouring of love will make the losses of both Mr. Bahinting and Wayne Pyle an easier burden to deal with, for both families and friends involved.

Norm