Peter Hamilton Gray:
I am Pete. I am married to my lovely wife, Susie, and have a newborn daughter called Lily. I work for a low cost company called Easy Jet based out of London Gatwick airport in the UK.
Growing up I had heard of God, but very much followed my own path in life. It wasn’t until university I caved and actually read some literature my Dad had given me. This happened to be a book of the Bible which as I read, really spoke to me. It was there in my university room I found Jesus.
Whilst my head knowledge grew rapidly at this point, it was not until I got plugged into a church surrounded by brothers and sisters that my heart knowledge caught up. Since then, I’ve continued on my faith journey as I’ve weaved myself across the country with work.
My hope is that as I become more settled and established in my role and church, I can give more of my attention over to sharing God’s Word and creating a space for airline personnel to meet and share in his joy.
A verse that has really spoken to me during my Christian life is Ephesians 2:8, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is a gift of God.”
Adrian Bowker:
I am Adrian. I’m married to my beautiful wife, Chloe, and have a crazy mutt called Gatsby. I am a Captain working for a low-cost carrier called Ryanair flying short haul trips across Europe and North Africa from my base, London Stansted Airport.
I grew up in a Christian household with my parents and older sister and so always went along to church on a Sunday. I was baptised as a teenager and from as early as I can remember have always had some kind of relationship with God.
I went through a stage for many years where I felt my testimony was quite a boring one. I do not have a really exciting story I can share with friends of how God called me to Him out of an addiction or where He massively turned my life around from one that was completely off the rails and heading in a terrible direction.
It was not until later years that I came to realise that my testimony, although not extraordinary on its own, has meant that I have been blessed without ever having to live any part of my life where I have not known that God loves me and wants a relationship with me. My parents gave me a good Christian grounding, but I know the faith I have is my own. When I went off to flight school, I could easily have stopped going to church and focused all my efforts on flying; but I did not because I do not want to do life without my Saviour.
One of my favourite verses is Isaiah 55:9, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” This verse speaks volumes to me as there have been quite a few times recently where I have made plans that have not worked out, but God’s plans in those situations have been so much better than anything I could have imagined. It did not feel like that at the time, but looking back I have seen His hand at work.
Ben Cutting:
I am Ben and I am married to my wonderful wife, Megan. We have 2 daughters – Maisy has recently turned 4 and Callie is just a few weeks old. I am a Captain at British Airways flying short haul and am also based at London Gatwick with Pete.
I was very blessed to grow up in a Christian home so have always been surrounded by excellent biblical Christian values as a foundation, which I am extremely grateful to my parents for. One of the challenges this brought for me was that the incredible news that I was saved by the grace of God alone became a bit repetitive, almost boring, and I found myself kind of taking it for granted and not being amazed as I felt I should be. This became a bit disheartening.
Through a series of events including my younger brother, quite a headstrong chap who did not often show his emotions, breaking down as he shared the reality that it was our individual actions (yes, mine included) that led to a man (Jesus, God’s son) to have to die and take my punishment. This, along with the Holy Spirit softening my heart again, spurred me through this low season in my early 20’s.
I’ve always felt called to two things in my life – flying aeroplanes and sharing God’s Word. I am so excited to be part of the FCAP family as I continue on the latter part of that calling with all of you across the world.
I am going to cheat a little here and share two favourite passages from the Bible. The first is Romans 3: 23-25, “We have all sinned and fallen short BUT have been justified freely by His grace and made right with God.”
The second is Job 38. I absolutely love how when Job is downcast, struggling and questioning God, God reminds Job of just who he is and his immense power. What a faithful God have I!
Our friendship:
Ben and Adrian met in 2013 at flight school. We were separated by just one month which was definitely God’s hand at work. It was such an encouragement for both of us that we had each other through the ups and downs of flight school. We grew very close very quickly and were a great help to one another to grow each of our faiths more deeply.
Adrian and Pete met a couple of years later through church. It was another ‘God coincidence’ as Pete was just about to start his flight training. We also became really close friends very quickly and have been a really encouragement and rock in each other’s lives.
The three of us have been very close for many years and have been able to build one another up in the faith. It has been invaluable having such close friends who not only share each other’s love for God, but also our love for aviation. It is fair to say that those are the two things that occupy about 95% of our conversations with each other.
Our prayer for FCAP is as we start a new group in the UK, the encouragement that we have been to one another is magnified and strengthened along with those that God puts in our path. We know just how invaluable this friendship has been for us; and if God can use us to also encourage others in our industry, we would be overjoyed. A verse that underpins our friendship over the years and also what we hope to achieve with FCAP is Proverbs 27:17 – “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”
