Dayton Catholic Homeschool Network

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Next conference July 10 & 11, 2009, St Peter Family Life Center Huber Heights Ohio.

Amazing Flight to Erie

May 16 and 17 we held a homeschool conference here in Dayton Ohio. That weekend it felt like the Holy Spirit was at work. Details just fell into place in unexpected ways. This was especially true for one of our special guests Fr. Robert Levis. Night owls may know him as the co-host of EWTN’s “Web of Faith. ” Fr. Levis is from Erie, PA and one of our organization’s members offered to fly him to and from Erie in a private plane. We were grateful for this generous offer, but naturally we prayed for a safe flight. Oh, how our prayers were answered. The return flight was an amazing event we want to share with you.

This is my side of the story:
I got home from the conference around 7 or so (and I was the very last of the crew, not bad eh, 3 hours for take down and I had a dinner thrown in!). Ok, so I’m home and it occured to me that our pilot is most likely in the air with Fr. Levis. It also occurs to me that he sent me a website that that would allow me to track his flight via GPS technology. I logged in and entered his tail number and instantly I had real time images of a radar screen with the flight being tracked before my eyes. The plane was in the air and was about 2/3 of the way home. We had heard there were thunderstorms earlier and I could see them very clearly over Cleveland, parts of W. Pa. and heavy over Erie. Oh no! Cessnas don’t like thunderstorms, that was the one thing he didn’t want to fly in. Then I looked closer and noticed there was literally a ring or halo of clear sky in front of the plane. Each time I refreshed the image it was as if a big hand was swooshing the storms away ahead of the plane, all the way into Erie.

I got a call just a bit later and the plane had landed safe and sound. I said to the pilot, do you know there were storms out there? Do you realize your plane seemed to just push them away? It was like there was a ring of clear sky around you. It was amazing to see this on the radar. He said you will not believe what we just saw. His side of the story is below.

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Date: Mon, May 19, 2008 at 1:03 PM
Subject: rainbow at Erie.jpg
Alice,

I wanted to share this incredible event with you. I’ve been flying for many moons and never have I had a flight like this. First, at 4pm Saturday, the storms connected Dayton to Erie, No kidding. They were all over my flight path. Wind was blowing to beat the band. Normally, things calm down as the sun goes down.

As we took off from Dayton, my plane usually goes about 180 mph. We were going 220!!!! HUGE tail wind. Was showing Erie in 1 hour and 10 minutes from Dayton. Normally a 1:35 trip. As we moved along, the skies literally parted. I was watching radar closely in the plane and it was like watching the red sea part.

As we quickly got closer to Erie at that speed, (which Fr. Levis was very into. He kept informing me of how fast we were going, he loved that!! I informed him that with every give there is a take and it would probably take me over 2 hours to get home with that head wind) the rain was starting to get harder but planes were still able to get in so the tower cleared me for the approach. It was raining and hard to see, but as we turned on final, the rain stopped and the sun peaked out over Lake Erie and was dancing all over the ground. The cloud deck was still above us but the sun got low enough by 7:50 or so, that rose ‘beneath’ the clouds in a break.

We landed and rain drops were still coming down.

As we got all the luggage in, Joe said, look outside, and what we saw was the picture attached. I have never seen both sides of a rainbow so tight. It as like it was surrounding the airplane it was just at the airport. Then another double rainbow appeared. It was so bright!

Well, of course, we told Father Levis it was him. By the way, He spent an extensive amount of time before take off, blessing the plane with holy water for it’s future life. He blessed it in Latin, with a few Hail Mary’s. When he was done, I joked with him and told him I thought he was going to wash it with all that holy water. HA! He thought that was funny.

Anyway, that was amazing.  I got them in their cars, etc, got back in and took off. No kidding, I got to 6000 feet, it was smooth and there was no ind all the way back. I did 180mph which is what my plane will do with no wind.

Amazing. I wish I would have taken some pictures of the radar screen in my lane as there was a clean line right were we flew through. I told Father Bob he has to fly with me more often. He said anytime. He really loved it and said there would be sermon out of this weekend.

Just wanted to share this with you.

Awesome job on the conference. We are loaded up on some great saints books and many others that we started reading last night before bed.

In Jesus and Mary,
Nino Vitale, pilot

One little follow up on this .

I spoke to Fr Levis regarding his flight. He was beaming, if that’s possible over the phone. He said it was just amazing, even as a passenger. He said in his opinion this was a very special occurrence. Always the Catechist, he said it was not an event you could call a miracle, as no laws of nature were broken, but very special none the less. He said the rainbow at the airport was viewed by people as far away as Cleveland and Buffalo. It was the brightest one he’d ever seen. He had placed his flight under Mary’s protection. It was very important to him be home by Sunday morning. He wanted very much to celebrate the Latin Masses there without missing a weekend. His desire to be home on time was honored in a grand way.

On a side note, my brother lives in Erie was on his way home that evening and saw the rainbow.  He was so impressed by the sight, he stopped to take a photo with his phone.  He mentioned that in the days that followed the weather that Saturday and the rainbow in paticular had indeed been a topic of conversation in Erie.

Alice Kompar,

Moderator for Dayton Catholic Homeschool Network

and Conference Coordinator.

Our 2008 Speakers included:

• Dr. Catherine Moran, Ph.D.-President of CHSNA.net and experienced home educator
• Fr. Robert Levis, Ph.D.- ardent promoter of Catholic Homeschooling and popular speaker
• Diana Fessler -Ohio State Representative and expert on homeschool legal issues
• Gary Michuta- apologist, speaker and author. (www.handsonapologetics.com )
  
• Dr. Kevin Schmiesing, Ph.D.- Exec. Dir. of Catholichistory.net
• Mark Moran, BA, MA -homeschooled high school grad to speak on life after homeschooling.
• Scott Gruber- Youth Outreach Director of Dayton Right to Life
• Jeanne von Erden, Psy.D- presenting communication strategies for teens and parents.

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The Dayton Catholic Homeschool Conference is a function of the Dayton Catholic Homeschool Network (DCHN) is a function of Emmanuel Catholic Church. To learn about the DCHN, please visit us at our Yahoo Group page.

Please contact us at937-878-1440 after 3pm or email us at events@daytonhomeschool.com

Thanks, Alice Kompar Conference Coordinator