COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—The Rev. Jesus Reyes prayed in Spanish for his Colorado Springs church on a Monday while hovering 800 feet above it.
He also prayed for the city and Fort Carson soldiers as he zoomed across the sky at 120 mph.
“It makes me think about God,” Reyes, senior pastor of Centro Familiar Nueva Vida, said of his Nov. 15 flight on a City Air Prayer helicopter.
City Air Prayer is part of Colorado Vertical Adventures, a Springs business co-owned by Will and Kristen Sanders. The company books half-hour and one-hour flights over tourist destinations, such as Garden of the Gods, and for special events like birthdays and anniversaries.
Prices per person range from $100 to $300, and up to three can fly at a time.
Of the 30 hours of flight they book each month, the Sanders, who are devout Christians, set aside a free one-hour prayer flight for Christian ministers. About 25 pastors have taken the flight since it began one year ago.
“It’s a way we can be involved in the community in a unique way,” Will Sanders, 32, said, “and we believe in prayer. God wants us talking to him.”
Colorado Vertical is a four-year-old two-day-a-week business founded by the couple. Will Sanders works full-time as a Colorado state trooper and Kristen Sanders does marketing for her parents’ business.
Colorado Vertical scrapes by each month to cover costs, which include helicopter leasing and operation, which runs about $600 an hour.
“We may not be blessed with a lot of money,” said Will Sanders, who’s been flying since age 16, “but we are blessed with a great job.”
The only stipulation to pastors taking the flight is that they include prayers for the city and its people.
Clay Ross of Grassroots Church downtown learned of City Air Prayer from a friend. “At first it sounded silly because you can pray anywhere,” Ross said. “You don’t have to be flying above the city in a helicopter.”
But his attitude changed after a flight. “It really does give you a different perspective,” Ross said.
Will Sanders likens the prayer flights to communing with God atop a mountain. God hears all prayers, he said, but being on a mountaintop or flying in a helicopter can open the interior life to deeper prayer.
“Our pastors feel inspired when they pray while seeing the mountains, the city, their own church from the sky,” Will Sanders said.
After his flight, Reyes said he was moved.
“When you pray for the city in an office, you don’t see the full picture of where things are located,” he said.
“Seeing it all from the vantage point of a helicopter offers a broader view.”
