Pastor loved to soar

There are two things that Pastor Ralph Copeland loved to do.

He loved to preach and liked to fly small airplanes and if he could, he would try and tie in his love of flying into his Sunday sermons, his daughter Tina Ruiz said.

"If he didn't do it one Sunday he did it the next Sunday," Ruiz said. "He would always relate his sermons to flying as if everyone else loved flying the way he did."

Copeland, 70, died Friday after his small-engine plane crashed outside the Mid Valley Airport in Weslaco. Authorities said he flew into a fence bordering the airport as he attempted to land.

Traveling with Copeland was a friend and church member Aaron Voreis, 38, also of Brownsville, who picked up Copeland from his Brownsville home Friday morning so the two could go flying.

"He's been a pilot my whole life," Ruiz said Friday while sitting in the living room of her Brownsville home. "When I was young I lived at the airport."

Ruiz even remembers having planes in the family's backyard. "We had planes everywhere."

Copeland had been flying for more than 40 years and even taught flying, Ruiz said, adding that his love for planes grew from the time he served in the U.S. Air Force. He even built a flight simulator at his home so he would to able to enjoy sensation of flying while grounded.

"You can sit there and put in any airplane and you can fly in his house," Ruiz said, adding that her father would always urge her to give the simulator a try.

Copeland and his wife Trudy moved to Brownsville about four years ago where he built from the ground up the New Harvest Ministries Christian Church on El Jardin Road. He did the plumbing, the construction work, "everything" his family said.

As she scrolled through photographs of her father on her computer screen, Ruiz stopped at one that showed her father blessing a man who had been told he was terminally ill, she said. "My father healed him."

She recalled several sayings her father would say, especially about having a positive attitude.

He would say "the Lord didn't do this, but he can turn it around if you have a good attitude," Ruiz said. "I don't think that's the right attitude to have," Copeland would say if Ruiz was mad. "You couldn't be around him and not be happy."

Before every Sunday service, Copeland greeted each church member with the sign language symbol for "I love you," Ruiz said, as she demonstrated the sign. He even wore the symbol on his lapel.

"He goes have I told you today I love you? I love you, The Lord loves you and even my dog Mimi loves you," Ruiz said.

What granddaughter Yoli Perez, 30, loved most about Copeland was his positive image. Perez had just become a member of New Harvest Ministries Church just three weeks ago.

"He is an amazing person, fully an amazing person. He was awesome," Perez said. "He was always helping people all the time."

The Copeland's traveled a lot doing missionary work in 32 countries. They traveled to Belize on several occasions where they established two churches, Ruiz said.

"I was blessed that I had such a good father," Ruiz said through tears. "He was a father to an entire congregation of people. I had to share him, but he was such a blessing. He was my dad and I was proud he was my dad."

Funeral arrangements for Copeland are pending.

lmartinez@brownsvilleherald.com