I don’t know what we’d do without our helicopter. And I mean that literally. We have no roads to our jungle location. We have no roads to anywhere even CLOSE to our jungle location. Without our helicopter, and the people who maintain it and fly it, I’m not sure we’d be able to work among the Iski.
This reality is not unique to our specific situation. A vast majority of our peers, who are engaged in taking the Gospel to the unreached, are in exactly the same predicament we are. Without a chopper or an airplane, they would not be able to transport their families or their supplies to their remote locations. The people groups they work among would be inaccessible. Without aviation, they would not be able to take the Gospel to the unreached.
We have gone through 4 years of specialized training to be able to do what we do (2 years of Bible School + 2 years of missionary training). We left our home and moved to Papua New Guinea (PNG) so we can take part in getting the Good News of Christ into the heart language of people who have never had a chance to hear. We have a large group of individuals and churches who pray and give so that we can do this.
But if we didn’t have our aircraft, our pilots, and our maintenance crews, none of that would amount to anything. You can’t bring the Gospel to people you can’t get to.
I mention this, because I think this reality is sometimes overlooked, or forgotten, by those who are not intimately involved in the logistics of our work. In many cases, a people group’s access to the Gospel directly depends on a missionary’s access to a flight program. And flight programs aren’t cheap.
With that in mind, I’d like to present you with two opportunities to get involved in furthering the reach of the Gospel by contributing to a specific aviation need. And these aren’t just random projects. These are personal friends of ours (and, in one case, family). We completely stand behind these families as being a worthy investment. Giving to these causes is giving towards getting the Gospel into the hands of the unreached.
I would encourage you to share these needs with your churches, small groups, and on social media.
Jared Kresge – Jared and I went to Bible School together. I even had the privilege of being in his wedding. He, and his family, serve in the aviation program in the Asia-Pacific. Many of the people groups they serve are similar to ours, and do not have fixed-wing or road access. Because of this, their aviation program has asked Jared to move from fixed-wing to helicopter piloting.
He is back in the States now, getting the required training, but the flight-time costs are outside of their regular support budget. He currently only has the funds to pay for ¼ of the training he will need to get checked off. Jared is a hard worker and a go-getter. It would really seem like a bum deal (for him, AND for the church-planters he is going to serve) if he ends up not able to move forward in his training due to lack of funds. You can click here to contribute to these expenses.
Nathaniel & Danielle Shrift – This is Rochelle’s sister and her husband. They are also with Ethnos360, serving in Brazil. A very cool couple, to be sure. They will be going back for their second term in a few months, and they are needing to make a few changes to their team’s supply-flight schedule into their bush location.
Basically, their team was just scraping by with the supply flights they were getting before, so, for the sake of the longevity of the work (AKA: the health of the missionaries), they need to have more flights put on the roster. You can click here to contribute to their budget so they can have a few more fresh fruits and veggies in their diet. Again, we thoroughly endorse these guys as being the “real deal,” and a wise investment of resources. Also, they have really cute kids.
