Aircraft will serve churches, medical teams and relief workers
NAMPA, Idaho, April 30, 2012 /
Christian Newswire/ -- Amidst a crowd of several hundred supporters, staff, and local residents, Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) dedicated a Cessna Caravan aircraft in an April 28 ceremony at the ministry's headquarters in Nampa, Idaho.
Photo: Several hundred people gathered in Nampa on Saturday to dedicate MAF's newest plane, which will serve in Haiti. MAF is a global mission organization that uses aviation and technology to improve the conditions of isolated people around the world. Photo by Colby Dees. Hi-resolution version available.
MAF is a faith-based, nonprofit ministry that serves missions and isolated people around the world with aviation, communications and learning technologies.
Funded by gifts from supporters, the new plane will depart in May for Haiti, where it will support the work of churches, medical teams, and relief workers laboring to rebuild the island nation still suffering two years after the devastating earthquake. MAF has served in Haiti for 25 years and has a permanent base at the Port-au-Prince airport.
"The airplane is the tool that God has given MAF to reach out to a lost and hurting world," said John Boyd, MAF president and CEO. "And two years after the horrendous earthquake Haiti is still hurting, both physically and spiritually."
Dr. David Alexander, president of Northwest Nazarene University, led the prayer of dedication. David Rask, director of aviation resources at MAF, spoke about the plane and the impact it will make.
"One of the principal tasks of this plane will be to carry work teams – people who come from the U.S. for one or two weeks to build schools, orphanages, and medical clinics, to provide clean drinking water, or to build churches," said Rask. "In times of great needs, such as earthquakes and floods, this plane will carry food, water, and shelter."
The dedication ceremony was part of a day of activities that included airplane rides, a pancake feed, a gift drawing, videos, and children's activities. Staff from MAF's Learning Technologies division demonstrated the latest gadgets for sharing the gospel easily and discretely in difficult areas of the world.
Mission Aviation Fellowship (www.maf.org) is a family of organizations with a singular mission: to share the love of Jesus through aviation and technology so that isolated people may be physically and spiritually transformed. Serving in 32 countries with more than 140 planes, MAF supports the efforts of some 1,500 Christian and relief organizations.
