Checking out
When we talk about reaching the lost, it has both a physical and a spiritual reality.
In Mexico, people live in very hard to get to places all over the Sierra Madre. In order to physically reach as well as spiritually reach these folks with the Good News of the Word of God, some creativity and incredible commitment is necessary.
That’s why Clif and Kari Huntting have gone to Mexico to serve the missionaries there with an airplane.
In a recent update the missionary pilot tells us, “Most of the missionaries here in Mexico live and work with indigenous people in the rugged Sierra Madre Mountains. One way travel into these remote tribal locations can take 10 to 12 hours of grueling and exhausting driving. That same trip can often be made in one hour using the airplane.”
Clif is a missionary pilot who was trained at NTM Aviation’s training center in McNeal, Arizona.
That’s where pilots like him go only after going through commercial pilot schooling and getting their instrument ratings. Not only that, they have to have 300 hours of being the pilot in command and be an aircraft mechanic with a year’s experience. They have to keep up with FAA standards and the standards of the country where they fly.
And now even after getting all that training Clif still has to go through special checks on each airstrip he will serve. This is all part of his flight orientation.
Clif says, “This process of flight orientation is to ensure that I thoroughly know the area in which I am flying, as well as understand each airstrip and its unique characteristics, especially the way wind affects each approach. Also with this comes the interesting paperwork process required for each flight, the different laws that govern flight here, as well as learning how to speak Mexican aviation lingo. It is not a process that pilot newly arrived on the field can just jump into.”
Missionary pilots guide aircraft to a safe arrival at a bush location. They also minister as encouragers to the church-planting teams working in remote areas. Without access to a neighborhood grocery or pharmacy, these teams require equipment, medicine, medical evacuation and mail to be supplied by air.
Let’s pray for Clif and Kari as they go through this orientation process so they can be part of the team physically and spiritually reaching those who have not heard.
You can help pay for flight service for missionaries. Every $250 sponsors an hour of flight time.