Almost Homeless
Have you ever been on the verge of homelessness?
That’s what it feels like for our aviation team in Brazil – not for themselves, but for the R66 helicopter.
Right now, they are housing the R66 in a borrowed hangar in the strategic town of Rio Branco. But quite soon, they are going to lose permission to operate out of that space. With no base of operations, they could have to stop serving the church planting teams in remote locations.
That brings a feeling maybe worse than homelessness for the church planters. As one of them said, “What if work that is finally gaining momentum suddenly has no helicopter service, the work becomes sluggish, and the many difficulties become too great for some of the missionaries to continue their work in the villages? Will there be indigenous groups wondering if God is strong enough to get His message into their language, or to do so before they die or before their children are grown?”
One village is just now learning to read and write – and the missionaries will soon start translating the Bible, something the people have waited years for. How disappointing if work had to stop!
Knowing the pressing need for reliable aviation, the aviation team searched the city, coming up with no viable alternative location. The only way forward is to build a hangar of their own.
The blue square in the middle of the photo is the new helipad
God led them to an available tract of land, and they signed a purchase agreement. The first two payments have been made, with one more in a few weeks to fulfill our land purchase contract. However, we do not have the funds to start construction on the hangar.
Pray that God will provide the remaining funds needed to complete this project. The team has already made some progress: building a fence, pouring a cement slab for the helipad, and starting on helipad registration paperwork. The construction on the hangar itself is waiting for funding. But if we are forced out of the current temporary hangar arrangement, we’ll have to temporarily stop aviation service, borrow funds and begin emergency construction. When we have an adequate structure, we can restore the ministry service that is so greatly needed.
- Pray for the funding needed to begin construction.
- Pray that we will be allowed to continue using the borrowed hangar space until we have the funds to build.
If reaching the remote villages of Brazil with the gospel is a concern of yours, feel free to participate in this project by following this link: Brazil Hangar - Ethnos360 Aviation