Ministry Gives Ecuadorian Evangelists Smooth Landing Among Villagers
by Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
December 28, 2004
(AgapePress) - Leaders of Ecuador's national church have reversed an earlier decision and have opted to allow Mission Aviation Fellowship to assist their evangelists in carrying the gospel to unreached areas of the South American country. Southern California-based Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) is a ministry that serves to multiply the effectiveness of the Church worldwide, using aviation and other strategic technologies to overcome barriers in reaching people all over the world for Christ. Serving the needs of the isolated and the poor in some of the world's most inaccessible regions, MAF operates a fleet of 62 aircraft throughout 16 countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eurasia.
Earlier this year, leaders of the national Schuar Church in Ecuador decided against using MAF services to get evangelists to remote areas. Church officials said the initial decision was based on financial concerns. However, as evangelists entered villages on foot, the people there met them with suspicion and the Schuar missionaries found most doors closed to their ministry efforts.
But Kevin Swanson, a spokesman with MAF, says many villagers in remote areas are familiar with the aviation ministry. And, as he explained recently on Mission Network News, that familiarity can pay off, as it did for the Schuar Church evangelists.
"When they came in the MAF airplane, even though they were maybe unknown to the people in that village, they were welcomed," Swanson says. "What had happened was, over the years, the MAF airplane has developed this reputation for only bringing good things into these villages."
For years, the MAF spokesman notes, the ministry's plane has brought in doctors and dentists, has responded to radio calls when villagers had a medical emergency and a patient needed to be brought out to a hospital, or brought in a schoolteacher to teach villager children.
According to Swanson, the Schuar Church leadership ended up realizing that MAF's services were worth the expense after all. He says after seeing the difference in their evangelists' reception upon arriving in the remote areas, the church officials remarked, "You know, it is a good value to put our guys on the airplane and make sure that they have that warm welcome that they really need."
Each year MAF flies some 3.2 million miles to remote regions of the world in support of nearly 600 missions, Christian ministries, and non-government organizations. In addition to providing flight services to isolated areas worldwide, MAF offers these areas communications technology and other resources , including distance education, HF/VHF radios, e-mail, Internet access, and networking solutions.
Although MAF has been headquartered in Southern California throughout its 60-year history, rising costs of residing and doing business there has recently led the international ministry to conduct an extensive relocation study. After careful review and evaluation of its relocation task force's findings, MAF has announced that it will relocate its organizational headquarters to the vicinity of Boise, Idaho, along with the majority of the current headquarters staff.
Swanson says MAF's ministry stands to be significantly enhanced by the relocation to a more economical locale. The move is targeted to take place in July or August of 2005.
