Mission Aviation Fellowship serves Canada’s north
GUELPH, ON - After sending missionary pilots to 32 countries for 40 years, Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) has started sending them closer to home.
Inspired by a challenge from MAF's U.S. office to care for First Nations communities, Canadian president Mark Outerbridge launched Wings to Northern Canada. The initiative to serve isolated aboriginal communities got its start in July 2009, with commercial pilot Nathan Driediger of Chilliwack, B.C., spearheading the enterprise.
"We feel there's a need," says Outerbridge, who served as a vice president of CHC Helicopter prior to assuming his current position in 2005. "We're starting out small but...it allows us to get good experience."
Flying a six-seat Piper Saratoga, Driediger - now living in Steinbach, Manitoba - makes one or two trips weekly, transporting mission teams and churches whose work has been pre-approved by chiefs and council.
"We fly to isolated communities," says Driediger, citing towns largely east of Lake Winnipeg, as far as Big Trout Lake, Ontario.
The father of three, whose wife Annie also has her pilot's license, is continually shocked by the Third World conditions he encounters in the north.
"There's a lot of hopelessness," he says. "In many communities, there's a dark spiritual climate, so when the light of the gospel shines, it becomes evident there's something different there."
One man who helps dispel this darkness is Cree pastor Marcel Okemow of God's River, Manitoba. In his work taking the gospel to more than 40 northern communities, Okemow would often spend two days traveling to towns that, with MAF, only take two hours to reach.
"Five years ago, Okemow had a dream there would be a small airplane available for mission work," says Driediger. "When we told him what we were doing, he got pretty excited."
Other groups using MAF's northern service include Mennonite Central Committee and Frontiers Foundation, an organization that trains First Nations people to harvest timber with the purpose of building their own houses.
"We're not nearly as active as we'd like to be," says Driediger. "Ultimately it's about forming partnerships with other mission groups."
In addition to increasing partnerships and expanding their outreach, Outerbridge hopes to have access to a larger aircraft, as early as this summer.
"I see this as a long-term project," he says. "We're sensitive to doing what's appropriate and welcome in the communities that we serve."
Dear Readers:
ChristianWeek relies on your generous support. please take a minute and donate to help give voice to stories that inform, encourage and inspire.
Donations of $20 or more will receive a charitable receipt.Thank you, from Christianweek.
