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Flying
in Africa in small missionary planes like the Cessna described
here
isn’t always as comfortable as jet travel is here in America.
Those small planes can really be tossed around by updrafts
of warm air as they fly over canyons and ridges.
I remember some flights I took while in Ethiopia that
made me feel like I was on a monster roller-coaster. Although
I don’t get motion sick easily, it took me a full day
to recover from one of those particularly turbulent flights.
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If you find yourself complaining about the condition of roads in America, you probably haven’t spent much time traveling in southern Sudan.
After years of civil unrest, most of
southern Sudan’s infrastructure—including
its roads—has been destroyed.
Although reconstruction has begun, even
the main thoroughfare that leads into
the capital city of Juba is little more
than a rugged dirt road riddled with
huge potholes. In the rainy season,
massive mud holes can |
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make the road completely impassable. And that’s Sudan’s best road!
Because getting almost anywhere in Sudan by
land can require hours—if not days—of
bone-jarring travel over treacherous, unmarked
roads—airplanes are essential. All SIM
missionaries rely heavily on air transportation
provided by our partner, AIMAIR.
In the past few years, as the number of missionaries in Sudan has increased, the need for air services has accelerated. AIMAIR’s pilots and planes are now straining to meet the demand to get missionaries and supplies where they are needed to accomplish God’s work.
But now, thanks to a generous matching grant and an outpouring of support from friends like you, SIM was recently able to purchase our own Cessna 206G. We still need to raise additional funds to cover shipping, customs, licensing, and retrofitting the plane to meet the needs of flying in East Africa, but if all goes well, the plane should be in the air serving our missionaries in Sudan within five months.
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Owning our own plane and leasing it to AIMAIR will give the SIM workers guaranteed access to flights when and where they need them. This will be a tremendous blessing because the ability to fly missionaries and supplies into remote regions in Sudan is critical to our missionaries’ safety and to the progress of our Rebuilding Sudan: Nation and Church program.
In addition, with greater access to flights, people |
like Jimmy Cox—coordinator for the Ethiopian and Nigerian teams in Sudan—will
be able to make more frequent visits to their
team members who are serving in remote regions.
These friendly visits are a tremendous blessing
to missionaries who may have spent long periods
of time serving the Lord without ever seeing
a familiar face, having a conversation in
their own language, or praying with someone
who understands what they are experiencing.
God has opened a window of opportunity for us to reach out to the people of this war traumatized country, and thanks to your prayers and support, and the purchase of the Cessna airplane, our missionaries will soon be able to carry out the work of Rebuilding Sudan faster, safer, and more effectively than ever before.
Project Number - 98023
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| Less than 60 percent of evangelical, nondenominational, independent churches in America have a budget for missions. |
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