Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) dedicated a Cessna Caravan aircraft in ceremony on Saturday at the ministry’s headquarters in Nampa, Idaho.
The new plane will depart in May for Haiti, where it will support the work of churches, medical teams and relief workers laboring to rebuild the island nation still suffering two years after the devastating earthquake. MAF has served in Haiti for 25 years and has a permanent base at the Port-au-Prince airport.
“The airplane is the tool that God has given MAF to reach out to a lost and hurting world,” says John Boyd, MAF president and CEO. “And two years after the horrendous earthquake Haiti is still hurting, both physically and spiritually.”
David Alexander, president of Northwest Nazarene University, led the prayer of dedication. David Rask, director of aviation resources at MAF, spoke about the plane and the impact it will make.
“One of the principal tasks of this plane will be to carry work teams—people who come from the U.S.—for one or two weeks to build schools, orphanages and medical clinics, to provide clean drinking water or to build churches,” says Rask. “In times of great needs, such as earthquakes and floods, this plane will carry food, water and shelter.”
The dedication ceremony was part of a day of activities that included airplane rides, a pancake feed, a gift drawing, videos and children’s activities. Staff from MAF’s Learning Technologies division demonstrated the latest gadgets for sharing the gospel easily and discretely in difficult areas of the world.
