Frank's First International Flight!

Over the summer Frank and two other NTMA pilots had the opportunity to fly the helicopter up to Ontario, Canada. No, this is not something one would normally do in a helicopter. Yes, there were many fuel stops along the way – about every two and a half hours. However, it was well worth it!

Here is a picture of the route to Canada. Each dot represents a stop along the way!

You see, this year is special for us at Ethnos360 (formerly New Tribes Mission) – it’s our 75th anniversary! And to celebrate, our Canadian home office hosted a large open house event and requested that we participate by giving rides in our helicopter. It was a wonderful opportunity to share the vision and necessity of aviation in tribal church planting and how it is used to build Christ’s kingdom.

During the event, Frank gave 28 rides to excited passengers, many of whom had never been up in a helicopter before. It was a blast to give them a taste of Aviation and share why it is so important to missions.

The soccer field served as the helipad on the windy Canada day. Below is one of Frank's flights. The clip cut out from the middle was the brief passenger swap between flights. Franks skills sure have come a long way!

Alongside the helicopter rides, this open house had another special attraction – Jungle Camp.

Picture it. It’s just you and your family. You are out in the woods, far away from civilization. And this is where you will be for the next six weeks. No electricity or running water. Not exactly a walk in the park!

This is what we call “Jungle Camp”. The missionaries in training go out to the woods and build a jungle house from trees, plastic sheet and duct tape. No nails, no plywood. And then they live in those houses for six weeks, completely isolated from civilization. No one comes, no one goes.

A few of the jungle camp houses tucked away in the woods.

This is a great way to prepare these missionaries for the early days of their ministry. They will be dropped off with a few simple supplies in a remote tribal location. They are not going anywhere, the only people to interact with are their teammates, and they need to learn to live in an entirely new way.

Our missionary training center up in Canada was in the middle of their Jungle Camp training during the celebration event. Frank enjoyed participating in a simulated package delivery for the students. The isolated Jungle Camp students each put in an order of 10kg of supplies. Their supplies were purchased, boxed and delivered to them via helicopter!

Even after being isolated in the woods for only 5 weeks at that point, some of the missionaries described the helicopter delivery as very encouraging and a little emotional.

This trip was a blessing to our family in another way as well. Because this trip was planned by NTM Aviation they covered ALL the flight costs. That means that the 25 hours Frank put into his experience bank were not charged to our account. Praise the Lord for cutting $6,000 off our helicopter bill in a unique and unexpected way!

Frank is about half way through the helicopter training! Next up is some advanced training and flight instructor certification. Your faithful prayers and support are a huge part of making this happen. THANK YOU!!

Fueling between rides. It takes a team to keep all this going. Your prayers and support are the foundation of this team!

We're headed your way!

• Washington friends – we’re coming this fall. Let’s get together!
  
• Florida friends – we’re coming for Christmas. We will look forward to getting together in early January.
  
• Arizona friends – Frank will be giving helicopter rides in Phoenix sometime in the near future. Let us know if you’re interested!