Continental Crisscross

Last summer, a friend of mine was asked by a Christian foundation to conduct a study of mission aviation service and create a statistical picture of how that service is impacting the mission world.  Surveying the six largest missison aviation organizations the final result was presented in this interesting pie chart graph. Obviously over the last couple of decades, there has been a significant shift from serving just Western missionaries to helping outher humanitarian organizations and the general commercial population as well.  What is most telling about this graph, however, is the small percentage of national or Non-Western mission organizations that are using air service.

It is partly because of this reality that Mission Aviation Fellowship has asked me to spend the next two weeks in the country of DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) conducting a program evaluation of their operations. In particular, I’ve been asked to focus on interviews with national church, mission and government leaders to get a better sense of their current situations and how they envision their potential need for MAF flight service in the future.

It’s a treat being able to return to the country where I flew as an MAF pilot during the 1980s. I’m sure I’ll find much has changed. But I suspect that I also will find many things that plagued the progress of development in the DRC years ago to be no different today.  The key will be to determine how an organization like MAF can and should reshape its mission service in order to maintain strategic relevance into the future.

Taking advantage of being in the “neighborhood,” I’m also tacking on a third week to this trip to spend time with two national Bible translation organizations on behalf of Wycliffe Associates.  Located in Bangui, CAR and Gemena, DRC, these two agencies alone are responsible for some sixty potential language projects in their two countries. My goal? To help them assess any areas of organizational development that might help accelerate their Bible translation efforts.

I will appreciate your prayers for health, safety and wisdom as I crisscross the entire region of central Africa during this trip. This map will give you a quick glimpse of all the places my trip will take me from July 7 to 29.

Stay tuned.  I hope to share my next few blogposts with observations made along the way.

Under His wings,

 Jon