Project Description
Northern Ontario Mission Project
Some time ago AWA had an inquiry from the members of the small church in Sioux Lookout Ontario, they had a burden on their hearts for the indigenous people scattered across Northern Ontario in small and isolated communities. They saw the social and spiritual challenges that these villages faced including drug and alcohol dependencies and disproportionately high suicide rates. It was clear to them that the only way to effectively reach and sustain a presence would be to have a dedicated aircraft and so they turned to AWA for a solution.
From that grassroots initiative, AWA is very proud to announce this new project in partnership with the Ontario Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. It has been amazing to watch how quickly the various elements and resources have fallen into place, a divinely orchestrated series of events.
Two years ago I was at Wings of Hope in St. Louis Missouri on an orientation visit, in discussion with the president he mentioned that they had a Cessna 185 on floats, at the time I thought it could be used for the project on the Amazon in Brazil. We went over and looked at it in another hangar, it was impressive to say the least! Due to importing and maintenance requirements we opted for a Cessna 206 on floats for Brazil so the 185 was kind of forgotten.
Now jump forward to Spring of this year when we began to discuss in earnest with Pastor Mansfield Edwards, the president of the Ontario Conference the possibility of moving forward with the mission aviation project in Northern Ontario. I was back at Wings of Hope and asked if they still had that Cessna 185, fully expecting to hear that it was long gone. But no, it was still sitting in that same hangar however it was the subject of a pending sales offer. If that fell through though then AWA could have the first option on it. Now for our aviation readers I am going to insert the specs of this airplane;
- 1976 Cessna 185F
- Airframe Total Time Since New: 2,056
- Continental IO-550-D2B (upgrade) 546 Total Time Since New
- Robertson STOL Kit (drooping ailerons)
- Horton STOL Kit
- Vortex Generators
- Wipline 3730 Amphibious Floats
As you may have guessed and I couldn’t be happier to say that the other purchase option did fall through! We now need to raise $150,000 USD to acquire, prepare and deploy it to Canada. The Ontario Conference has already pledged a very significant amount and we have committed to the acquiring this airplane.
Our aviation readers will quickly recognize that number represents far below market value and we want to thank Laura Helling and Steve Long and the deeply dedicated team at Wings of Hope for being such strong partners in providing aircraft for mission service.
Project Missionaries
Partner with AWA - Support Northern Ontario Mission Project
One of Christ’s last instructions to us was to simple “GO”. So that is what AWA is doing on a daily bases. Going. Going far. Going to the most remote locations this world has to offer. And once we get there, our mission bases stay busy serving. We invite you to journey with us by supporting one of our projects.
About Sioux Lookout, Ontario
Ontario Articles
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